Tampa's Ross Colton reveals what the turning point was in the Lightning's series against the Leafs
The Leafs had two chances to close out their round 1 series against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The officiating, being as bad as it was, did not help the Leafs out at all, but the fact of the matter is that the chips were up for the Leafs after Game 5. In my opinion, the chips were still up after Game 6. In Game 7, the Leafs went all in and lost to Andrei Vasilevskiy and the Bolts.
There was absolutely nothing for the Leafs to be ashamed about in that series. They pushed the back-to-back Stanley Cup Champs to the limit and they nearly beat them. Had Leafs/Lightning happened in the Eastern Conference Finals, I don't think anyone's batting an eyelash. That series was about as close as you'll find and, as I said, the chips were never down for the Leafs until they were completely gone.
On Wednesday, Lightning forward Ross Colton revealed that there was a bit of a turning point for the Bolts in that series. Colton said that Corey Perry called the players together and delivered a speech, stating that during the series with Dallas and the series with the Habs in each of the last two Stanley Cup Finals, the Bolts played the right way. Perry told the team that they didn't even realize how good they were and how hard they were to play against when they played the right way. Colton pointed to the results since that conversation happened as a pretty good indicator that the message was received.
Honestly, I'm still of the mindset that, if all things were equal and that if the officials made the calls that they should have made, the series probably doesn't even get to Game 7, with the Leafs winning in 6. But, as the saying goes.. "if if's and buts were candy and nuts.." - well, you know the rest.
| POLL | ||
1 JUIN | 455 ANSWERS Tampa's Ross Colton reveals what the turning point was in the Lightning's series against the Leafs If the Leafs/Bolts series was officiated evenly, is the end result still the same? | ||
| Lightning in 7 | 29 | 6.4 % |
| Leafs in 7 | 120 | 26.4 % |
| Leafs in 6 | 293 | 64.4 % |
| Other | 13 | 2.9 % |
| List of polls | ||
