LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE
Stamkos and the Bolts know regular-season domination guarantees nothing,
Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said in December that it looked like the Tampa Bay Lightning were better than every other NHL team.
About a month later, not much has changed.
The Lightning are running away from the competition in the overall standings.
Following a 2-0 victory in Dallas on Tuesday, Tampa had 74 points — 10 better than the Calgary Flames in the race for the Presidents’ Trophy and 16 clear of Toronto for first in the Atlantic Division. The Lightning (369-2) have the league’s best home and road records, and have suffered just two regulation losses since the end of November (19-2-1).
They average an NHL-best four goals per game, have a power play that clicks at more than 29 per cent, and are on pace for 129 points. That would fall short of only the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens (132 points in 80 games) and 199596 Detroit Red Wings (131 points in 82 games), and equal the 1977-78 Habs (129 points in 80 games). The NHL’s best finish in the salary-cap era, following the lockout that erased the 2004-05 season, is the 124 points Detroit earned in 200506.
But a great finish in the regular season in no way guarantees playoff success. The Presidents’ Trophy, awarded to the team with the best regular-season record, has been handed out 32 times since 1985-86, but just eight of those clubs have won the Stanley Cup, while three others made the final. Six have been bounced in the first round, and four of the last five have gone out in the second.
Of the last 15, just two have lifted the Cup: Detroit in 2008 and Chicago in 2013.
The Nashville Predators had the best record last season with 117 points, but lost to the Winnipeg Jets — their Central Division rivals — in seven games in the second round. Predators head coach Peter Laviolette said his team never focused on the Presidents’ Trophy.
“We’re such short-term people — short-term goals, short- term teams,” Laviolette said. “It’s all about tonight, playing well tonight, trying to do the right things tonight.”
While the NBA has moved toward resting stars and veterans with an eye on the bigger picture, that hasn’t happened in hockey.
“We are trying to win (each) game,” Laviolette said.
Babcock won the Presidents’ Trophy with Detroit in 200506, but his Red Wings were dumped out of the playoffs by the Edmonton Oilers in the first round that spring. Detroit secured the best record again in 2007-08 and won the Cup.
Babcock, whose Leafs visit Tampa on Thursday, said he didn’t change his approach to the regular season after the sting of the previous early exit.
“I like winning,” he said. “I like coming to the rink and winning every single day. We didn’t push to win the trophy. We just came to work.”
Leafs winger Patrick Marleau was a member of the San Jose Sharks team that finished first overall in 2008-09, only to be stunned in the first round by the Anaheim Ducks. The 39year-old said there was some reflection that summer about how the group went about its business.
“It was disappointing,” Marleau said. “You definitely look at things afterwards and figure out what you could have done differently.”
But Nashville defenceman P.K. Subban said hockey players aren’t wired to ease off the throttle.
“I don’t think you could ever to do that,” said Subban, who made the Cup final in 2017 with the Predators — the second wild-card team in the Western Conference. “You have to play the right way going into the playoffs.”
A well-oiled machine up to this point, the Lightning have yet to experience a downturn in their play. Unfortunately for a number of Presidents’ Trophy winners, that often doesn’t come until the post-season.
“They haven’t gone through any slumps yet,” Marleau said. “If they don’t, then good on them.”
The Lightning have, however, endured recent playoff heartbreak. They were beaten by Chicago for the Cup in 2015 and lost in Game 7 of the conference final two of the last three seasons.