How the Tampa Bay Lightning went from embarrassment to the top
The 29th September 2020, a day that will stand out for Tampa Bay Lightning fans. After five long months in the Hockey ‘bubble’, set up by the NHL, they were crowned Stanley Cup champions. An emphatic 4–2 series victory over the Dallas Stars, meant the Bolts had claimed Hockey’s ultimate prize.
‘Chokers’
This seemed a million miles away a year previous, after a dismal end to the 2019 play-offs. The Bolts had looked a sure-fire bet to make it at least to the conference final, after posting the joint highest number of wins ever in a regular season.
The Columbus Blue Jackets, and particularly Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, had other ideas though. They swept Tampa 4–0 in a series in which the Lightning didn’t show anywhere near the talent they had. The Lightning became the first ever team to have the best record in the regular season, to be swept in the first round of the play-offs.
Even franchise player and Captain, Steven Stamkos, had no clue why everything went wrong and seemed despondent.
‘I don’t know what to say. If we had the answers, we would have found a way to win a game.’
Any team that fails to win after being the favourite gets bashed on social media, but the label of ‘chokers’ certainly weighed heavy on the Bolts. The social media team didn’t help with the embarrassment either.
The Apology
In the aftermath of the devastating loss at the hands of the Blue Jackets, the Tampa Bay Lightning social media team took to Twitter to apologise to fans:
‘We don’t have any words and we know you don’t want to hear them.
‘We understand your anger, your frustration, your sadness. Everything you’re feeling — we get it
‘This isn’t the ending we imagined, and certainly not the one we wanted. Thank you for being there the entire way.’
This was met with laughter and mocking from fans across the hockey world, adding to the embarrassment felt by fans and players alike.
The Drive to Improve
Tampa set out on the new season, and despite their record not quite being as good as the previous year, there was a different feeling about the Lightning. During the NHL awards a lot of jokes were made at the expense of the lightning, and every player laughed along with them in the audience, bar one Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Presenter Kenan Thompson said:
‘That’s right, they (Tampa) tied the most wins in the regular season with 62. And then they followed it up by tying with the least wins in the playoffs with ZERO. But hey, hey. That’s what I like about them. Win or lose, they set records.’
This contributed to one of the reasons why the Lightning were in better shape for the 2020 play-offs, with others coming from smart moves from General Manager Julien BriseBois:
· The addition of Bottom six grit and scoring by trading for Barclay Goodrow from San Jose, and Blake Coleman from New Jersey
· Star Players like Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point and Victor Hedman wanting to prove themselves in the play-offs and shake off the ‘chokers’ tag
· Andrei Vasilevskiy was angry after the sweep and the jokes. He was going to do everything he could to prove that he was a goalie that could drag a team to the Stanley Cup
The Play Offs
As if written in a script, the Bolts first opponent in the Covid-19 affected 2020 play-offs were the Columbus Blue Jackets yet again. A victory in the series would help in some way to get the monkey off the team’s back.
A 4–1 series win highlighted the difference between the team of a year before and the current team. The Bolts then steamrolled a lacklustre Boston Bruins 4–1, and then met the New York Islanders in the conference final.
The Islanders are a team that prides themselves on a solid defence, and the Bolts blew them away, winning the series 4–2. The first game of the series ended 8–2 to the Lightning, with Kucherov, Point and Hedman picking up 13 points between them.
This set up a meeting with an unlikely foe in the Stanley Cup final, the Dallas Stars, who had emerged from nowhere to earn an appearance in the final. The Stars played a gritty, attrition-based style, and those players that had been added to the Tampa Bottom Six would have their work cut out.
The Relief
The whole Tampa line-up delivered in a final that looked as if it was going Tampa’s way the whole time. Big performances from the likes of Coleman and Point earned the Bolts victory’s in games two, three and four to give Tampa three shots at Stanley cup glory. At the second attempt, in game six, a stunning shut out by Andrei Vasilevskiy dragged the Lightning to their first Stanley Cup win since 2004.
This came as relief for all involved, they had moved on from the disaster of the previous season to win Hockey’s greatest prize. Defenceman Kevin Shattenkirk said after the win;
‘I think things have changed this year. The perception of our team will be changed after this playoffs is over.’
This highlights how the Lightning adapted after being humiliated. The world of hockey will no longer consider them ‘chokers’, and will give them the respect they deserve.
What do you think was the biggest change in the Tampa Bay Lightning over the past year? Comment down below with your views.
