In one of hockey’s most cherished rites, the Stanley Cup usually spends the off-season gallivanting with players around villages in Canada and hamlets throughout Scandinavia and burgs across the United States. But with the coronavirus pandemic raging last autumn, the silver chalice lingered for a good, long while near Tampa, Fla., where the Lightning relished their time with it so much that they went ahead and won it once more.
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Tampa Bay closed a chaotic N.H.L. season dominated by a viral scourge, with truncated schedules and reconfigured divisions and traveling practice squads, by defeating the Montreal Canadiens four games to one in the best-of-seven Stanley Cup finals to win its third title.
Nine-and-a-half months after enduring a 65-day stay in Canadian playoff bubbles to hoist the Cup, the Lightning edged Montreal, 1-0, in front of a capacity home crowd at Amalie Arena on Wednesday to complete their second consecutive romp through an N.H.L. postseason. In doing so, they followed up the N.F.L.’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers by adding yet another title to a region suddenly spoiled by championships, and also joined the Pittsburgh Penguins, in 2016-17, as the only teams since the dawn of the salary cap era in the 2005-6 season to repeat as champions.
“It was just like we were doing it for the first time again,” Lightning Coach Jon Cooper said. “It was amazing to have fans in the building. And so it’s like we’ve won two completely different Stanley Cups. That’s what makes it extremely special for us.”
In winning their last eight playoff series, the Lightning have never lost consecutive games. In this series, they did not trail until late in the first period of Game 4 against the upstart Canadiens, who finished 18th among 31 teams during the regular season — and with a negative goal differential — but energized Montreal with a glorious charge to their first finals appearance in nearly three decades.
Bidding to become Canada’s first champion since 1993, the Canadiens outlasted Toronto, Winnipeg and Vegas. But they could not counter the comprehensive excellence of the Lightning, who outclassed Montreal at every position, especially goalie.
Even as Carey Price rescued the Canadiens in Game 4 on Monday and stopped 29 of 30 shots Wednesday, he could not match Andrei Vasilevskiy, who reinforced his standing as the league’s best goalie. He had a .943 save percentage against Montreal, allowing eight goals on 140 shots, and ended this series with a shutout — as he did last round against the Islanders, and in the second round against the Carolina Hurricanes, and in the first round against the Florida Panthers.
“I still can’t believe it,” said Vasilevskiy, who was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy, given to the most valuable player of the playoffs. “The whole team deserves it, for sure. To have five shutouts in one playoffs, it’s all about the team.”
The Lightning represent the modern ideal of an N.H.L. team, loaded with scorers, elite defensemen and a brilliant goalie, and they rampaged through the playoffs after regaining the star winger Nikita Kucherov, who missed the 56-game season while recovering from hip surgery. All he did was amass 32 points in 23 games to join Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux as the only players to amass at least 30 points in consecutive postseasons.
“I don’t know anybody else that could miss the entire regular season, come back and do what he did,” Lightning forward Blake Coleman said.
Still, Tampa Bay’s most imposing asset might be its depth. Anthony Cirelli and Barclay Goodrow blocked shot after shot, Erik Cernak and Jan Rutta backchecked with vigor, and David Savard and the rookie Ross Colton — the only two players in the lineup who hadn’t won a Cup — combined for Wednesday’s lone goal: Savard, a late-season acquisition, received the puck from Ryan McDonagh and beamed a nifty pass into the crease toward Colton, who outmuscled Montreal defenseman Joel Edmundson for position and redirected the puck past Price with 6 minutes 33 seconds remaining in the second period. The Lightning’s defensive commitment — epitomized by Goodrow’s block of Shea Weber’s slap shot — made certain they didn’t need to score again.
SOURCE : nytimes
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