It's hard to believe just two years ago the Lightning were coming off a sweep in the first round by the Columbus Blue Jackets that left us shaking our heads and with little faith that they'd ever win the Stanley Cup.
Now...they are back-to-back champions.
Due to a loophole in NHL rules that teams voted not to close, the Lightning were able to keep Kucherov on the injury list during the regular season(he had surgery in December) and he could return for the playoffs without his salary going against the cap. This meant they had a stacked team for the playoffs which earned them a "cheater" tag, but everything they did was well within the rules.
They opened against the Florida Panthers who finished ahead of them in he regular season.
There were several brawls and dirty plays and I think it's safe to say, a rivalry was born.
The Lightning won in 6 picking up the first two wins on the road and then exchanging wins and loses from there. Game 1 5-4 Lightning
Game 2 3-1 Lightning
Game 3 6-5 Panthers (overtime)
Game 4 6-2 Lightning
Game 5 4-1 Panthers
Game 6 4-0 Lightning
Second Round was against the Carolina Hurricanes who also finished ahead of the Lightning in the regular season.
The Lightning won in five games again taking the first two on the road.
Game 1 2-1 Lightning
Game 2 2-1 Lightning
Game 3 3-2 Hurricanes in Overtime
Game 4 6-4 Lightning
Game 5 2-0 Lightning
They once again met the Islanders in the Eastern Conference Final - though they didn't call it that this year. No love lost between these two teams.
This time they needed 7 games to get the job done
Game 1 2-1 Islanders
Game 2 4-2 Lightning
Game 3 2-1 Lightning
Game 4 3-2 Islanders
Game 5 8-0 Lightning
Game 6 3-2 Islanders in overtime
Game 7 1-0 Lightning
Staley Cup Finals was against Montreal. Montreal was not a strong team at all and the Lightning disposed of them in just 5 games. It could have been a sweep, but game 4 went into overtime and the Lightning came out on the wrong side of that one. It turned out to be for the best though as game 5 was in Tampa and they were able to win the cup in front of their fans.
Game 2 3-1 Lightning
Game 3 6-3 Lightning
Game 4 3-2 Montreal in overtime
Game 5 1-0 Lightning
There were a couple things worth noting
- this year, the Lightning did not win any overtime games (unlike last year when they won all but 1)
- Vasilevsky had a shutout in every clinching game this year. And because they won two clinching games by a score of 1-0, he was the MVP. Well deserved.
A lot of hate being showered on the Lightning, but that's okay...
They only hate ya when you're good!
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