Twenty-six teams down. Three to go.
Friday kicks off the NHL conference finals, featuring each of the league's four division winners battling for the right to advance to the Stanley Cup Final itself.
The Pittsburgh Penguins, after mid-season coaching and personnel changes, are looking to repeat history. The team's last Stanley Cup win (2009) came under similar circumstances. The Pens never emerged as the dynasty that some saw as possible then, but after knocking off the NHL's best regular-season team, the Washington Capitals, in the second round, a championship looks possible.
Their opponent is the Tampa Bay Lightning, last year's finalist in the Eastern Conference. The Bolts have had a tough season in a lot of ways, but they managed to get through two rounds without some of their most important players. Steven Stamkos and Anton Stralman are both unknowns at this point, but the Lightning have been winning without them, and returns from one or both could put the team over the top.
In the Western Conference, two teams with a history of playoff underachievement have managed to shed that label by making it this far; now one wi ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Jonathan Willis
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