With the Lightning down 3-2 and playing Game 6 on the road in the franchise’s 2nd ever Stanley Cup Final, I flashback to a time when they were in their first Stanley Cup Final, a series where they were also down 3-2, going into Game 6, on the road.
In 2004, a scrappy young hockey team that everyone counted out took the hockey world by storm through their gritty, physical, tenacious play, strong defensive core, and high-scoring first-line.
Their fans packed the Saddledome every single night and would celebrate the team’s wins by parading around the streets, creating the Red Mile.
They were the Calgary Flames, they had upset the President’s Trophy winning Red Wings and looked to be a team of destiny.
They were Canada’s Team.
And I wanted them to lose.
Because to me, there was no team that deserved the Stanley Cup more, than the 2004 Tampa Bay Lightning.
All-Time Teams: 2004 Tampa Bay Lightning
In 2004, Tampa Bay dominated the Eastern Conference, grabbing the 1st seed, and finishing only 3 points behind the Detroit Red Wings for the President’s Trophy. The Lightning had shown themselves to be a decent team with some quality scorers, having made the 2nd round the previous year, but not a Stanley Cup Contender just yet, having only registered a mediocre 15-13-6-1 record by the end of 2003. From that point on however, something just clicked, and the Lightning became the most feared team in the NHL. After the turn of the Calendar year, Tampa Bay went 31-9-2-5, including an 11 game unbeaten streak that went from the end of February to Mid-March. Some of these players probably had something to do with that.
Star Power (How Talented Were They?)
7/10
Martin St. Louis
Vincent Lecavalier
Brad Richards
Nikolai Khabibulin
Cory Stillman
Dan Boyle
Pavel Kubina
Fredrik Modin
John Tortorella
The 2004 Tampa Bay Lightning might have had one of the most fearsome first lines of the early 21st century. They were the top scoring line in the NHL that season, and they could beat you three separate ways. NHL defensemen had to pick their poison, between Brad Richards’ slick passes, Big 6”4 centre Vincent Lecavalier and his surprisingly sweet hands, or the NHL’s leading scorer and MVP that season, as chosen by the players and the writers, undrafted winger Martin St. Louis, who had a cannon of a shot for a guy who was only listed at 5”8, 180.
Often overlooked because of his size, St. Louis couldn’t find a way into the NHL, even though he was consistently one of the top scorers in the NCAA and a two-time finalist for the Hobey Baker. The Calgary Flames took a chance on him in 1998, but would buy out his contract only two seasons later when there was a change in management. (BET THAT ONE STINGS DOESN’T IT FLAMES FANS?!) After finally getting a decent opportunity with Tampa Bay, St. Louis proceeded to tear up the NHL.
On top of that, the Bolts still had veteran Cory Stillman, who came over from St. Louis to put up a career-high 80 points, good enough to tie him for 7th in league scoring. Rising defenceman and future Olympic Gold Medallist Dan Boyle had 39 points from the backend, yet despite leading the Bolts D in points it was his Czech partner Pavel Kubina that was named to the Eastern Conference All-Star team. The Lightning also had great secondary scoring that they could rely upon, most notably from the likes of Fredrik Modin, who the team acquired in 1999 for Cory Cross and a 7th round pick. Modin was a Lightning hero that postseason, scoring 19 points in 23 games during the 2004 playoffs. Why does nobody in Toronto bring up losing Modin? Because it’s only the 56th worst decision the Leafs have made since 1967.
Tampa Bay’s coach also happened to win the Jack Adams award that season, as best coach in the NHL. The Coach? Everybody’s favourite human being, John Tortorella.
Cinderella Factor (Were They A Big Underdog?)
3/10
The only way you could see the Lightning as a nice come-from-behind story was if you looked at how far the organization had come from a long term perspective. The Tampa Bay Lightning were founded in 1992 and in the 10 Lightning seasons before 2002-03, the Lightning had made the playoffs just once, in the 1995-96 season, where they finished in 8th place in the Eastern Conference and lost in the first round to the Philadelphia Flyers in 6 games. Before 2003, the Lightning had finished no better than 13th in the Eastern Conference, 5 years in a row. Tampa Bay had basically become the NHL’s model franchise for futility.
So what happened in the 2002-03 season then? Well, you could say Lightning finally struck. Tampa Bay’s young stars finally broke out, with Vincent Lecavalier scoring 78 points, Brad Richards scoring 74, and a little undrafted right-winger by the name of Martin St. Louis, came out of nowhere to put up 70. The Bolts had their first ever 90 point season, and won the Southeast division for the first time in franchise history as Russian Goaltender, Nikolai “The Bulin Wall” Khabibulin, stood on his head and made his 4th and final all-star team. Tampa Bay would go onto beat the Washington Capitals in 6 games, before falling to the eventual Cup-champion Devils. Even though it was only a second-round exit, it was the best season in franchise history, and that gave the team a ton of confidence going into 2004.
Bandwagon Potential (Was It Easy To Root For Them?)
4/10
This team was a weird team in terms of bandwagon fans. For one, it was hard to root for the Lightning since they were the favourite coming out of the East that season, as they had pretty clearly shown everyone they were the team to beat. On the other hand, this Tampa team had sucked, and I mean REALLY SUCKED for years and years. The Lightning were a refreshing change for some who had grown sick and tired of seeing the New Jersey Devils represent the East in the Stanley Cup Final, year after year after year.
The Lightning also had possibly one of the Greatest OGWAC of all time. In case you don’t know, an OGWAC is short for Old Guy Without a Cup; an NHL vet who’s been in the league for years, yet has never been on a Stanley-Cup winning team. This narrative was most famously used in 2001, when Hall of Fame Defenceman, Ray Bourque, won a Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche in his final NHL game after 22 seasons, most of which were spent on the Boston Bruins.
Tampa Bay’s OGWAC was their captain; an NHL Veteran of 22 seasons, spent between the Buffalo Sabres, Toronto Maple Leafs, New Jersey Devils, Boston Bruins, Colorado Avalanche before finally arriving in Tampa Bay, Dave Andreychuk.
I really sympathized with Andreychuk, not only because he was one of the hardest-working guys in the NHL but was just never lucky enough to be on a championship team, but because he was a former Maple Leaf (who is still loved in Toronto for his part on those early 90s teams that have been Toronto’s best chance at a Cup in the past 50 years) and part-Ukrainian, just like myself! The name, Nolan Cattell, definitely seems about as far from Eastern Europe as possible, but my mother’s side of the family has Ukrainian roots, and her maiden name, Syrydiuk (That’s pronounced SIR-DUCK) is about as Ukrainian as it gets.
Andreychuk signed with the Lightning in 2001, a move which surprised many at the time, who believed he would sign with a Stanley Cup contender as he searched for his elusive Cup. The Hamilton-born winger had come close to a Cup twice before, reaching the Conference Finals twice with the Maple Leafs in ’93 and ’94, and with the Avalanche in 2000, when he came over with Ray Bourque from the Bruins. The following season, Andreychuk re-joined the Sabres, and the Avalanche went onto win the Cup, which must’ve felt like a punch to the gut. What’s worse is that this was the second year in a row this had happened to Andreychuk, who had left the Devils after the ’99 season to join the Bruins.
Instead, Andreychuk opted to join the cellar-dwelling Lightning in 200, a move which surprised many at the time, who believed he would sign with a Stanley Cup. Andreychuk gave the team’s young, developing stars like Vincent Lecavalier and Brad Richards a mentor to look up to, and a decision that many questioned, turned out to be the best one Andreychuk made in his professional career.
Playoffs/Championship Performance (How Did They Do On The Biggest Stage?)
7/10
The first two rounds were basically a cake-walk for the Lightning, rolling through the New York Islanders and sweeping the Montreal Canadiens in the first two rounds. Tampa Bay had a more difficult time with the Flyers, who took the series full 7.
In the Stanley Cup Finals, the Lightning went up against the cinderella story Calgary Flames, and came in getting more than they bargained for.
Despite having home-ice advantage for the finals, the Flames came in and defeated the Lightning in Game 1, only having to take 19 shots to put 4 goals past Nikolai Khabibulin for a 4-1 victory. 4-1 would also be the scoreline of Game 2…in favour of Tampa Bay, who evened the series as both teams left sunny Tampa Bay for Cal-town.
Miikka Kiprusoff, the Flames Goaltender who was having a Ken Dryden-like performance in the ’04 playoffs, would slam the door on the Bolts in Game 3 as Calgary won 3-0, but once again, Tampa Bay responded with the Bulin Wall getting a shutout of his own, his fifth of the postseason, as one Brad Richards goal was all Tampa Bay needed to tie the series.
It was in Game 5 however, where the series really started to pick up. Freddy Modin would tie it at 2 with 37 seconds left to send the game to overtime. In OT, Flames Captain Jarome Iginla propelled Calgary to victory, setting up Oleg Saprykin for the winner, after being hooked, held and losing his helmet, in what is simply known in Calgary today, as “The Shift”.
Now onto Game 6,
This is probably the point in my post where every Flames fan is going to want to skip so they don’t deal with PTSD flashbacks.
Calgary had the chance to win their first cup since 1989 in front of their home fans at the Pengrowth Saddledome. The place was hopping, and Cal-town sure seemed lit. Entering the 3rd period, the game was tied at 2. With around 7 minutes left in the 3rd period and Calgary in the Powerplay, Oleg Saprykin flew down the wing and centred a pass for Martin Gelinas. The puck took several bounces, the last being off of Gelinas’ skate, before Khabibulin stuck out his pad to make the save.
The thing is on replay, it didn’t exactly look like the puck stayed out of the net.
From one angle, it looks as if Gelinas has the series winning goal. (I don’t know what it was about Martin Gelinas, but he had a knack for scoring big goals. In 2002, he scored the clinching goal for the Carolina Hurricanes in OT of Game 6 against the Toronto Maple Leafs to earn the ‘Canes a berth in the Cup Final. In 2004, he scored the series-winning goal in OT of Game 7 versus the Canucks in the first round, the OT winner in Game 6 of the second round which eliminated the Detroit Red Wings, as well as the series-winner against San Jose in the Western Conference Final. This got him the nickname “The Eliminator”, and if this goal counted, he would’ve eliminated each of Calgary’s 4 playoff opponents that season. Insane.)
But from other angles, evidence was inconclusive that the puck crossed the line, and replay footage also showed that the puck was several inches off of the ice, making it seem as though there was white ice between the puck and goal line.To this day, Flames fans are still pretty adamant the puck went in, and that their team should have been raising the Cup in Calgary, and honestly, you can’t blame them. Anytime you get that close to the ultimate goal and it comes down to a referee’s decision, you’re going to be a little bitter. Sabres fans can probably relate.
No goals were scored for the remainder of regulation, and for the 2nd game in a row, extra hockey was needed. Just 33 seconds into the 2nd OT, Martin St. Louis, the hero for Tampa Bay all season long, kept his team’s season alive, while simultaneously crushing the hearts of Flames fans far more than they seemed to realize at the time.
For the 3rd time in 4 years, the Stanley Cup Finals would go 7 games. Not many people would think Tampa Bay is a serious hockey market, but the Ice Palace* was rocking that night. (OK the arena’s name at the time was the St. Pete Times Forum, and now it’s Amalie Arena, but neither of those are anywhere close to being as fun as the Ice Palace. Easily one of the best names for a Pro Sporting Venue ever.)
Game 7 of the 2004 Stanley Cup Finals will always be etched in my memory for 2 reasons.
There were tons of options for who the Game 7 hero would be. With the Lightning being the 3rd highest scoring team in the NHL that season, you had a lot of options, like the guys I mentioned above, St. Louis, Lecavalier, Richards, Stillman, Modin, Boyle, Kubina, Khabibulin.
Calgary wasn’t a group of slouches either, led by Superstar Jarome Iginla and a supporting cast that consisted of Gelinas, and Craig Conroy, and uhhhh……
All right well it was really a one-man offensive show in Calgary, nobody besides Iginla scored more than 50 points that season. But you could still reasonably expect Kiprusoff to stand on his head one last time!
Regardless, the Game 7 hero ended up being one of the unlikeliest heroes in Stanley Cup History. Coincidentally, it was the Captain of Ukraine’s National Hockey Team.
Ruslan Fedotenko!
Fedotenko scored both of Tampa Bay’s Game 7 Goals, and that is all the Lightning would need. Tampa Bay would beat Calgary 2-1, clinching their first ,and so far only, Cup in Franchise History.
In case you want to know how to absolutely butcher the call of your career, here’s Lightning Broadcaster Dave Mishkin, in the dying moments of Game 7.
The Cup had never been further south. Dave Andreychuk would no longer hold the dubious title of “Most NHL Games Played Without Winning a Stanley Cup”, finally hoisting Lord Stanley’s Mug, 22 years after his NHL career began.
The other reason why this game is so memorable, which my 8 year-old self didn’t even realize at the time; it was the last NHL game played for almost a year and a half. The infamous feud between the NHL’s owners and its players would extend into the fall, and completely erase the entire 2004-05 NHL season due to the lockout.
Epilogue
I could probably just link a highlight pack of John Tortorella freaking out at the press to summarize where Torts has been the past 11 years. Yeah I’m gonna do that. Also, here’s his Wikipedia page in case you’re a little lost.
2004 was the peak for Martin St. Louis, as he swept the NHL awards, winning the Art Ross, Hart Memorial, and Lester B. Pearson. That’s not to say his career went downhill soon after though, because it really just stayed at a level marginally below that. After the 2004 season, St. Louis represented Canada at the 2004 World Cup of Hockey and the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. Canada was victorious at the World Cup, but things didn’t go so well in Italy. He posted a career-high in points with 102 in 2007 and would score at least 80 every season afterward until 2011-12.
In 2014, St. Louis got off to a hot start, but was initially left off Team Canada’s roster for the 2014 Sochi Olympics; he had also been left off of the 2010 Team that won Gold in Vancouver. To say the decision to exclude St. Louis was a puzzling one, would be an understatement. This was not only because St. Louis was one of the league’s top scorers, but because Team Canada’s GM, Steve Yzerman, was his own GM in Tampa Bay. St. Louis would eventually be brought on as an injury-replacement for teammate Steven Stamkos, and he even though he would win an Olympic Gold Medal in Sochi, the damage had already been done. He requested a trade shortly after, and joined the eventual Eastern Conference Champion New York Rangers a few months later. St. Louis seems to have finally begun to regress this season, but he will still likely go down as one of the greatest undrafted NHL players of all time.
The face of the Lightning franchise and the 1st overall pick in 1998, Vincent Lecavalier, would join St. Louis on those Canada teams from 2004 and 2006, scoring this huge OT winner in the World Cup semi-final against the Czechs. Lecavalier would register massive point totals of 108 and 92 in 2007 and 2008.
Following the 2008 season, Tampa Bay inked Lecavalier to an 11-year, $85 million extension that secured him as a Bolt through the 2019-2020 season. Fun fact: When you sign someone to a contract longer than 5 seasons, it ends up being a terrible decision 90% of the time. This is not confirmed, but that number is probably very close to accurate. Ginny’s scoring ability would never reach the same level as they did in 2008, only getting to the 70 point mark once in 2010.
In 2013, the Lightning finally deemed that Lecavalier was grossly overpaid and bought out his contract, making their longest tenured player a free agent. Lecavalier would sign with the Philadelphia Flyers for 5 years and $22.5 million dollars, who he still currently plays for, but he is nowhere near the dynamic player he was in Southern Florida.
Conn Smythe winner Brad Richards didn’t have the same career statistical output as his Tampa Bay linemates, but he was still good enough to make, you guessed it, those same 2004 and 2006 Canada teams. Like Lecavalier however, Richards would not be named to another Olympic Team after the disaster that was Torino 2006.
The Lightning would trade Richards to the Stars at the trade deadline in 2008, as Dallas made a push to the Western Conference Finals. Even though 2008 would be the only year Dallas made the playoffs while Richards was in a Stars Uniform, he still averaged over a point a game in the Big D.
This would lead to one of the most over-hyped free agent signings in years, as Richards entered the 2011 Free Agent Frenzy as the premier player on the market, and would end up signing with the New York Rangers for 9 years and $60 million. Obviously it was a huge shock for me when Richards was bought out by the Rangers 3 years later, and by huge shock, I mean I didn’t even flinch.
I’m not saying Richards isn’t a talented player, but he was certainly not worth the contract New York gave him. In the offseason, Chicago got Richards on a flyer, 1-year, $2 million, and now the PEI centre, is one win away from winning his 2nd Stanley Cup… against the team he won the Conn Smythe for when he won is first.
After finally achieving his dream, Dave Andreychuk would play one more professional season following the 2005 lockout with the Lockout. Though Andreychuk did captain the Lightning to another playoff appearance, the team would be knocked out in the first round by the Ottawa Senators in 5 games. Andreychuk finished his career tied for 28th in scoring with Denis Savard with 1338 points. He also ended up having played 1639 NHL games, sixth most all-time. Despite his great totals, Andreychuk is not in the Hockey Hall of Fame, though he is still considered one of the best players ever to not be inducted. Andreychuk scored over 500 goals and 500 assists, but with all the games he played, some feel he should’ve scored a little bit more and that his numbers are inflated based on the era he played in. It’s the prestige that goes with the Hall, you need to be great, not just very good, and Andreychuk was only very good for most of his career.
I firmly believed the Calgary Flames would be back playing for the Cup in the near future, so I didn’t really feel for them when they lost Game 7 after having a 3-2 series lead. They had a solid young core, Kiprusoff was becoming an outstanding goaltender and they still had several more guaranteed years of Jarome Iginla lighting the lamp. The Flames would make the playoffs each of the next four seasons, and be eliminated in the first round each time. The front office finally decided they needed to go in a new direction, and the team entered into a rebuilding phase. Calgary returned to the post-season this year, and won their first series since 2004.
Iginla would be traded to Pittsburgh in 2013 in the hopes of finally winning his first Stanley Cup. He didn’t get it, and now he’s nearing the end with a developing Avalanche team.
The 2005 Lockout was likely the worst thing that could’ve happened to the Tampa Bay Lightning. After the new collective bargaining agreement was implemented, Khabibulin became a free agent and would go to Chicago for more money (before his own career began to fizzle out) forcing the team to put John Grahame between the pipes. Goaltending was the team’s main problem for the next two seasons, as they struggled to make the playoffs, and were easily dispatched in the first round in both 2006 and 2007. The Big 3 of St. Louis, Lecavalier, and Richards consistently performed each season, but a lack of support and virtually non-existent defence, caused the team to descend back into the NHL’s basement, finishing dead last in 2008.
But every cloud has its silver lining. Tampa Bay would draft future NHL Superstar, Captain and 60-goal scorer Steven Stamkos with the 1st Overall pick. They would follow this up by taking stud defenceman Victor Hedman, 2nd Overall in 2009.
With Stamkos and Hedman leading the way, and some help from a line of triplets, and another former Leafs Draft pick the Lightning are back in Stanley Cup Finals. The Bolts are down 3-2 in the series, and about to play Game 6 on the road, just like in 2004. Who knows, maybe another undersized, undrafted player who happens to be leading the team in scoring will be the hero tonight, just like in 2004.
nolancattell 
You must be logged in to post a comment.