Breaking Down the Battle for the Eastern Conference's Final Playoff Spot

Tampa Bay Lightning

The Lightning are on the rise, and with their overtime win yesterday against the Chicago Blackhawks, their probability to make the playoffs is only increasing.

In their final seven games this season, Tampa will have plenty of chances to gain points over teams also in the hunt. Of all teams remaining, we can assume that the Bolts control their own destiny, because they have two games with Boston and a game against Toronto left on the docket.

Tampa has one of the lower success rates against the teams that they'll play moving into the end of the season, with a success rate of approximately 48%, per the metrics at PlayoffStatus, good for fourth-worst in the Eastern Conference.

Like Toronto, the Bolts are red-hot over their last 10, going 7-3-0 in that span.

Jonathan Drouin is spearheading the charge. He scored his 19th and 20th goals of the season in the Lightning's 5-4 comeback overtime win against the Blackhawks' on the 27th. He now has 50 points in his sophomore season.

According to our numbers, Tampa Bay has a 34.24% chance to make the playoffs, and we project them to end the year with a 41-32-9 record, good for 91 points.