Tampa ties Stanley Cup Final, Calder Cup Final begins, Mike Reilly, and more…

There were numerous storylines surrounding Game 2, but the one that seemed to receive the most attention was Steven Stamkos' icetime (or lack of icetime) during Game 1 in particular (17:17) and during the playoffs in general (18:01).

Even if John Cooper was frazzled by the question about Stamkos' lack of icetime in Game 1, he took the question into account by issuing Stamkos five more shifts in Game 2 (25) than in Game 1. Stamkos checked in with 18:46 of icetime on Saturday, leading all Bolts' forwards. To compare, Nikita Kucherov logged just 14:23 of icetime in Game 2 – a number that, strangely enough, no reporter will likely inquire about.

This icetime issue reminds me a bit of the Canucks during the first round, when it was suggested that Willie Desjardins wasn't playing Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin enough against Calgary. When the games matter the most, your star players need to be your star players.

But from a hockey standpoint, the Lightning have made it this far by using Stamkos as a de facto second-line center. In this week's Contrarian, Demetri Fragopoulos suggests that the Stamkos icetime issue is really a non-issue. In real-life hockey, I'd agree with the Contrarian. But from a fantasy standpoint, I'm beginning to wonder.

Here's an interesting stat that Elliotte Friedman brought up before the game: Stamkos has been the sixth-most used Tampa forward five times, while he has been the top-used forward only once (twice now if you include Game 2). Stamkos has not reached 20 minutes in a game since the first game of the second round, which was a game that went into double overtime. In Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Final, Stamkos played only 14 minutes and change.

With Stamkos one season away from becoming a UFA, an offseason trade might not be such a crazy possibility. But assuming he stays in Tampa next season, where do you draft him in fantasy leagues if he's no longer guaranteed top-line minutes? He's definitely not a top-5 pick anymore, and he may not even be a top-10 pick any longer. I'm not necessarily concerned about the rumor that he doesn't get along with Cooper, because players have proven they can produce even if they don't see eye-to-eye with the coach.

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Another storyline entering Game 2 was that of Jonathan Drouin finally re-entering the lineup. The fact that Drouin has been a healthy scratch during the playoffs hasn't surprised me, since that was the case a few times during the regular season. But it's a surprise to me that Drouin has not played since the second round. One has to wonder if he'll be back in the lineup for Game 3, as he saw just 7:52 of icetime while going -1. For what it's worth, Cooper said that Drouin "did everything we asked him to do" (Tampa Bay Times).

Unless something significant happens in the Lightning's top 6 (i.e. a Stamkos trade), Drouin may have a difficult time making a splash next season that will get the attention of every fantasy league out there. With only Vladislav Namestnikov and little-used Brenden Morrow unsigned for next season, the Bolts seem to be set at forward for 2015-16. But don't toss Drouin away in a keeper league just yet. Remember that he is still only 20 years old.

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Of course, the big question for the Lightning after this game was the health of Ben Bishop. As has become the norm in the playoffs, the Bolts are keeping mum on the issue. Andrei Vasilevskiy earned the five-save win, which gave me a reason to look up a fantasy postseason team that I haven't checked on in over a week to see if a Vasilevskiy win meant anything to my team (nope, because I didn't make it to championship week, something I knew would happen even before I stopped checking).