The NHL season has ended with the Tampa Bay Lightning winning the Stanley Cup for the first time since 2004 following a 2-0 Game 6 victory Monday night over the Dallas Stars in Edmonton.
Tampa Bay played well throughout the entire Stanley Cup Final. A big part of their success was due to Andrei Vasilevskiy. He went 25-8 in the playoffs with a 1.90 goals against average and a .927 save percentage.
Victor Hedman and Steven Stamkos earned their first career Stanley Cups.
“I think I told [Hedman] I loved him 100 times,” Stamkos said.
The duo has been together in Tampa Bay since 2009. Stamkos was injured for the majority of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but did suit up in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final, tallying a goal. After his brief appearance, Stamkos was deemed unfit to play for the remainder of the series.
“What can you say? We’ve been together since day one and to go through all the ups and downs; this is what you play for,” Stamkos said. “To watch [Hedman] win the Conn Smythe and be the best player in the world in the playoffs and watch our relationship grow to where it is today; it’s just love and admiration. This is one of the best feelings in the world, and I’m so thankful I get to share this moment with [Hedman].”
Hedman won the coveted Conn Smythe Trophy, which goes to the most valuable player in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He became the 10th defenseman to win the award, the first since Duncan Keith in 2015. His 10 postseason goals were the third-most by a defenseman all-time, as only Paul Coffey and Brian Leetch tallied more.
“[Hedman] is a special player,” said Lightning head coach Jon Cooper. “He and [Stamkos] have been the two here the longest, and he’s watched players come in and out and he’s watched the team change over.”
Cooper, the longest-tenured coach in hockey and a Hofstra University graduate, earned his first career Stanley Cup.
Cooper tallied 74 goals and 25 assists for 99 points in four seasons on the Hofstra men’s lacrosse team (1986-89). He was a member of the East Coast Conference Championship teams in 1988 and 1989 and graduated fifth all-time in Hofstra goals scored and ninth all-time in Hofstra points. Cooper graduated from the school in 1989 with a degree in business administration.
Brayden Point got the scoring started for Tampa Bay in Game 6 on their second power-play of the game. Point shot the puck and it deflected off Anton Khudobin, creating a second rebound that found the back of the net.
In the second period, Blake Coleman made sure the Lightning kept the upper hand. Coleman scored on a one-timer to put the Lightning ahead 2-0, the final score of the game.
Cooper looked to an example from college sports to help him coach his team. In 2018, the top-seeded University of Virginia Cavaliers lost to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County Retrievers in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Cooper used this to motivate his players after losing to the Columbus Blue Jackets last year.
“We used a little inspiration from Virginia and that’s been with us for this whole time,” Cooper said. “When you see somebody else do it you say, ‘Why not us?’ Basically, we went from the outhouse to the penthouse.
Cooper even brought in a motivational speaker following their early exit from the playoffs last year. Jon Gordon, an author and speaker on the topics of leadership, culture and teamwork, spoke to players, coaches and management three days before the start of the regular season. Gordon focused on philosophies of Hero, Highlight and Hardship by having members of the Lightning share a positive highlight and a hardship from their past.
“I sense that they got it,” Gordon said. “Sometimes what happens is they get it in a training camp, but it’s not reinforced. They were hungry and they wanted different results, and they were eager to create something different.”
The Stanley Cup is the first championship awarded to a professional sports team in North America during the COVID-19 pandemic. 24 teams in two cities were narrowed down to two over the course of two months and the Lightning ended the postseason as champions.
“I missed so many things over the course of the bubble,” Cooper said. “I missed my anniversary, birthdays and youth hockey tournaments. I missed my girl make the swim team, and I missed the opening day of school. I could keep going down the list. The whole Major League Baseball season happened while we were in the bubble.”
Now, Cooper and the Lightning are heading home as the NHL offseason gets underway. The first round of the 2020 NHL Draft will be held virtually on Tuesday, Oct. 6 and free agency will open Friday, Oct. 9 at 12 p.m. ET.
Photo courtesy of Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
