With the core still intact, Bolts take aim at a third-straight Cup

Early in his National Hockey League career, Tampa Bay Lightning forward Alex Killorn heard from multiple veteran players how once you win the Stanley Cup, the desire to win a second and a third is greater than it is to earn that breakthrough Cup.
Killorn didn't believe them.
"I just felt like I'd be so happy to have one I wouldn't really care (to win another)," he said.
He was wrong.
As Tampa Bay opened training camp for the 2021-22 season with its annual media day event at AMALIE Arena, Killorn and the rest of his Lightning teammates, the coaches and the hockey operations staff are even more committed to keeping the Stanley Cup in Tampa and lifting it at season's end for a third-straight season.

"Once you have that taste, you just want to get it again," Killorn said. "The moments, the adrenaline, all the feelings you have going through it, it's addictive. You want to win it again, just as much if not even more."

Winning the Stanley Cup the first time in 2020 for this group of Lightning players was the culmination of coming oh-so close in seasons prior. The Lightning were a Cup finalist in 2015, went to the Eastern Conference Final in three of four seasons from 2015 through 2018 and were the odds-on favorite to win it all as the runaway Presidents' Trophy winner in 2019 but couldn't quite get over the hump. Lifting the Cup in 2020 was about exorcising the demons of all those near misses.
The mantra to win the Cup in back-to-back seasons in 2021 was: Do you want to be good or do you want to be great? Lots of teams have won the Stanley Cup. Few have done it in back-to-back seasons.
The Lightning cemented their status as one of the greats in NHL history after defeating Montreal in the championship round in five games and raising the Stanley Cup on home ice, just 10 months after doing so in the Edmonton bubble.
By winning the Stanley Cup for a third-straight season, the Lightning have the opportunity for immortality, to be thought of not just as one of the greats, but maybe the greatest, to be in the same conversation as the Montreal juggernaut that won the Cup in four-straight seasons (1976-79), the New York Islanders franchise that followed the Canadiens by winning four in a row (1980-83) and the Edmonton team that won four out of five Cups from 1984-88.
"One was pretty cool, but to do it twice is special," Killorn said. "Imagine doing it three times how special that would be. Not a lot of teams do it twice, but to do it three times would be crazy. But it's a process. We're not thinking about the Stanley Cup Final right now. It's really about, we've lost some guys, we're going to have fill some holes in the lineup. We've made some good pickups. There's plenty of guys that are able to step in. We look forward to it. And whenever you have (Andrei Vasilevskiy) in net, you always have a chance."
The Lightning have plenty of new faces to work into the lineup and their system and their way of doing things if they wish to win the Cup again. The entire third line of Yanni Gourde, Barclay Goodrow and Blake Coleman is gone, Gourde heading to Seattle in the expansion draft and Goodrow and Coleman casualties of Tampa Bay's limited cap space. That line was a major reason the Lightning lifted the Cup in back-to-back seasons. Tyler Johnson was traded to Chicago in a necessary cap move. David Savard earned a hefty raise after signing with the Canadiens as an unrestricted free agent in the offseason. Luke Schenn signed in Vancouver in hopes of earning a bigger role. Curtis McElhinney wasn't extended a new contract.

But despite their limited cap space, the Lightning were able to fill some of those holes shrewdly. Corey Perry brings experience and is a proven playoff performer the Bolts have seen in each of the last two Stanley Cup Finals.
"He's still a pest on the ice to play against," Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said. "It's a guy you want on your team and arguably been one of the best players for his team come playoff time the last two runs."
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare is a 200-foot centerman who can kill penalties and win face-offs. Zach Bogosian returns after a year in Toronto and was a revelation for the Bolts as a trade deadline acquisition in their 2020 Cup run. And Brian Elliott is a veteran netminder who split the starts with Carter Hart in Philadelphia last season.
"We don't want to lose our identity," Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois said. "Our identity's always been based on pace, being hard to play against and pushing the pace. We try to bring in players that can complement that through various ways. It can be through skating, through thinking, through skill, through compete, fitness level. But we don't want to lose our identity. Our identity has always been built around pace. We draft accordingly. We develop in Syracuse accordingly. That's how we want to play games. That's how we think we can go out there and compete to win games and hopefully championships. The guys that we bring in, I'm really excited to see where they fit in when it's all said and done, in terms of lines, in terms of responsibilities on special teams, who plays with whom. I think that's part of why it's really exciting going into this season is the novelty of players that we're really excited to have been able to bring in, that are really good and have something to contribute to this team and see how it all comes together on the ice over the next few weeks or months."
Plus, the core of the Lightning, the group that's been there through all of the ups and downs of trying to win the Cup and then finally reaching the pinnacle, remains almost entirely intact.

"We look at our goalie, we look at our defense, our top six forwards, our power play, things like that have all stayed the same," Stamkos said. "That's what gives us a lot of optimism heading into this year."
The Lightning have a lot of wear and tear on their bodies after winning two-straight Cups. Spending two months sequestered in Toronto and Edmonton bubbles was a mental grind. A shortened, compacted 2020-21 season took a physical toll. The Bolts had only two-and-a-half months to rest and recover this offseason from the time they won the Stanley Cup on July 7 to the opening of training camp September 22.
But they're not about to use those as excuses. There's still plenty of drive left in the Lightning locker room to three-peat.
"Winning three in a row is enough motivation," Victor Hedman said. "For us, I don't think we need extra motivation. I think we're a hungry group. We're not satisfied. We're very happy with winning, but at the end of the day, we love that. We love winning hockey. We don't want to see anyone else raising that Cup, that's for sure. We want to go out there and do our best. It's going to be a process. There are going to be ups and downs throughout the season, but it's the way you handle that. You've got to be able to hit your stride when needed to.
"And as long as we have 88 between the pipes, we're in good shape."