When the final horn sounded on Monday night, it signaled the end of a dynasty for the Tampa Lightning. It was a dynasty that saw this team play in four Stanley Cup finals over eight years, winning two championships.
They will no longer be talked about as Stanley Cup contenders, as the Florida Panthers are now the best team in hockey in the state of Florida.
The season is over for the Tampa Bay Lightning. It always stings when the realization sets in that your team will not play a meaningful hockey game until October.
The Panthers beat the Lightning 6-1 on Monday Night to win their first-round playoff series four games to one.
The Lightning were never able to match the play and intensity of the Panthers, except for game four. Steven Stamkos tipped his cap to the Panthers after the Lightning loss on Monday Night. “Good teams find a way and we’ve certainly done that in the past and they did that. You have to give the other team credit. That’s a really good, deep hockey team.”
Oh sure, some of us thought the Lightning would beat the Panthers in this series. But if we are honest with ourselves, most of us made that pick with our hearts, not our heads.
The series was a bit more competitive than the 4-1 win by the Panthers would indicate.
With a bounce of the puck here, a goal not overturned in game two, and Bobrovsky not making that huge save in game two, this series could have ended differently.
Clearly, the Panthers were the better team on paper and played much more consistent hockey than the Lightning to win the series in five games.
Lightning Played Hard But Lost To A Better Team
Stamkos talked about that in his post-game comments. “Maybe this wasn’t the team we’ve had in the past, but that didn’t creep into this room. We played hard, we showed it was a tight series but, you know, we just didn’t have that extra,whatever you want to call it, come playoff time to get some of those wins in close games.”
Steven Stamkos was the best player in the series for the Lightning and led the team in scoring with five goals.
For most of the series, the number one power play during the regular season was nowhere to be found as the Bolts went 2/12 in the first three games of the series before getting two power-play goals in game four, their only win in the series, 5-3.
The Lightning would end the series 4/19 on the power play. Give the Panthers credit for throttling the league’s number-one power play.
Slow starts plagued the Lightning in the first two games of the series.
Nikita Kucherov was nowhere near the MVP-caliber player we saw during the regular season. Although he led the Lightning in scoring with seven points on seven assists, his skating and passing ability seemed to drop off from the regular season.
The Panthers seemed to raise the level of their play from the regular season, while the Bolts stayed in regular season mode.
Jon Cooper recapped the series after the game five loss.“I know how fortunate our teams have been when we did win. But you do make your own breaks. And we, in this series, had our opportunities. History is going to say this series was 4-1 but you know in some big moments where we could have capitalized in some situations, we didn’t and they did. And that was the difference in the series.”
The Lightning Are No Longer Stanley Cup Contenders
No more talk about this lightning club being a Stanley Cup contender should be forthcoming. That ship has sailed based on what we saw on the ice in this series.
This team is still good enough to be competitive and make the playoffs, but winning a Stanley Cup with this roster is out of the question.
Many hard decisions will be made this off-season. The most significant decision will be the one involving Steven Stamkos. Stamkos can be a free agent this summer, and deciding whether to bring him back or let him walk will be huge for the Lightning.
The Bolts also need to address the blueline. Who stays, and who goes? These decisions this off-season will tell us whether the Lightning are just going to retool or are they going to rebuild the bottom half of the roster.
Stay tuned.
It will be an interesting and exciting summer in Tampa Bay.