Deadly Lightning are making a mockery of the Stanley Cup final
On the verge of one of the most anticlimactic blowouts in a generation, Tampa Bay is putting on a clinic, knowing the time together for this core is coming to an end soon
MONTREAL – The line is starting to get a little old already, but hey, Dominique Ducharme definitely had every right to bust it out again after spending the past two weeks in quarantine. “We made too many mistakes,” The Montreal Canadiens’ coach said after Game 3 of the Stanley Cup final, “and they make you pay cash for those mistakes.”
Yes, they do. They are the Tampa Bay Lightning and when you make mistakes, they steal your lunch money, demolish your piggy bank and drain your savings account. They make your superhuman goalie look like a guy with an .835 save percentage. It’s something to behold, really. The Lightning are so good right now, so precise and methodical, that they’re forcing the Canadiens into bad plays, then jumping on them and turning them into goals. And it’s turning what had the potential to be an intriguing final into one of the most anticlimactic blowouts of a generation. Not since the Detroit Red Wings clobbered the Washington Capitals in four straight games in 1998 has there been a sweep in the Stanley Cup final. It sure feels like there will be one Monday night at the Bell Center.
The chasm between these two teams is enormous at the moment. The Lightning are playing like one of the great teams of all-time. The Canadiens are still battling and, Lord knows they’re trying, but this is not close to be close. It’s bordering on embarrassing for the league’s showcase event of the season. This is a Tampa Bay team that is carrying all kinds of motivation to win its second straight Stanley Cup. It’s a team that won on emotion last year, and is triumphing this year on surgical precision.
Hockey Unfiltered with Ken Campbell is a reader-supported platform. Both free and paid subscriptions are available. Those who want to support my work are encouraged to take out a paid subscription.
“I don’t know if this is going to make sense,” said Lightning coach Jon Cooper, “but last year the feeling you have, it’s like the first day of school. That’s kind of how that whole year was. And this year, it almost feels like the last day of school. We don’t know what our team is going to look like next year, if we’re all going to be together again. There’s some crazy circumstances that had to happen for this team to stay together and these guys understand that, they know that and they’re well aware of what they can cement to themselves if they can somehow get one more win.”
Well, a couple of interesting nuggets out of that, to be sure. Cooper used the words “crazy circumstances” to talk about the Tampa roster. Again, the Lightning did absolutely nothing against the rules when they were able to activate Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos for the playoffs, putting their roster about $18 million over the salary cap. They exploited one of the many loopholes the NHL has in its salary cap system, one that gives you the impression the league wants to keep big-spending teams in check, but doesn’t. Crazy circumstances, indeed.
And Cooper is right. This team is not staying together in 2021-22. It would look rather dubious, would it not, if the Lightning had to put another high-priced player on the long-term injury list for another full regular season. Of course, if Nikita Kucherov keeps taking crosschecks to the ribs the way he has, he might require a full season to let them heal. It will be impossible for the Lightning to stay in compliance with the salary cap and not lose a core player to the Seattle Kraken in the expansion draft. Whether the Lightning go with the 8-and-1 scenario (which they likely will) or the 7-3-1 route, they’re losing somebody.
They are obliged to protect Kucherov, Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman and Andrei Vasilevskiy because those players have no-move clauses. If they go eight skaters and a goalie, that leaves Brayden Point, Anthony Cirelli, Ryan McDonagh, Mikhail Sergachev and either Yanni Gourde or Erik Cernak. That leaves some serious talent in the form of either Gourde or Cernak, Jan Ruuta, Alex Killorn and Tyler Johnson.
You’d have to think that Lightning GM Julien BriseBois will give the Kraken a draft pick or prospect in return for taking Johnson, a native of nearby Spokane, who would take $5 million off the books for each of the next three seasons. Johnson, who has endured a lot of speculation over the past season – the Lightning shopped him last summer - scored twice and looked like a man possessed in Game 3. His performance might just have been his going away gift to the franchise.
“There’s a reason why Tyler Johnson’s trophy case is fairly full,” Cooper said. “And it’s because he’s the ultimate team player. Selfless. There was a time in this organization when we needed to take another step and Tyler Johnson was one of the leaders in that. And he’s just carried that on for years now. As teams change and they evolve and there are salary cap issues…the one thing was we never lost faith in Tyler Johnson and he never lost faith in himself. Roles change and you have to adapt and nobody has done it better than Tyler. I’m extremely happy for the win and I might be a little happier for Tyler Johnson.”
Game 4 goes Monday night at 8 p.m. Eastern. If you’re one of those people who makes a point of watching the Stanley Cup being presented, you might want to tune in.