Potential playoff preview when Bolts host Panthers tonight

If you liked the high-flying, hold-onto-your-seats offensive showdowns the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers produced during their first three meetings this season, the potential of a playoff series between the two in-state rivals should have you salivating.

There's a chance the Lightning and the Panthers will meet in the first round of the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs, which would mark the first time the two teams have ever faced each other in a playoff series. At the end of January, a Bolts-Cats playoff showdown wouldn't have been on anybody's radar. The Lightning were 25 points ahead of the Panthers in the Atlantic Division and the Panthers were 10 points back of the final wild card in the Eastern Conference.
But entering tonight's final regular season meeting between Tampa Bay and Florida (7:30 p.m. puck drop at AMALIE Arena), the Panthers have clawed their way back into the playoff conversation and now sit just a point behind Columbus for the second wild card. If the Panthers are able to finish in the second wild card spot, the Lightning win the Atlantic and have more points than the Metropolitan Division regular season champion, Tampa Bay and Florida would meet in the first round of the playoffs, a series that would no doubt intensify the burgeoning rivalry between the two teams from the Sunshine State.
"We're up against a really hot team that is clearly trying to make a push to make the playoffs," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said following his team's morning skate Tuesday at AMALIE Arena. "…(Florida head coach Bob Boughner) has got them really rolling. You can see they're having fun, doing all the things you need to win games and they're beating good teams. This will be a really good test for us tonight."
Florida has won six in a row, all six victories at home, coming into tonight's contest and nine of their last 11 games. The Panthers have defeated some pretty good teams along the way having knocked off Pittsburgh, Washington, Toronto, New Jersey and Philadelphia over that six-game win streak.

Since the All-Star Break, the Panthers are the second-hottest team in the NHL, their 13-3-0 record and 26 points bested only by the 13-3-2 record and 28 points put up by the Nashville Predators.
"They've put themselves in a position to play very meaningful games down the stretch and get into the playoffs," Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said. "So, who knows? This could potentially be a matchup in the playoffs. We're taking this game very seriously and know how good these guys have played us as of late and how we need to tighten up some things, although we've been getting the wins, there's still some improvements especially defensively and structurally that we'd like to improve on. It's going to be a very good test for us tonight and it's nice playing teams that are playing well because you know you're going to get a tough test and a good game and we need that right now."
The first three meetings between the Lightning and Panthers this season have been some of the highest-scoring affairs of the season. The two teams have produced 30 goals in the three matchups combined, an average of 10 goals per game. The last time they met, the Lightning scored a season-high eight goals, the most they've scored since the 2012-13 season.
All three of those games, however, came in the first month of the season. Both teams are considerably different since.

"At the beginning of the season, I think everyone's kind of struggling with their structure a little bit, so I expect that to be a little bit different now," said Lightning forward Tyler Johnson, who needs one assist to reach 150 for his career. "I think you look at both lineups, both teams have some players that can put the puck in the net, like to play offense, have some speed. When you have that, I guess you score goals. We're going to have to do a really good job defensively though."
The Lightning too are looking to clean up some defensive deficiencies that have crept into their game of late. They've allowed 10 combined goals over the last two games, including six Saturday afternoon to Philadelphia, the Bolts needing to rally twice from multiple goals down to prevail, only the third time in franchise history they've done so.
"I think we've just got to play a little tighter, tighter on the forecheck and throughout the whole ice," Bolts defenseman Andrej Sustr said. "I think that's where it starts is the offensive zone, so whether it's our D having a good gap and just taking their time and space from them, that's going to start a lot of it early."
PALAT, MCDONAGH UPDATES: Injured Lightning forward Ondrej Palat skated with his teammates in a red no-contact jersey during Tampa Bay's morning session Tuesday and got some extra work before the skate by himself with assistant coach Brad Lauer. But Cooper stressed Palat still needs time before he's ready to return, saying the left winger still isn't in the day-to-day stage…Newly-acquired defenseman Ryan McDonagh also skated in a red no-contact jersey at morning skate and is nearing a return, although that likely won't come until next week. "I would say at the end of the week earliest," Cooper said. "I'd say next week, then we're looking pretty confident."