Before Christmas it was impossible. That it is now merely improbable is something of a minor miracle - and a lot of the credit for turning round the Lightning's season must go to interim head coach, Rick Tocchet.
At the start of December, Lightning has lost three on the bounce and were looking like a team devoid of passion, skill and hope. But since Tocchet has taken his chance after a long wait, things seem to be going right for Tampa Bay. So much so that one or two of us are starting to cast an eye to the, wait for it, play-offs.
Tocchet has asked his players to "empty their tanks" with the all-star break coming up, and after a thrilling 5-3 defeat of Buffalo Sabres earned a fifth win in seven, reiterated his belief the Lightning can make the playoffs.
"I think there's a light at the end of the tunnel," he said. "We've dug ourselves our hole that we're just trying to get out of. But if we start looking at weeks ahead at a time, we'll be in trouble."
It was the first time Tampa Bay had beaten Buffalo at home since March 18, 2004, a span of eight games, and came from a most unlikely source.
On a night when Vince Lecavalier and Marty St. Louis failed to find the net the scoring came from defensemen Steve Eminger, Lukas Krajicek and Cory Murphy, along with center Jeff Halpern and right wing Steve Downie.
But who cares who scores? Now we have a short break to consider the unlikely event of the Lightning making post-season. In December you would have only got odds on one Tampa team doing that - and look what happened to them...
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