3 reasons the Tampa Bay Lightning didn't win the Stanley Cup
The Tampa Bay Lightning will not be winning the Stanley Cup this season.
A lot of people expected the Battle of Florida to be a six or seven game seres between the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning.
In the past four seasons, one of the two Florida teams has represented the Eastern Conference in the Stanley Cup Final.
The Lightning won in 2020 and 2021 before losing to the Colorado Avalanche in 2022. In 2023, the Panthers made it to the Final but were defeated by the Vegas Golden Knights.
It is clear now that the Panthers have a significant edge over the Lightning as they won the series in five games. So, the Lightning won't be winning the Stanley Cup later in June.
These are the three biggest reasons why that won't be happening:
Nikita Kucherov, Braden Point, and Steven Stamkos can't do it all
When it comes to offense, the Lightning rely a lot on Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos, and Braden Point. They are three of the most productive players the franchise has ever had.
Kucherov and Stamkos will go to the Hall of Fame and Point still has a long way to go before we could be debating his status (it is unlikely despite how good he's been).
There is no more Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat, Yanni Gourde, Alex Killorn, or Blake Coleman anymore. They hit a home run with the Brandon Hagel trade but it still isn't enough.
When you put Tampa's scoring depth against Florida's, it just doesn't compete. When you have to get through them to win the Stanley Cup, it just isn't possible for a roster like that.
Tampa Bay had no answer for Aleksander Barkov in the final game
The Tampa Bay Lightning went down 3-0 to the Panthers but they found a way to win game four. A team with championship pedigree like that usually can plant a seed of doubt by winning the fourth game like that.
However, they had no answer for Aleksander Barkov in game number five. He hasn't been the best playoff performer despite being a Hall of Fame caliber player in the regular season up to this point.
In this final game of the series, Barkov went off. He scored twice and had an assist for three total points. It was his first three-point game in the playoffs and his first multi-goal game in the playoffs. For a guy that has played in so many of them now, it is a bit surprising.
If Tampa Bay had an answer for him in game five, we might be talking about them potentially tying the series in game six. It just wasn't in the cards for them.
The Tampa Bay Lightning dynasty is running out of gas in the year 2024
The Tampa Bay Lightning had a phenomenal run. In the Stamkos/Kucherov/Hedman/Vasilevskiy era, they reached the Final four times.
They lost in 2015 and 2022 but they won back to back Cups in 2020 and 2021. It was an incredible run for this franchise as one of the best.
Now, the dynasty is starting to run out of gas a little bit. We've seen the depth on the team take a major hit year over year and now they are out in the first round in back to back years.
They could make a few smart moves to get back as a lot of their stars are still in their prime but they must use their heads. It is a difficult road ahead for Tampa if they want to avoid being a one-and-done for the rest of Kucherov's career.
Despite all of this, the Lightning deserve respect. They have incredible players, a great coach, and a front office committed to winning. Although their biggest rivals took them out this year, they should be proud of yet another dominant regular season. We'll see what happens next.
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