TB Lightning seem very similar to the 2010-11 Canucks

[waterboy65]

Even aside all of the improvements made by Tampa's individual players, TB has new assistant coaches (Halpern) and Lalonde in new roles that have completely transformed the way the Bolts play. The improvement on PKs makes TB worry less about playing physical and taking those penalties that are bound to happen when a team plays with more physicality. The improved face-offs mean the Bolts have more puck possession and they are able to get more shots on goal.

Lastly and no less important is CONFIDENCE! Any great team has confidence which comes from executing successfully. So while the success of a Presidents trophy does not gurantee any playoff success, the fact that TB has won so often has created an extremely confident team who is not shaken when the other team scores first or gets a good first hit in. Just last year, the Capitals gained the confidence from beating the PENS who had been their nemesis and imposed their will on TB which was a much less confident team! There are no gurantees in playoff hockey but TB probably has a greater chance than any other team to hoist the Cup!

 

[Gonzothe7thDman]

What a weird way to create an opportunity to flex winning a cup 8 years ago.

Tampa just goes about their job in a dominant fashion. Can't recall anything that I have seen/heard from the team that would lead me to believe they are "arrogant".

Not sure what the purpose of this thread was other than the first sentence in this post.

 

[Szechwan]

People need to stop comparing teams unlikability levels to the 2011 Canucks, the Canucks are the gold standard in this regard and they will never be topped. You'd need a team of 20 Sean Avery's whose pregame skate consisted of kicking puppies and clubbing seals to even get the conversation going. 2011 Canucks were generational ****s, don't trivialize that by mentioning anyone else in the same breath.

Also Tampa isn't unlikable in the first place, or very similar in any way so its kinda a moot point.

Ah this old chestnut. If my beer league team trained harder we would've swept the Bruins in 2011. It didn't happen, I'm shocked people still bring this up, another good reason to hate the 2011 Canucks, people are still trying to delegitimize their loss nearly a decade after the fact.

...you're commenting on a thread that mentions the 2011 Canucks arrogance in the OP, and the "arrogance" of theirs is mentioned so nonchalantly because everyone hated them. I'm not exactly emotionally scarred over them, ya know cause its a game and because they lost spectacularly anyway. I hate people making weak *** excuses to try and excuse that specific team, especially when that excuse applies to every team whose ever played in the NHL playoffs since like...well, forever. Its petty and small.

This man is shook.

8 years later, whew lad. Sometimes you gotta let things go.

 

[ArGarBarGar]

Ya I agree. Hopefully that’s the players focus as well.

It’d be a fun rematch for sure. Tampa is the best team I’ve seen in a while.

I would like Don Sweeney to drop a ‘well they’re a lock right’? comment rightt before the playoffs start ala Chiarelli after losing the Iginla trade. Always thought that added a little swagger to that Bruins team in 2013.

Anyway. Tampa is good no doubt. Better than the 2011 Canucks. Dive a lot less too which is nice.

Hopefully Boston can play them with a full roster and we’ll see how it shakes out. Beat Toronto first though.

So you aren't going to explain why you think Tampa Bay is an arrogant team?

 

[Kosmo Kramer]

To this day I still don't understand the hatred for that Canuck team. Their own country turned against them.
All of Canada outside of BC were cheering for Boston.

They were gooned out of the final and were painted as the biggest dbags, while the golden boy Bruins physically bullied those rotten Canucks and people loved it.

How does a team that followed the Sedins leadership of turn the other cheek get painted as the league's most arrogant team ever?

Kesler and burrows? Every team has their own trash talkers.

The Sedins were some of the classiest players around.

Maybe someone can explain because I missed the memo.

 

[OurlordAndSaviorKuch]

Can't even enjoy our first president's trophy in Franchise history without being called arrogant.

 

[Coach Parker]

I guess you forgot Vasilevky was out with a broken foot for a while

No, I didn't but when you compare the key injuries to other teams (every single team loses a player for awhile) you can see that Tampa Bay has had a very fortunate season. No doubt their ability to have a deep team and run all the lines plays into that.

 

[easton117]

So you aren't going to explain why you think Tampa Bay is an arrogant team?

Well for starters I’ve never heard any of them say anything I’d view as arrogant so ya. Enlighten me.

They’ve ragdolled the league. They should certainly be confident. Why wouldn’t they be?

If a guy says they want to keep getting better at this point that to me says the are focused and not mailing in games. As a coach or fan I’d want to hear that for sure.

Edit I’m a Boston fan btw. I hope they get cocky and lose in 4 in the first round. Their play and attitude doesn’t make it seem like that will happen though

 

[Szechwan]

As someone who was pretty young in 2011 and a Canucks fan can someone explain to me why that team was so hated by everyone outside of Vancouver?

Was it more due to the individuals on the team or the fans/media?

There were a couple factors to it.

1) Players. Kesler, Burrows, Lapierre, Torres.. These are all pretty talented players that double as pests. There's nothing more obnoxious than a pest that can bury. They all had plenty of "dirty" plays along the way.

Their top players were the Sedins, which the "old boys" type of hockey fan did not like or respect at that time. They were constantly called sisters, and a million other denigrating remarks because they didn't play a rough style of game- they just scored a ton. This lead to the team being considered soft.

2) Fanbase. As a Canadian city, BC as a whole jumped on the bandwagon hard. This lead to a lot of super obnoxious fans gloating, and just generally being dicks about the team's successes.

3)Playstyle. This stems from the Sedins a lot. The post-lockout NHL at the time had made huge efforts to speed the game up, heavily penalizing stickwork like slashing and holding. Gillis (also viewed as arrogant) built his team to take advantage of this. They weren't gritty in the least, they focused entirely on skill, with their mantra being "turn the other cheek, make them pay on the powerplay." They were mostly able to avoid super physical contests because their PP was so deadly, other teams were hesitant to play a rough style against them.

This ended in the playoffs. As you know, the refs put away the whistles and very few penalties are called. This is summed up in that Marchand/Sedin punching gif that makes it's rounds. To Sedin, this was what they did all season- take a couple punches, bury on the PP, and next time they'll think twice about punching you. Didn't happen in the Finals, in fact, I'm pretty sure they somehow both went to the box for that particular play.

 

[ArGarBarGar]

Well for starters I’ve never heard any of them say anything I’d view as arrogant so ya. Enlighten me.

They’ve ragdolled the league. They should certainly be confident. Why wouldn’t they be?

If a guy says they want to keep getting better at this point that to me says the are focused and not mailing in games. As a coach or fan I’d want to hear that for sure.

Apologies, I thought you were the OP.

 

[OurlordAndSaviorKuch]

No, I didn't but when you compare the key injuries to other teams (every single team loses a player for awhile) you can see that Tampa Bay has had a very fortunate season. No doubt their ability to have a deep team and run all the lines plays into that.

Well after past seasons where we have been decimated by injuries we were due a good injury free year.

 

[CupsOverCash]

Team that has never won big in the playoffs before (current roster), regular season dominating juggernaut, President’s Trophy clinched early, individual players likely to win several trophies, press calling them unbeatable, and even some of the players more recently with some pretty arrogant comments showing how highly they think of themselves.

This reminds me a lot of Vancouver in 2010-11. Team of destiny, arrogant players, press claiming Bruins have no chance in the Finals (especially after being down 2-0), etc. I wonder if neutral fans will start to despise the Lightning like they ended up doing with the Canucks by the end. As of now, most neutral fans admire the Lightning for what they are doing, but some of those arrogant, unlikable tendencies are starting to show up.

What lightning players are arrogant? You havent answered this question.

 

[Matty Sundin]

To this day I still don't understand the hatred for that Canuck team. Their own country turned against them.
All of Canada outside of BC were cheering for Boston.

They were gooned out of the final and were painted as the biggest dbags, while the golden boy Bruins physically bullied those rotten Canucks and people loved it.

How does a team that followed the Sedins leadership of turn the other cheek get painted as the league's most arrogant team ever?

Kesler and burrows? Every team has their own trash talkers.

The Sedins were some of the classiest players around.

Maybe someone can explain because I missed the memo.

They had a lot of players that werent very likeable and also they werent loveable underdogs like Calgary in 04 and edmonton in 06. That team was picked to win the cup start of the season and people just wanna see them fail.

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

I personally think this Lightning team will win the cup with very little difficulty, they’re just a cut above everybody else. Will be genuinely surprised if they play a single Game 7 along the way.

Nearly every team that looks a cut above the rest ends up failing. Don't know why it is but it just kind of works out that way for some reason. 93 pens, 96 wings, 2006 wings, 2009 sharks/bruins, 2010 caps, 2011 canucks, 2016 caps, 2017 caps...just a sea of failure.

Not saying Tampa can't win, they're still heavy favorites. But winning a cup is very hard, even for the best teams.

 

[Eisen]

I’m convinced if Edmonton played them in a best of 7 we would win. Regular season success and presidents trophies are often a bad determinant of who is going to win the Cup. If we end up facing them in the 2020 playoffs I’m going to say bring it on.

It is the best determinant we have. The Presidents Trophy winner wins the cup more often than any other position.

 

[Mathew Barzal]

To this day I still don't understand the hatred for that Canuck team. Their own country turned against them.
All of Canada outside of BC were cheering for Boston.

They were gooned out of the final and were painted as the biggest dbags, while the golden boy Bruins physically bullied those rotten Canucks and people loved it.

How does a team that followed the Sedins leadership of turn the other cheek get painted as the league's most arrogant team ever?

Kesler and burrows? Every team has their own trash talkers.

The Sedins were some of the classiest players around.

Maybe someone can explain because I missed the memo.

1. We have an obnoxious fan base and media base.

2.

a) We had a lot of players that the refs hated, so obvious calls were never made.
b) Players took it upon themselves to "sell" calls in order to get PP's, and we had a dominant PP with the Sedin's in their prime.
c) With the media zoned in on us, it was easy to hate us for having a bunch of divers.

 

[CupsOverCash]

Nearly every team that looks a cut above the rest ends up failing. Don't know why it is but it just kind of works out that way for some reason. 93 pens, 96 wings, 2006 wings, 2009 sharks/bruins, 2010 caps, 2011 canucks, 2016 caps, 2017 caps...just a sea of failure.

Not saying Tampa can't win, they're still heavy favorites. But winning a cup is very hard, even for the best teams.

I think it's a combination of some things. 7 game series against the best teams in the league makes it way more difficult than playing a team once in regular season. Also they have a gigantic target on their back. There isnt any sleeping on them. If anything the favorite is coming in thinking it could be easier than it is. So in a league where the talent actually I think is closer than people think in a 7 game series. Anything can happen. This is without talking about the luck involved too.

 

[Killer Orcas]

I heard they are building that statue of Chris Campoli anyday now.

You mean that Hawks team that won 3 Cups? Got ya.

 

[Kel Varnson]

There were a couple factors to it.

1) Players. Kesler, Burrows, Lapierre, Torres.. These are all pretty talented players that double as pests. There's nothing more obnoxious than a pest that can bury. They all had plenty of "dirty" plays along the way.

Their top players were the Sedins, which the "old boys" type of hockey fan did not like or respect at that time. They were constantly called sisters, and a million other denigrating remarks because they didn't play a rough style of game- they just scored a ton. This lead to the team being considered soft.

2) Fanbase. As a Canadian city, BC as a whole jumped on the bandwagon hard. This lead to a lot of super obnoxious fans gloating, and just generally being dicks about the team's successes.

3)Playstyle. This stems from the Sedins a lot. The post-lockout NHL at the time had made huge efforts to speed the game up, heavily penalizing stickwork like slashing and holding. Gillis (also viewed as arrogant) built his team to take advantage of this. They weren't gritty in the least, they focused entirely on skill, with their mantra being "turn the other cheek, make them pay on the powerplay." They were mostly able to avoid super physical contests because their PP was so deadly, other teams were hesitant to play a rough style against them.

This ended in the playoffs. As you know, the refs put away the whistles and very few penalties are called. This is summed up in that Marchand/Sedin punching gif that makes it's rounds. To Sedin, this was what they did all season- take a couple punches, bury on the PP, and next time they'll think twice about punching you. Didn't happen in the Finals, in fact, I'm pretty sure they somehow both went to the box for that particular play.

Fair enough. I remember finding it so weird that the rest of Canada weren't backing the Canucks (I was living in Saskatchewan at the time and got a good ribbing after game 7 at school).

 

[LemonSauceD]

Man did it ever feel good being a Canucks fan 8 years ago.

 

[DFC]

Well after past seasons where we have been decimated by injuries we were due a good injury free year.

What are you doing? Why would you say this out loud/in text? This jinx can't be unjinxed.

 

[Kcoyote3]

Hey guys remember when Vancouver was good?

 

[Video Nasty]

I’m not so sure about this comparison. The Lightning seem really battle tested at this point. Their finishes starting with most recent have been losing in the ECF, missing the playoffs by a point, losing in the ECF and losing in the SCF. Combine all that with laying waste to the league this year, they should go all the way.

I don’t see any arrogance from the organization being on the outside looking in. There’s some arrogance on these boards from the fans but not quite enough to make me not want to see the Lightning themselves win the Cup.

 

[King In The North]

No, I don't see the comparison.

 

[Oogie Boogie]

Mega oof