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

[DKH]

Best team all time to not win a playoff game

 

[Jimmy Firecracker]

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.

I thought Tampa had all this great depth. You’re telling me they couldn’t win one game without their #1D? Really? They were the best team in the regular season that this sport has seen in a long time. Surely they could’ve sustained some injury adversity (which every team that goes on a deep run has to deal with).

Simple fact is they choked, and great teams don’t choke like they did. They didn’t lose to a goalie that got ridiculously hot at the right (or wrong if you’re on the losers side) time or even kept the games close. They looked awful outside of the first half of game one, just piss poor play.

A team can lose a major piece and still play well. Tampa pulled one hell of a Jekyll and Hyde routine between the regular season and playoffs

 

[93LEAFS]

They don't rank. You don't go down as a great team without a cup.

 

[Dion TheFluff]

what's a good regular season without a successful playoffs?

 

[Dion TheFluff]

most wins 1 season : regular season + playoffs

2006 Carolina Hurricanes 68 wins
2006 Buffalo Sabres 63 wins
2007 Anaheim Ducks 64 wins
2007 Buffalo Sabres 62 wins
2008 Detroit Red Wings 70 wins
2009 Detroit Red Wings 66 wins
2010 Chicago Blackhawks 68 wins
2011 Boston Bruins 62 wins
2011 Vancouver Canucks 69 wins
2012 NJ Devils 62 wins
2013 Chicago BlackHawks 52 wins (SS)
2013 Pittsburgh Penguins 44 wins (SS)
2014 LA Kings 62 wins
2015 Chicago Blackhawks 64 wins
2015 TB Lightning 64 wins
2015 NY Rangers 64 wins
2015 Anaheim Ducks 62 wins
2016 Pittsburgh Penguins 64 wins
2016 Washington Capitals 62 wins
2017 Pittsburgh Penguins 66 wins
2017 Washington Capitals 62 wins
2018 Washington Capitals 65 wins
2018 Vegas Golden Knights 64 wins
2018 TB Lightning 65 wins

all of these teams were better than the Lightning this year.

 

[BK]

They don't rank.

 

[justafan22]

Strictly regular season, they're tied for the greatest.

 

[izlez]

You can certainly make an argument that the Stanley Cup winners are not the best teams by default. You can go up against a juggernaut in the Cup finals and lose and argue you were better than the cup winner in another year. You can lose a Stanley Cup finals series by a flukey goal or two. You can lose a Conference finals series by a flukey goal or two, and stretch your argument that you had a good matchup in the Stanley cup if you were to make it.

You can't make an argument when you don't win games in the conference finals. You can't make an argument when you don't win more than one playoff series. You can't make an argument when you don't win a playoff game. They are no where near the top of the list.

 

[kingsholygrail]

They don't rank. You don't go down as a great team without a cup.

Are you sure?