Tampa Bay Lightning is in another game 7

The wraparound is your daily look at the 2021 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. We’re going to break down the NHL Playoff games today with the most essential television and live streaming info.

This should be very familiar territory to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

When they play the New York Islanders in Game 7 of their Stanley Cup semi-final series on Friday night (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN / Pfau), it will be the fifth time in the Steven Stamkos-Victor Hedman era that they have played in this situation.

A game to decide who gets to the Stanley Cup final and who gets home.

The Lightning’s constancy of penetrating deep into the playoffs over the past decade has been remarkable and has helped make them one of the most elite franchises in the NHL. Even if they don’t actually win the Stanley Cup, you know the chances are they’ll be one of the last four teams, and likely lead the entire series to a winning take-all game.

This is the sixth time they have played in the semifinals / conference finals in the past 11 years, with five of those series now going a long way off.

[NBC 2021 STANLEY CUP PLAYOFF HUB]

A quick refresher on how these games have evolved for the Lightning over the years. It hasn’t always gone well, with the offensive being a big problem in these situations.

• 2010-11: Lost Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final against Boston Bruins 1-0
• 2014-15: Won Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final against New York Rangers 2-0
• 2015-16: Lost Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final against the Pittsburgh Penguins 2-1
• 2017-18: Lost Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final to Washington Capitals 4-0

The Lightning have only scored three goals in their last four Game 7 this round, all three of which were losses to teams that won the Stanley Cup in the next round. For a team that is consistently one of the best offensive teams in the league, that’s an impressive development.

Before that core broke through and won the Stanley Cup a year ago (after beating the Islanders in the Eastern Conference final in six games), those near misses were a great source of frustration for the Lightning, especially as they struggled in these Attacks to find defeats.

The offensive should be the focus again on Friday.

For starters, although they have completed another deep playoff run this season, it wasn’t necessarily their offensive that led the way. Above all, it was a dominant performance by goalkeeper Andre Vasilevskiy. Since the start of the second round, the Lightning have been kept to two goals or less in eight of the eleven games, including four of the first six of this series.

[NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs 2021 schedule, TV info]

Just for comparison: In 25 playoff games a year ago on the way to the championship, they were only kept to two goals or less nine times during the entire postseason. So the offense has been a bit of a fight lately, with Nikita Kucherov leading the playoffs with a big scoring (by a large margin) and Brayden Point currently having a nine-game series of goals.

But considering that Kucherov may not be available, and even if he is, it may not be 100%, this will definitely be an issue. Kucherov was injured early in Game 6 when he was checked against by Scott Mayfield. Kucherov left the game and did not return, which put his status in question for Friday’s game.

Win or lose on Friday the fact that the Lightning are back in the exact same place – again – is evidence of how successful the organization has been over the past decade. Since the beginning of the 2010-11 season, no team in the league has won more playoff games than the Tampa Bay 76 (Boston with 73 and Pittsburgh with 62 are the only teams to have more than 60 wins during that time), although they do too League wins have the best post-season profit share by a fairly large margin.

A win on Friday brings them to the Stanley Cup final for the third time in seven years with the chance of becoming the fourth team to win the Stanley Cup in a row since 1990.

NHL PLAYOFF SCHEDULE ON FRIDAY

Game 7: Islanders at Lightning, 8 p.m. ET (Series 3-3) – NBCSN / Peacock (Live broadcast)

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Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk for NBC Sports. Email him at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.

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