Tampa Bay Lightning
After being swept by Columbus in the opening round of the 2018-2019 playoffs, Tampa Bay has won back-to-back Stanley Cups, providing a glimmer of hope to Leaf fans everywhere who see adversity as a precursor to greatness. Keep in mind, however, that Tampa already had a Stanley Cup Final and two Conference Finals to their name in three of the four preceding seasons prior to 2018.
Nevertheless, Tampa looks to be slightly inferior this season, what with the losses of Yanni Gourde, Blake Coleman, Tyler Johnson and Barclay Goodrow (their 4th, 7th, 10th and 11th leading scorers). Corey Perry and Zach Bogosian are the only notable additions to the roster.
The right side is also pretty bare after Nikita Kucherov…but what else can I pick apart here? This Lightning team played the entire 2020-2021 season without Kucherov and 18 games without Steven Stamkos and still finished 36-17-3 and 8th overall in goals for; this is the team to beat.
Stupid Florida and their stupid no income tax.
Tampa’s best fake NHL name: Amir Miftakhov. A mere one team left. Would you be miffed if left em off? (That almost worked).