Well I did say it was going to be a sweep…
What absolute anarchy we have just witnessed. The Tampa Bay Lightning, the best team of the Salary Cap Era (and probably ever), have been swept in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
My takeaway from this series is rather simple:
- Trading for good players at the deadline remains a good idea. Hopefully we’ll see more GMs swing for the fences like Jarmo did this March. The arrival of Duchene did wonders this series. Paired with Dzingel, they were able to split up the offensive scoring to make life harder for the Lightning. Stop being cowards, start being fun @NHL GMs. MORE BLOCKBUSTERS.
- The Lightning should not be given the criticism they are receiving. Every team has a bad four game stretch. Unfortunately for the Lightning it came at a poor time. Whatever you think of the value of the playoffs none of these guys have playoff issues, they’ve been to the final before and they will again. They destroyed teams for 82 games, and if that means nothing to you than the season has no real value and every team should make the playoffs.
All that being said the Playoffs are chaos.
A big part of the joy we have is watching upsets and this was the best upset we could get.
The Blue Jackets won this series on high end talent playing at their best. Not because they were grittier, not because they “wanted it more”. None of that none-sense. They played structured, smart hockey, and their elite forwards scored often. That is true modern hockey. It is very nice to see.
It also destroyed everyone’s playoff bracket or their fantasy team. I personally just lost 30$. THANKS OTTAWA. THIS IS YOUR FAULT FOR BEING BAD AND TRADING DUCHENE.
The Penguins also lost in 4, but they really did play Gudbranson and Jack Johnson often and intentionally, so we don’t care. They did that to themselves.