I'm biased, being originally from Tampa and a bandwagon Lightning fan (whenever they're in the playoffs), but this has been a great Final series so far.

300 minutes in, and no team has led by more than one goal at any point.

Injuries are piling up for the Lightning, though. Tyler Johnson (still leading the playoffs in goals, I think) is a ghost of himself, due to some injury - wrist I think. It was great for Ben Bishop to play hurt in all of game 3 and still get the win, but it was painful watching him struggle to get up out of his splits (maybe a groin injury?). And Stamkos hasn't looked right all playoffs; don't know if he's choking, or if he's got some hand/wrist injury he's hiding.

Agree completely. This has been the best Final Series in a long long time. As I mentioned in an earlier post having the two best skating teams has produced plenty of non-stop up and down action. At one point tonight they went 8 minutes without a whistle. The rule changes in the last 10 years or so have greatly added to the unbelievable pace of this series. Taking away the center ice two line pass (red line only in play for icing), the tag up offsides negation (you used to have to wait until the other team brought the puck back out of their end on a delayed icing), the almost complete elimination of freezing the puck along the boards, and penalizing icing the puck (offending team can no longer make a line change after the icing) have allowed these teams to just skate like crazy.

Just as good as the play on the ice has been NBC's coverage. It has been 100% hockey and nothing else. No between periods "skate, check, shoot" contest by kids. No Pitbull, Snoop Dog, or Fuzzy Kat concert with munchkins on the ice with glow sticks. Just solid between periods analysis. The seamless play by play and color commentary from Doc Emrick and Eddie Olczyk in the booth and Pierre McGuire at ice level has been fantastic. The quick coach's interview during the ice scrape is a solid Q and A and not some "I gotta coach them up better" schmaltz you get with football or basketball at the half. The replays are amazing with the super slow motion cameras and the addition of graphics (arrows, circles, diagrams) allow folks who don't fully understand hockey to see that there is really method to the madness and there are plays in hockey. The between periods analysis is just as good. Great work guys!

(06-13-2015 11:05 PM)Tiki Owl Wrote:  No Pitbull, Snoop Dog, or Fuzzy Kat

What? Not an animal lover?

(Bitter Ducks fan alert.)

(06-14-2015 02:03 AM)Orange County Owl Wrote:  (Bitter Ducks fan alert.)

Ouch.

Looks like that team wasn't all it was quacked up to be.