Where do the 2019 Lightning rank among the great teams of the cap era?

[JaegerDice]

Tampa's cup run has ended early and shockingly, but they still had the best regular season of any cap team. In addition to just standings points, they were elite by most metrics.

Had they climbed the mountain and won the cup, they may well have been the clear-cut, unanimous best team of the cap era.

Where would you place them among the great teams of the cap era? You can consider any teams for comparison, no need to limit things to cup winners - it's more than possible to feel that a team who didn't win the cup in year X is better than a team that did win the cup in year Y, for example.

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[crazyfisherman]

best of all the teams in the cap era that got swept in the 1st round

 

[Reality Check]

From the regular season alone, they were up there with the '08 Wings for sure. If not better.

Postseason will bring them down considerably but still probably top 5.

 

[illpucks]

Hard question as they sucked in playoffs.

 

[MikeyMike01]

Every team that won a cup is ahead of them, by default.

 

[God King Fudge]

They're garbage.

 

[bambamcam4ever]

The goal is to win in the playoffs, who cares about a couple extra wins in the preseason.

They won zero games when it mattered, this can't be a serious question.

 

[Hynh]

Every team that won a game in the playoffs is ahead of them.

 

[WingsFan95]

This a joke? I mean....let's see. Behind all the championship teams and finalists to start. Then probably several more.

So like, 34th??

 

[BorntoLose]

depends on how much weight you put on regular season success, obviously getting swept in round 1 brings them down drastically

 

[BenningHurtsMySoul]

2011 Canucks were better.

2010 Hawks were better.

2008 Wings were better.

 

[bambamcam4ever]

I'd give them top 60

 

[Howie Hodge]

Yep, they're very "rank" right now......

 

[MadLuke]

I do not agree with every cup winner were a better than team than a non Cup winner, for example the 92-93 Pens are often mentioned in greatest team of all time debate same for some Bruins team, etc..., but on the Pens many of those player won the cup the 2 season before and got out in a third round game 7 overtime.

If a team very similar to this one win the cups next year it could change this 18-19 fully subjective ranking people have, but right now it will be below the great Wings/Hawks team easily I would imagine and some others edition.

 

[kings11]

Tampa's cup run has ended early and shockingly, but they still had the best regular season of any cap team. In addition to just standings points, they were elite by most metrics.

Had they climbed the mountain and won the cup, they may well have been the clear-cut, unanimous best team of the cap era.

Where would you place them among the great teams of the cap era? You can consider any teams for comparison, no need to limit things to cup winners - it's more than possible to feel that a team who didn't win the cup in year X is better than a team that did win the cup in year Y, for example.

What’s the measuring stick we’re to use??? Regular season.. they’re the best.. playoffs wise maybe top 10??
Over the last 10 years every eventual Cup winner proved to be better than the TBL IMHO except for Wash and Bos but even then you could argue those teams were complete teams that had clutch players on top of their elite ones... TBL have zero clutch and they need changes on defense and more grit and physicality in their bottom lines.. they are the Shorks East! Yes, I said the Shorks

 

[Laveuglette]

They were the most overrated a few weeks ago, and now will probably become the most underrated. Because it's like this here. But for all we know, they could win it all next year. They're a contender for sure. Hockey is a lot about circumstances. That's what makes it fun and unpredictable.

 

[ccman68]

Easily the best. The regular season is 82 games so you get a good idea of how good a team is. A four game series without the best D in the world being healthy doesn’t really show you how strong the team is.

Winning the cup is all luck anyways so you shouldn’t put much weight on it. The presidents’ trophy is easily the most difficult one to win in this sport and winning it by as much as we did is truly something special.

This team might just go down as the greatest NHL team of all time. Doubt we see anything like this ever again with all the parity in the league nowadays.

 

[MikeyMike01]

I do not agree with every cup winner were a better than team than a non Cup winner,

No one is making that argument.

for example the 92-93 Pens are often mentioned in greatest team of all time debate same for some Bruins team, etc..., but on the Pens many of those player won the cup the 2 season before and got out in a third round game 7 overtime.

If those teams got swept in the first round no one would argue them as great.

 

[bambamcam4ever]

I do not agree with every cup winner were a better than team than a non Cup winner, for example the 92-93 Pens are often mentioned in greatest team of all time debate same for some Bruins team, etc..., but on the Pens many of those player won the cup the 2 season before and got out in a third round game 7 overtime.

If a team very similar to this one win the cups next year it could change this 18-19 fully subjective ranking people have, but right now it will be below the great Wings/Hawks team easily I would imagine and some others edition.

Definitely, but TB didn't win a single game and were outplayed for the majority of the series.

 

[MadLuke]

No one is making that argument.

Could be clearer not every cup winning team in the cap era are automatically team I would predict to win more cups if the playoff were magically played 100 time. I am not sure is there much by default here.

If people mean something else when they rank team, then it can obviously be automatic that the Hurricanes in 2006 (a team that would fail to make the playoff the next year with a very similar roster) were a greater team than the 18-19 Tampa Bay.

Could see picking all the others and some of the looser too.

 

[MVP of West Hollywd]

They're not even in the top 50. Their level in the playoffs was embarrassing

 

[983 others]

They don't.

"Great" teams don't get swept in a 7 game series, especially in the first round, sorry.

 

[Avsboy]

They're like the Harlem Globetrotters. When the basketball gets real things get confusing.

 

[someguy44]

Easily the best. The regular season is 82 games so you get a good idea of how good a team is. A four game series without the best D in the world being healthy doesn’t really show you how strong the team is.

Winning the cup is all luck anyways so you shouldn’t put much weight on it. The presidents’ trophy is easily the most difficult one to win in this sport and winning it by as much as we did is truly something special.

This team might just go down as the greatest NHL team of all time. Doubt we see anything like this ever again with all the parity in the league nowadays.

Even without the "best D-man" in the world, they still have loads of talent, including the current Art Ross winner. I don't think I ever remember an Art Ross winner getting swept in the first round.

Getting swept from in the first round to a team like Tampa is absolutely inexcusable. Unless CBJ goes and sweeps every other team in the playoffs and in commanding fashion, there's no way Tampa would look even decent here.

 

[BigEezyE22]

Easily the best. The regular season is 82 games so you get a good idea of how good a team is. A four game series without the best D in the world being healthy doesn’t really show you how strong the team is.

Winning the cup is all luck anyways so you shouldn’t put much weight on it. The presidents’ trophy is easily the most difficult one to win in this sport and winning it by as much as we did is truly something special.

This team might just go down as the greatest NHL team of all time. Doubt we see anything like this ever again with all the parity in the league nowadays.

The playoffs are when teams specifically game plan against each other. That's when the cream rises to the top. Regular season, you're just another random name.