The run the Tampa Bay Lightning have been on, playing in three consecutive Stanley Cup Finals, has been one of the greatest achievements in NHL history. Only a few teams in the modern era of the NHL can boast of such dominance over the league. However, with their 3-2 OT loss to Colorado in Game 4, their unbeaten run looks to be all but over.
The Lightning knew that they had to win Game 4 to have any chance of realistically coming back against the Avalanche, and they played like it. They were relentless in the 1st Period, scoring a goal only 36 seconds into the game to get the lead. And they were pressing for more throughout the rest of that period.
Yet, they just couldn’t seem to score when it mattered. Darcey Kuemper, who has been shaky all playoffs long, had his best game of the round and stopped 37 Tampa shots as he mimicked the heroics of his counterpart Andrei Vasilevskiy in previous finals.
With the 1st Period going all their way, the 2nd couldn’t have been any more different. They were outplayed badly in the 2nd, getting outshot 17-6 by the Avs and giving up yet another powerplay goal. If the Lightning lose this series (which seems very likely), they will rue all of the silly penalties they gave away.
As I noted before the series began, the Lightning were not facing off against underdogs, like they did the past two years (2019/20 Dallas Stars, 2020/21 Montreal Canadiens). They were coming up against the best team in the Western Conference all season long, and a team that is only a year removed from being President Trophy winners.
Also, this teams boasts of Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog, Mikko Rantanen, Nazem Kadri, Valeri Nichushkin, and Cale Makar for offensive fire power. Giving them chance after chance to score on the powerplay was only ever going to doom the Lightning.
Nevertheless, a beautiful, silky smooth Victor Hedman backhand goal gave the Lightning the lead again and the hope they could hold on to beat the Avalanche. But, as we all know, the gave up an early goal in the 3rd, then were outplayed in the 3rd and OT Periods and lost to a Nazem Kadri OT snip.
The Lightning’s time as champions has been fantastic to watch, giving all NHL fans the chance to see what a real fantastic team plays like. No longer do fans have to look back to the 1976-79 Montreal Canadiens, 1979-83 New York Islanders, or the 1984-88 (1986 not included for SC win) Edmonton Oilers to watch a truly all-time great team.
Players like Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, Victor Hedman, Andrei Vasilevskiy are future Hall of Famers, while Brayden Point may also end up joining them one day. Nonetheless, with being only a single game away from elimination, it really does seem that the third Stanley Cup win is a bridge too far this year for Tampa Bay.
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