Stanley Cup Heroes, Part 10: Revenge Fuels a Dynasty

The Tampa Bay Lightning won back-to-back Cups in 2020 and 2021 before nearly 3-peating in 2022, creating their own mini dynasty. They were a good team for many years before that, but I point to 1 incident that sparked their run. In 2019, the Tampa Bay Lightning were rock stars. They finished with 62 wins. At the time, it was the all-time high-mark for single season wins. Kucherov had set records for most points and assists for a Russian player in a season (records he has since broken). They had 3 40-goal scorers, Vezina-winner Andrei Vasilevskiy, Norris-finalist Victor Hedman and a team dripping in depth. They were destined to win it all. All that greatness was flushed down the toilet when Tampa was shockingly upset in the 1st round of the playoffs by the Columbus Blue Jackets. It was Columbus’s first playoff series win ever and they did it in a sweep. Tampa became the first ever Presidents Trophy winner to not win a playoff game. It was pure humiliation for Tampa, especially when you consider Columbus’s coach was John Tortorella, the man who led Tampa to their only Cup up to that point. The Lightning were left with many questions, with some even calling to blow it up. The questions mounted with the recent departure of architect Steve Yzerman fresh in their minds. Despite all the doubt stirring in the minds of Tampa fans, the team stayed the course and refused to overhaul their team. The 2020 season started off strong. The Lightning were still a great team, but far from the Goliath they had been the previous year. The pandemic arrived and mucked up the playoff structure. Eventually, Tampa got their 1st round opponent, the Columbus Blue Jackets. Although they were missing a few key players of last year’s team, the Jackets were still coached by Torts and had many of the players that broke their hearts the previous year, including Seth Jones and Pierre Luc-Dubois. You can imagine last season was fresh in both teams’ heads going. Game 1 would be historic. After a mostly standard regulation, this game went to overtime. And then another. And another. And another. This became the 4th longest playoff game in NHL history. One of just 5 games ever to go to 5 overtimes. The game went so long that the games that were supposed to happen after it in the bubble were cancelled. Throughout all 5 OTs, Tampa dictated the pace and peppered Columbus’s goaltender, Joonas Korpisalo. Korpisalo stood tall and eventually set an all-time record for most saves in a game with 85. When he was stopping everything Tampa threw at him, a thought entered many people’s minds. What if Tampa finds a way to lose? What if Tampa still can’t beat this team? What if they blow it again? How does this team recover if they lose to Columbus again? Luckily, for Tampa Bay, they never had to answer those questions as Brayden Point ended this marathon with a goal and gave Tampa their first win against Columbus. Despite losing game 2, the Lightning won this series easily in 5 games and went on to win the Cup with Brayden Point leading in goals. If Tampa loses game 1 and 2, maybe they win this series in 6 anyway, but how do they find the resilience that helped them persevere? I don’t know if they do. We’ll never know what would’ve happened. What we do know if Brayden Point became a Stanley Cup Hero and helped the Lightning become champions.