Quoting: gary_bettman
Last year has nothing to do with this year guy - you should know that by now unless you became a hockey fan yesterday.
Quoting: gary_bettman
Cats have had injuries too. Don't see Bolts getting far this year, sorry. Cats are simply better.
Just because one team is a better hockey team doesn't mean they will win a playoff series. 18/19 Lightning were better than Florida this year and 18/19 Columbus were much worse than Tampa is right now. Tampa has winning experience. Florida has Hornqvist. Also star power is important in the playoffs and the Lightning have slightly more of it:
Kucherov > Huberdeau (I know huberdeau is playing really well this year, but kucherov led the playoffs in points 2 years in a row. Also he technically has more ppg this year too. He has just been injured.)
Point = Barkov (Barkov's probably better, but Point has proved it in the playoffs and Barkov hasn't.)
Stamkos > Reinhart
Hedman > Ekblad
McDonagh < Weegar
Sergachev/Cernak >> Forsling/Montour
Rutta/Bogosian < Gudas/Nuutivara
Vasilevskiy >>>> Bobrovsky
Backup goalies don't really matter
Palat/Cirelli/Killorn > Duclair/Verhaghe/Bennett (only slightly)
TBL forward depth < FLA forward depth
Compare this however you want. It's pretty close, but tampa has proven playoff performers, Florida doesn't really. Tampa has an insanely good goalie. Florida doesn't