W2W4: Tampa Bay Lightning at Pittsburgh Penguins, Game 1

2:22 PM ET

PITTSBURGH, Pa. — The highly anticipated Eastern Conference finals between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Tampa Bay Lightning begins with puck drop Friday night at 8 p.m. ET at Consol Energy Center. While the Penguins are coming off an emotional series win against the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Washington Capitals, which ended Wednesday night in Washington, the Lightning have been waiting since they defeated the New York Islanders in the second round last Sunday Tampa, Fla.

Here’s what to watch for in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals:

I feel the need, the need for speed: Both the Penguins and Lightning use speed to their advantage against opponents. This won’t be a run-and-gun series, but both teams will use speed in all three zones.

“We’re similar in the sense that we want to play a fast-paced game,” said Penguins coach Mike Sullivan. “There’s all different forms of speed, whether it be foot speed, team speed, your ability to change the point of attack, your ability to stretch the ice past the puck. We’re trying to play a similar game, so I’m sure it will be an exciting series. They’re two pretty good teams that have a fair amount of skill on either side. So it will be an exciting series.”

For Pittsburgh, the line of Phil Kessel, Carl Hagelin and Nick Bonino has been solid for the Penguins. For the Lightning, the “Triplets Line” of Ondrej Palat, Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov were reunited during the second-round …

continue reading in source espn.go.com