Tampa Bay Lightning

The Tampa Bay Lightning, known as the Bolts, are a professional hockey team playing in the National Hockey League's (NHL's) Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. The Lightning came into the league in the 1992–1993 season, alongside the Ottawa Senators, after being awarded a franchise in December 1990. Needing a name, the new expansion team drew on the city and fans for ideas, drawing on various concepts, such as the Oceanics or Pelicans, but the ownership team was informed that Tampa was the lightning capital of North America, and the team had a name. The team has won Stanley Cups in 2004, 2020, and 2021, making them one of the most successful expansion teams of the 1990s.

Amalie Arena, where the Lightning play in Tampa, Florida.

Phil Esposito, part of the ownership group of the expansion Tampa Bay Lightning.

The 1990s welcomed a few new teams into the NHL, with various degrees of success, but one of the earliest of those was the Tampa Bay Lightning. Hall of Fame player Phil Esposito and his brother, Tony Esposito, had formed an ownership group based in Tampa, which began bidding for an NHL franchise in the late 1980s. As the NHL decided it would expand, the Esposito-led group lost one of their key financial backers, the Pritzker family, to be replaced by a consortium of Japanese businesses headed by Kokusai Green, a golf course and resort operator.

Further, the group faced competition from a rival group, which, on paper, was better financed. The expansion fee was USD $50 million, and the rival group only wanted to pay $29 million of the fee before starting play, whereas the Esposito Group was willing to pay the fee up front. This was enough for the Esposito group to be awarded a franchise, with Phil Esposito installing himself as president and general manager.

The expansion rules of the early 1990s were not as kind to the incoming franchises as they were to the Vegas Golden Knights or Seattle Kraken. At this time, Tampa was allowed to pick players, but teams were able to protect fourteen skaters and two goalies. Further, since the league had expanded to the San Jose Sharks in 1991, Tampa was not allowed to pick a goalie or defenseman from a team that had lost a goalie or defenseman in the previous expansion draft. This led to a difficult expansion draft, but despite the quality of players, the Lightning had relative early success on the ice.

The Tampa Bay Lightning needed a logo. Apocraphly was drawn on a napkin by one of the club's founders in a matter of seconds. The logo, which would be used from 1992 to 2001, was refined and involved a lightning bolt over a circular badge and blue lettering on top and bottom. The upper part had "Tampa Bay" written in bold cursive, and "Lightning" on the bottom was executed in a narrowed and italicized font.

The original Tampa Bay Lightning jersey, which would remain the template for their jerseys until 2007-08.

The logo held the main colors of the team's jersey, which used black as the main color with silver numbers and name bar with a drop shadow. The white jersey used black numbers bordered in silver with the same blue drop shadow. Similarly, on the colored jersey, there were white and blue stripes on the sleeves, bottom of the jersey, and shoulders; while on the white jersey, the white stripes on the sleeves and jersey bottom and shoulder were swapped with black. This template would be the Tampa Bay Lightning jersey until the 2007–2008 season.

The Tampa Bay Logo redesigned for the 2001 season and used until 2007.

The main badge of the Tampa Bay Lightning went through a minor redesign, refining the inner blue lines of the words to make them thinner and the white part of the outline a bit wider in an attempt to make the inscription brighter and more readable and to bring the logo's colors more in line with the changing color palette. The colors were more muted than the original in an attempt to appear more confidential and professional. During this period, the team also made changes to their jerseys, including swooping numbers and curved name bars, and the infamous "storm surge" alternate jersey. The team returned to a standard block font after complaints that the new font was difficult to read.

Forward Vincent Lecavalier in redesigned jersey and logo.

When Reebok came into the league, several franchises redesigned their look and pushed their jersey design into new territory. The Lightning were no exception. They underwent a serious redesign of their logo, bringing sharper lines to the lightning bolt and replacing the cursive script of "Tampa Bay" with a font closer to the older font used for the "Lightning" wordmark on the design. The "Lightning" wordmark would also be dropped. Otherwise, the team's colors remained the same. Meanwhile, the jerseys were redesigned along the Reebok templates, including flowing lines rather than the straight lines of the original jerseys and removing the lines at the bottom of the jersey. The player numbers were also included on the front of the jersey, making Tampa Bay one of the few teams to try putting the number on the front.

Redesigned and "simplified" Tampa Bay Lightning jersey and logo.

With a change in ownership came a change in direction for the Lightning. This culminated in a redesign of the logo and jersey to modernize the team. The logo was simplified, dropping all wordmarks, and has a white lightning bolt in a white circle on the blue home sweaters, or a blue lightning bolt in a blue circle on the white away jerseys. The early away white jersey also included a "Tampa Bay" wordmark above the lightning bolt that was eventually dropped. Further, the jersey offered a clean look with sharp angles and a smooth framing intended to evoke a sense of progression and energy, as well as professionalism.

The rebrand has received some criticism regarding the move toward what could be considered a simplified look, but it also offered a stronger, more identifiable look. Further, some criticized the new jerseys for being too similar to the modern Toronto Maple Leafs jersey, while borrowing a simplicity similar to the jerseys of the Detroit Red Wings. But others maintain it graduated the look of the team into a mature, professional direction.

Similar to other expansion franchises of the early 1990s, the Tampa Bay Lightning experienced ownership difficulties in the early years of the franchise. This began with the ownership group being tied to an alleged money laundering scheme for a Japanese crime family, reported to come through the ownership group's Japanese business consortium. By 1997, it was reported that the Lightning had debt equating to 236 percent of its value. This led to consideration of the franchise going bankrupt, with a league takeover not out of the question.

In 1998, insurance tycoon Art Williams purchased the franchise and pumped a lot of money into the team on the ice and the front office to build out the team's hockey operations. However, by 1999, Art Williams sold the team to William Davidson. Davidson would own the team for nine years and won a Stanley Cup as team owner in 2004.

Lightning co-owners Oren Koules and Len Barrie who would go through a messy ownership period.

In 2008, the team was once more up for sale. A group led by Oren Koules and Len Barrie stepped up to purchase the team, its rink, and 5.5 acres of adjacent land. This came after a time when the franchise was concerned about being moved, and the sale came during the financial downturn of 2008, further complicating the financing of the sale. But there remained hope in the market, which continued to raise high attendance numbers from its regular season and playoff success.

While the team was not moved, instead, difficulties appeared with the owners, turning what had been considered a success story in a "non-traditional" hockey market into one of the lowest-revenue-generating teams in the NHL, in a short time, which increased with the owner's financial difficulties and infighting, which led to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman spending a lot of time counseling the owners.

Lightning owner Jeff Vinik who helped turn the franchise around.

Two years later, the franchise would be up for sale again. This time, the team sold to Jeffrey Vinik, a Boston-based financial manager, thus ending the short, contentious reign of Oren Koules and Len Barrie. The sale, which saw Vinik purchase the Lightning for $170 million, came after the infighting, and fans did not immediately embrace the ownership change. Fans wanted nothing more than stability. That was what they would receive. According to some reports, Vinik made the purchase of the team in cash, rather than credit, and Tampa Bay Lightning had, for the first time in two decades, an owner that could support the club financially and with a similar passion for the team's on-ice success.

Vinik would not only be a successful owner, but he would turn the franchise around, making it profitable once again, during a difficult financial period. Further, Vinik sought advice from owners of other successful franchises, such as the owners of the Boston Red Sox, Boston Bruins, and Boston Celtics while he was living in Boston. From there, he further invested in the wider Tampa community, drawing fans to the rink by bringing the team to them. He poured an estimated $80 million into the Amalie Arena, renovating it to bring it to a higher standard. And he oversaw a team that won back-to-back Stanley Cups.

The Lightning played their first regular season game on October 7, 1992, in Tampa's 11,000-seat Expo Hall at the Florida State Fairgrounds. They played the Chicago Blackhawks, who they took by surprise winning 7-3 with four goals by forward Chris Kontos and included a lone fan throwing a hat on the ice in a time-honored hockey tradition of celebrating a hat trick, only to have security threaten to throw them out. Regardless, the fans in Tampa embraced their new team, while management pinned attendance hopes on snowbirds who flew to Tampa to escape their home's long winters.

Tampa Bay Lightning player during the inaugural season.

There was promise in that season. However, that game ended up being fool's gold, with the team faltering through the season under the strain of some of the longest road trips in the NHL, finishing outside of the playoffs and last in their division, but one of the better records of an expansion team of the era.

Tampa Bay playing at the ThunderDome.

After the promise of the team's inaugural season, moves were made. The first was shifting the Lightning to the Eastern Conference's Atlantic Division, which limited the team's amount of travel between games (in the previous division, their nearest division rival was 1,000 miles away). Similarly, the team moved into the Florida Suncoast Dome, which was originally designed for baseball, in St. Petersburg. The Florida Suncoast Dome was reconfigured for hockey and was renamed the "ThunderDome."

The team reworked their roster, acquiring goaltender Daren Puppa, left winger Petr Klima, and veteran forward Denis Savard. Puppa's play led to an improvement in the goals the team allowed, and despite bringing in veteran and scoring forwards, Brian Bradley's 42-goal season the year prior remained a team record until the 2006–2007 season. The team finished last in their division in the 1993–1994 season, improving on their inaugural season's 53 points for 71 points. The 1994–1995 season would be equally disappointing, with the team posting 37 points in the lockout-shortened season.

However, in the 1995–1996 season, the Lightning posted their first winning season and earned a playoff spot as the lowest seed in the Eastern Conference. However, once there, the team lost in the first round to the Philadelphia Flyers. The team set a record during the playoffs, with their April 23, 1996 playoff game, which drew a crowd of 28,183 fans in the ThunderDome, which remains the largest indoor crowd in NHL history.

Despite making the playoffs in the 1995–1996 season, the Lightning went the next six seasons without reaching the playoffs. Part of this came from disruptions caused by their off-ice ownership troubles, with those changes bringing in new coaches and new general managers, creating a certain level of inconsistency. However, the team was able to draft a nucleus of players that included Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis, Dan Boyle, and goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin. The team also had John Tortorella as an assistant coach in the 2000–2001 season, who would become the team's head coach in 2001.

In the 2002–2003 season, the Lightning won their first division title and met the Washington Capitals in the first round of the playoffs. The series went to six games, with the Lightning coming out on top to advance to the second round. Once in the second round, the Lightning met the New Jersey Devils, who would beat the Lightning en route to their eventual Stanley Cup win.

Tampa Bay Lightning with their first Stanley Cup.

The next season, 2003–2004, the Lightning returned strong, topping the Eastern Conference with 106 points. This was the first 100-point season in the team's franchise history. They went on to beat the New York Islanders in the first round, the Montreal Canadiens in the second round, and the Philadelphia Flyers to win the Eastern Conference title. Once in the Stanley Cup final, the Lightning met the Calgary Flames. The series went seven games, wherein Ruslan Fedotenko scored two goals to propel the Lightning beyond the Flames to win the franchise's first Stanley Cup in their twelfth season in the NHL. Forward Brad Richards won the Conn Smythe trophy as Playoff MVP.

The team returned to the playoffs in the next two seasons but failed to make it out of the first round. The team began posting losing seasons in 2007–2008 and 2009–2010. During this period, the team fired coach John Tortorella and replaced him with Barry Melrose, who would then be replaced by Rick Tocchet in his first season. In 2010, the ownership difficulties of the Lightning were resolved with the purchase of the team by Jeff Vinik. Vinik hired former player and Hall of Famer Steve Yzerman as a new general manager, and he was given the task of rebuilding the franchise after spending time working in the front office of the Detroit Red Wings.

Steve Yzerman in press conference announcing his hiring.

Yzerman's first major move was hiring Guy Boucher as head coach, making him the NHL's youngest head coach in the league. This turned out to be an auspicious hire, as the first-year coach turned the team from an afterthought in the Eastern Conference into a contending team. The 2009–2010 Tampa Bay Lightning team ended in twelfth place in the conference with 80 points.

Under Guy Boucher, the 2010–2011 team played to a record of 103 points, good for fifth in the Eastern Conference and a playoff berth. In the playoffs, the team would shock, beating the powerhouse Pittsburgh Penguins in seven games, after going down three games to one to the Penguins. In the second round, the Lightning swept the Capitals, who were the top team in the East and heavily favored to make it to the finals. In turn, the Lightning took the Boston Bruins to seven games, but the Bruins won the series.

Guy Boucher would bring the Lightning close to the Stanley Cup.

However, the next season, 2011–2012, would not be successful. And the start of the 2012–2013 season would be equally inauspicious, which led to the firing of Guy Boucher in March 2013. Following the firing of Boucher, the Tampa Bay Lightning promoted their AHL coach Jon Cooper to their head coach. While the 2012–2013 season proved to be lost, with the Lightning failing to reach the playoffs, the next season Cooper would lead the young core of developing players to the playoffs.

The NHL defines a dynasty team as any team that wins three Stanley Cups in four seasons. This definition has been altered over time, previously being defined as winning three consecutive Stanley Cups. But since the 1980s when the last triple consecutive Stanley Cups were won, the definition has been relaxed, especially in the Salary Cap-era where parity among teams and the length of the season have made winning consecutive Stanley Cups a nearly impossible feat. The relaxed definition has allowed the following teams to be classified as dynasty level: the Pittsburgh Penguins, who from 2009 to 2017 won three cups, with two consecutive cups in 2016 and 2017; the Chicago Blackhawks, who won three Stanley Cups from 2010 to 2015, and were a top team until 2019; and, for some, the Tampa Bay Lightning since 2014–2015.

John Cooper during his first season behind the Lightning's bench.

In Jon Cooper's first full season, 2013–2014, he returned the team to the playoffs, where the Lightning lost in the first round. It would not be until the next season, the 2014–2015 season, that the Lightning took the next step. The team had a core of players including captain Steven Stamkos, defenseman Victor Hedman, and forwards Nikita Kucherov, Ondrej Palat, and Tyler Johnson. Further, it featured rookie goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, who was backup for Ben Bishop. That year, the team finished with 108 points, for fifth overall in the league, and they made the playoffs, where they struggled in the first round against the Detroit Red Wings before winning in game seven. In the second round, the team upset the Montreal Canadiens in seven games. And in the Eastern Conference final, the Lightning beat out the New York Rangers in seven games. However, in the finals, the team lost to the Chicago Blackhawks.

Over the next few seasons, the Tampa Bay Lightning continued building the team, reaching the third round of the playoffs in 2015–2016, and again in 2017–2018, with a small blip in 2016–2017 when the team failed to reach the playoffs. However, none of that mattered as the 2018–2019 Tampa Bay Lightning posted one of the best regular seasons and one of the highest point totals at the time. This saw the team win 62 of a possible 82 games with 128 points, tying the record for most wins in a regular season in NHL history with the 1995–1996 Detroit Red Wings (a record that would be broken by the 2022–2023 Boston Bruins).

Core players of the Lightning who would put up a near-perfect 2018–2019 season.

The team was largely the same as the 2014–2015 team, except players had begun reaching their peak, while the team had added other stars to the lineup. Nikita Kucherov took home the Art Ross, Ted Lindsay, and Hart Trophies. While goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, who was the starting goaltender by this time, took home the Vezina Trophy for best goaltender. And the team won the President's Trophy for the top regular season team in the league. However, despite what some call a perfect season, the team would be disappointed in the first round of the playoffs, being swept by the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Retrospectives of the Tampa teams from 2014–2015 to 2018–2019 look at the lessons the team's core learned, and how that would bring that experience to the playoffs during the 2019–2020 and 2020–2021 seasons. Both seasons saw the league struggle with the COVID-19 pandemic, with the 2019–2020 season shortened and interrupted by growing outbreaks before the playoffs would be resumed in a bubble.

Tampa Bay celebrating their 2020 Stanley Cup win.

In the first round of the playoffs, the Lightning met the Columbus Blue Jackets once again, who had upset the Toronto Maple Leafs in the same way they had upset the Lightning the previous season. Game one of the series saw the Blue Jackets take an early lead, and questions over the Lightning overcoming playoff demons arose, until the teams were tied at 2 goals apiece. The game went to five overtimes in a goaltender battle between Andrei Vasilevskiy and Joonas Korpisalo, which ended on a fluky goal by Yanni Gourde. Many considered this the most important game of the playoffs for Tampa, as they went on to beat the Blue Jackets in five games.

Lightning's star goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Similarly, in the second round of the playoffs, the Lightning beat the Boston Bruins in five games. They then met the New York Islanders, a team built for playoff hockey with a defensive, counter-attack style of play. They beat the New York Islanders in six games and would meet the Dallas Stars in the Stanley Cup Finals. The Lightning defeated the Stars in six games to win the franchise's second Stanley Cup.

In the 2020–2021 season, Tampa Bay repeated the feat, becoming the second team since the 2004–2005 NHL lockout to win consecutive Stanley Cups. The regular season was reconstructed with each division competing against teams within that division and each division's top-four teams qualifying for the playoffs. The team got off to a quick start, though star forward Nikita Kucherov required surgery. Under the salary cap rules, a team does not need to be under the cap during the playoffs, which, with Kucherov's injury, allowed the Lightning to enter the playoffs $8 million above the salary cap.

Lightning captain Steven Stamkos celebrating their 2021 Stanley Cup.

During the playoffs, the Lightning met their state rival Florida Panthers during a physical, six-game series, which saw the Lightning win. In the second round, the Lightning met the Carolina Hurricanes again and beat them in five games. Their biggest challenge came in the third round, where the Lightning met the New York Islanders once more, in a tightly contested seven-game series before the Lightning played the Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Finals. That series was quick, with the Lightning winning in five games.

Lightning and Avalanche players shake hands after Tampa's game six loss.

In 2021–2022, the Lightning worked to continue their dominance and go for a true dynasty. They won their eleventh Stanley Cup Playoffs series and played the Colorado Avalanche in the Stanley Cup finals. This was, in the estimation of some, the first final in which the Tampa Bay Lightning were facing a team on their level, as the Dallas and Montreal teams of the previous two seasons had been surprises to reach the Stanley Cup finals. Whereas the Colorado Avalanche were a Stanley Cup favorite, as one of the top five teams in the league during the season.

In the argument for the Tampa Bay Lightning being a dynasty, the Lightning became the first team in the salary cap era to make the Stanley Cup final in three consecutive seasons. However, the Tampa Bay Lightning fell to the Colorado Avalanche in six games and fell short of the third consecutive Stanley Cup. The following season, Tampa Bay saw some regression in their point total, missing the 100-point mark, but returned to the playoffs where they faced the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round for the second time in as many seasons. However, unlike the year prior, the Leafs beat the Lightning in six games, and the Lightning found themselves out of the playoffs early for the first time in four seasons.