The Tampa Bay Lightning are as good as any other team this year. Despite winning and needing to move on from some players as the price to the success they still are at the top of their game and boast a rather good team.
They are the front runners once again to win the Stanley Cup, and that is without a single postseason game this year. In the history of the NHL, not many teams have won three Stanley Cups in a row.
Only five teams have won at least three Stanley Cups in a row, and three of those teams would go on to win a few more in a row. The Lightning’s back-to-back cups is already impressive, but the way they are playing this year makes it seem like they are not resting on that success – they want more.
The Lightning remain as one of the top teams in the league tied for first in the Atlantic Division alongside the Florida Panthers, there isn’t a potential first-round matchup that they wouldn’t be the favorite in, and their captain Steven Stamkos is having a bounce-back season after many assumed he would be a supporting member on the team not the main leader of the franchise with names like Brayden Point, and Nikita Kucherov ready to take over.
The Tampa Bay Lightning have a great group despite losing some faces this offseason.
The Lightning lost some key players this offseason like Tyler Johnson who was traded to Chicago and Yanni Gourde who was taken by Seattle in the expansion draft. Despite these losses, the team continues to win.
Even the team’s offseason acquisitions like adding Corey Perry are paying off. Perry has 20 points in 40 games this year, pretty much all you can ask for from a third or fourth-line guy. The amount of talent, leadership, and grit on this team is built for the playoffs and it is hard to imagine a scenario where they do not find a way to win.
The Lightning have won eight straight playoff series in a row, and it is hard to imagine a world where they do not win another few series this year on the way to a third Stanley Cup. The last team to do so was the New York Islanders who won four in a row in 1980-1983, maybe the Lightning can be the first team since then to win three in a row.