Devils coach Pat Burns might have nailed it on the head this week when he said everyone in the world was rooting for his team to lose to the Lightning in the Eastern Conference semifinals, which begin tonight at the Meadowlands.
“They’re the Cinderella team,” Burns said.
That’s what happens when you’re one of the league’s doormats for years, like the Lightning have been. That’s what happens when a team goes to the playoffs for the first time since 1996. That’s what happens when a team wins its first playoff series ever.
Now they face the big, bad Devils, masters of the neutral-zone trap and slow-down hockey. Now they get a shot against the most fearsome playoff hockey team in years and a puck-handling brick wall in net that goes by the name of Martin Brodeur.
“It’s been a long time coming, no question,” Tampa’s second-year coach John Tortorella said. “There’s been some lean years out there. We’re hoping to continue to go. You never know how far you’re going to go in the playoffs but you need to come back and do it again, and that’s how you solidify your organization.
“We don’t want this to be a one-year thing – or a one-series thing.”
The Lightning finished as the No. 3 seed in the East, 15 points behind the No. 2 Devils. Tampa Bay won the flimsy Southeast Division behind a strong start (11-6-2-1) and finish (11-4-7-0) to the season, and has played high-energy hockey all year.
The Lightning, too, have an elite goaltender: Nikolai Khabibulin (2.08 goals-against average, .921 save percentage in the first round).
The story of late has been the play of the Vincent Lecavalier-Vaclav Prospal-Martin St. Louis line that combined for 19 points against the Capitals in a six-game, opening-round win. They will be marked by the Devils’ top defensive line, centered by John Madden and now with Sergei Brylin on a wing after returning from injury.
The Capitals didn’t have much success defending the three with their gritty Jeff Halpern line in the first round.
“We opened the door and then Marty St. Louis kicked it down every time,” Washington coach Bruce Cassidy said after St. Louis scored three consecutive game-winning goals to bury his team.
The Lightning are a resilient bunch, with four of their six franchise playoff wins coming in overtime. They won twice against Washington in OT periods and came back to win the series after trailing the Caps two games to none.
“We have to remember how we handled it,” St. Louis said. “It was tight and there wasn’t much room. We have to stay patient.”
