The Penguins and Lightning played 3 times this past season......and the Penguins lost all three of them.
Eastern Conference Final Preview
January 15th, 2016
Even Strength Success
In the Penguins first meeting with Tampa Bay, the Penguins were the better team at even strength, and controlled 62% of the shot attempts at 5v5. Tampa Bay scored two power play goals, as well as the game winner during the 3-on-3 OT.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 36 saves on 40 shots on goal.
5v5 Stats: 61.2% Corsi For Percentage
February 5th, 2016
Rough Road Game
The Penguins started this one out well, and then it all fell apart. Nice performances from some of the Lightning's young players, specifically Ondrej Palat, had really good games.
5v5 Stats: 52.3% Corsi For Percentage
February 20th, 2016
Third Loss in a Row to Tampa Bay
Steven Stamkos scored his 300th career goal in this game. That's all I remembered before watching the video.
5v5 Stats: 61.7% Corsi For Percentage
Recap
All of these Penguins/Lightning game fell during that weird period of the season. They were during that stretch where they fall after January 1st, so you know games are getting bigger in the second half, but before the trade deadline and before that final push to the end.
Three losses to the team the Penguins are set to play in the playoffs may be disconcerting, but I don't necessarily agree, as all three of these games came before the Penguins hit their stride.
My prediction: Penguins in six.