Last summer, amid all the change with new management, the rallying cry for the Tampa Bay Lightning was “Bring It Back.”
Thursday night, the Bolts delivered on that promise, clinching their first playoff spot in four years when they defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 2-1 in front of a sold out St. Pete Times Forum.
For the Lightning, the return to the postseason is one that not many expected this soon and one that really is way ahead of schedule.
“I think it’s an organizational thing,” Lightning ead coach Guy Boucher said. “Mr. Vinik came to shake our hands right after and that represents what he means. It’s a bunch of new people trying to accomplish things. It’s hard to get things done in your first year.”
With the Pittsburgh Penguins calling the game a “statement game,” and the possibility that the Lightning will play Pittsburgh in the first round very real, it was the Lightning that made the statement loud and clear. They are not a team to take lightly.
This article appears in Mar 31 – Apr 6, 2011.