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Not many teams have been written off three times in one series and live to tell about it, but that’s exactly what the Tampa Bay Lightning did. The Lightning entered their first-round series against the Detroit Red Wings as solid favorites; in fact, very few gave Detroit any chance at all and many thought Tampa would make quick work of the Wings.
But that’s why they play the games.
Detroit took Game 1 in Tampa, and the conversation immediately started to change that perhaps Tampa wasn’t just going to cruise to round two. Tampa evened the series, but heading to Detroit for Game 3, the Red Wings shut out the Lightning; and with Game 4 in Detroit, Tampa was suddenly the underdog.
The Red Wings were six minutes away from taking a 3-1 series lead in Game 4, but the Lightning battled back to tie up the game, sending it to overtime before Tyler Johnson knotted the series back up at two. With all the momentum squarely behind Tampa, it looked like the series was over, but Detroit was able to take Game 5 in Tampa and looked set to win the sixth game at home and take the series.
Tampa again showed the fortitude of a great team by winning Game 6 on the road, and with the series and their season on the line in Game 7, the Lightning took control of a 0-0 tie in the third period and netted a 2-0 win to advance to the Conference Semifinals.
Not many teams can play at the level Tampa did time and time again with their backs against the wall. There is one team that played at that type of level when the odds seemed long—that team is the Los Angeles Kings.
Last season on their way to the Stanley Cup, the Kings were down 3-0 to the San Jose Sharks only to win four straight. In the next round they were down 3-2 to the Anaheim Ducks but reeled off two straight wins. The Chicago Blackhawks took them to seven games and saw a third period lead vanish as the Kings beat them in overtime.
The Lightning have that exact same feel after a hard-fought series with Detroit. Now the Lightning come in as an underdog against the Montreal Canadiens, but that won’t phase this team at all.
Furthermore, Steven Stamkos was very quiet in the opening round. He had three assists in the series and failed to score. The only thing Stamkos managed to lead Tampa in against Detroit was penalty minutes. It’s highly unlikely moving forward that Stamkos is going to be this quiet. With a lethal scoring option lying in the weeds and ready to break out, he’s exactly the type of weapon that is needed to get the puck past Montreal goalie Carey Price.
The Lightning refuse to die. That mentality served the Kings well last season, and Tampa has harnessed that exact type of energy in this season’s playoffs. Tampa has proven that they won’t make things easy. They will trail in a series again and they will have to rally to win games, but no matter what the deficit, the Lightning won’t flinch. That mentality carries a lot of weight in the Stanley Cup playoffs which is exactly why no one should be surprised if Tampa is hoisting Lord Stanley’s Cup this June.
