Why are the Tampa Bay Lightning so Good? Part 3

Like I promised, here is part 3 of the Tampa Bay Lightning series. We will be going over the 2020 NHL playoffs and see what the Lightning did to make them so good.

Lightning celebrating with the Stanley Cup. Source: news.yahoo.com (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP)

As we all know, the 2019-20 NHL season did not end how we expected. The NHL suspended its season on March 12, 2020, because of COVID. When that happened, we weren’t really sure if the season would continue. But, eventually, the NHL got 2 host cities, Toronto and Edmonton, to host the 2020 NHL Playoffs. But because different teams played a different number of games, they went off of point percentage and allowed 24 teams into the playoffs, instead of 16. So for this, they allowed the top 4 teams in each conference to be automatically into the playoffs; they would just have to have a round-robin to see what seed they get. The seeds 5-12 would have to have a best of 5 series to see what makes the playoffs. And since Tampa was the number 2 seed, they would be in the round-robin and would play the Bruins, Flyers, and Capitals.

Tampa would start off well with a 3-2 shootout win over the Washington Capitals. However, Tampa would allow more than the average shots by their opponents while allowing 33 shots. Tampa would also have fewer shots than their average with 28 shots. Luckily with shootout goals by Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov, the Bolts secured the win. Tampa would play 2 days later against the top-seeded Boston Bruins. They would, again, get a 3-2 win, but this time in regulation. They would get more shots than usual, with 35, and they allowed fewer than last game with 27. A late goal in the third period by defenseman Tyler Johnson would put the Lightning up top. With only one game to go, the Lightning would have to face the 2-0 Philadelphia Flyers. Whoever won this game, whether it’s in regulation or not, would be the first seed in the Eastern Conference. Tampa would fall to the Flyers 1-4 with their only goal being by Tyler Johnson. Besides only losing one game, Tampa would still have a -1 goal differential.

Having been the 2 seed, Tampa would have to play the 7th seeded Columbus Blue Jackets, a rematch of last year’s first round. Tampa was out for revenge from the embarrassment the Jackets caused them one season prior that caused them to write many Twitter apology letters. The first game of the round would become one of the craziest statistical games in the history of the NHL. I will make sure to write an article on that game. Anyways, Tampa beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-2 in 5 overtimes. Brayden Point would score 2 goals that game, including the game-winner. The 2 goals would only be a few in the many he would score in these playoffs. Tampa would lose the next game 1-3 but would never look back after that. Tampa would win the next 3 games by 1 goal and even won game 5 in overtime. Point would score a total of 4 goals in that series, including 2 game-winners in overtime. Andrei Vasilevskiy would have a total of 172 shots on him, and he would save 160 of those. He would have a 2.40 GAA and a .930 Save percentage.

¾ of the top 4 seeds would make it into the second round in the Eastern Conference. Causing Tampa to play one of them. Tampa would play the Boston Bruins in the second round. Boston would win Game one 2-3. Defenseman Victor Hedman would score the only 2 goals of the game, it would be the first of many in this series. Tampa would then win the next game 4-3 in overtime, Blake Coleman would score 2 of the 4 Lightning goals. 4 minutes and 40 seconds into overtime, Ondrej Palat would score the game-winner. The next game would be a beatdown by Tampa. Tampa would score 7 goals in the 7-1 win. 3 of their goals would be on the power-play and Alex Killorn would score 2 goals as well. Bruins goalie, Jaroslav Halak would be pulled after only 4 goals, only for the Lightning to put up 3 goals on the backup, Dan Vladar. The Lightning would then win the next game 3-1 with Palat scoring another 2 goals. Then, in Game 5, Tampa would win 3-2 in double overtime. Victor Hedman would score the series winner 14 minutes and 10 seconds into the second overtime. Vasilevskiy would save 147 of the 157 shots that were put on him. Causing him to have a GAA of 2.00 and a Save percentage of .936.

The Eastern Conference Finals would see the Lightning facing off against the only non-top 4 seed in the final four, the New York Islanders. Tampa would start off the series well, by winning Game 1, 8-2. Both Brayden Point and Yanni Gourde would have multi-goal games. Another 3 of their goals were scored on the power-play. Tampa would then win the next game 2-1. The Islanders finally seemed to have some life in them in Game 3, as Tampa lost the game 3-5. This would turn out to be the most goals that Andrei Vaskilevskiy would give up all playoffs. Tampa would then come back in Game 4 and win that game 4-1. Tampa went down about halfway in the second period 0-1 on a goal by Brock Nelson. 15 seconds later, center Blake Coleman would score to tie it up. Another 8 seconds later, Ondrej Palat would score his 8th of the playoffs to give the Lightning the lead. Little did they know that this goal would be the game-winner. New York would then win the next game in double overtime, 1-2. Game 6 would also go to overtime, but with a different winner. 13 minutes and 18 seconds into overtime, Anthony Cirelli scored his 3rd goal of the playoffs to send the Tampa Bay Lightning to the Stanley Cup final for the first time since 2015. The final score would be 2-1. Tampa would allow the Islanders to get 165 shots on their starting goalie, but Vaskilevskiy would save 153 of them, giving him a 2.00 GAA and a .927 Save percentage.

Anthony Cirelli celebrating his Game 6 game-winner. Source: sportingnews.com (Getty Images)

Tampa Bay would face the Western Conference champions, the Dallas Stars, in the Stanley Cup Finals. Dallas would win the first game, 1-4, giving Tampa their second time losing in a series all playoffs. Tampa’s only goal would be scored by Yanni Gourde. However, Tampa would bounce back in Game 2 to win 3-2. Tampa would have a 3-0 lead and would almost lose that lead but eventually kept it to secure the win. Tampa would then go up with a 2-1 series lead with a 5-2 win in Game 3. Game 4 would go into overtime, but they would eventually have a 3-1 series lead with a power-play game-winner by Kevin Shattenkirk 6 minutes and 34 seconds into overtime. All Tampa needed now was one more win to win their first Stanley Cup since 2004. However, Tampa would need to wait at least one more game as they would lose Game 5, 2-3 in double overtime. Corey Perry would score his second goal of the game to extend the Stanley Cup Finals by one more game. Then, in Game 6, with 7:27 left in the first period, Brayden Point would score his 14th goal of the playoffs and the game-winner. Vasilevskiy would shut out the Stars 2-0 to give the Tampa Bay Lightning the Stanley Cup. Vasilevskiy would have a total of 157 shots put on him and he would save 143 of those, his least in a series this playoff. Vasilevskiy would have a 2.33 GAA in the Finals with a .911 Save percentage.

Tampa Bay team staff celebrating with a Game 6 victory. Source: news.yahoo.com (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP)

Nikita Kucherov would lead the playoffs in points with 34 and assists with 27. However, Brayden Point would lead with the most goals with 14. Brayden Point would also tie Joe Pavelski with the most even-strength goals with 10. Andrei Vasilevskiy would finish off with a 1.90 GAA and a .927 Save percentage. Tampa would score a total of 78 goals and allow only 57, resulting in a goal differential of +21. Tampa would have an overtime record of 7-2, including the shootout win against the Capitals.

Next part of this series we will go through the 2021 NHL season.

Stats from: wikipedia.org, hockey-reference.com