One can argue the Avalanche have advantages up and down the matchup board. EVERYTHING STARTS WITH ANDREI VASILEVSKIY What you need to know about the Lightning:ġ. “We created a monster,” Tortorella told The Athletic earlier this spring.Īnd now that battle-hardened monster is what stands between the Avs and the Stanley Cup. And now they sit in their third straight Stanley Cup Final, becoming the first team to make three consecutive finals since the 1983-85 Edmonton Oilers. He knew how to defuse his old team.īut it was the aftermath that launched the Lightning to their greatest success yet. Guiding Columbus then was John Tortorella, who was behind the bench for the Lightning’s 2004 Stanley Cup win. Against the Columbus Blue Jackets, Tampa Bay became the first Presidents’ Trophy winners ever to get swept out of the first round. Only in the 2018-19 postseason did they lay an egg, and it was as embarrassing a playoff faceplant as has ever been seen in professional sports.

In their two Conference Finals defeats in that span, they took the eventual Stanley Cup winners to seven games. In the eight seasons starting with 2014-15, Tampa Bay has two Stanley Cups, four conference championships, six appearances in the Eastern Conference Final and a Presidents’ Trophy.

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