The Tampa Bay Lightning are no stranger to deep Stanley Cup playoff runs, having made three of them in the last four seasons — and winning the franchise's second and third championships in the process. The Bolts were two victories away from a three-peat in 2022, losing in a six-game battle to the Colorado Avalanche in one of the better SCF's in recent memory. The two years before that, Tampa Bay dispatched the Montreal Canadiens and Dallas Stars, respectively.
If this club can find another Stanley Cup with the current core — Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos, Brayden Point and Andrei Vasilevskiy — it might be impossible to not call the early 2020s Lightning a dynasty. Some might already after the team made back-to-back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals. But after a disappointing Round 1 exit at the hands of the Maple Leafs in 2023 — Toronto's first series win since 2004 — expect the Bolts to be hungry for much better results this time around.
And it all begins with the player the Lightning will live or die by: current NHL points leader Kucherov.
Nikita Kucherov is playing some of his best hockey ever, and that's saying a lot
On April 3, Kucherov broke a franchise record he himself owned, recording points No. 128, 129 and 130 in a convincing 4-1 win over those same Leafs. In 2018-19, the Russian superstar had an incredible season, scoring 128 points and winning the Hart Trophy as the league's Most Valuable Player.
And he's even better this year. Although Connor McDavid went crazy with 153 points in 2022-23 with the Edmonton Oilers, a 128-point campaign for Kucherov was phenomenal. The fact he has eclipsed that already — with seven games left in the regular-season — proves that No. 86 is playing some of the best hockey of his career at age-30.
Although the Bolts have watched the depth shrink with each passing year, the core remains the same. But it all runs through Kucherov, who is in the midst of his best NHL year ever and has a legitimate chance to win his second Hart Trophy come June. But what he'll be much more focused on is putting together a postseason like he did both in 2020 and 2021.
Kucherov led the playoffs in scoring both years Tampa won the Cup, recording 34 points in 25 games in the former and following it up with 32 points in 23 contest in the latter. He was a game-breaker throughout both successful runs, and often the best player on the ice. Let's not forget the former second-round pick — one of the biggest draft steals in history — also managed 27 points in 23 games in the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoff run that came just two wins short.
The point is, Kucherov can drag this team up. But the Lightning are going to have a tough Round 1 opponent, potentially against one of the league's better teams in one of the Boston Bruins, Florida Panthers or New York Rangers. He will need to be at his best — as No. 86 often is in the postseason — to help the club erase last year's uncharacteristic first-round exit.
Andrei Vasilevskiy needs to channel last postseason Sergei Bobrovsky
Another key reason the Lightning have been so potent in the postseason is due to the play between the pipes. Andrei Vasilevskiy has solidified himself as one of the greatest playoff goaltenders of all time, and he was just amazing in both the 2020 and 2021 runs. He won the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP in the latter, and recorded a sparkling 1.90 goals-against average and .927 save percentage in the former.
Vasi was an absolute brick wall for the Bolts to backstop them to two championships. And it runs parallel with Florida Panthers keeper Sergei Bobrovsky, who was just fair last regular-season — Florida barely even got in — but found a completely different gear in the postseason. The 35-year-old had a solid .915 save percentage over 19 starts and 12 wins, but was nearly unbeatable in crucial tilts against the Leafs in Round 2, and Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final.
Vasilevskiy and Bobrovsky are good friends, and both goaltenders know how to up their game in the playoffs. But it's been an up-and-down regular-season for Vasi in 2023-24, and he had a tough go against the Leafs last year, losing his first playoff series against an Eastern Conference opponent since 2019. He recorded a 3.56 GAA and .875 SV% through six games — not the Russian's best performance.
He'll need to be much better in 2024 if the Bolts hope to make a deep run, but this is a goaltender that knows how to rise to the occasion, and should still be upset about how last year ended. He also looks to be completely healthy after offseason surgery that cost him a few months, and come the end of April, we should see a transformed Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Lightning have been there before
Although the roster looks quite a bit different than it once did — no more Alex Killorn, Corey Perry, Ondrej Palat, Ross Colton, Pat Maroon, etc. — the core has done this before. Despite winning two championships, Kucherov, Point, Stamkos and Vasilevskiy all know how important a third Stanley Cup would be to their legacy.
And those four know how to win. Each has been absolutely instrumental at a different time to help the Bolts win 11 playoff rounds in 12 tries between 2020-22. And they also recently learned again what it is to lose, watching as the Leafs ended a cursed streak of nearly two decades without a postseason win.
Despite Tampa Bay currently occupying a wild card spot in the Eastern Conference, they're just four points back of Toronto with seven games left. There's at least a decent chance they leapfrog their Atlantic Division rivals. It probably won't make Round 1 any easier, but the conference is going to be a gauntlet either way.
Working for the Lightning is the best season in franchise history from Nikita Kucherov, a potential revenge playoff for Andrei Vasilevskiy, and a core that has been there more than once. The 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs are going to be a ton of fun, and the Lightning's quest for three titles in five seasons should be one of the more entertaining storylines.
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