The 2020 Stanley Cup Final is set! The Tampa Bay Lightning — this summer’s cardiac kids — knocked out the New York Islanders with a Anthony Cirelli overtime goal. It’s the third straight series the Lightning have clinched in an overtime game this summer, and earns them the right square off against the Western Conference champion Dallas Stars.
The Lightning don’t have much time to celebrate, with Game 1 on Saturday. The Stars enter the series with four days of rest, though Tampa Bay enters as favorites in the sportsbooks. Let the games begin!
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More: What the Islanders should prioritize this offseason to get better.
About last night …
Tampa Bay Lightning 2, New York Islanders 1 (OT) (TB wins 4-2)
The Islanders scored first for the fifth consecutive game when Devon Toews slipped one past Andrei Vasilevskiy early in the first period. Victor Hedman then tied it. And then, the Lightning put on a dominant effort for long stretches, including 12 minutes where the Islanders didn’t record a shot on goal, spanning from late in the first period to the middle of the second. Semyon Varlamov seemed to be having an unstoppable night, as the Lightning outshot the Islanders 48-27. The Lightning also got plenty of chances on the power play, but went 0-for-5 as New York’s penalty kill looked extra sharp. Finally, Anthony Cirelli who won it in overtime.
“Exuberance and relief,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said afterwards. For the Islanders, it meant an end to an incredible run. “This is one of the most resilient teams I’ve coached,” coach Barry Trotz said. “And I’ve coached for a long time.” Full recap
Three stars
Anthony Cirelli, F, Tampa Bay Lightning
Overtime winner to clinch the series. Enough said.
0:34
Barclay Goodrow passes to Anthony Cirelli, whose shot bounces off the post and Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov’s leg before it goes in to win it for Tampa Bay.
Semyon Varlamov, G, New York Islanders
Varlamov turned away 46 shots, a career playoff-high. He was sensational for the entire Eastern Conference finals, posting a .921 save percentage on 203 shots.
Victor Hedman, D, Tampa Bay Lightning
Hedman is the fifth defenseman in NHL postseason history to record nine goals in a single season. Three of the previous four were on teams that won the Stanley Cup that season.
Next on the schedule
Stanley Cup Final, Game 1: Dallas Stars at Tampa Bay Lightning | 7:30 p.m.
For the first time in NHL history, a coach will face off against his former assistant in a Stanley Cup Final. Rick Bowness was on Jon Cooper’s bench in Tampa, but they had a mutual parting of ways after the playoff exit in 2018. The storylines in this series will be rich. The Stars haven’t won since 1999. The Lightning since 2004. “Whoever raises that cup, they’ll have earned it, that’s for sure,” Cooper said.
The NHL baked in a back-to-back set of games in the Final schedule — Games 4 and 5 — meaning the last possible day the Cup can be awarded is Sept. 30. “As for gas in the tank, I guess we’ll see, Cooper said. “This is unlike any other Stanley Cup Final where we’d get days rest. If you don’t go seven, you usually get days rest. We’re not here, but if you were going to tell me, ‘Hey Coop, you get to play in the Stanley Cup Final. You’re only going to get 45 hours to rest before the game but you’re going to get to play in it,’ I’m taking that all day.”
Quote of the day
“Ummm, my fingernails are gone.” — Lightning forward Patrick Maroon on what it’s like being the first team in NHL history to clinch three consecutive series in overtime.
Superstition of the day
The Lightning were happy to embrace — and touch — the Prince of Wales Trophy, as 48 members of the team’s traveling party came onto the ice to accept it.
There’s always the existential crisis for teams: to touch the conference trophy, or not? The Lightning decided to touch it, after distancing themselves during their last trip to the Final, in 2015.
“It didn’t work last time, so we tried touching the trophy this year,” Hedman said. “That was a no-brainer for us. We’re not superstitious, but obviously didn’t touch it last time, so this year we did. That’s the end of it. We won one trophy and now we’re going for the next one.”
Injury revelation of the day
After teams are eliminated, we finally find out the reason why certain players were “unfit to play,” or in past seasons, what those “upper-body” and “lower-body” injuries really were.
Islanders top-pairing defenseman Adam Pelech was a surprise scratch ahead of Game 6. It turns out, Pelech broke his wrist early in Game 5, but got through the rest of the game — an additional 32 minutes — on adrenaline. The injury requires surgery, and it was untenable for him to suit up in Game 6.
Bubble moment of the day
Lightning captain Steven Stamkos has not played this entire postseason as he rehabs an undisclosed injury. He has, however, stayed in the bubble, and there’s a slim chance he’ll be available for the Stanley Cup Final.
Nonetheless, here he was in Game 6; no one looked happier.
An injured Steven Stamkos supporting his teammates pic.twitter.com/oPr5GeiKoU
— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) September 18, 2020
“He’s our captain, he’s been our captain for almost every day that I’ve coached and he’s a big reason why we’re here,” Cooper said afterward. “This season he hasn’t played in the postseason, but he’s a big reason we made the playoffs, he’s a big reason we finished pretty high in the conference. What I loved most about it was the three assistant captains were going up there, but they wanted to make sure Stammer was a part of it, and he deserves to be a part of it. And that’s probably why you get to positions we’re in right now, is because everybody cares so much for each other, and they wanted to make sure he was in that picture.”