Open Thread: Eastern Conference Final Game 1

The second half of the Conference Finals kicks off tonight in the Eastern Conference between the New York Islanders and Tampa Bay Lightning. The Islanders are fresh off of their Game 7 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday, meanwhile the Lightning haven’t seen any game action in a week since defeating the Boston Bruins.

Here’s where you can watch tonight’s action:

Where: Rogers Place (Edmonton, Alberta)

When: 8:00PM ET

Television: NBCSN, CBC, Sportsnet, TVA Sports

This series is an intriguing one in the sense that you have two teams who play completely different styles. The Islanders have been one of the most frustrating, and if not the best defensive team throughout their playoff run thus far. Meanwhile the Lightning, who are led by their big guns in Brayden Point, Nikita Kucherov and Victor Hedman, have found various ways to win games during the first two rounds.

The Lightning ran into some injury trouble against the Boston Bruins with Ryan McDonagh and Nikita Kucherov being sidelined. However, their extended time off has helped in terms of getting healthy, so those two should be ready to go by the time puck drops at 8:00pm.

Projected Lineups

Islanders

Anders Lee - Mathew Barzal - Jordan Eberle
Anthony Beauvillier - Brock Nelson - Josh Bailey
Derick Brassard - Jean-Gabriel Pageau - Michael Dal Colle
Matt Martin - Casey Cizikas - Cal Clutterbuck

Adam Pelech - Ryan Pulock
Devon Toews - Scott Mayfield
Nick Leddy - Andy Greene

Semyon Varlamov

Lightning

Ondrej Palat - Brayden Point - Nikita Kucherov
Alex Killorn - Anthony Cirelli - Tyler Johnson
Barclay Goodrow - Yanni Gourde - Blake Coleman
Carter Verhaeghe - Cedric Paquette - Patrick Maroon

Victor Hedman - Zach Bogosian
Ryan McDonagh - Erik Cernak
Mikhail Sergachev - Kevin Shattenkirk

Andrei Vasilevskiy

Enjoy the game!