So the playoffs have become exactly the free-for-all the NHL has attempted to engineer for years. But it is far too easy to allow Tampa Bay and Calgary, first-seed losers, off the hook by citing some amorphous concept of randomness. Well, certainly Tampa Bay.
The Flames, blitzed in five by the Avalanche despite heroics by Mike Smith in goal, are a different case than the Lightning, having come essentially from nowhere (84 points last year and one playoff round victory since 2004) to post 107 points and win their division with an up-tempo, attack mentality that became reckless under tournament and Colorado pressure.
Calgary young guns Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan were nowhere to be found, while Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon (as dynamic a talent as there is in this league), Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen were everywhere doing everything. That’s obviously a simplistic overview of the five-game series that ended in a 5-1 rout on their home ice Friday, but the Flames simply were not ready for the moment. A shame, but no shame, for it is early in their evolution.
The Lightning, on the other hand, well, the Presidents’ Trophy winners embarrassed themselves, imploding under the duress inflicted by a hungry band that reasserted a junkyard-dog mentality and identity largely lost since that 16-game winning streak midway through 2016-17 while buttressed by high-end talent and brilliant work from my pal behind the Columbus bench.
Tampa Bay is now in that sweet and sour spot occupied by many big time teams throughout NHL history that stubbed their toes just as they were about to scale the summit. Some made it to the top. Others fell off the precipice to their demise. None of the successful teams, contrary to popular opinion, simply stayed the course.
The Red Wings of the ’90s are often cited as a precedent by which the Lightning can take solace — Detroit having lost a shocking 1-8 first-round to San Jose in 1994 before getting stunningly swept by the Devils in the 1995 Cup finals and being pummeled by the Avalanche in the 1996 conference finals in the NHL’s Last Vicious Series. The Red Wings, of course, then won the Cup in 1997 and 1998.
But though Detroit didn’t blow the whole thing up, in the parlance of the day, the organization made a dramatic move that turned the team from marshmallow talents into a collection of men of steel, and that was the trade for Brendan Shanahan a couple of days into 1996-97. Shanahan merely changed the course of history for the Red Wings, who never would have won without him.
When the Islanders of the late ’70s were first bullied out of the 1978 tournament by the Maple Leafs then taken out by the Rangers in the famous 1979 Battle of New York, there was much chatter about Al Arbour’s inability to win big games. Radar was never questioned again once general manager Bill Torrey pulled the history-making trade for Butch Goring at the 1980 deadline that triggered the dynasty.
The Capitals, who stumbled repeatedly climbing the rungs over the previous decade-plus since Alex Ovechkin’s arrival in D.C., made three coaching changes — from Bruce Boudreau to Dale Hunter to Adam Oates to Barry Trotz — between their first pratfall in 2010, as 121-point Presidents’ Trophy first-round losers in seven to Montreal, and their Cup victory a year ago.
So no, none of these teams won without making dramatic changes.
The loss of Victor Hedman, obviously compromised before he missed the last two games, played a role, and so did Julien BriseBois’ failure to fortify the depth on defense at the deadline. We are told the freshman GM was more than a bit snooty in fielding calls at the time, but the absence of a better seventh defenseman was not dispositive in the series.
Ryan McDonagh, who had such a good year, had perhaps the poorest playoff series of his career. By the way, remember when J.T. Miller was going to provide the talented Tampa’s the grit and physical element to create the time and space necessary to succeed in the postseason? No? Lightning coach Jon Cooper probably doesn’t either.
The Lightning were beaten to the metaphorical punch across the 200×85. Columbus’ talent and rigid discipline overwhelmed a team and a coaching staff that never came close to coming up with an adequate response. It certainly did not help matters that Sergei Bobrovsky outdid Andrei Vasilevskiy.
In 2015, the Lighting lost the Cup finals, in 2016 lost the conference finals, in 2017 failed to make the playoffs and in 2018 lost the conference finals by being shut out in Games 6 and 7 by Washington after taking a 3-2 series lead. Now this.
Even if BriseBois wanted to, he could not stand pat in this cap era. Brayden Point, maybe a bit more noticeable in the series than Steven Stamkos but maybe not, is going to get a massive raise, either voluntarily on the team’s part before July 1 or through an offer sheet that may be on the horizon. In order to accommodate that increase, surely the GM will attempt to move Miller’s $5.25 million-per obligation for the next four seasons. Ryan Callahan will likely be a buyout.
Tampa Bay has been a very good team for a fairly significant amount of time. But they have not been quite good enough to meet the biggest moment. If management wants to believe the club’s failure is simply a result of arbitrariness or randomness of the playoffs, or — and I love this one — just a bad week at the wrong time, then well, we’ll meet the Lightning here same time next year.