Round Table Discussion: Tampa’s Influential Player

roun d tableWelcome to the Days of Y’Orr Round Table discussion. This is a new, semi-regular feature we’re going to try out in which the DOY crew discuss important — and sometimes trivial — matters of hockey.

This is the fourth edition of our round table discussion. Our last edition debated whether Tyler Seguin or Jordan Caron should start for the black and gold. The second edition was a debate who should start in the playoffs between Michael Ryder and Tyler Seguin. Clearly we were wrong. We all wanted Seguin to play over Ryder and Ryder came up huge in the Montreal series. Our first edition was talking about Marc Savard with his rash of concussion issues.


The Bruins still have two days left before they drop the puck against Tampa Bay so I sent an e-mail out to the rest of the guys asking who they believed who needed to be the most influential player for the Lightning to beat the Bruins. Some of the answer may be obvious, but this is the gut reaction from Days of Y’Orr.

Justin: I think Rolson needs to be their most influential. He’s gotta keep up with Thomas who’s been god-like this postseason for Boston. Tampa has enough scoring talent to fill in if one’s slumping, but Rolson’s gotta do a better job than the Flyer’s goalie carousel.. which shouldn’t be too hard to do – one save is better than what Philly did against Boston. Both teams can score and play D (Bruins, gritty; Tampa, shot blocking). It’ll come down to which goalie stands on his head more for his team when it counts. Answer: Dwayne Roloson

After the jump, the rest of the answers…

Robb: Irrelevant since the Bruins will take it, but if I must answer, it’ll probably be Roloson.  We all know players like St. Louis, Lecavalier, and Stamkos are awesome and going to be a scoring threat anytime they’re on the ice, but it’ll fall on the goaltender to make sure their offense doesn’t go to waste.  Roloson has been almost has hot as Thomas, and has managed to keep the Lightning ahead in games that may have been closer otherwise.

With any luck, he’s break his brittle old man hip and it’ll be a non-issue. Answer: Dwayne Roloson

roloson
Jon:
I’m going with the obvious choice in St. Louis. Not to take anything away from Stamkos, he is a phenomenal player but St. Louis is the motor that makes Tampa Bay run. He’s hard to stop at even strength and on the power play. I think the Bruins will break Roloson, and Stamkos seems to be easily broken by physicality but St. Louis is just a consistent beast. You know, when he’s not crying. Answer: Martin St. Louis

downie
Greg:
I fucking hate Steve Downie. I hate the guy so much. With that said, I think Downie will be the guy to influence the series. The guy is a first line goon but he draws penalties and he pisses off opposing players. He also can play. In 11 games played in the playoffs, Downie has 2 goals, 10 assists and is a +9. Although the guy can be a goon, he’s not even close to the lead in penalty minutes in the playoffs (hello Milan Lucic at 31 minutes). If Boston succumbs to Downie’s antics, they will lose. The Tampa Bay power play is to damn good (26.7& success in the playoffs) and the Boston penalty kill sucks (80.5%). If the Bruins are caught short handed with their pants down (hello, Patrick Kane) Tampa wins this. Answer: Steve Downie

So who do you think? Are the Tampa Bay stars like Lecavalier or Stamkos the ones that need to keep Tampa afloat or will it be secondary scoring and guys like Bergenheim? Hit the comment section and let us know.

knights

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