Life's Too Sports

For the first time since 2004, the Tampa Bay Lightning are Stanley Cup Champions. Despite faltering in Game 5 of the 2020 Stanley Cup Finals, the Lightning clinched eternal glory on Monday night with a 2-0 victory in Game 6. The deciding goal came off the stick of young phenom Brayden Point in the opening period, as the Dallas Stars mustered only 22 shots in the series finale. After falling in six games to the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2015 Stanley Cup Finals, Monday's victory had to feel particularly sweet for the Lightning, who endured 15 postseason overtime periods -- the most in NHL history -- en route to their second title. Emerging as the best in a 31-team league is no small feat, and the 2019-2020 NHL season tested this explosive Tampa Bay squad in more ways than one. After a four-month hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Lightning secured their spot as the 2-seed in the Eastern Conference following a series of mid-summer Round Robin matchups. However, a

Fresh off of Saturday evening's 4-1 victory over the Arizona Coyotes, the San Jose Sharks (29-20-5) traveled to Western Florida to take on the defending Eastern Conference Champion Tampa Bay Lightning (30-21-4). Backed by starting goaltender Martin Jones, the Sharks entered Amalie Arena on Tuesday night with thoughts of triumphantly avenging their 4-3 loss to Tampa Bay on December 5th. As the first period developed, however, it became clear that both Ben Bishop and Martin Jones were on top of their respective games. In fact, it wasn't until there was 2:09 remaining in the opening frame that either squad broke the scoreless tie, as Alex Killorn led a break for Ryan Callahan, who opened the scoring by burying his sixth goal of the season. Thus, San Jose entered the first intermission trailing 9-8 in the shot totals and 1-0 on the scoreboard. Nevertheless, the deficit wouldn't last long, as Joel Ward opened the second frame for his team by blasting his 16th of the se