5 Keys: Bruins at Lightning, Game 1

BRUINS AT LIGHTNING
3 p.m. ET; NBC, SN, TVAS
TAMPA -- The Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning open their best-of-7 series in the Eastern Conference Second Round at Amalie Arena on Saturday.

RELATED: [Lightning relish clean slate against Bruins entering second round | Complete Lightning vs. Bruins series coverage]
The Lightning defeated the New Jersey Devils in five games in the Eastern Conference First Round. The Bruins eliminated the Toronto Maple Leafs in seven games.
Here are 5 keys for Game 1:

1. Tuukka time

Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask had the lowest save percentage (.899) and the highest goals-against average (2.94) of the starting goalies on the eight teams that advanced to the second round.
Rask allowed four goals three times against the Maple Leafs, including Game 5, when the Bruins had a chance to win the series, and in Game 7, when Boston trailed 1-0 and 2-1 in the first period and 4-3 after two periods before winning 7-4.
Rask has allowed four goals in five of his past 10 starts, including a 4-0 loss at Tampa Bay on April 3.
"Tuukka is fine," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. "He's been there. He's going to be good for us. That's that. We've just got to be good in front of him as well."

2. Shutting down Bergeron's line

Look for Lightning coach Jon Cooper to use his shutdown line of Brayden Point, Ondrej Palat and Tyler Johnson and his shutdown defense pair of Ryan McDonagh and Anton Stralman against Boston's top line of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak whenever possible.
The Lightning have the last-change advantage as the home team in the first two games, which is key because if Cooper can play Point's line and the McDonagh-Stralman pair against Bergeron's line, it will free up Tampa Bay's top line of Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov and J.T. Miller to potentially have more space to operate.
Bergeron, Marchand and Pastrnak combined for 30 points against Toronto.
"[Point] has this ability to check and be able to play with high-end players, very much like the guy that he might see a lot of," Cooper said of playing against Bergeron. "That's a special talent to have."

3. Penalty killing

The Lightning, who were 28th on the penalty kill during the regular season (76.1 percent), improved to 84.2 percent (16-for-19) against the Devils. The Bruins, who were third on the PK in the regular season (83.7 percent), dropped to 73.3 percent (11-for-15) against the Maple Leafs.
Tampa Bay will be facing a power play that scored at 33.3 percent against Toronto, aided by Bergeron winning 66.7 percent of his face-offs on the power play.

4. Vasilevskiy's confidence vs. Bruins

Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy should be confident that he can defeat Boston after finally doing it April 3, making 33 saves in the 4-0 win. Vasilevskiy allowed three goals in each of his five previous starts against Boston (0-4-1).
Vasilevskiy should also be confident with how he's playing. He had a .941 save percentage (10 goals on 169 shots) and 2.01 GAA in the first round.

5. Rust vs. rest

The Lightning have had six full days between games. The Bruins played Game 7 on Wednesday.
It will be interesting to see if the Lightning's lengthy break leads to an energetic start, which is what they want, especially against a team coming off Game 7, or if they'll have to work their way into the game because of the time off.

Bruins projected lineup

Brad Marchand -- Patrice Bergeron -- David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk -- David Krejci -- Rick Nash
Danton Heinen -- Riley Nash -- David Backes
Tim Schaller -- Sean Kuraly -- Noel Acciari
Zdeno Chara -- Charlie McAvoy
Torey Krug -- Kevan Miller
Matt Grzelcyk -- Adam McQuaid
Tuukka Rask
Anton Khudobin
Scratched:Tommy Wingels, Brian Gionta, Ryan Donato, Nick Holden
Injured:Anders Bjork (shoulder), Brandon Carlo (ankle)

Lightning projected lineup

J.T. Miller -- Steven Stamkos -- Nikita Kucherov
Ondrej Palat -- Brayden Point -- Tyler Johnson
Alex Killorn -- Anthony Cirelli -- Yanni Gourde
Chris Kunitz -- Cedric Paquette -- Ryan Callahan
Victor Hedman -- Dan Girardi
Ryan McDonagh -- Anton Stralman
Braydon Coburn -- Mikhail Sergachev
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Louis Domingue
Scratched:Andrej Sustr, Jake Dotchin, Slater Koekkoek, Cory Conacher, Peter Budaj
Injured:Adam Erne (lower body)

Status report

Each team appears to be sticking with the lineup from its previous game. … Erne, a forward, didn't play during the first round and is day to day.