For the second straight season, the Atlantic Division's No. 2 seed Tampa Bay Lightning will face off against the No. 3 Detroit Red Wings in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
In 2014-15, Petr Mrazek was brilliant in net for Detroit, recording two shutouts, but the Lightning's Ben Bishop posted his first shutout of the playoffs in the deciding Game 7 to earn Tampa Bay the series win and allow his team to set its course for the Stanley Cup Final.
Will the result be the same this year? Tampa Bay's regular-season record of 46-31-5 for 97 points is 11 points below last season's franchise-record mark while Detroit dropped from 100 points in 2014-15 to a 41-30-11 record for 93 points this year. It's had to imagine a more tightly contested series than what we saw last season, but the margin between the teams in the standings looks even narrower this year.
Here's a look at the lay of the land before the action gets underway on April 13.
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Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Carol Schram
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