Was there really anyone in this room who had doubted the Tampa Bay Lightning over the past few days?
Updated yesterday at 11:58 p.m.
It was not necessary, and above all, it was not necessary to believe that the New York Rangers were going to be entitled to an easy little ride towards the grand final. Oh no! Because if there’s one truth in this league, it’s this: it’s never easy against the Tampa club, and this time it’s the Rangers who have just realized it.
So here are the representatives of Gotham eliminated, all capsized, those who had a solid 2-0 lead after the first two games of this series, and they who looked like a club in full control.
PHOTO CHRIS O’MEARA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Rangers had taken the lead in the series, but it’s the Lightning who will ultimately make it to the grand finale.
But that lead melted away like a two-litre Neapolitan forgotten on the counter, and today Rangers are on vacation, while it is the Lightning who go through to the Grand Final, the result of their 2-1 victory. Saturday night in Tampa, as part of game number six of this series. A result that is not as dramatic as it is effective.
This time it was Steven Stamkos who took care of the damage in the home side, with a superb second-half goal leaving poor Igor Shesterkin no chance, who will probably be thinking about it all the time. summer. Stamkos added another goal, and also a second goal, in the third period, and lo and behold, the Lightning will meet the Colorado Avalanche in the Grand Final, a third straight appearance in the Stanley Cup Final for players at the ‘flash.
Three titles in a row, if that turns out, it would of course be a first since the big years of the New York Islanders and the late Mike Bossy, in the early 1980s, when the club in blue and orange was a bit of the law across the league.
No, we’re not one to toss the D-word left and right, for this or for that, but in this case, we’re going to: If the Lightning win a third in a row, we can speak of a dynasty. Even more in the present context, where the constraints of the salary cap do not allow the return of all players each year, unlike the golden era of the Islanders.
There is also perhaps a kind of “mental fatigue” that has set in with the Lightning, which we take a bit for granted these days. But like Rolling Stones on skates, time passes and is not right for Floridians. Time passes and they are still there. They’ve won 11 series in a row since their first conquest… and that’s something.
In the meantime, and from Wednesday in Denver, game day number one of this grand final, the Lightning will aim for a third conquest in a row.
In modern hockey, that’s downright a feat.