Head coach Jon Cooper led the Tampa Bay Lightning to the playoffs for three straight seasons. But this year, despite their best efforts, the team lost a skin-of-their-teeth spot in the playoffs — by one point.
This season the Lightning were hammered with injuries. Just one month into the 2016-17 season, the Bolts lost their captain, Steven Stamkos, to another serious injury. At first it was announced that Stamkos would be out indefinitely. The following day, the fans were told that Stamkos would have to undergo surgery to repair a labral tear, which came with a 4-6 month recovery period. Accustomed to strong players like Stammer, everyone was hoping for another quick recovery; while we were all teased with the possibility of him being back on the ice in March, and then being promoted to day-to-day with a lower body injury, the initial hope of our captain returning became what chances for the playoffs eventually looked like — a long shot.
Ryan Callahan, another star player, was relegated to the sidelines back in January due to an injury of his right hip. He also had to undergo surgery, and remained out for the season. During the March 9th game against the Minnesota Wild, the Lightning lost forwards Tyler Johnson, Vladislav Namestnikov, and Cedric Paquette, each to a lower-body injury. The Bolts managed to win 4-1 over the Wild, but the loss of players damaged the team's chances for a postseason berth.
And as they lost some dangerously tough players, they also lost their groove. Losing Ben Bishop, Brian Boyle and Valtteri Filppula right before the trade deadlines didn't help, either. Because of this, the Bolts really got crushed on face-offs. (Thankfully, Andrei Vasilevskiy, now the main goaltender, shows lots of promise and will become one of the top goalies with more experience.)
The Lightning showed moments of brilliance — though, sadly, too few. The moments of incompetence outnumbered their efforts to make this years’ playoffs, and the number of injured and departed players combined with a lack of focus eventually did them in.
Last night Buffalo took a 1-0 lead into the second period and the Lightning held a 2-1 lead into the third, later winning 4-2. OK, so there was no pressure to win, as their playoff chances became null and void less than 24 hours prior. But at least they went out strong.
“All I can say is there was a time in early February where we were not relevant at all," said Lightning head coach Jon Cooper after Sunday's game. "This team found a way to make themselves relevant through game 81. Just to watch the crowd support at a 5:00 game on a Sunday afternoon on a beautiful day while The Masters is going on. The place is jam-packed and nobody left and everybody stayed till the very end. There’s a love affair between the team and our fans. I was just proud to be standing there behind the bench, The players, they made the team relevant during the last two and a half months of the season, but, in saying that, come five months from now everybody’s 0-0-0. But, there’s a lot of fight in that group and you’ve got to say a lot of that group will be back here next year and it’s great to be a part of that.”
Frequently checking the standings the past few weeks made it look — at least on alternating days — like the Lightning might still be in this. And they were, despite the odds. Ottawa, Toronto and Boston had to lose most of their remaining games and the Lightning had to win all of theirs.
But had the team been able to squeak into the playoffs, how long would they have lasted?
The Bolts displayed a very courage on the ice, but it was almost as if there were two different teams playing from one period to the next. They would start off strong, calculated and hungry to win. By the next period, the game was full of clumsy passes, missed opportunities and inconsistency.
The Lightning finished the 2016-17 season at 41-30-10, good for 92 points and a 5th place finish in the Atlantic Division. Here’s to next season, and cheers to all of the fans that supported them until the end.