Tampa Bay Lightning

The Tampa Bay Lightning are a National Hockey League team based in Tampa, Florida.

Franchise history

When Tampa was awarded an NHL franchise in 1991, the team's management brought in star power before they had any players. They hired 1970s Boston Bruins star Phil Esposito to be the general manager, his brother Tony as chief scout and Terry Crisp, who played for the Philadelphia Flyers when they won two Stanley Cups in the mid-1970s, and coached the Calgary Flames to a Stanley Cup in 1989, to stand behind the bench.

Related Topics:
1991 - Boston Bruins - Phil Esposito - Tony - Terry Crisp - Philadelphia Flyers - Stanley Cup - Calgary Flames - 1989

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The Lightning first took the ice on October 7, 1992, shocking the visiting Chicago Blackhawks 7-3 with four goals by little-known Chris Kontos--a scoring mark as yet unmatched by any Lightning player. The Lightning shot to the top of the Norris Division within a month before faltering to finish in last place. Their 53 points in 1992-93, however, is one of the best showings ever by an NHL expansion team, and Brian Bradley's 42 goals gave Tampa Bay fans optimism for the next season.

Related Topics:
October 7 - 1992 - Chicago Blackhawks - Chris Kontos - Brian Bradley

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The following season was an improvement, as the team picked up goalie Darren Puppa, left-wing goal scorer Petr Klima and aging sniper Denis Savard. While Puppa's play resulted in a significant improvement in goals allowed, Savard's best days were long past, Klima's scoring was offset by his defensive lapses, and the Lightning finished in last place.

Related Topics:
Goalie - Darren Puppa - Left-wing - Petr Klima - Denis Savard

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In their fourth season, 1996-97, with Bradley still leading the team in scoring, second-year Alexander Selivanov scoring 31 goals, and Roman Hamrlik (the team's first-ever draft choice in 1992) having an all-star year on defense, they made the playoffs for the first time. Although they lost the first-round series to the Flyers, it still remains a magical season for Lightning fans (and the attendance of 28,183 on April 23 was the most for any NHL game until the Heritage Classic ? a game played outdoors in Edmonton, Alberta in 2003).

Related Topics:
1996-97 - Alexander Selivanov - Roman Hamrlik - 1992 - April 23 - Heritage Classic - Edmonton, Alberta - 2003

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The Lightning picked up sniper Dino Ciccarelli from the Detroit Red Wings that off-season, and he would not disappoint, scoring 35 goals (in addition to 30 from Chris Gratton). The Lightning appeared destined for another playoff spot until Puppa and Bradley were injured and center John Cullen came down with cancer. Cullen survived, but the Lightning would barely miss the playoffs in 1997.

Related Topics:
Dino Ciccarelli - Detroit Red Wings - Chris Gratton - Center - John Cullen - 1997

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Most of the Lightning's stars from those first few seasons would be gone by 1998 due to free agency and trades, and most of the young guns they picked up would fail to materialize. The Lightning would go into a funk that they would not get out of for several years. Crisp was fired 11 games into the 1997-98 season and eventually replaced by Jacques Demers. The Espositos had been Puppa rarely played due to back trouble. They lost 55 (of 82) games in 1997-98, and 57 each in 1998-99 and 1999-00, becoming the first NHL team to post three straight 50-loss seasons.

Related Topics:
1998 - Jacques Demers - 1997-98 - 1999-00

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A major factor in their decline was the ownership. The original owners were a consortium of Japanese businesses. One of them, Kokusai Green, took over majority control after the team missed its first expansion payment. Rumors abounded as early as the team's second season that the Lightning were on the brink of bankruptcy and that it was being used as a money laundering scheme for Japanese crime families (the yakuza). Even after their first playoff run, the team was awash in red ink and the owners wanted to sell. However, even some franchise insiders (including Crisp) didn't know who the owners were, and one of the major partners reportedly didn't even exist. Finally, in 1998, after losing more than $100 million in six years, the owners found a buyer in insurance tycoon and motivational speaker Art Williams. Williams was widely seen as being in over his head and was an easy target for his NHL colleagues, who called him "Jed Clampett" because of his thick Southern accent and fundamentalist Christian views (he neither smoked nor drank and frequently used terms like "goldangit" and "dadgummit"). Early in the season before a game against the New York Rangers, he decided to give a pep talk to the team loaded with college football slang and bizarre catchphrases. The Lightning lost the game 10-2, and lost eight more games after that, effectively ending their season. By the spring of 1999, Williams had seen enough, and sold the team to Detroit Pistons owner Bill Davidson.

Related Topics:
Japanese - Bankruptcy - Money laundering - Yakuza - Insurance - Art Williams - Jed Clampett - Fundamentalist Christian - New York Rangers - College football - Detroit Pistons - Bill Davidson

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By 2003 the Lightning, led by the goaltending of Nikolai Khabibulin and the scoring efforts of Martin St. Louis, Vincent Lecavalier and Vaclav Prospal found themselves atop the Southeast Division and in the playoffs for the first time in seven years. Coming back from a two-game deficit, they beat the Washington Capitals in a six-game series, with St. Louis scoring the series-winner in triple overtime. The Lightning could not hold their own against their second-round opponent, the New Jersey Devils, however, losing that series in five games. Nikolai Khabibulin had a 3.0 GAA in that Series before being pulled in Game 5 in favor of John Grahame.

Related Topics:
2003 - Nikolai Khabibulin - Martin St. Louis - Vincent Lecavalier - Vaclav Prospal - Washington Capitals - New Jersey Devils - John Grahame

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After their breakout season, the Lightning finished the 2003-04 season atop the Eastern Conference standings with a franchise record 106 points, the second-best record in the league. In the first round of the playoffs, as the top seed, the Lightning ousted the New York Islanders, a team many had picked to upset the Eastern Conference winners, as the Islanders had given the Lightning much trouble in the past. However, this was not to be so, and with solid play from goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin, the Lightning went on to win the series by a convincing 4-1 margin. In the second round, the Lightning faced the Montreal Canadiens, the most successful NHL franchise ever. However, with at times jaw-dropping play from Lecavalier, playoff MVP Brad Richards, and once again, Khabibulin, the Lightning were able to sweep the Canadiens in 4 straight games. They faced the Philadelphia Flyers in the Eastern Conference finals, winning in a back-and-forth seven-game series in which neither team was able to win consecutive games, earning the Lightning their first-ever spot in the Stanley Cup finals. There they defeated the Calgary Flames 4 games to 3 to win their first Stanley Cup on June 7, 2004. Brad Richards, who had 26 points, won the Conn Smythe Trophy; in all 31 contests in which he had scored a goal since the opening of the season, the Lightning did not lose a single game. But a few months after that, the Lightning had absolutely nothing to celebrate: the NHL, because of a labor dispute, would enter a season-canceling lockout.

Related Topics:
2003-04 - New York Islanders - Nikolai Khabibulin - Montreal Canadiens - Philadelphia Flyers - Stanley Cup - Calgary Flames - June 7 - Brad Richards - Conn Smythe Trophy

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