@FlameRaptorRaven

2mo

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.

Lightning

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Vegas joins the NHL!

On June 22, 2016, Las Vegas officially became an NHL city when the league awarded Bill Foley’s expansion group the franchise that would become the Vegas Golden Knights. A decade later, that announcement looks like one of the best decisions the NHL has ever made. The Golden Knights became the first major professional sports team in Las Vegas, helping change the city’s reputation as a sports market, and paving the way for the NFL’s Raiders, MLB’s Athletics, and continued NBA expansion talks. Nobody could have known just how quickly the franchise would take off, seeing a trip to the Stanley Cup Final in its debut season, playoff appearances in eight of the first nine years, and a Stanley Cup championship in 2023. Foley ended the announcement with a line that resonates in the heart of all who adore the team and have grown with them, “Las Vegas is hockey-ready. We’re convinced of it. We know it.” Go Vegas, baby!

@Bro

Biggest loser in Hockey?

This has been on my mind a lot lately and yes you can call me salty or whatever. On December 12th 2025 the Vancouver Canucks traded star player Quinn Hughes to the Minnesota Wild for Marco Rossi, Zeev Buimm, Liam Ohgren and a first round pick. Many Canucks like myself were very upset but saw it coming a 100 kilometres away. Buy as soon as Quinn Goes to the Wild he shows his true self. Before his first game against his former team he was asked about his former team and his response “honestly I don’t know any of there guys” Not a good look as*hat He was the Captain of the Canucks for two years and played there for almost 7 seasons. You know at least AT LEAST SIXTEEN OF THEM He also treated his tenure with the Canucks as a prison sentence always with one word answers but as soon as he goes to the Wild he’s all jolly. He never seemed happy even though his best years so far are with Vancouver. He never smiled and never did anything for this community he never cared to help people less fortunate in Vancouver especially going to B.C. Children’s Hospital where Canucks captains always have gone. No he’s done nothing. Sorry this was kinda a rant

@rafiki

"Fresh from the bench it's Crosby"

The Pittsburgh Penguins entered the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs looking to do something that had not been done in nearly two decades: win back-to-back championships. After defeating the San Jose Sharks in the 2016 Final, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, and the Penguins' core returned. The regular season was far from easy. Pittsburgh dealt with injuries throughout the year, including a significant absence from Letang, who missed the entirety of the playoffs with a herniated disc, but still finished with 50 wins and earned the second seed in the Metropolitan Division. Their toughest test up to that point came in the second round against the Washington Capitals. For the second straight postseason, the Penguins faced their longtime rival, who had won the Presidents' Trophy and entered the series as the favorite. Pittsburgh once again ended Washington's season, winning 2-0 in Game 7 on the road to eliminate the Capitals for the second consecutive year. The Eastern Conference Final against the Ottawa Senators was another battle. After the teams split the first six games, the series went to a deciding Game 7 in Pittsburgh. Chris Kunitz became the hero, scoring his second goal of the game in double overtime to send the Penguins back to the Stanley Cup Final for the second straight year. I can still hear Lange's voice: "Fresh from the bench it's Crosby; Crosby onto Kunitz; Kunitz a shot; HE SCOOOOOOORES!!! PENGUINS WIN IT! AND THEY GO TO THE FINAL!" In the Stanley Cup Final, the teams traded home wins through the first four games before Pittsburgh took control with a 6-0 victory in Game 5, setting up a chance to close out the series in Nashville. Game 6 remained scoreless for most of the night until Patric Hornqvist, a former Predator, scored with just 1:35 remaining in the third period. Carl Hagelin added an empty-net goal, giving Pittsburgh a 2-0 victory and its fifth Stanley Cup in franchise history. With the win, the Penguins became the first team in the salary cap era and the first since the 1997-98 Detroit Red Wings to win consecutive Stanley Cups. Sidney Crosby also became just the third player in NHL history to win the Conn Smythe Trophy in back-to-back seasons, leading the Penguins' core of himself, Malkin, and Letang to their 3rd Stanley Cup. Looking back, after Crosby and Letang joined Malkin in the 2005 draft, I don't think anyone could've predicted that they would create one of the most successful and long-lasting cores of the modern NHL. After 20 years, these three managed to accumulate 3 Stanley Cups, 3 Harts, 3 Conn Smythes, 4 Art Rosses, 5 Ted Linsays, and 23 All-Star Selections, proving their greatness. Crosby is still performing at the highest level on his classic $8.7 million contract; Malkin signed a $5.5 million 1-year contract for the 2026-27 season; and Letang is also looking to return. They are not surrounded by the team that won those back-to-back cups, but they are still acting as the glue holding together a young and rising Pens Team.