Tampa Bay Lightning

After that series, Lightning coach Jon Cooper took stock of the situation. He reportedly gathered team leaders who had advocated for the wide-open style and ...

“They play their way, we play our way, but I think what we’re learning is all of the little things they do to win hockey games,” Brunette said. Brunette mentioned time after time that the team was “getting too cute” in the offensive zone with the number of extra passes they made, but it was to no avail. “They’re Stanley Cup Champions for a reason,” Panthers coach Andrew Brunette said. “Nervousness” was a term that was thrown around a lot at the beginning of their first-round series with the Capitals when they found themselves down 2-1. The Lightning has a group that is seasoned for playoff hockey and know what it takes and the Panthers rode fast-paced regular season hockey to the top of the standings, just as the Lightning did in 2019. “The evolution of how they were a high-flying kind of offensive team and they found a recipe of how to win and they stuck with it.

TAMPA — All these years later, how do they do it? Not just the winning. That's explained easily enough with a stat here and an Andrei Vasilevskiy there.

And, in a way, that make the Lightning more endearing than ever. And so now, the Lightning have won a 10th consecutive postseason series. And then they took on the Presidents’ Trophy winning Panthers and swept them. There was a time when the Lightning, win or lose, were always the most talented team on the ice. “When you take a step back and put things in perspective, especially in the salary cap world we’re in and the parity in our league, it’s a very, very special group.” And the victories have seemed harder to come by. Eleven games into the postseason, Ross Colton and Corey Perry lead the team in goals. And the Rays have the benefit of playing America’s Pastime. And when the third period rolled around, Pat Maroon swiped at a puck in mid-air and put Tampa Bay up for good. They have won the next five games while giving up a total of four goals. “You’ve got to sacrifice so much (of your) body and that’s part of the plan. They went from a team that dazzled you with skill to a group that impressed you with heart.

With a 2-0 win over the Florida Panthers on Monday night, the Bolts completed a postseason sweep for the third time in franchise history and the first time ...

It all started with a four-game series sweep to the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2019. "The guys, to their credit, you've got to sacrifice so much and the bodies, that's part of the plan. "What are you doing in the playoffs? All that experience has created a team that simply knows how to win games in the postseason. "The big thing for us though, we came into this series with a plan. The Lightning didn't want to lose tonight's game and have to go back to Sunrise for Game 5. With great goaltending and endless sacrifice, Tampa Bay held Florida to three goals in the entire series. We lost in Game 7 in 2016 in the Conference Finals, Game 7 in 2018 in the Conference Finals, got swept in 2019…but who's counting? You almost just know that when you enter a game where the stakes are the highest, Vasilevskiy is going to show up in a big way. "I think it's just the way the whole team is playing in those games." Last year's Conn Smythe Trophy winner and the Vezina Trophy winner in 2018-19, Vasilevskiy has never finished an NHL season with a save percentage lower than .910. He gives the Lightning a chance to win every single time he stands between the pipes. Palat had just exited the box and after Cirelli's attempt went wide, the puck came right into the slot for an easy tap-in to make it a 2-0 game with 23 seconds remaining.

The relentlessly fun hockey site, hopelessly devoted to the Washington Capitals and Alex Ovechkin. Our goal is to make hockey as fun about as it is to ...

Made the Eastern Conference Final in six out of the last eight seasons. Credit to the hockey subreddit for coming up with most of these: Andrei Vasilevskiy made 49 stops in the clincher.

The Tampa Bay Lightning swept the Florida Panthers to advance to the third round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Tampa Bay defeated Florida with a score of 2-0 ...

Tampa Bay defeated Florida with a score of 2-0 in Game 4 on Monday night at Amalie Arena. The Lightning are seeking a historic three-peat, after winning back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2020 and 2021. Next up, Tampa Bay will face the winner of the Carolina Hurricanes-New York Rangers series in the Eastern Conference final. The Tampa Bay Lightning swept the Florida Panthers to advance to the third round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Jon Cooper had every reason to be confident the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning could keep their bid for a three-peat alive.

The Lightning swept the Panthers in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals last night. “They're Stanley Cup champions for a reason,” Panthers interim coach ...

The Panthers averaged 4.1 goals per game this season, the league-best. And this was another learning experience for us.” The Lightning swept the Panthers in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals last night.

This system was made so teams like the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Los Angeles Kings, and the Anaheim Ducks (to a lesser extent, the decade-plus run of the San ...

They already have a legacy in the NHL, they are already one of the three most incredible teams of the salary cap era, and they will be remembered as such. This Lightning franchise was already a proven playoff team before that series (three conference finals in the past five years at that juncture—with a Stanley Cup Final appearance), and while it's easy to place a narrative on the team given their performance after the sweep it misses the overarching story of this franchise—they've been a top contending team well before that series, and have only elevated themselves since. If the Lightning pull off the improbable and win a third consecutive championship, there won't be a debate on who the dynastic team is—it'll undoubtedly be the Lightning. This continued stretch of deep playoff runs and championships feels unprecedented in the salary cap era. Six Eastern Conference Final appearances in eight years, more than any other team has in the entire Salary Cap Era. Three Conference Final appearances in a row, a feat only matched by the Chicago Blackhawks (2013-15), Detroit Red Wings (2007-09), and Los Angeles Kings (2012-14) in the Salary Cap Era. Three trips to the Stanley Cup Final. Back-to-back championships. This system was made so teams like the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Los Angeles Kings, and the Anaheim Ducks (to a lesser extent, the decade-plus run of the San Jose Sharks, who were dominant but could never win it all) could find success once in a while. The implementation of the salary cap after the 2003-2004 season was meant to increase parity, give more teams a chance to win the Stanley Cup, and even the playing field for teams that aren't money printing machines regardless of the on-ice product.