from Damien Cox at the Toronto Star,

The Tampa Bay Lightning, despite back-to-back Stanley Cups, won’t go down as one of the great teams in NHL history. The bloated nature of the league — we’re up to 32 teams now — and a flat salary cap for the conceivable future will make true greatness impossible for any club.

Sad but true.

The title to which the Lightning may be able to lay claim, however, isn’t bad at all. That would be arguably the most versatile and adaptable team in NHL history.

Think about it. Because of COVID-19, Tampa Bay has had to win a Cup after an interrupted season that was followed by a set of “bubble” playoffs, in which the Bolts played all their post-season matches in either Toronto or Edmonton. To defend the title, Tampa had to navigate a 56-game regular season in which they played largely to empty arenas and only within their division, then win a Cup tournament in which they didn’t play a non-division team until the final four.

Now, the Lightning will try to three-peat in a return to a “normal” 82-game season with full playoffs, after having their roster cannibalized by other clubs over the off-season.

If successful, Steven Stamkos and Co. will be able to say they have won three consecutive Cups under three sets of very different conditions, all with a pandemic wreaking havoc on North American society in the background.

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