After too long a drought the Tampa Bay Lightning have won the Stanley Cup!    That sounds so good let me repeat it, the Tampa Bay Lightning have won the Stanley Cup! In a season that was interrupted by the COVOD-19 pandemic and thoughts that the 2019-2020 NHL season would not finish, the league hammered out a plan that was ground breaking, but saved the season and the post season. In the end it was our Tampa Bay Lightning who came away champions in what can only be called an unforgettable season.

There are so many things to say about this team, their fortitude, their desire, their fight, and most of all their perseverance to go after what they truly felt was theirs, the Stanley Cup. Enough can’t be said about  head coach Jon Cooper and his staff and for every player who put on a Lightning sweater during this past crazy season that  began in October 2019 and ended  on September 28, 2020 with the Cup coming back to Tampa for the first time since 2004.

Singling out players who were a big part of this  fantastic season could be just about anyone who was on the team because they ALL contributed in some way big or small.  But for starters there is Brayden Point, Nikita Kucherov, Victor Hedman, Alex Killorn, Tyler Johnson, Pat  Maroon, Anthony Cirelli, Yanni Gourde. ah hell everyone!  However,  there are two names that are a main reason for the Cup coming home to Tampa, the captasin Steven Stamkos, and the best goalie in the NHL, Andrei Vasileveskiy. Without these two, who knows how the Lightning may have done. Granted Stamkos was seriously injured and did not play much at all and just 3 minutes in the playoffs, but his presence, his camaraderie with the team and his aura was always there to inspire this team to do their very best. As for Vasoi, there aren’t enough words to describe how phenomenal this young man is, he was the bellwether for this team, moreso this year than any year prior.

It was a crazy season that saw everything stop because of the pandemic and the chances the season would never get completed and there would be no post season. But some way, somehow the NHL was able to put a solid plan together that allowed them to complete the season an d have the post season with a Stanley Cup winner. It was a gigantic undertaking with the setting up of the “bubble” format, but in the end it proved to be very successful with a zero percentage of coronavirus cases reported in the NHL. Hats off  to the NHL for proving everyone, myself included, wrong and doing the “impossible” in a crazy, weird year. Congratulations to our Tampa Bay Lightning, the 2019-202 Stanley Cup Champions of the NHL!

Now let’s hope our Tampa Bay Rays can keep it going and head to the World Series and bring that championship back to Tampa Bay.