The Lightning’s 128 points in the regular season was 21 better than the next closest team in the league, who happened to be their Atlantic Division rivals, the Boston Bruins. To put that into perspective, all six automatic qualifiers in the Eastern Conference finished with more than 100 points. In the West, there were only three. Tampa went into the playoffs having won seven of their last 10 games.
It’s just a shame there are no shootouts in the playoffs, because the Lightning were an NHL-best 6-1 in those games. There were two other teams who had six shootout wins, but the New York Rangers (6-5) and Vancouver Canucks (6-6) were basically out of the playoff hunt with more than a month left in the season.
Now the Lightning’s 62-16-4 record tied Detroit’s 1995-96 squad for wins, but the Red Wings went 62-13-7, back when there were ties in the league.
The Columbus Blue Jackets have outscored the Lightning 12-5 in leading the series three games to none. Tampa blew a three goal lead in Game One, and the Blue Jackets not only “Captured the Flag,” but planted it into the heart of the Lightning, much like Baker Mayfield did at Ohio Stadium just two years ago.
Andrei Vasilevski finished in the top in on goals allowed (2.40 per game), save percentage (.925), and shutouts (6), and led the league in wins (39). The past seven periods he’s been more of a flood gate than a dam.
Nikita Kucherov should win the Hart Trophy as league MVP, after leading the NHL with 128 points (41 goals, 87 assists). The assists also led the league, and the 41 tallies was enough to put him into a log-jam for sixth-best. Kucherov was held off the score sheet in the first two games, and was suspended for Game Three after boarding Columbus defenseman Markus Nutivaara early in the third period of Game Two. He received a match penalty, but luckily did not have to stay around for the rest of the 5-1 drubbing.
Since taking over behind the bench midway through the 2012-13 season, John Cooper led the Bolts to the playoffs five times. The only other time the Lightning lost in the first round was 2014, when they were swept by the Montreal Canadiens. Cooper got Tampa to the Stanley Cup Final in 2015, and back-to-back division titles the last two years.
This was not supposed to happen, even among the most clickbait of articles or podcasts. The Lightning were not challenged in the standings at any point this season. If you look at the Metropolitan Division all season, it was the Blue Jackets, the defending-champion Washington Capitals, and upstart New York Islanders all season long fighting for the top spot in the division. Pittsburgh was never really a threat to crash the top three until late in the year, when Columbus was on the verge of missing the playoffs completely.
It is going to take a lot more than the Speed Force (based on that still-ridiculous Flash-esque logo on their jersey) to get back into this series. If Columbus finishes the job tomorrow night, this will go down as the biggest choke in the history of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Golden State Warriors lost in the seventh game of the finals the year they went 73-9. The New England Patriots lost with under four minutes left in regulation on the verge of a perfect season.
I will not even acknowledge records in the MLB, as you cannot really take team records seriously in a league that does not have a salary cap.
-JC24