Titletown? Tampa Bay Lightning Win Back-To-Back Stanley Cups, 3 Titles Since 2004

The Tampa Bay Lightning entered the Stanley Cup Playoffs as the lower seed in the first round. Despite the low seed, the Lightning cruised and became the youngest NHL franchise to win back-to-back Stanley Cup titles.

What Happened: The Lightning defeated the Montreal Canadiens 1-0 in game five to win the Stanley Cup Finals four games to one.

The Lightning defeated the Canadiens with scores of 5-1, 3-1, 6-3 and 1-0 and had their only loss in the series a 2-3 overtime defeat.

The Lightning won their series 4-2, 4-1, 4-3 and 4-1 for a total 16-7 record in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The return of Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos for the NHL Playoffs was a key storyline for the team. Kucherov missed the regular season after posting 85 points in 68 games last season and back-to-back 100 point seasons prior to that. Kucherov had 32 points in the playoffs.

Stamkos had 38 points in 34 regular season games and posted 18 points in 23 playoff games.

One big story in the playoffs was the success of Brayden Point who had 23 points in 23 games including 14 goals. Point scored goals in nine straight playoff games, falling short of the NHL record by only one game.

Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the NHL Playoffs. The netminder started all 23 playoff games posting a 16-7 record, 1.90 GAA, .937% save percentage and five shutouts.

The Lightning join the Montreal Canadiens, New York Islanders, Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings, Philadelphia Flyers, Edmonton Oilers and Pittsburgh Penguins as the current NHL teams to win back-to-back Stanley Cups.

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Tampa Bay Sports: The win by the Lightning highlights recent success by sports teams in the Tampa Bay region. The city has won the last two NHL championships and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as reigning Super Bowl champs. With the last NBA and MLB titles belonging to the city of Los Angeles, two U.S. cities currently hold the last championships for the four major sports.

The Tampa Bay Rays have also had recent success and could be closing in on a title. The Rays have a 51-36 record currently, good for second in the AL East.

The Rays lost the World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games in the 2020 season.

Despite the success, Tampa Bay teams rank lower on the valuation lists. The Rays rank 29th by Sportico and the Lightning rank 21st by Forbes.

Hedge fund manager Jeff Vinik bought the Tampa Bay Lightning for $110 million in 2008. The value of the team has risen an average of 18% since 2011 and was listed at $470 million in 2020.

Betting Odds: The Lightning were favored by DraftKings Inc DKNG in the first round with odds of -152 vs. the Florida Panthers despite the lower seed and worse regular season record.

DraftKings listed the Lightning with odds of +800 to win the Stanley Cup, ranking behind favorite Colorado Avalanche (+400) and several other teams.

Odds from DraftKings show the Lightning as the second favorite team to win three Stanley Cups in a row in early odds for next season. The Colorado Avalanche are the favorite at +500, followed by the Lightning at +600 and Golden Knights at +800.