This whole thread has turned into a massive redirection. Taking a truly positive thing and morphing it into a way to rain on Tampa fans parade right in the middle of their potentially historic season.
Wow...lol
What do you expect though? In recent years, the Lightning were:
*up 2-1 in the Final vs. Chicago. And lost.
*up 3-2 in the ECF vs. Pittsburgh. And lost.
*up 3-2 in the ECF vs. Washington. And lost.
That's all since 2015. The Lightning have been on the doorstep repeatedly, only to not get the job done.
There's something to be said for enjoying the good times while they're happening, and I'd like to think I'm doing that myself, personally, but part of my whole mindset this season, for better and for worse (during the rare times where they've struggled for a few games), has been that the playoffs are going to be what defines this season more than ever before for the Lightning. This is the best team the Lightning have ever had. This might be the best Lightning team we see for a very long time to come. This season really does feel like a now or never opportunity; if this core can't get the job done now, odds are it's never going to happen.
I really enjoyed last season, for the most part, as well, but after the way they blew the ECF? I've never watched a highlight again from last season. The way things ended ruined all of that. I can't watch those highlights without a big sense of "what if". And, as much as I don't want to, I'm completely prepared to do that again this year if things end up going down the drain as well. Fair or not, the Lightning are firmly in "Cup or bust" territory, so while many people in this thread are (probably) being too black-and-white about it, fact is there's nothing the Lightning are going to accomplish in the regular season that anyone outside of TB fans is going to care about. The Lightning have proven to be a regular season juggernaut, more-or-less, for the last five seasons now. Big deal. What have they accomplished with that? Because I can tell you that Pittsburgh has been more-or-less the same as the Lightning in terms of regular season accolades in recent years (maybe not even; I don't think they've won their division since 2014), and yet they've got two Cups to show for that. Lightning are a long ways away from having that to show with this cast of characters.
Not so fun fact: Since 2011, the Lightning have made the playoffs five teams, and were eventually eliminated all five times. Except for 2014 against Montréal, the team that eliminated the Lightning eventually went on to win the Stanley Cup. Gets kinda tiring, doesn't it?
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I will just say that, whoever that was above who broke down the myth of the Presidents' Cup curse, thank you for that. I wrote the same basic thing on another website recently. Even if we look back at the last 15 teams to win that trophy, and notice that only two of them have gone on to win the Cup, that's
still nearly twice as successful compared to the unweighted odds. Fact is, 15 of 16 playoffs teams will fail to win the Cup every playoff year. You'll often find that the best regular season team in MLB doesn't win the World Series, either (unless it's the Red Sox with the best record, for some irritating reason).
If they play the pens in the first round they're done.
The Lightning would be expected to win that matchup, and for good reason, but facing the Penguins in the first round would be about the worst outcome imaginable. Of all the other teams realistically in that #8 seed discussion - Columbus, Montréal, Carolina, Buffalo, even Philadelphia - any and all of them would present a more manageable task than Pittsburgh would. You never know when Sid and Malkin will decide to be two of the five best players in the world.