The Covid Cup

 The Covid Cup

    The Tampa Bay Lighting won the Stanley cup yesterday after a hard fought series with the Dallas Stars in the Stanley Cup Finals. But does this win come with an asterisks?

    Obviously this year has been like none we have experienced in our lifetime. Covid-19 has changed life as we know it, but its effects on sports has been enormous. 

    The series was played in an empty arena in Edmonton, Alberta taking away any sort of home ice advantage for either team. While the NHL did a great job of making it feel exciting, it simply was not the same.

    With the last quarter of the regular season being cut short it is hard to say if this year would have played out the way that it did without the effects of the pandemic. Would the seeding have been set up in the same order? Would the Lightning's road to the cup have been the same? There are so many questions left unanswered after this season, but in the end the Lightning got it done when it mattered most.

    In a year where so much has been uncertain, the Lightning did not let their hiatus from hockey effect them. They hit the ground running right out of the gate and were a force to be reckoned with until the final whistle. 

    That being said, people are still going to doubt their worthiness. Even going into the post season there were people talking about how this season does not matter. Why care about this year when people are just going to say it was not same? 

    That is just simply not how professional athletes think. If you talked to anyone in the Stanley Cup Playoffs you would know that this year meant just as much to them as any other. It was still a chance to play for the Stanley Cup, which has been most of these players dreams since they were little kids. 

    So in all the chaos of this year, lets not think about what could have been, but rather celebrate the history that was made. Congrats Tampa... you deserve it.

Tyler Stinson