Improved puck management has helped the Bolts fight back to level series

This is a big one.
The Tampa Bay Lightning will battle the New York Rangers in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Final tonight at 8 p.m. ET at Madison Square Garden.
Whoever wins Game 5 will take a 3-2 series lead and have an opportunity to close out the series at AMALIE Arena on Saturday night and punch a ticket to the 2022 Stanley Cup Final.

Tampa Bay will be without Brayden Point for the ninth-straight game tonight as he continues to recover from a lower-body injury that he suffered in Game 7 of the First Round against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
"If he plays, he's going to be ready to play," said Lightning head coach Jon Cooper on Thursday morning. "He's not ready to play right now."
After winning the previous two games in the series, the Bolts feel like they've found a recipe to defeat a strong Rangers team. Now, it's about going out and executing on the road in a loud environment.

"I've said this before, that's got to be white noise to us," Cooper said. "We have a plan and we need to go execute. The Rangers are in the way of that and they're going to try and disrupt things we want to do.
"How are we going to fight through that? Are we going to stick to what we know has worked? Are we going to be able to fight through checks? Are we going to be able to fight through the crowd noise?
"Those are things that, if you want to win the Stanley Cup, you have to do."
After such a long layoff between the Second and Third Rounds of the playoffs, the Lightning started the Eastern Conference Final a little bit slow. Things were sloppy and uncharacteristic for a team chasing a third-straight Stanley Cup.
Tampa Bay won't use the long break as an excuse and it may actually help them in the latter half of this series. New York hasn't had the luxury of getting a break and, at this point, the Bolts probably have the fresher legs.
"When you take 10 days off, you're just not as sharp," Cooper said. "Not only your execution and your skill, but your mind is not there.
"Now, that wasn't the reason we turned it over all the time. The Rangers had something to do with it as well."
Limiting turnovers has been the key to the Lightning's turnaround after dropping the first two games of the series. The puck management has been significantly better. Breakouts have been crisper and less mistakes have been made.
The Rangers did an excellent job taking advantage of Tampa Bay's turnovers in the first two games at MSG. Since then, New York has failed to score a goal at five-on-five, an area where the Lightning feel really good about their game.
Staying out of the box and limiting turnovers will be the two keys to success for a Bolts team that is aiming for their third-straight win tonight.
"I think the first two games, we were all in agreement that we didn't execute," said Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman. "We were a little sloppy with the puck and that's been a lot better. That usually leads to less turnovers and less chances against.

"If we keep doing that, we're in good shape."
With Point out of the lineup once again, Cooper said he anticipates tonight's lineup will be the same as Game 4. If that holds true, look for Riley Nash to play in his third-consecutive game. It's been a pretty wild ride for Nash, who was inserted into the lineup in Game 3 after his last pro hockey game came on April 29 with the Syracuse Crunch.
Nash has skated in 36 career playoff games and 627 regular season contests in the NHL. The Lightning have the luxury of having a veteran player like him that they can insert into the lineup and feel confident that he won't make too many mistakes.
Jumping right into the Eastern Conference Final is no easy task, but Cooper feels Nash has performed well and liked the way his game grew from Game 3 to Game 4.
"It was much better," said Cooper. "That's a tough situation to come in, let alone we're talking about a team being off for 10 days. He was off for probably almost 2 months without playing a game.
"That can be a difficult situation, but [he was] definitely more comfortable in the second game. [He's] a veteran player, so it's probably easier for him, a guy that's played a number of games, than a young guy."
Look for some of Tampa Bay's top players to lead the way in tonight's Game 5. Over the past few games, it's been Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, and Ondrej Palat pulling some of the heavy weight. Kucherov has scored a goal in three straight games, while Stamkos and Palat have lit the lamp in two consecutive contests.
The three of them are tied for the team-lead in postseason goals with seven each through 15 games. Kucherov leads the way with 21 points (7G, 14A) in this year's playoffs.
In the creases, we're witnessing a great battle between two world-class goaltenders in Andrei Vasilevskiy and Igor Shesterkin.
Shesterkin took the first two games in New York and Vasilevskiy responded with two fantastic performances in Tampa. Shesterkin has been extraordinary at home this postseason, recording eight straight wins at MSG.
But Vasilevskiy has a reputation of showing up in the biggest moments for the Lightning. It seems like the long layoff may have affected him more than any other player, but he appears to have found his groove and will have a big opportunity tonight in Game 5.
Over his last two games in Tampa, the 'Big Cat' stopped 62 of 65 shots for a .954 save percentage. We'll see if he can carry that momentum into tonight.

"He's getting his mojo back," Cooper said. "If anybody in this layoff probably got hurt, it was probably him because now you're taken out of your rhythm.
"Now, he's got some games under his belt and he looks great."
The Bolts will have to find a way to steal a game on the road if they want to advance to the Stanley Cup Final. It will be no easy test against a Rangers team that has posted an 8-1 record at home this postseason.
The Lightning know they have a tough challenge ahead of them, but are welcoming that challenge with open arms.
"In the end, you have to win on the road," said Cooper. "That's the bottom line.
"We have an opportunity tonight to do that, but it's going to take everything we have and probably more to be able to get through and win a game on the road."