Lightning fans will hope this historical "early clinch" trend comes to an end this year

BarDown Staff

Ryan McDonagh , (Photo by Mark LoMoglio/NHLI via Getty Images)

The Tampa Bay Lightning are the talk of the town this season. The powerhouse team is built like a juggernaut with stars such as Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov leading the way up front, one of the league’s top D-men in Victor Hedman, and Vezina candidate Andrei Vasilevskiy between the pipes.

It is very possible that these players finish the post season with the Stanley Cup raised above their head, but first they need to beat an unfortunate historical trend that has sunk a couple teams in the past.

Tampa Bay officially clinched a playoff berth in just their 68th game. That means for the remaining 14 games of the season, they can officially start prepping for playoffs. It was such a fast clinch it actually became the 2nd fastest clinch ever.

Technically it was tied. The 2008-09 San Jose Sharks clinched in the same number of games, and the 2009-10 Washington Capitals did it in one fewer game, clinching following Game 67.

It certainly seems like company you would want to be in, but maybe not so fast…

The Lightning needed 68 games to clinch a playoff berth, tying the 2008-09 Sharks for the second fastest to a check mark in the cap era. The 2009-10 Capitals did it in 67 games. The Sharks and Caps lost in the first round in those seasons.
— Dan Rosen (@drosennhl) March 9, 2019

In 2009, the San Jose Sharks strolled into the playoffs with dreams of a franchise first cup. Unfortunately their efforts were cut short as they were only able to win two games in their first round series against California rival Anaheim Ducks. A big series from stars Corey Perry and Teemu Selanne, as well as two shutout performances from Jonas Hiller, spelled the end of a President’s Trophy season for the Sharks.

In 2010 the Caps were still looking for their franchise first Stanley Cup. When they matched up with the Montreal Canadiens in the 1st round all signs were pointing towards a Caps series victory. They even went up 3-1 in the series only to have the Habs claw back with three straight wins including a heartbreaking 2-1 Game 7 victory in Washington. Three of Montreal’s four wins came by just a one goal margin. Washington actually outscored Montreal 22-20 in the tight series.

Tampa fans will certainly be hoping that this is just a coincidence and not some sort of hockey god intervention. They’ve had such a promising team for years, and it really seems as though they’ve finally put it together.

(H/T Dan Rosen)