Lightning coach John Tortorella doesn't worry abut matchups. He lets the other coach adjust to his players.
The Lightning and Flames met only once during the regular season. It was a Lightning rout, 6-2, with Martin St. Louis burning his former team with three goals and an assist and Vinny Lecavalier picking up three helpers. The Flames dominated play early and took a 1-0 lead, but the Lightning tied the game near the end of the first. The teams traded goals in the first half of the second period before the Lightning reeled off three goals in less than seven minutes before the second intermission for a 5-2 lead. Ruslan Fedotenko added a third-period goal. But, one thing to remember: Calgary's goalie that night was Roman Turek, while John Grahame started for the Lightning. Both have been backups this postseason.
THE GOALIES
Saying teams need good goaltending in the playoffs is like saying fish need water to survive. But to get to the Stanley Cup final, teams need their goalies to be their best players and that tag certainly fits with both teams here. For his career, the Lightning's Nikolai Khabibulin has been hounded by critics who questioned his big-game ability. He had won only one playoff series before this season, and no one would've been surprised if he had fallen on his face this postseason. In fact, many predicted it and counted Khabibulin as the key reason why the Lightning wouldn't get to the final. Boy, has he shown everyone. The guy called Habby has gone 12-5 with a goals-against average less than 2.00 and a save percentage better than .930. While few expected Khabibulin to play like this, nobody expected Calgary's Miikka Kiprusoff to play at all. At least not at the beginning of the season. But after wresting the No. 1 job from Turek, Kiprusoff, a San Jose castoff, has been remarkable with numbers in the Khabibulin neighborhood. He is 12-7 in the playoffs with a 1.90 GAA and a .930 save percentage. Just as impressive, Kiprusoff, who led the league with a 1.70 GAA during the regular season, is 4-1 in overtime during the playoffs. That shows his meddle.
BEST MATCHUP
Lightning coach John Tortorella loves to say how he doesn't get caught up in matching lines or worrying too much about what the other team is doing. Play our game is Tortorella's philosophy. He rolls over three lines, taps the shoulders of the fourth line a couple of times a period, and rotates the six defensemen. Let the other team worry about matchups is what Tortorella tells everyone. But when push comes to shove - or should we say when check comes to check - Tortorella calls upon defenseman Pavel Kubina to play the Eraser, or the Equalizer or whatever intimidating name you want to use that means the player who shuts down the opponent's best player. Kubina was called upon to match up against big forwards such as Jaromir Jagr, Keith Primeau and Alexei Kovalev over the past two postseasons. And Tortorella likely will pick Kubina to become close personal friends with Calgary star Jarome Iginla in this series. Off the ice, Iginla is as nice and personable as any player. But on the ice Iginla plays with an edge. So does Kubina. That should make the matchup of Kubina and his defense partner Darryl Sydor against Iginla the most entertaining of this series. And, it could be the most critical. If the Lightning can shut down Iginla, it has a chance. Iginla, though, rarely is shut down.
BEST LINE
The Lightning's best line is the one centered by Lecavalier. Wait, it's the line centered by Brad Richards. Hold up, Dave Andreychuk's line is the key. Then again, maybe it's whatever line St. Louis is on. Who knows? The Lightning has passed around the Superman cape throughout these playoffs. Fredrik Modin and St. Louis were the stars of the first round against the Islanders. Lecavalier and Richards dominated the second round against Montreal. Richards, Lecavalier and, of late, Ruslan Fedotenko were the stars of the Flyers series. This is what makes the Lightning so dangerous. It doesn't have a best line. It has three best lines. The Flames, meantime, look a lot like the Flyers. Primeau clearly was the dominant player of his team. Iginla serves that role for the Flames. Some might say a team based on one line can't win this time of year, but that's because it's usually impossible for one player to be that good every shift. Primeau was an exception. And so is Iginla, who manages to be effective every time he takes the ice.
THE COACHES
Flames coach Darryl Sutter, like his five brothers, was a tenacious player. He worked hard, was physically and mentally prepared every game, hated to lose and could be as nasty as a cornered muskrat. He molded his Flames in his image. Calgary has that never-say-quit attitude and it all starts with Sutter. The Lightning, meantime, is a team Sutter would love because it plays the same way. Credit for that goes to Tortorella, who has gone from a virtual nobody in coaching circles to perhaps the best in the business in two years. Neither coach is particularly lovey-dovey with his players or the media or anyone outside their families. They're both serious men with short fuses, but their dedication to their profession and the ability to get their players to buy into what they're selling are things everyone must appreciate and respect.
