The Lightning’s Run Comes up Two Wins Short

The magical three year journey has come to an end. The magic has run out and the gas tank is on E. The Tampa Bay Lightning’s incredible streak of 11 straight playoff series victories came to an end Sunday night at the hands of the Colorado Avalanche who rightfully hoisted the Cup for the first time since 2001.

Colorado is an extremely deserving champion. They were the best team in the series and were the first team to truly be better than the Lightning in the last three seasons. They had an incredible season all year and this was their time.

There is absolutely no shame in the way the Lightning went down. It always hurts  to lose but you can never question their heart in the slightest and it is okay to lose. That’s life. Somebody wins and somebody loses. The Lightning’s fight over the course of this playoffs was extremely admirable and there should be nothing for anybody associated with this organization to hang their heads about.

We wondered all season and all playoffs long when all of the miles on their wheels would really start to show. It really showed in the third period of last night’s game as they just had nothing left in the tank in the end. They left it all out there.

Over the course of the series, Colorado proved to not only have fresher legs after sweeping two of their first three series, but the were clearly the faster team. The Lightning have been that fast, high flying team in the past and have had to adjust their game to play in the playoffs and it seemed fitting that this was the way they got beat.

The magic may have run out this year, but that does not take anything away from what this team has accomplished. If you would have said the Lightning would make three consecutive trips to the Cup Final and they would win two of those, everybody would take that a thousand times over.

Obviously, reaching the top of the mountain two years in a row speaks for itself. But this year’s run to the Final alone was certainly the hardest one yet considering the challenges they had to go through along the way. In round one, they beat the league’s leading goal scorer and MVP. In round two, they swept the Presidents Trophy winning Florida Panthers, and in round three they beat the Vezina winning net minder.

This journey was especially impressive considering all of the miles they had already accumulated and having to go without Brayden Point for most of the way. Ultimately, it was all too much to overcome against a team that was simply better than them.

Sunday did not mark the end of the story for this generation of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Their story is still being written as long as this goaltender, this core and this coach are still together. They still have the foundation of a Stanley Cup winner. Who knows what will happen next year, but three in four years will never be out of the realm of possibility.

In the coming weeks, we’ll dive into what lies ahead in the offseason. Until then, thanks for following and reading along with us all season long.