5 Things Lightning Fans Should be Thankful for this Year
By Henry Yoho
3. Injuries
Hear me out on this. Early season injuries to Brayden Point, Nikita Kucherov and others will turn out to be galvanizing periods of time in the long run. Nobody wishes for anybody to get hurt, but times like these can prove to be positives over the long grind of the NHL season.
The adversity faced by teams with significant losses can spark teams on runs to the promise land. Losing significant pieces allows for players to step into new roles and help the team grow. The team learns how to win without those players and when players return from injury, this can provide an injection of life into a dressing room.
Steven Stamkos fighting through injury and eventually returning briefly in the 2020 Stanley Cup Final gave the Lightning a unique jolt of life that they helped ride to the cup. Nikita Kucherov’s return for game one of the 2021 playoffs, after missing the entire regular season, gave the Lightning new-found energy that they rode all the way to the cup again. With the lesson’s learned without key players in the lineup, teams can be molded into the champions they become.