The Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning nowadays seem to enter each NHL season on a collision course.
Not only have they both been among the league's best teams in recent years. They've also shared the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference since the NHL's realignment prior to the 2013-14 campaign.
This, coupled with the overall impressive collection of talent assembled on each side, has led to several hard-fought battles, both in the regular season and the postseason.
So, has Bruins vs. Lightning officially crossed into "rivalry" territory?
Boston head coach Bruce Cassidy shared his definitive answer Tuesday before Game 2 of the teams' second-round Stanley Cup Playoffs series.
"I do (consider it a rivalry), because to me, it's the cream of the crop going at each other. I do consider it a rivalry," Cassidy told reporters during a video conference. "You're always going to have the Original Six, that's not going away anytime soon. But the modern day -- I looked at like with Boston and Pittsburgh earlier in the decade. They had some good matchups, good playoff matchups. Two good teams that were winning, top-end players. Now, we’ve kind of evolved over against Tampa Bay simply because they're in our division and now we're getting them in the playoffs a little more and both teams have had a certain level of success.
"I like the rivalry simply because it brings out the best in everybody. I have respect for their organization. I think both teams play hard and try to do it the right way. Yes, to answer your question, and I think it can only grow from here, as well."
One could argue the rivalry started to take shape even before the NHL's realignment, as the Bruins knocked off the Lightning in seven games in the Eastern Conference finals en route to winning the Stanley Cup in 2011. It sure has intensified a notch recently, though, to the point where the physicality seems to ramp up whenever Boston and Tampa Bay collide.
The Bruins and Lightning finished the shortened 2019-20 regular season as the top two teams in the Eastern Conference standings. Now, they're battling in the Toronto bubble for the chance to meet either the Philadelphia Flyers or New York Islanders in the next round.
Some rivalries last forever, by extension of tradition. Such is the case with the Bruins and Montreal Canadiens, for instance.
But other rivalries develop based on circumstance, often with shared success over a certain time period being the driving force. And Boston vs. Tampa Bay definitely has become one of the NHL's most fascinating head-to-head matchups, if nothing else.
