Lightning Grounded in Another First-Round Loss

From 2020-22, the Tampa Bay Lightning won 11-straight series as they advanced to three-straight Stanley Cup Finals, two of which they won.

Since then, they haven't won a single series, or even really come close to doing so.

Despite making sweeping changes in the offseason, including swapping out longtime captain Steven Stamkos for Jake Guentzel, the Lightning end this season the exact same way they did last season, losing in the first round to the rival Florida Panthers in five games. Their showing in Wednesday's 6-3 loss in Game 5 with their season on the line was, quite frankly, pathetic, and emblematic of everything that went wrong in this series.

First of all, their home-ice advantage was really not an advantage at all. After posting a 29-8-4 home record in the regular season, the Lightning lost all three games at Amalie Arena by multiple goals. This problem has been ongoing for years now, as Tampa Bay has lost nine of its past 10 home playoff games dating back to the 2022 Stanley Cup Final.

Second, all the Lightning's offensive firepower basically meant nothing in this series. Art Ross winner Nikita Kucherov didn't score a single goal in this series and hasn't scored a goal in the playoffs since Game 1 of the 2023 first round, which is unacceptable for a player of his caliber, even with all the assists. Brayden Point, Brandon Hagel (when he played), Anthony Cirelli and more also had poor showings. Really, the only star who showed up on the offensive end was Guentzel, who had a team-high six points (three goals, three assists).

Another issue that goes hand-in-hand with that is their atrocious power play in this series. After Guentzel scored on their first power play of the series in Game 1, they failed to convert on 15-straight opportunities until Guentzel again scored in Game 5. They also had two separate five-minute majors to work with in that span and still failed, though one of them was at the end of a game they had in hand.

Finally, Andrei Vasilevskiy simply wasn't good enough in net, posting a .872 save percentage and a 3.27 goals against average. The Vezina Trophy finalist posted a .921 save percentage and a 2.18 goals against average in the regular season.

Yes, Florida made some questionable hits throughout the series, some of which went unpunished, but blaming the loss on that is the easy way out. The Panthers simply had their way with the Lightning throughout nearly the entire series.

After a third-straight first-round exit, the Lightning have some soul-searching to do this offseason. The hunger that helped them win back-to-back cups seems to have faded away recently, and they have to find some way to channel it again if they want to get out of this rut.