Tampa Bay Lightning will face Washington Capitals in Eastern Conference Final

Capitals at Lightning – Sunday, May 13, 8 p.m. Bergeron said he was fighting a cold at the time, and doctors advised him to skip the game just in case.

“When we win or lose, you have to take responsibility. But it’s not like after 89 games we forgot how to score.To get inside, you really had to work, and I felt like they did a good job with us not allowing us to get inside”. He is leading all skaters in points in the playoffs with 21 (10 goals and 11 assists) in 11 games.

Some of that difficulty with reconciling a second-round playoff exit probably has to do with the shortening window of competitive seasons when it comes to players like Bergeron, David Backes, Tuukka Rask, David Krejci, Zdeno Chara, and Brad Marchand.

“When he came in the league, he was the best player, and I mean he’s still the best player”, Kucherov said. We kept improving throughout the season. “It’s a whole different feel, because we’ve been there”. All three series went the distance and in all three clashes, Washington lost.

They went 14-0-4 from December 16 to January 25, which was their longest point streak since they went 18 games (13 wins, five ties) without a loss from December 28, 1968 to February 5, 1969 and tied for the second-longest point streak in team history. The Capitals have played the better hockey in the series, as they have four players with more than a point per game in the playoffs. They will be a handful for either the Capitals or Penguins. “But it just gives us rest”.

If you think Ovechkin endured many trials and tribulations to advance past the second round, check out Capitals head coach Barry Trotz. In recent seasons the powerful Penguins have stood in their path. Only two clubs have won three series in their first postseason appearance: The 1926 Montreal Maroons who won the Stanley Cup and the 1996 Florida Panthers, who lost the Cup final to Colorado in their third season.

Out West, the Golden Knights are looking to become the first team in NHL history to win three playoff series in their inaugural season in the league.

So while the Penguins try to construct a contemporary dynasty, the Capitals are trying to ease the franchise’s decades-old frustration. Washington’s Braden Holtby, having taken over the goaltending chores from Philipp Grubauer midway through Game 2, has been stellar with a 2.04 goals against and a.926 save percentage versus Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy, who brings a 2.26 GAA and a.927 save percentage into this series.

“The key to getting better is to learn from your mistakes and obviously I didn’t do that”, Holtby said then.

“I hope that, somehow, they have to answer for that and realize that it wasn’t right – that it should’ve been a call because instead of being 2-2 going back to Tampa, feeling good, knowing that we can go steal one and then win it at home, instead it’s 3-1”, McAvoy said. There’s no ifs, ands or buts; we’ve got to do that. This is a really good group that is going to seriously challenge the Capitals’ depth scoring. Couple this with the fact that Tampa has only played ten games through two full series so far, and they have a clear advantage in this department. The Predators are in a tough spot, but Nashville defenseman P.K. Subban guaranteed victory nonetheless. We’re up 3-2, we’re playing winning hockey, been able to it all year, just play smart. He also had a recurrent groin issue that came back during the postseason and could require surgery if it does not improve in the next 2-3 weeks.

The Caps have scored a total of 43 goals over their 12 playoff contests for an average of 3.58 per game while the Lightning has registered 35 goals over their 10 postseason games giving them an average of 3.50 per contest.