You shouldn't kick someone when they're down but in this case I just can't resist.
The Tampa Bay Lightning won 62 games this year. They are now tied with the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings for the most regular season wins of all time. Tampa was a far and away the cup favorite coming into the 2019 post season and now their season is over after just four playoff games against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The Blue Jackets captured their first playoff series victory since their inception in 2000. They went all in at the trade deadline and made it into the playoffs by the skin of their teeth. If they had two less points they would have missed and we would have witnessed Tampa Bay beating up on the Montreal Canadiens instead (or so I hope).
There's no excuse for what happened last night. Tampa's head coach, Jon Cooper in his post game press conference stated that their record breaking season may have hurt them because they were so far ahead in the standings that they have not had to play tough hockey in weeks. I say that's bullshit, Jon.
Cooper had one of the best rosters ever assembled and when it came time to put up or shut up they took a giant steaming shit on center ice. They were out coached, out worked and out played at every turn. In game one Tampa quickly took a 3-0 lead, leading many people to think that this series would be a short one. People forget sometimes that hockey is a crazy sport and pretty much never goes the way they expect it to.
Between the first and second period of game one last Wednesday, Columbus head coach John Tortorella went into the locker room and told his team to "forget about X's and O's" and that it's a "fucking mindset" of believing that you can beat this team. The Jackets responded to those words and came roaring back in that game and pretty much dummied the Bolts for the next three games.
Tampa should be embarrassed. This is one of the biggest choke jobs in sport's history and probably the biggest choke job in hockey history. Their superstars are soft. Period. Steven Stamkos, who I have praised in the past, was a ghost. He's got a long way to go if he wants to be in the conversation with Crosby and Ovechkin. Those guys are clutch players who can put their team on their back.
When San Jose collapsed in the post season a few years ago they took the C away from Joe Thornton. Is this something that could happen to Stamkos after suffering a catastrophic collapse? We'll just have to wait and see.
Their best player Nikita Kucherov, couldn't keep his cool in game two and found himself getting suspended for game three after a dirty hit. That's not what real elite players do. They don't get frustrated and make a selfish play that hurts the team when they need him most. Enjoy your second straight Hart Trophy, Nikita. It was all for nothing.
Congratulations to the Columbus Blue Jackets. The whole world bet against you and you proved everyone wrong, including me. A lot of people predicted this series to go four games. The only difference is that they had the other team winning.
My final point is for Bruins fans. If we get by Toronto...which is going to be very tough, I don't think we should underestimate Columbus. They have proved how good they are.
PS. The NBA Playoffs are such garbage compared to the NHL Playoffs and I don't know how anyone could watch them over this. (No offense, Steve).
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