The Beast of the East take 2 -- Tampa Rules

Down goes Colorado and up goes Tampa Bay. A three way tie for the #1 seed in the east now exists and guess who has the first tiebreaker?

The Tampa Bay Lightning. :D

If you had proposed the idea that Tampa would be on top of the Eastern Conference at any point five years ago, you would have been laughed out of the room you were in. If you had proposed this 4 years ago, you would have had your ass kicked by local fans who were already growing tired of talk from Tom Wilson and Bill Davidson.

Even LAST season was a reach -- many would say we were 2 years away still, or that the season had been a fluke.

We ain't no fluke, people... That's for damn sure.

84 points, 36 wins, 191 goals for... My god, did you ever expect this from Tampa Bay???

Oh, and lets not forget a Hart Trophy candidate (along with Rocket Richard, Art Ross and more) in Martin St. Louis, scoring his 32nd goal (albeit an empty netter -- thanks Vinny) as the Bolts shut out the mighty Colorado Avalanche in Colorado, 3-0....