What the Montreal Canadiens can learn from the Tampa Bay Lightning

Of all the teams to get swept in the first round, you’d be crazy to peg the Tampa Bay Lightning as an option. But here we are. The Lightning become the first team in NHL history to win the President’s Trophy and not win a single game in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

It’s tough to try to make sense of something like this. On the one hand, the Columbus Blue Jackets were no team to take lightly. They went all in at the deadline adding Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel to an already well-equipped cast that included Artemi Panarin, Cam Atkinson, Seth Jones, and Josh Anderson. Despite all that, Columbus knew they were the underdog and that it would take heavy and consistent play to be successful.

It also helped that Sergei Bobrovsky turned things on at the right time. As good as the Blue Jackets play, they don’t win without Bobrovsky who made a number of key saves ahead of the team’s comeback in Game One as well as weathering the storm in the second half of the third period in Game Four.

Now, on the other hand, it’s the TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING! What happened to this team? Why did they shut down? Why did it look like nothing they could do work? The Lightning had injuries in Victor Hedman and Anton Stralman, but that can’t be all it right? And here’s where stats, be it regular or advanced, can’t help you.