Stanley Cup Final Takeaways: How the Tampa Bay Lightning won it all

Throughout this post-season, we've summarized each playoff series as its concluded by drawing meaningful takeaways from them. Whether it's been highlighting key team trends that have been bubbling to the surface or identifying specific individual strengths amongst the personnel, we've tried to determine what's been driving the success for the winning teams each time. 

Take the Tampa Bay Lightning for example, who we will be focusing on here after they most recently toppled Montreal in five games. What's helped separate them from the pack during this ride has been their ability to win in a bunch of different ways.

In Round 1, they held off a very game Florida Panthers team by simply going nuclear on the power play. In Round 2, they were able to overpower the Carolina Hurricanes by strategically winning the shot quality battle by a decent margin. In round three, they really leaned on their big guns to squeeze past the New York Islanders by a razor-thin margin. It's been an impressive array, befitting of the best team in the league.

Let's now take a closer look at how they did it against the Montréal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Final, and why they're once again Stanley Cup champions.