Morning After Thoughts: 422 Days Later

Photo by Elsa/Getty Images The Tampa Bay Lightning did it. They threw the monkey off their back and beat the Columbus Blue Jackets. They’re on to the second round.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That was their worst game of the series

Without a doubt, that was the Lightning’s worst performance of the series. They got crushed in possession. They got crushed in expected goals. They took an inordinate amount of stupid penalties forcing them to spend a lot of time killing them instead of attacking Columbus’ net. The first period was fine, but not great. But in the second period, they started to get…