The introduction of a salary cap made it virtually impossible to build a team as formidable as these Tampa Bay Lightning.
And after dispatching the New York Islanders in seven games on Friday night, making it seven straight series wins and counting, the Lightning have a chance to carve out a significant place in NHL history by making another successful trip to the Stanley Cup Final.
“I guess it’s sitting here saying, ‘Are you satisfied? Are you content? Are you full of winning? Is that it? Are you just going to do it once and be one and done like most every team in this league is?”’ Lightning coach Jon Cooper said recently. “Even Chicago in their runs, they won three Cups in six years, but they never did it back to back. L.A. won a couple Cups, didn’t do it back to back.
“Pittsburgh I think is the one team that’s done it in the last 20 or 30 years [in 2016 and 2017]and so it’s not being content.”
His group was anything but satisfied after wrapping up last year’s extended stay in the NHL bubble with a four-hour champagne celebration inside the visitor’s dressing room at Rogers Place.
All that’s standing between them and another championship is the Montreal Canadiens, who have banded together and looked like a team of destiny while going 11-2 since falling into a 1-3 hole against the Toronto Maple Leafs a month ago.
Game 1 of the Cup Final goes Monday night at Amalie Arena.
The Lightning endured a slightly bumpier playoff road that included a hard-hitting, tight-checking series with the Islanders which culminated with Friday’s 1-0 victory in Game 7.
Yanni Gourde’s goal was the difference and it was the only short-handed marker New York allowed the entire season. Gourde came off the bench undetected on a line change and Anthony Cirelli found him open in the slot after drawing three defenders in his direction while ragging the puck in the offensive zone.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made sure that second-period strike held up on a night where Tampa carried the vast majority of play and were repeatedly stymied by Semyon Varlamov. Incredibly, he’s now registered a shutout in the Lightning’s last four series-clinching games.
The semifinal series included five one-goal games and saw New York limited to just 11 goals in the seven games played.
While the Lightning are no strangers to the tense nature of playoff hockey — having reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2015, and lost Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final in 2016 and 2018 — this was further evidence of how they’ve adjusted their approach along the way.
“They can beat you with a grind game and a defensive game,” said Islanders coach Barry Trotz. “I think in the earlier years they weren’t going to beat you with a defensive game. They would get frustrated if they didn’t outscore you and to me they’ve got a really good balance.
“Sometimes the labels aren’t really accurate: Tampa Bay is known for total offence, but they’re very good defensively.”
They haven’t dropped consecutive playoff games since being swept by Columbus in 2019 and they’ve marched through these last two post-seasons while only facing elimination once.
Now they’re four wins away from getting their hands back on the Stanley Cup and grabbing an even bigger piece of history.
“You want to be special. I think if you can go back to back now you’ve got a special [group],” said Cooper. “Like that team is special and so that’s where you dig inside and say, ‘Hey, you don’t get these chances that often.
“Let’s seize it.”’
