I truly believe we can run it back again…Why not? Pat Maroon said, of the Tampa Bay Lightning becoming three-peat champions.
It hadn’t happened since the 1980s when the New York Islanders ultimately won four consecutive Stanley Cup titles; however, the Tampa Bay Lightning are primed to raise Lord Stanley’s Cup for a third straight NHL season, and Bolts forward Pat Maroon believes they can.
“It depends on our health, how guys are feeling, our attitude. But we’ve been texting together as a group and thinking, ‘We’ve brought our top two lines back, our big four on , the best goalie in the world. We added Pierre-Eduoard Bellemare. We’ve got Colton, Joseph. You add Taylor Raddysh, and those guys can fill in,'” Maroon told Joe Smith of The Athletic.
After winning the title with the St. Louis Blues in 2019, Maroon signed with the Lightning, joining an elite club, of winning three consecutive championships. If the Lightning can successfully pull off the hattrick of straight titles, he will become just the 45th player in the history of the NHL to win the Cup four seasons in a row. Of course, the Montreal Canadiens won five in a row in the 1950s and were able to keep 11 players on their roster for that run.
Since joining the Lightning in 2020, Maroon has supplied 41 points in 119 regular-season games and four points in 23 Stanley Cup games, including a crucial game-tying goal late in the third period of game four of the 2021 Stanley Cup Final, to send the game into overtime. Maroon has one season remaining under his contract with the Lightning until he becomes an unrestricted free agent in the 2022-2023 season. If the Lightning pulls off the trifecta, it will be interesting to see if he takes a discount to keep the roster together in the attempt to pull off four straight. Although, general manager Julien BriseBois has shown the ability to be somewhat of a magician when managing an extremely tight salary cap.
Ahead of the regular season, not only is the team expecting to win- major sportsbooks are favoring the team heavily to at least represent the Eastern Conference in the Stanley Cup Finals. Lightning opens their 2021-2022 season as the Pittsburgh Penguins come to Amalie Arena on October 12th.