Lightning tops after long season

Defenseman Ryan McDonagh was preparing to answer one last question regarding the Lightning’s Stanley Cup championship when teammates Nikita Kucherov and Alex Killorn crashed the room, putting an abrupt and celebratory end to the news conference.

“Who’s next? Next question,” Kucherov said, looking into the camera.

With McDonagh stopping in midsentence, Killorn stepped behind the podium and said, “We’re not staying here all night, man.”

The wait for the Lightning — and the NHL — was long enough after the Lightning clinched the Cup with a 2-0 win inGame6 against the Stars on Monday night in Edmonton, Alberta.

The Lightning raised the Cup 363 days after the first puck was dropped on the 2019-20 season, and some 61⁄

2 months after hockey was put on pause due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“We knew what we were capable of with our whole roster, and we were pretty thankful to get the opportunity to come back and play,” McDonagh said.

“Right from day one, we were focused and dialed in on a mission. Andnow, we can say mission accomplished.”

The Lightning’s championship, their second after winning in 2004, was historic.

In becoming the first team to win the Cup after the month of June, the Lightning also became the first to win 18 playoff games, including two in a preliminary-round seeding series, as opposed to the standard 16. And the Lightning did so while spending 65 days in theNHLbubble, starting in Toronto before relocating to Edmonton for the conference finals.

“Obviously, we can go back and look at what’s going on in the world now,” said Maroon, who won the Cup last year with the Blues.

“I think a lot of us are going to sit back and talk about this one a lot, because this