commentary...

Tampa Bay at Boston:it will be a battle between Boston's defense,and Tampa Bay's offense... Dwayne Roloson versus Tim Thomas,both tough battle-tested goaltenders... Boston won season series,3-1,but Tampa Bay has an explosive offense,with Steven Stamkos getting 45 goals,and being injured part of season... Vincent LeCavalier,Martin St. Louis,Pavel Kubina,and Victor Hedman can also score at will... Boston's offense is lesser known than the Lightning's offense,but can score,too... Nathan Horton,Rich Peverley,Milan Lucic,David Krejci,Tyler Seguin,and Michael Ryder shooting pucks,along with Zdeno Chara,and Tomas Kaberle,playing defense makes the Bruins tough to beat,and it may be an old-fashioned shootout of a series,but the way both teams can play defense,it could be a grinding six,or seven game series... it will come down to who plays better in net... both goaltenders have playoff experience,and both play similar games and their play will be critical to both teams... Thomas is a Vezina Trophy finalist this,and set a save percentage record(.938),over entire season,and both teams swept their second round opponents(Boston swept Philadelphia,and Tampa Bay swept Washington),and in my own opinion,the Lightning sweep of Washington,was more impressive,because they swept a team like themselves,with a smothering defense,and a potent offense,but Boston swept the defending Eastern Conference champions,in the Flyers,but the Flyers had major trouble,in goal,throughout that series,and was not the same team,as they were last year... whoever plays better in goal,and on defense should win...