from Shawn Roarke of NHL.com,

The Tampa Bay Lightning team that finished the Stanley Cup Final was not the same team that started it almost two weeks ago.

Goalie Ben Bishop played through a painful tear in his right groin, top scorer Tyler Johnson broke his right wrist early in the series, and Nikita Kucherov, who finished second on the Lightning in scoring, sustained an undisclosed injury in Game 5 that impacted him in Game 6, a 2-0 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks that ended Tampa Bay's season two wins short of the Stanley Cup.

"I think anybody will tell you that [if] you want to make a run like we made, the run Chicago made, you have to stay healthy," Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "That is the key. The margin of teams is so close. It's the healthy ones that seem to advance.

"I think we stayed somewhat healthy. Then down the stretch things started not going our way in that department. But we'll be the last team ever to say that's an excuse why we lost."

It may not be an excuse, but injuries were an undeniable reality for the Lightning in a close Stanley Cup Final. The only two-goal lead of the series came in Game 6, when Patrick Kane scored with 5:14 remaining for the final margin.

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