What’s new?! The Tampa Bay Lightning are headed to the 2022 NHL Playoffs, where they’ll face the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday, May 2nd.
Quick Facts
- The season series is tied 2-2
- Toronto has not won a playoff round since 2004
- It’s the first time these two franchises have ever met in the postseason
- Tampa Bay is the defending back-to-back Stanley Cup champions, looking for their third-straight Stanley Cup
- Auston Matthews has won the Rocket Richard trophy with 60 goals
Tampa Bay Lightning
The Lightning finished the 2022 regular season with a record of 51-23-8 and 110 points, third in the Atlantic division. Tampa Bay wrapped up their last ten games (7-3-0) with wins over fellow playoff teams, Florida, Nashville, and Toronto. Named captain eight seasons ago, Steven Stamkos led the team to another playoff appearance with 106 points. Stamkos also led the team in goals with 42. On the back end, Victor Hedman scored over a point per game for the first time in his career. He also led the team in assists. In net, Andrei Vasilevskiy had a down year compared to his standards, but also led the league with 39 wins. Stamkos, Hedman, and Vasilevskiy were vital leaders this year but what is their x-factor in the series?
When playoff success is discussed, often brought up are the contributions coming from the bottom lines. Last year, this was vital for the Canadiens as they upset the Maple Leafs in round one. This year, that will be key for the Lightning. The Bolts bottom six have accounted for around 30% of their goals this season. Even though he has moved up and down the lineup, Brandon Hagel is part of this bottom six. The deadline acquisition needs to contribute more in the playoffs. Having seven points in twenty-two games as a Bolt, Hagel will need to step it up in the playoffs. Simply put, depth scoring will be key for Tampa Bay.
Toronto Maple Leafs
Toronto finished the season with a 54-21-7 record, totaling 115 points. A 7-2-1 dash to end the season placed the Maple Leafs second in the Atlantic. This allows them home-ice advantage for round one. Auston Matthews was an electric goal scorer this season with 60 total. With 60, Matthews won the Rocket Richard and set a franchise record for most goals in a season. Mitch Marner was dishing out that puck with 62 assists to help set a career-high season in points. In between the pipes for Toronto was Jack Campbell. In his first year in a solidified starting year, Campbell posted 31 wins with a .914 save percentage. The offense has been nonstop this year for the Maple Leafs with 312 goals scored, but what is their x-factor?
When your team has the best American player and other phenomenal players, they need to produce. The key five for Toronto are Auston Matthews, John Tavares, Mitch Marner, Morgan Reilly, and William Nylander. In game one of the playoffs last year, Tavares was injured for the series so he is not counted towards this stat. However, the other four averaged 0.71 points per game. Meanwhile, that season they averaged 0.98 points per game. This decline is key towards why they lost. That is around 0.3 points per game difference, times four players, times seven games is around 8.4 more points. Eight more points could have been between three to eight more goals. Montreal won each game by one goal, but one by two. Those extra points could have won the series for Toronto, but they were missing. That is why production from the Maple Leafs stars is their x-factor.
Prediction
Toronto might shake the curse this year. On the other hand, Tampa Bay knows what it takes to win a Stanley Cup as they have gone back-to-back. In the end, though, Tampa Bay’s depth will expose Toronto’s question marks that are looming.
Tampa Bay will win the series, 4-2.