With their victory over the Nashville Predators, and the Carolina Hurricanes' loss to the Montreal Canadiens, the Tampa Bay Lightning have moved to first place in the Eastern Conference. Despite a major skid in late February and early March, the Lightning have been able to find their game in recent weeks and have strung some results together. They've been able to win six of their last eight games, with both losses coming in overtime. As a result, they've picked up 14 of 16 total points since March 17. Making things more impressive, the Lightning swept a weekend back-to-back against the Ottawa Senators and the Predators without their top offensive player, Nikita Kucherov. Despite only having nine games remaining in the regular season, the Lightning still haven't mathematically clinched a playoff spot just yet though. The Columbus Blue Jackets currently sit in the second wild card spot and are just 10 points behind the Lightning. The Eastern Conference has been highly competitive this season, and as a result, nothing is guaranteed for the Lightning at this stage but things seem to be heading in a good direction for the postseason if they can maintain their momentum.
