TAMPA, FL – The Tampa Bay Lightning failed to win their first Stanley Cup with a three-peat since 1983 – but they don’t think their dynasty has collapsed.
“Who said we’re finished?” lightning captain Stephen Stamkos He said after his team 2-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche in Game Six of the Stanley Cup Final on Sunday night. “This core is right here. We’ve struggled. We’ve been through everything you can think of, and for the most part, we’ve found a way out to the top.”
Avalanche captured their first Stanley Cup since 2001 with a win. They were favored for winning the cup as the playoffs started as well as for winning this series.
“It’s not like we lost to some powder,” Tampa Bay coach John Cooper said. “That’s a soccer team out there. We didn’t have ice on our ground. We played all these star-studded teams. They found a way. We hit another brick wall, and we couldn’t get past that wall.”
Cooper agreed with Stamkos that Lightning’s path did not end with the avalanche. In the past eight years, the Lightning team has reached six conference finals and made it to the Stanley Cup Final four times.
“The qualifying series is over,” Cooper said. “But it’s not the end of our career.” “I have been very fortunate in my coaching career to win trophies at different levels, and these are the teams that you remember. Sometimes, you don’t remember much that a team didn’t win. But I think I will win. Remember this team a lot. What these people have been through, with injuries. They are well documented what kind of warrior they are. You should see what happens [with injuries]. “
The lightning was without a star center Brayden Point, who missed the previous two rounds due to a lower body injury he sustained in Game Seven against the Toronto Maple Leafs on May 14. series. straight ahead Anthony Cirelli and defenseman Eric Cernack He played through injuries, as did a number of other players.
“When the injury report comes out, you’ll be shocked,” the Tampa Bay striker pat maroon He said. “I’m so proud of these guys for what these guys have done in the past three years. We’ve been so successful. We just failed.”
Lightning enters the season with a handful of free agents, including the clutch wing Ondrej BalatTrade deadline, final delivery time Nick Paul And a man of steady defense Jean Ruta. But the core of the team is subject to the 2022-23 contract.
Whether or not they bid for three Cups in four seasons, Cooper said this group belongs to the greatest teams in NHL history.
“These guys are out there with the ’80s Islanders and the Oilers,” he said. “The difference I’ve been talking about for decades.”
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