NHL Stanley Cup Final Game Night: 9-28-20 Lightning v Stars
Validation.
TB-2
DAL-0
Tampa Bay Wins the Series 4-2
Tampa Bay Wins the Stanley Cup
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped all 22 shots he faced for his first shutout victory of the playoffs. He didn't have a ton of work in this game as the team in front of him played a defensive masterpiece, but when Dallas mounted their push late it never felt in doubt that Vasilevskiy would slam the door shut.
First Period
12:23 TB Point (14), (Kucherov, Hedman)(PP)
Second Period
7:01 TB Coleman (5), (Paquette, Maroon)
Third Period
NO SCORING
Victor Hedman, Brayden Point, and Vasilevskiy were the game's three stars.
Victor Hedman, rightfully, was the Conn Smythe award winner, and frankly may be the best player on earth right now.
The Lightning were a little timid to start this game and got an early power play and gave up a pretty good shorthanded chance that was like smelling salts for the team and woke them up, and from that point on the Tampa Bay Lightning painted a defensive masterpiece. Just no other way to put it. Dallas' fatigue played a part, but the Lightning played their hardest and most defensively responsible game en route to holding Dallas to just eight shots through 40 minutes and 22 for the whole contest. And then the score effects kicked in and they needed the saves, Vasilevskiy was more than up to the task. Offensively the team didn't generate a ton of chances. They got their opening goal on the power play with Brayden Point following his own shot for a rebound goal and Coleman's insurance goal came off a great mid air pick by Pat Maroon that led to a beauty pass to the one timer dished out by Cedric Paquette. That was all they needed, and they knew it.
For the Lightning, it's validation of a great era in team history and the completion of unfinished business that goes back as far as the team's near miss at a championship against Chicago a half decade ago. In professional sports, championships seal a team's place in history. Nothing else does it. And after three near misses and last year's frustration against Columbus, this Lightning team finally sealed its place in history by securing the franchise's second Stanley Cup.
My biggest plaudits got to Julien BriseBois. A year ago I wrote that it gave me no pleasure to state that the easy road for a salary cup stung club to overcome the kind of implosion they had against Columbus was simply to axe the coach. It was a much harder, if not impossible, seeming road to reshape a roster to add the size, jam, and character the team needed to get over the hump. But, unbelievably, BriseBois did it. Getting Pat Maroon. Snagging Shattenkirk and Bogosian off the scrap heap. Biting the bullet and paying the price to acquire Coleman and Goodrow despite some of the criticism that came along with those deals. The really great thing about BriseBois proved this season is that I believe it means the Lightning should be able to win multiple Cups now. It seems just as impossible, with impending cap hell coming, for BriseBois to rebuild the depth around his core and chase another championship. But, honestly, he just did it once. Who can say with a straight face he cannot do it again?
The coaching staff under Jon Cooper generally pressed all the right buttons and made it darned easy on the fan base as the team never had to elimination game on the way to the trophy. There was really only one moment when I thought he made some demonstrably questionable coaching decisions putting the Cirelli line against the Bergeron line early in the Bruins series, but beyond that the decision-making and adjustments made every First Intermission were impeccable. Even tonight, the guts to insert a rookie, Alexander Volkov, into the game. Wow. And he rewarded the decision by drawing the penalty on Point's GWG. Let's cut to the chase: if you win a championship getting through coaching warlocks like John Tortorella and Barry Trotz and do so never having to face elimination in a game, you can coach. All questions answered.
And the players... how good is this team having won a Cup in dominating fashion even with Steven Stamkos, his generation's second best goal scorer, only being available for half a period? Just wow. Point and Kucherov will get all of the kudos they deserve as two of the greatest players in the league, but if there's one big advantage to bubble hockey it's that the Tampa Bay Lightning got a fit, healthy, and rested Ondrej Palat. And, Ondrej Palat was a MAN in this tournament. Likewise the "third" line of Goodrow, Gourde, and Coleman. Gourde, in particular, showed incredible position flexibility to move into the center spot full time and was, in my mind, the heart and soul engine of the team in this run.
On the backline, as I said, Victor Hedman may be the best hockey player in the world right now. He and Vasilevskiy are the two biggest reasons I think the Lightning are set up to win more Cups in the future, salary cap or no salary cap. And Ryan McDonagh was a warrior and a stone cold hitman in the Stanley Cup Final. They led by example and the rest of the defensive corps followed.
There will be those in the northern hockey media establishment who want to asterisk this title for Tampa Bay because it didn't come with the 82 game grind of the regular season as a precursor and it didn't come with the travel associated with a normal tournament. I don't disagree this title may have been slightly easier than in a normal year, but only a fool would say that this was in any way, shape, or form easy. Just the fact the naysayers are expending energy to try to denigrate the Lightning's accomplishment is, in its own way, exemplary of the fact the Lightning took something of obvious value away from the hockey blue bloods. Tough. Live with it. Tampa Bay is the best organization in the NHL and one of the best markets and fan bases in the league to boot.
I'd like to conclude with a tip of the hat to website co-founders Chad Schnarr and Tim Bennett. We started this website during the 2004-2005 lockout and it's been about a 15 year grind to get to this point. There were 12 Bolt Prospects Alumni in the lineup tonight and one current Bolt Prospect as well as a coach who I watched from the stands in the Norfolk Scope before he was even a gleam in Lightning fans' eyes. In many ways, this era of Lightning hockey has first and foremost been the culmination of a decade of drafting and development excellence, and it's been a pleasure to and a joy to cover these players over the years and to share it with our team here.
Volkov had 1 hit in 9:34. Drew the penalty that led to the GWG and had good speed and fresh legs on the fourth line. A gutsy insertion into the lineup that paid off by Cooper's staff.
Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.