Season series
January 18, 2007: Tampa Bay 3 At New Jersey 2, SO
January 27, 2007: New Jersey 2 At Tampa Bay 0
February 11, 2007: Tampa Bay 4 At New Jersey 1
March 22, 2007: New Jersey 1 At Tampa Bay 3
Despite a better regular season record, the Devils lost the season series 3-1. The first meeting of the season was decided by the shootout. Tampa Bay is 3-1 for the season. Two of those wins came at the Meadowlands. Patrick Elias, John Madden, Erik Rasmussen missed the last game which ended up in a loss.
Previous playoff series
The Devils and Lightning met only once prior to this year. The last meeting took place in 2003, the last year the Devils won the cup. The Devils won the Conference Semifinals against Tampa Bay 4-1. Eleven players who took part in this series are still with the Devils this year. New Jersey took the first two games and headed to Tampa where game 3 saw Pavel Kubina shoot the puck to Scott Stevens ear. Tampa took game 3 to get back in the series. Stevens didn't miss a game and came back strong in game 4 to help the Devils win it. They eliminated the Lightning in game 5 with a Grant Marshall goal in triple OT.
Playoff and Cup experience
After sweeping the Rangers in the first round last year, the Devils lost to the eventual Stanley Cup Champions, the Carolina Hurricanes 4-1. The Lightning lost in the first round to the Ottawa Senators 4-1. The Devils and Lightning are the last two Eastern Conference teams who have won the Cup to qualify for the playoffs. The Devils won the cup in 2002-03 and the Lightning were crowned in 2003-04.
The chart below shows a comparison between the two teams when it come to playoffs and Cups. As far as experience is concerned, the Devils combine a total of 1281 playoff games played to 549 for the Lightning. New Jersey has 26 Stanley Cup rings to the Lightning's 11. The Devils have more experience but bear in mind that the Lightning won the Cup in 2004 and that is not so long ago.
Goaltending
This is the category where it is clear the Lightning are at a disadvantage. Martin Brodeur has everything for him. He has the playoff experience and he has the most wins in the regular season. The Lightning played two goalies this season: Johan Holmqvist (27-15; 2.85 GAA; .893 SV%), Marc Denis (17-18; 3.19 GAA; .883 SV%). The Devils tend to make the opposing goalie look good and any goalie can get hot but it would be surprising to see the Lightning have the advantage in this category.
Defense
Both Defenses are not impressive. New Jersey just has two regular players with a positive +/- rating: Rafalski and Lukowich. Ranger and Richardson are the only two players with a positive +/- rating for Tampa Bay. Nolan Pratt is even. Dan Boyle is certainly a player to watch on the blue line. He has scored 20 goals this season. The Devils might play Richard Matvichuk and hopefully he can provide the Devils with defensive awareness.
Forwards
Despite having the best goal scorer in the league with Lecavalier (52 goals), the Lightning have scored only 37 goals more than the Devils. Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis, Brad Richards, Dan Boyle are all at least 20-goal scorer on the team. They scored 140 between the four of them and that's 57% of the team's total. The Devils have only one 30-goal scorer (Parise, 31) but their top four scorers account for 48% of the team's total.
Tampa Bay is more of a one-line team with Lecavalier-St-Louis running the show. John Madden and Jay Pandolfo will have the tough task to shut down Lecavalier and St. Louis. The Devils have more depth and can play four lines. Even if they want to shut down Tampa's big guns, they have to allow their skilled forwards enough ice time to score.
Special teams
The Devils and Lightning are among the least penalized teams. The Lightning have a slight advantage on the power-play over the Devils but their penalty kill is one of the worse in the league (78,4%, 28th). Defenseman Dan Boyle is an asset on the power-play: 10 of his 20 goals came with the man advantage.
The Devils penalty kill is much better: 85,2%, 4th in the league. The Devils have to be aware defensively with the man-advantage because the skilled and fast lightning have scored 14 shorthanded goals.
Keys to the series
Pandolfo and Madden have to shut down Lecavalier and St. Louis. The rest of the team has to be aware defensively because that line will probably be double shifted on some occasions. The Devils have to take advantage of the last change at home.
The First line has to get it going. Elias, Gomez and Gionta, also known as the EGG line have to put the puck in the back of the net on a more regular basis. They have had a disappointing regular season. With Lou at the helm, they have no excuse.
The second line has to produce goals as well. Zajac will discover the playoffs but Langenbrunner can be a clutch playoff performer. Parise now has the experience and could carry the Devils' offense.
Get up for the series: Playing the Lightning is not like playing the Flyers or the Rangers on the emotion level. Last year, the Devils played a perfect round against the Rangers and then faded against the Hurricanes. The Southeast Division Hurricanes eliminated the Devils twice in the five years. They have to take the Lightning seriously and I am sure Lou will see to it.
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