Fansided

5 Ways any team can beat the Tampa Bay Lightning in the NHL playoffs

By Bruin Belisle

BOSTON - FEBRUARY 28: Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Louis Domingue looks back at the goal scored by the Bruins' Brad Marchand in the third period. The Boston Bruins host the Tampa Bay Lightning in a regular season NHL hockey game at TD Garden in Boston on Feb. 28, 2019. (Photo by John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
BOSTON - FEBRUARY 28: Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Louis Domingue looks back at the goal scored by the Bruins' Brad Marchand in the third period. The Boston Bruins host the Tampa Bay Lightning in a regular season NHL hockey game at TD Garden in Boston on Feb. 28, 2019. (Photo by John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images) /
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LOS ANGELES, CA – JANUARY 25: A beach volleyball game takes place in the outfield before the start of the 2014 Coors Light NHL Stadium Series between the Anaheim Ducks and the Los Angeles Kings at Dodger Stadium on January 25, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Eliot J. Schechter/NHLI via Getty Images) /

3. Play a different sport

No one is beating the Lightning at hockey but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other ways to win. Have you ever seen a hockey player play volleyball? 90% of them are terrible. They don’t even look like athletes. Put a bunch of them on the court and it’s anyone’s game. Level playing field.

At times this season, it’s seemed as though the Lightning were playing a different sport. At least, the same sport but on a higher level. It’s as if a junior team was suddenly tossed into a midget league, or an NHL team playing in the AHL. It doesn’t seem fair that they can afford so much talent and play so well together.

How good are these guys at Hi-Li Jai Alai? Would Stamkos’ shot be as deadly with one of these weird banana scoop things in his hand instead of a stick? How do you even win at Jai Alai? It looks like the most confusing sport of all time. Do they play off of all four walls? Why?

There probably isn’t a sport in which any team has a distinct advantage over the Lightning in, unless they end up playing the Toronto Maple Leafs in a golf tournament. Even these good Leafs teams end up home earlier than the Lightning given that they can’t get past the Boston Bruins under any circumstance.

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