Lightning have become the team that refuses to yield
Lightning #Lightning
TAMPA — For the moment, forget the scoreboard.
The final result — LIGHTNING 1, ISLANDERS 0 — belongs to history, anyway.
Instead, ponder the journey. That’s the real story. There’s your true joy. For the wonder of this night is the story of a team that constantly catches you by surprise. Every time you think you could not be more impressed by the Lightning’s depth, they dig just a little bit deeper.
Two nights after one-time MVP Nikita Kucherov was feared to have been knocked out of the series, 48 hours after they blew a 2-0 lead and lost in overtime of Game 6, the Lightning came back to win a Game 7 for the first time in six years.
Just as impressively, the team that suffered the most humiliating first-round loss in NHL history in 2019 has now won seven consecutive postseason series’ and has yet to lose back-to-back games during that entire 40-game stretch.
How do you like us now, America?
Because, if you’re counting, a sports market that is routinely ridiculed nationally has now participated in two Stanley Cup finals, a Super Bowl and a World Series in the past 10 months. To put that in perspective, Lightning, Bucs and Rays fans had seen that exact same number of Stanley Cup finals, Super Bowls and World Series’ in the previous 10 decades.
Tampa Bay’s return to the Stanley Cup Final — which begins at home against Montreal on Monday night — should not be taken lightly. In recent years, no other sport has been as hard on its champions as the NHL.
Since 2001, only two teams have managed to win a Stanley Cup, then get back to the finals the following season. That’s two out of the last 17. And the now the Lightning are the third, with a chance to join the 2016-17 Pittsburgh Penguins as the only one to repeat as champs.
What’s so amazing is that the Lightning have rewritten their history. Once upon a time, this was a team that could be rattled. A team that was best known for how quickly it could be toppled from its high horse.
For five seasons, from 2015-19, no team in the NHL won more regular season games than the Lightning. And yet they had little to show for it. You could excuse them blowing a 2-1 series lead against Chicago in the Stanley Cup final in 2015 because they were still a young team on the rise. But then they blew a 3-2 series lead against Pittsburgh in the Eastern Conference final. And then they did it again against Washington.
Finally, there was the first-round sweep by Columbus after one of the greatest regular seasons in NHL history in 2019.
Yet something remarkable emerged from all of that heartache. An imperfect team with a perfect sense of timing. For the past two seasons, every stumble has been answered by a team that has stood tall.
Since their Game 2 loss to the Blue Jackets in the first round of 2020, the Lightning have gone 12-0 following a defeat. The team that once defined collapses has become the team that refuses to yield.
It would be easy to dismiss the Lightning as a team of stars. The dominant team of its era. But that characterization misses the very ingredient that turned the tide. The addition of a series of blue collar players has changed the personality of a team that used to rely on skating and scoring.
This team belongs to Yanni Gourde as much as Brayden Point. It is led by Ryan McDonagh as much as Victor Hedman. It is a team of Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow and Pat Maroon and Anthony Cirelli as much as anyone else.
Who else would expected those high-flying Lightning could reach the Stanley Cup with a 1-0 victory, and Andrei Vasilevskiy would post his third series-clinching shutout?
The first penalty of the game did not arrive until two minutes into the second period when Barclay Goodrow cross-checked Adam Pelech on a play that was reminiscent of Scott Mayfield’s hit on Kucherov that went uncalled in Game 6.
For a moment, it felt like the hockey gods were mocking the Lightning.
And then karma stepped in.
New York’s power play led to Tampa Bay’s shorthanded goal with McDonagh intercepting a pass deep in the Lightning zone before hitting Alex Killorn at mid-ice. Killorn sent the puck to Cirelli, who drew two New York defenders as he skated to the corner. With the middle of the ice virtually open, Cirelli passed it between Josh Bailey’s legs to Gourde who drilled the back of the net.
And so the Lightning move on. Again.
And Tampa Bay celebrates. Again.
John Romano can be reached at jromano@tampabay.com. Follow @romano_tbtimes.
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New York Islanders defenseman Scott Mayfield (24) collides with Tampa Bay Lightning center Steven Stamkos (91) during first period action in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup semifinals at Amalie Arena on Friday, June 25, 2021 in Tampa.
© Dirk Shadd/Times