The reigning Stanley Cup champions might be on the ropes. The Tampa Bay Lightning, winners of consecutive titles, return home, down 2-0 to the Colorado Avalanche.
It’s not just the two-game deficit in the Stanley Cup Final, it’s how the Avalanche have won. Colorado jumped out to early leads in both games and, in Game 2, absolutely dominated Tampa. Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, one of the best postseason goalies in NHL history, was blitzed for seven goals on Saturday.
The seven-goal margin in Game 2 is the largest shutout in a Cup Final game in the last 30 seasons, according to ESPN Stats and Information. It was the third time in this postseason that Tampa had allowed four or more goals after not doing so in either of the previous two postseasons.
“Does it suck losing a game like that? For sure,” Tampa coach Jon Cooper said. “We’re not used to it. It doesn’t really happen to us.”
Vasilevskiy allowed nine goals in the first two games of the Eastern Conference Finals against the New York Rangers and the Lightning still managed to win that series. So there’s still hope.
Will the home ice make a difference or will the Colorado scoring barrage continue? We’ll find out in Game 3.
Did somebody say ‘chicken parm’?
Peanut butter and jelly. Batman and Robin. John Buccigross and chicken parm. The tradition of teams presenting Buccigross with the meal continued ahead of Game 3. The Lightning even got their mascot, ThunderBug involved.
With a side of fur just for @Buccigross 🤌 https://t.co/MMpSvWf4Gr pic.twitter.com/BPqyhMr9nA
— ThunderBug (@ThunderBugTBL) June 20, 2022
In case you needed a better look, our Greg Wyshynski has you covered.
ESPN Behind The Scenes: Preparing the chicken parm for @Buccigross on THE POINT, filmed in Super Sauce Vision! pic.twitter.com/zr4uiiFYme
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) June 20, 2022
Tampa Bay is down but not out
Is the situation ideal? Nope. Is the series over? Far from it. Will this Lightning hype video have Tampa Bay fans ready to run through a wall before puck drop? Probably.
Rewrite the story. ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/AwMiVyTMrY
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) June 20, 2022