Here's a scary thought. What if the season is mimicking games? That is, slow start, spotting the rest of the conference the equivalent of two goals, only to come back and get into playoffs at the very last minute?

Think about that for a minute. If you condense the season down to a game, then 27 games and one period equals one period of a game. (Playoffs could be considered overtime.) And since the Lightning finished up Game 48, that would put the Lightning at about eight minutes left in the second period. And being nine points out of eighth in the standings, well, you could call that being down by two or three goals, right?

To take the analogy a step farther, you could look at injuries as penalties. And, in this case, with so many guys having been out, the Lightning will be coming back to full strength pretty soon after the All-Star break. Sure, they'll still be a man short on the bench with Mattias Ohlund likely missing the rest of the season, but it's better than having a bunch of guys stuck in the penalty box, right?

Okay, I realize that this is a stretch. But my point is, the Lightning have just won their last four games - and two of those were on the road. And they're finally starting to click together. Their luck is just starting to turn around, or so it seems.

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Two wrongs do not make a right. You cannot do a make-up call for a non-suspension by not suspending someone else for a different rule infraction that should have resulted in a suspension.

The Wheel of Justice and Club Two-Minutes lack of consistency and lack of testicular fortitude have been well on displaying during the Stanley Cup Playoffs this year. Most recently was Alexandre Burrows being allowed to bite Patrice Bergeron during Game 1 of the Cup Finals with no disciplinary action for the offense.

What makes this worse was Burrows scoring two goals, including the game-winning goal, during game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

A game Burrows should have been suspended for.

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The Tampa Bay Lightning's season ended Friday night with a 1-0 loss to the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals Friday night. But you woudn't have known that was the outcome if you'd been at Tampa International Airport this afternoon when the team's flight arrived.

Several hundred fans, decked out in Lightning blue, clucthing signs and chanting "Thank you Lightning" were on hand to greet the team as conquering heroes. In a show of mutual appreciation, players got out of their cars and walked along the exit route, shaking hands and posing for pictures along the way. Head coach Guy Boucher took particular care to make absolutely sure that each fan knew that their commitment was appreciated:

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With the final horn at TD Garden, the Boston Bruins have secured their place in the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals as the newly minted Eastern Conference Champion.

It's been a volatile seven game series between the B's and the Tampa Bay Lightning, filled with sideshow antics as well as some great hockey. While no one is ever thrilled with defeat, credit is due to Boston for a well played series.,

As for the Lightning, this concludes what was a surprising run in the playoffs, by a rebuilding team in year one of the franchise makeover. While the games are concluded, there will be no rest for the wary in the Bolts front office. Draft planning and free-agency decisions will be on the forefront for the next few weeks. Steve Yzerman has plenty of work ahead in getting players such as Steven Stamkos and Teddy Purcell under new contracts, while managing the cap so as not to handcuff the team going forward.

Once again, congratulations to the Bruins. For full coverage of the Stanley Cup Finals on SB Nation, I would like to encourage readers to check out both Stanley Cup of Chowder and Nucks Misconduct for coverage of the Bruins and Vancouver Canucks respectively.

Game 1 of the Finals will be Wednesday, June 1st, at Rogers Arena in Vancouver BC.

Tampa Bay Lightning fans, I'd like to take a moment to address you as one of you:

Last night, following the Lightning's come-from-behind 5-4 victory to stave off elimination in the conference final, there was a scrum between players on both teams which may or may not have triggered the response of fans throwing several team giveaway noisemakers on the ice, which may or may not have caused Boston's Nathan Horton to spray a Lightning fan with a water bottle and then throw it into the stands.

Not good, folks. This was sad, stupid and pointless for lots of reasons, but mostly because we are better than that. 

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In a lot of cities, as teams leave or arrive at the airport during the playoffs, fans will often show up at the airport to send them off or welcome them home. As Clark wrote earlier, the Lightning had invited fans to meet up today to form a human lightning bolt at the Tampa International Airport.

So this morning, fans dressed in blue and met up at 10:30am for their sendoff for the team as they departed for Boston and Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Bruins. The fans were assembled in the parking lot and were visible to the players when they took off.

I really love this, because this is what fan passion during the playoffs look like. The photos look really great and the turnout from the fans made this happen. You can see more photos uploaded by people who attended by going to the event Facebook page.

For all those that did attend, there were lots of prizes to be had like game tickets and signed sticks and pucks. If YOU went and would like to share your photos, feel free to post them in the comments.

Looking for a way to show your support and send the Tampa Bay Lightning, fresh from a series tying 5-3 win over the Bruins on Saturday afternoon at the St. Pete Times Forum, off to Boston for game 5 in style? Then be at Tampa International Airport tomorrow (Sunday) morning at 10:30 AM. There, fans will group together to form the shape of a huge lightning bolt that will be visible to the team as their flight takes off.

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"You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain" -- Harvey 'Twoface' Dent

It's entirely possible that we all got so swept up in seeing our beloved Tampa Bay Lightning as David against the NHL's Goliaths that we sort of forgot that we were in the process of running off an eight-game winning streak. If David had put a streak like that together, he'd have stopped being thought of as the prototypical underdog and become a guy who just went around killing big people.

At this point in the playoffs, there are no more lowly underdogs or prohibitive favorites. There are just four teams who have earned the right to be where they are, scrapping it out for the Stanley Cup. So the Bruins broke through and bloodied our noses last night to keep themselves out of a deep hole in the series. If that makes us the villians, so be it. But what's next?

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