PITTSBURGH — The last two teams standing in the Eastern Conference share an affinity for speed and skill.
Whether the Pittsburgh Penguins or Tampa Bay Lightning end up playing for the Stanley Cup might just be determined by will.
The third round is when the playoffs morph into an optical illusion. You’ve accomplished something by getting this far – 26 other teams are already making plans for next season – but you’re only halfway to the finish line.
It’s been tough, but it will get tougher.
These two teams have already demonstrated an ability to persevere.
The Lightning are forging through long-term injuries to captain Steven Stamkos (blood clot) and top-pair defenceman Anton Stralman (fractured left fibula), and have an opportunity to get one or both back during this series. Neither will be available for Game 1 on Friday.
The Penguins recovered from an early season malaise and survived a furious three-goal comeback from the Washington Capitals in Game 6 of their Round 2 series earlier in the week.
With so little to choose from between the teams, it could very well come down to how each reacts to the situations that pop up during a best-of-seven that gets underway here at Consol Energy Center. The bad bounce, the ill-timed penalty, the heroic effort from the other goalie.
It was with this in mind that Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford went about tinkering with his roster over the last 12 months.
“The more leadership you can put in that room the better you’re going to be to deal with difficult situations,” Rutherford told reporters on Thursday. “You’re always going to deal with them during the playoffs.”
The Lightning showed themselves to be a mentally resilient group last spring. They got within two wins of a championship – injuries and the Chicago Blackhawks dynasty ultimately stopped them short – and had to pull out a Game 7 victory at Madison Square Garden in the Eastern Conference Final along the way.
In the leadup to that game there was plenty of talk about how unbeatable New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist had been in those situations. Stamkos responded by saying he’d never beaten Tampa in a Game 7 and that remained the case when the buzzer sounded later in the evening.
“You shine the light bright on our guys, and they’ll just put on sunglasses and walk right through it,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said after that win.
Hockey is a game decided on the ice, but in the playoffs it is also contested between the ears.
Even with Tampa’s recent playoff experience, the Penguins look to be the slight favourite in this series. They’ve been the NHL’s best team since coach Mike Sullivan was hired on Dec. 12 and they’ve done it with a relatively simple yet effective approach.
Pittsburgh’s offensive players have a mandate to push the pace and make the most of their skillsets. Sullivan doesn’t typically engage in aggressive line matching, instead preferring to roll his balanced forward units with the belief that no one can completely match them top to bottom.
The Lightning will try.
In truth, these teams are almost mirror images of one another – with strong goaltending (Ben Bishop/Matt Murray), a puck-moving horse on the blue-line (Victor Hedman/Kris Letang) and plenty of offensive weapons.
That’s why composure, and the ability to push through tough moments, will be so important. There is a razor-thin difference between the Lightning and Penguins, so neither can let one open up by straying from the course.
Other than the injury issues, Tampa has had a relatively calm road to this point with five-game series wins over the Detroit Red Wings and New York Islanders.
The Penguins were pushed hard by Washington, especially in the clinching game on Tuesday, when they were assessed three straight delay of game penalties before eventually prevailing in overtime.
“I just feel like we haven’t had that mentality where it’s ‘here we go again,”’ said Penguins captain Sidney Crosby. “I think it’s been more ‘how are we going to find a way?’ There’s been some situations where it didn’t look good in the past and things might have creeped into our minds and I don’t see that in this group.”
At the outset of this series, everything is going along rather swimmingly on both sides.
That is bound to change. Whichever team reacts best to the new reality will probably find itself playing for the Cup.
