When the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals met in the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs there was a sense that series was going to be the de facto Eastern Conference finals, where the team that made it through would simply keep on rolling to the Stanley Cup Final.
It was, after all, the Presidents' Trophy winners going up against what had probably been the best team in the NHL over the previous two months.
That thinking left out the fact that the reigning Eastern Conference champions, the Tampa Bay Lightning, are still hanging around in the playoffs. As they showed on Friday night in their 3-1 win over the Penguins in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, they are also still pretty darn good. Even as they continue to lose key players to injury.
Even without Steven Stamkos, this is a team that is still loaded with skill thanks to Nikita Kucherov, Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat, Alex Killorn, Jonathan Drouin and one of the best defenseman in the NHL in Victor Hedman.
That group, along with their style of play, is going to give the Penguins a challenge they have not yet faced this postseason.
A team that can keep up with them.
The Penguins' first two matchups against the New York Rangers and Capitals were in a lot of ways pretty favorable to them when it came to the style of play. Both the Rangers and Capitals are teams that at times played a slower, more physical brand of hockey.
Instead of trying to outskate the Penguins for 60 minutes, they would try to physically wear them down.
For whatever strengths they had (the top scorers in Washington, Henrik Lundqvist in goal for the Rangers, Braden Holtby in goal for the Capitals), they also had key areas in their lineup the Penguins could take advantage of and exploit with their team speed. With the Rangers, it was their defense. With the Capitals, it turned out to be their bottom-six, which is where the Penguins ended up winning the series.
Plus, their style of play played right into what the Penguins wanted to do.
The Lightning showed on Friday night they are still going to take their shots physically when they have the chance, but unlike the Rangers and Capitals, they also have the speed to match up with the way the Penguins want to play. At times, the Penguins looked a little overwhelmed by it.
It's not only going to make things more difficult for the Penguins when it comes to generating their own offense because they're not going to be able to exploit matchups against guys like Dan Girardi, Brooks Orpik or Mike Weber, but they are also now facing a team that counter against them, and do it quickly.
You saw it only display on Friday night when the Lightning hit them with stretch pass after stretch pass. You saw it when Alex Killorn blew past Olli Maatta at the blue line for the first goal, and you saw when the Lightning turned a Kris Letang mistake at the blue line into a 3-on-1 rush the other way and a Jonathan Drouin goal.
Knocking out the team with the best record in the NHL was a big accomplishment for the Penguins. But the thing about the playoffs is it can a lot of times it comes down to the matchups in a best-of-seven series. For as dominant as the Capitals were during the regular season (and will continue to be with that roster) they were probably a pretty good match for the Penguins as currently constructed.
This Lightning team may not have the same record as the Capitals, but it is still a great team with a powerful offense that could end up giving the Penguins more problems than any team they have played so far.
In every game the Penguins have played for the past month-and-a-half they have clearly been the faster and quicker team on the ice. This time around, they might not be. Let's see how they adjust to it.
