It's the series most everyone expected to watch, even if it's a round earlier than was figured.
The Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins meet Sunday in Toronto to kick off their Stanley Cup playoffs conference semifinal series. It's a clash of the top two Eastern clubs from the regular season.
When the league paused in March, the Bruins were atop the NHL standings, the lone 100-point team, and the Lightning stood second in the Eastern Conference. From the round-robin mini-tournament, Tampa became the second seed while the Bruins fell to fourth. Even so, their expected showdown should be a doozy.