The Tampa Bay Lightning will not be getting their team captain Steven Stamkos back for the rest of the Stanley Cup Final.
Up 3-2 in the Stanley Cup Final, the Tampa Bay Lightning need just one more win to bring home the Stanley Cup for the first time since the 2003-04 season. However, they’ll have to get their last win without team captain Steven Stamkos.
Stamkos has been out for almost the entire postseason. He made a brief appearance in Game 3, during which he only played for 2:47. But in those 167 seconds, Stamkos made a huge impact, scoring a huge goal that put the Lightning up 2-0 in the first period.
On Sunday, after Stamkos missed both Games 4 and 5, Lightning head coach Jon Cooper announced what everyone was thinking – Stamkos is done for the rest of the Stanley Cup Final.
Coop says that Steven Stamkos is done for the series. #TBLvsDAL
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) September 27, 2020
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Should Tampa win in either Game 6 or Game 7, they’ll be the first team to win the Stanley Cup without their captain in the lineup since the 1972 Boston Bruins.
Among the other teams to win without a captain include the 1970 Bruins and the 1936-37 Detroit Red Wings, who won the Stanley Cup while captain Doug Young was injured.
For the Lightning, this is nothing new. Not having Stamkos around is painful, but they’ve got to win without him. They’ve been winning without him. The Lightning have overcome quite a bit of adversity to get back to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since the 2014-15 season. Tampa’s hoping they can get their captain back on the ice on Monday so he can lift the Stanley Cup.
Brayden Point has done a marvelous job picking up a lot of the slack left by Stamkos. He’s likely going to win the Conn Smythe. If he doesn’t, it’ll likely be Nikita Kucherov or Victor Hedman. Anthony Cirelli has stepped up huge as well, even if his production doesn’t show it.
Game 6 will be held on Monday. Tampa is 6-0 this postseason after a loss, so the Dallas Stars better be ready for them if they hope to keep their Stanley Cup dreams alive for this season.