Lightning at Panthers - Game 1 - 5/17 7PM ET

[Hoek]

Would be nice to steal the first one and really put them on their heels.

[Pat664422]

Games three and four are back to back nights, so winning two of first three is probably more important than usual.

[dmaxf9]

Apparently Riley Nash in for Point. Rutta is either hurt or in dog house well.

[Top Shelf]

Rutta...he plays 76 of 82 games, then takes the 17 PM in Game 1, and he's toast.

But the far greater concern is Point. We can hope it isn't insanely serious, or he wouldn't have even been able to try coming back out in Game 7.

[Puckhead]

A Cup champion caliber road win. Biss calls out Turds fans..haaaaa. The most energy was from the 10 yr old doing the anthem, which BTW was hideous.

[TexasBolt]

Tough luck having the Heat series overlap this one because they don’t share an arena. (Even though this is the one situation where going off to the suburbs actually made sense)

[dmaxf9]

Vasilevskiy certainly has stepped up and team has really settled into their play off mode. Hopefully Cernak back soon. Lightning did very good job getting puck quickly out of their zone. Some sloppy cross ice passes.

[TexasBolt]

Apparently Riley Nash in for Point. Rutta is either hurt or in dog house well.

He’s definitely hurt, I don’t think anyone ever stays in the doghouse for 8 games in a row.

[Bolthed]

Um, Rutta played. Not hurt and he played well.

[the_narrow_way]

I was much more worried about Toronto. If Vasy plays up to his capabilities then this one's not going to 7 games.

[Pat664422]

Our last two games have really showed our playoff experience. However, let's not kid ourselves that we've taken Florida's best punch.

[RSchmitz]

Question. After watching this game did anyone feel that Florida was the top scoring team this year, with 25 more goals this season than the Maple Leafs?

We controlled the middle third of the ice tonight and did a respectable job of limiting dangerous scoring chances in our own end. Pretty clear that offensively we need to just continue to get shots on goal, Bobo was giving up rebounds all night.

[RSchmitz]

Our last two games have really showed our playoff experience. However, let's not kid ourselves that we've taken Florida's best punch.

IDK, one game is one game but their first round series was pretty awful.

[Puckhead]

I was struck by their "deer in the headlights" look after it went 2-1. After all, they score first in their rink and now, they face a group they know has been there, and will not blink. After a few crummy passes in the skates, Kuch tunes up and plays the next half of the game like a man possessed. And Perry elevates his game as well, in all zones. He might be the best 37 year old playoff force in modern history. It was a masterful 11F-7D performance from Cooper and the bench.

Finally, the talking heads want to piss on the Bolt's possibilities. Biss, Tocchet and Ace were all TO sympathizers. I like them all as commentators, and it doesn't bother me one bit. Makes it that much sweeter. This could be a much shorter series than anybody imagined. (yeah, 88 has hit his stride). Oh, and "Sunrise" is in western Broward county. The only thing they see is sunsets.

[TexasBolt]

Um, Rutta played. Not hurt and he played well.

Sorry… was too busy to watch and didn’t see him back. He missed basically the entire Toronto series. From what I read he got hurt in that Game 1 fight.