Stated simply, if it were easy to win the Stanley Cup three straight times somebody would have done it since the New York Islanders won four straight championships, starting in 1980.
Wayne Gretzky twice won back-to-back titles in the 1980s with the high-scoring Edmonton Oilers, who had seven future Hall of Famers. He won the Cup four times and they won five times in seven seasons, but he and they never won three in a row. Mario Lemieux played for Cup winners in 1991 and 1992 and was an owner when the Pittsburgh Penguins won in 2009, 2016 and 2017 but he never won three straight. Steve Yzerman led the powerful Red Wings to titles in 1997 and '98 but they lost in the second round in 1999. No three-peat for them, either.
The Tampa Bay Lightning have a chance to earn a slice of hockey immortality and accomplish a feat that eluded those great Oilers, Penguins and Red Wings teams. They will continue their quest for a third straight Cup championship when they open the Cup Final on Wednesday in Denver against Colorado, which lost only two games in winning the West. The obstacles Tampa Bay has overcome to build a budding dynasty in a league that's structured to promote parity makes its story unique and extraordinary.
