I – I confess with some annoyance – are looking for reasons to pick against lightning throughout the year. Mostly because, as a wise blogger once wrote, this shit is hard. It’s hard enough to go back, in a pay-per-view league where luck or injury or a hot goal can rule the day, and thrifting is very difficult, something that hasn’t been done since the day of the goal. Being a day laborer and staying in shape as a milkman means smoking during periods and not during shifts.
Tampa has been seen to allay my suspicions, getting some sleep in the regular season, although it seems they are doing the energy-saving LeBron thing for the post-season and are confident they can qualify at three-quarters the speed. The next hurdle in surviving Toronto at seven was changing guards. No dynasty lasts forever, and the future of the East will seem to fall between young parties like Florida and New York. That handoff will happen this year? Absolutely not. Veteran veterans have shown star-eyed new kids a couple of things, two-game hiccups can both steamroll to overcome.
Stamcos is still Stamcos, Headman is still Headman, Kucherov is still Kucherov, Pallet is still in the right place at the right time with a cunning that leads to Clarevance, it had to be replaced for tough-all-world casualties like playing against a redefined third line cap, Vasilevsky is still the best in the world, and John Cooper, for all the mysterious, unbelievable magic that goes into coaching hockey, is still pressing the right buttons. It’s a team that, like its past champion versions, has seemingly little legitimate reason to pick against it. Except. Without an explicitly missing name from this paragraph. There was no Brayden point without lightning.
Well, that’s about it. The point, a playmaking machine and early play-off force, could finally return to the ice for tonight’s Game 1, which has not been played since the start of Game 7 against Toronto due to a lower body injury. “If not [tonight]”Then we really expect Game 2,” Cooper said.
The role of points in the last two Lightning Cups really cannot be overstated. He has scored 14 goals in 23 games each, and even with his short 2022 playoffs, he has more goals than any other NHL player in the last three post seasons. He did this with or without a lethal combination of being able to go to high-dangerous places, the reflection of the ending, and Sangfrey to make his game up under bright light. The entire Lightning roster has so far been tested and tempered not to be spoiled in the big moments, but the indomitableness of the points also stands out among his teammates. There are two lenses through which to see his return from injury, and both reflect well in Tampa. At first, they came back to something similar in full force. That’s enough imposed. In the second, they went 9-2 in the post-season without him and Now they are adding Braden Point to it. Oh shit.
If there is a caveat, it is not clear how many 100 percent points have been or will be returned. It may take some time for him to ramp up, and there are indications that he will not be returned to the top line immediately. Tamper has focused on Nick Paul and Ross Colton in recent practice and in that role he can deliver some more scoring punches in a great two-way third line. If he works his way up to the top again, the knock-on slotting-down of Stamkos and Cirelli will upgrade the entire lineup. The only sure thing is that if he can play, Cooper will be sure that he is Drama. “Braden Point is an elite player in this league and he will play his minutes according to how he reacts,” Cooper said. “I wouldn’t classify that the pointer would sit completely on the bench. If he is healthy, he will be there. “
A healthy point and the depth that its addition will provide can work wonders for grinding, relentless hockey The Lightning hopes to play against the snow. Tampa loves cycling, uses gaps and threatens to snip to defend, and prefers to bring the game down one battle after another, as they often do not win. Fresh legs and multiple scoring threats per line make it easy to execute the game of their choice. (Colorado, by contrast, favors a faster, north-south offense that makes it more likely to run. Tamper blue line-stacking, slot-clogging defense will be interesting to see how it handles it. There is a tendency to hurry, or if the crimes are more concentrated and intentional. If it is next, Tampa is probably in better shape.)
Thus, the absence of points out as a possible reason for picking against electricity. And yet, they are underdogs (though not irresistibly). In the end, in this third cup race, there is an argument left that a reasonable observer’s tamper time is over. This argument, although you will find dissenting people, does not need to be reached: that Colorado is a good team, and now is their time. This time the final is going to be good.