Burns: 3 Things we learned from going back-to-back

As the final 100 seconds were coming off the clock in Game 5, Tampa Bay clinging to a 1-0 lead, the Montreal net empty as the Canadiens threw everything they had into trying to produce the tying goal, Lightning forward Patrick Maroon sat on the bench and admittedly was overcome with emotion, the reality he would soon win the Stanley Cup for the third season in a row starting to set in.
"I was crying basically on the bench with 1:40 left," he said.
There were moments in those closing moments and throughout the Lightning's playoff run that brought them to the brink of achieving greatness, of winning back-to-back Cups, becoming just the ninth franchise in NHL history to so.

There was Barclay Goodrow throwing his body into the path of a Shea Weber blast from the blue line to prevent it from reaching the net. Weber has one of the hardest shots in the NHL, if not the hardest. Goodrow didn't care. He blocked it anyway then skated off the ice in obvious pain after sacrificing himself and went down the tunnel.
He came back a minute later. Didn't even miss a shift.
In the opening game of the Stanley Cup Final, Alex Killorn made a similar play, stepping in front of a Jeff Petry shot from the point. The force broke the fibula in his left leg, Killorn would reveal after Game 5. He had surgery to repair the fracture. Amazingly, he still tried to play in the series, even going so far as to skate in pre-game warmups prior to Game 4 to see if he could go.
"Warrior," Steven Stamkos said as Killorn was explaining the situation during their post-game interview.
There was Yanni Gourde dumping Nick Suzuki on his butt after the two collided in front of the Montreal net following a Carey Price save, Joel Edmundson cross-checking Gourde in the back and then trying to rip his helmet off and engage him in a fight in the hopes Gourde would earn a silly penalty and put the Canadiens on the power play with them needing a goal to tie.
Gourde didn't take the bait, smartly skating away.
"I had to keep it together there because obviously I'm not out there but watching these guys block shots and muck it up and do everything they can just to get an opportunity to win, I've been very fortunate," Maroon said. "I'm very blessed to be a part of three runs and three very good teams… It takes a group. It takes a group of 25 men and we did it, and I'm very proud of these guys. We worked in such a short season. I'm going to reminisce about this when I retire with my son."
"But right now, I'm just going to soak it all in."
As we all are.
Soak it all in Bay Area: The Tampa Bay Lightning are back-to-back Stanley Cup champions.

1. THIS TEAM IS SPECIAL
Before Game 3 of the Semifinal Round at the New York Islanders, Lightning head coach Jon Cooper was asked what motivates him and his team to win back-to-back Stanley Cups.
After all, the Lightning captured one of the most difficult Cups in NHL history in 2020 when they endured 65 days isolated in bubbles in Toronto and Edmonton and won four playoff rounds without the aid of fans in the stands watching them or their families nearby comforting them.
The mental fatigue added on top of the regular physical toll it takes to win a Stanley Cup is something no team will likely ever have to endure again.
The current season was no picnic either. Because the COVID-19 pandemic limited travel, some players weren't able to go back to their home countries to rest and recuperate like they normally would. The start date of the season was up in the air until about a month before it started. Teams basically had a week of training camp before starting up again. A condensed, 56-game schedule meant fewer rest days between games.
So, what was driving this Lightning team? Could you blame them if they just didn't have enough left in the tank to come out on top again following two of the most arduous seasons the League has ever seen?
Cooper explained it was a chance for greatness, an opportunity to be remembered as one of the all-time best teams in NHL history that motivated this team to persevere through all of the obstacles.
"I guess it's sitting here saying, 'Are you satisfied? Are you content? Are you full of winning? Is that it? Are you just going to do it once and be one and done? Most every team in this league is," Cooper said that day on Long Island inside the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. "Even Chicago in their runs, they won three Cups in six years but never did it back-to-back. LA won a couple Cups, didn't do it back-to-back. Pittsburgh is the one team that's done it in the last 20 or 30 years. And so, it's not being content. Don't take for granted, we win the Stanley Cup, that's the greatest memory I have besides the birth of my kids. But do you want to be special?
"And I think if you can go back-to-back, that team is special."
Tampa Bay became only the second team this century to win consecutive Cups, joining Pittsburgh (2016 and 2017). The Lightning are the fifth franchise to do so among clubs that joined the NHL in 1967-68 or later and the ninth different franchise all-time to repeat as Stanley Cup champions.
Tampa Bay won both of its Cups in a 282-day span, having claimed the first of those back-to-back Cups on September 28, 2020.
In a salary cap era, and with the parity the League has seen in recent seasons, going back-to-back is a remarkable achievement. This team will be remembered as one of the all-time greats.
"We know going forward with the salary cap world that this might be the last game that this particular group plays together," Stamkos said in the post-victory press conference. "I can't say how much that motivated us. We talked about it midway through the playoffs. We talked about it going into Game 5 of the Islanders series. 'Let's take advantage of this opportunity.' It's not very often you get this chance to play with a talented team like we did. We just believed. It's so hard to win the Stanley Cup and then you do it two years in a row, you deserve to go down in history, and this group, no matter what happens from here on out, this group is going to be etched in history forever and that's pretty f'n special. I'm so proud of the guys. You can't soak it in yet, it's so fresh, it's so new. You don't even realize what's going to happen. We won the Stanley Cup. We still have the Stanley Cup. That's just amazing."

2. THE NO-BRAINER CONN SMYTHE PICK
Nikita Kucherov came into the post-game interview room while Victor Hedman, Steven Stamkos and Alex Killorn were wrapping up shirtless and holding a Bud Light in his right hand.
"Get ready for the main event," Killorn said, laughing.
Kucherov did his media session by himself, clapping and throwing up two fingers as he began, indicating he was now a two-time Cup champion.
The first question he fielded, he was asked to describe his emotions. He said he couldn't sleep for three nights. Winning the game was huge.
And then, unsolicited, he started talking about his friend and teammate Andrei Vasilevskiy, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff's most valuable player.
"Vasy was outstanding," he said. "MVP. I was telling him every day, Vasy, you're MVP. You're the best player. And then they gave it to the guy in Vegas, the Vezina, and then last year they give Vezina to somebody else. Number one bull\\\\. Number one bull\\\\. Vasy took both Cups. He took MVP and I keep telling him, he's the MVP. He's the best. He was on his head today. He kept us in the game. Another shutout by him, remarkable."
Vasilevskiy's bounce-back ability in games following a loss is maybe even more remarkable. He improved to 14-0 in games coming off defeat over the past two postseasons, allowing only 19 combined goals in those 14 victories, an unheard of .952 save percentage in such situations.
He becomes the second goalie in the NHL's expansion era to claim back-to-back Stanley Cup wins as the only goalie to play in the team's postseason games, joining Ken Dryden (1976-78 MTL).
"He makes guys like us look good is what he does," Cooper said. "What is remarkable to me, I can't believe how he shuts the door in the biggest games of his career. What is it, five now? He's the big cat. When he locks in, he is remarkable to watch. You look at the guy he's going against, let's be honest, the best goalie in my era, we just played against. And the best goalie now in this next era is the guy that won the Stanley Cup. I think hockey fans were privileged to watch two generational goalies play tonight. A torch has been passed. He is a luxury for us."
Vasilevskiy made all 22 saves to shut out the Canadiens in Game 5, his fifth-straight shutout in a series-clinching game, extending an NHL record he had already established earlier this postseason. He posted his fifth shutout of the 2021 Cup run, tying Nikolai Khabibulin's franchise record for most shutouts in a playoff season.
His biggest save came in the third period with the Lightning clinging to a one-goal lead. Josh Anderson camped out at the blue line and received a stretch pass, Montreal's most dangerous forward in the series getting a step on Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak as he sprinted in toward goal. Cernak did everything he could to disrupt Anderson without taking a penalty. Anderson was still able to get off a dangerous shot, but Vasilevskiy cut it down as Anderson barreled into the net, knocking it off its moorings and injuring himself temporarily.
It was the save of the game for Vasilevskiy and helped secure a second-straight Cup for the Lightning.
"Easiest job in the world," Victor Hedman said when asked what it's like playing in front of a goalie like Vasilevskiy. "He's just a competitor. He's never satisfied. He always battles to become better. I don't now what it is with those Russian kids, but they're just warriors. They're never satisfied. Kuch, Sergy, Vasy, they just work their asses off all the time and just try to be a difference maker. Very well-deserved Conn Smythe for Vasy. I don't know our record coming off a loss, I don't know, 13-0, 14-0, he's got a shutout again in a clinching game. I'm at a loss for words with this group. We battled through 65 days in a bubble to come home with a Stanley Cup. And then another difficult season missing Kuch for the whole year and him coming back and being a difference maker as well.
"Back-to-back champs, sounds pretty good."

3. IS THIS A DYNASTY?
It certainly feels like a dynasty, at least since Jon Cooper was called up from the team's American Hockey League affiliate in Syracuse and took over as the Lightning bench boss.
Just take a look at Tampa Bay's resume since Cooper's arrival:
- Playoffs in seven of the eight full seasons under Cooper (the one year they didn't go to the playoffs, Steven Stamkos played all but 17 regular season games after a lateral meniscus tear in his right knee robbed him of most of the season, and the Lightning struggled to transition from Vezina-quality netminder Ben Bishop to future Vezina-winning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy).
- Multiple NHL award winners like Vasilevskiy taking the Vezina, Victor Hedman earning the Norris Trophy and Nikita Kucherov claiming the Hart Memorial, Art Ross and Ted Lindsay in one season.
- Five appearances in the Conference Final/Semifinal round
- Three Stanley Cup Finals, including two straight in 2020 and 2021
- Back-to-back Stanley Cups, becoming one of only seven franchise in the NHL's expansion era to repeat as Stanley Cup champions
Name another team in the NHL that's accomplished more than the Lightning over the last eight seasons.
If you don't want to call them a dynasty quite yet, you have to recognize that they've been the NHL's most dominant team under Cooper.
"Has management and ownership and everybody put a magical group together? Yes Do we have star power of players? There's no doubt, and just gamers throughout the lineup. Everybody chips in," Cooper said after becoming just the 19th head coach all-time in the NHL to win two Stanley Cups and the fourth active coach to do so, joining Joel Quenneville, Mike Sullivan and Darryl Sutter. "I look at, it's just done different ways. Last year, Point and Kuch and Palat carried us to a Stanley Cup. This year you got it from them, but you got it from other people too. It's a remarkable feeling to be, especially when we were knocking at the door for so many years. We went from the new kids on the block that oh my gosh in 2015 these guys are so much fun to watch, they're going to be back again to all of a sudden it gets tilted and now we're the team that can't get it done to now you're throwing the word dynasty around. That's a huge wave of emotions in a seven-year, six-year span to go through. But this core went through it together and it is coming back, but it's so hard to win in this league. You've heard me say this until I'm blue in the face. This is a special, special group. And who knows? I guess we'll see if we can three-peat."
Do you need to win three for it to be a dynasty?
If so, I guess the Lightning will just have to go back-to-back-to-back next season.