HIGHLIGHTS
- Tampa Bay clinches a playoff berth for the ninth consecutive season, tying Colorado for the longest active streak in the NHL
- Nikita Kucherov leads the charge with 124 points in 69 games, chasing a third straight Art Ross Trophy
- Full details on the Lightning’s roster, Vasilevskiy’s dominance, and what’s ahead below
The Tampa Bay Lightning are headed back to the playoffs. Again.
Tampa Bay clinched its ninth consecutive postseason berth on Saturday when the New York Rangers beat the Detroit Red Wings 4-1 in the afternoon. The Lightning didn’t even need to take the ice for their evening game against Boston to lock it in.
Nine straight trips to the Stanley Cup Playoffs ties Colorado for the longest active streak in the NHL. Toronto had been right there with them until the Maple Leafs were eliminated earlier this season. That says a lot about the sustained dominance Jon Cooper and this core group have maintained in the salary-cap era.
Nikita Kucherov has been the engine all year, sitting at 124 points (41 goals, 83 assists) in 69 games. He’s second in the NHL behind Connor McDavid and chasing a third consecutive Art Ross Trophy. Cooper called watching him play “poetry on ice” back in March, and it’s hard to argue with that when you look at what the 32-year-old has done. This is his fourth straight 100-point season and his sixth overall.
The supporting cast has been just as important. Jake Guentzel has 83 points, Brandon Hagel has potted 35 goals, and Brayden Point has bounced back strong after a scary knee injury earlier this season. Darren Raddysh has also emerged with 66 points from the blue line. Tampa’s scoring 3.60 goals per game, second in the league, and giving up just 2.77, third-best.
Between the pipes, Andrei Vasilevskiy — who dropped gloves with Jeremy Swayman in a historic outdoor goalie fight earlier this year — leads the NHL with 36 wins and a 2.34 goals-against average. The big Russian already owns the most playoff wins by any goalie in NHL history with 66, and he’s not showing any signs of slowing down at 31. His ninth straight 30-win season is another number that’s easy to overlook but shouldn’t be.
Tampa sits at 47-22-6 with 100 points, tied with Buffalo atop the Atlantic Division with seven games to play. The Sabres ended the NHL’s longest playoff drought at 14 seasons this year and have been a surprise contender. The Lightning won back-to-back Cups in 2020 and 2021, and while the roster has turned over since then, the standard hasn’t changed. The defending champion Panthers, who eliminated Tampa in the first round two years straight, are on the outside looking in this time around.
This group has been to three Cup Finals, won two of them, and now they’re gearing up for another run. With Kucherov playing like this and Vasilevskiy locking things down, Tampa should be a problem for whoever draws them in round one.
