The Avs won Game 6 2-1 in Tampa to win the Cup. Way too much offense and too little defense in front of Vassy. The Avs were a tremendous team this year.

As for the Bolts, there is no need for them to hang their heads. They went to 3 straight finals. No team has come this close to threepeating since the 1983-84 New York Islanders lost in the finals after winning the previous 4, 38 years ago. Since that time, no franchise has made it past the second round after winning back to back titles.

The Edmonton Oilers won in the cup in 84 and 85, then lost in the second round to Vancouver in 86. 

The Oilers again repeated in 87 and 88, then lost in the first round in 89 to the LA Kings. 

Pittsburgh went back-to-back in 91 and 92, but were taken out in the 2nd round by the Islanders in 93.

Detroit repeated in 97 and 98. The Avs took them out in the 2nd round in 99.

The last team to repeat before the 2020-21 Lightning were the Penguins again in 2016 and 17. They lost in the 2018 playoffs in the second round to the Capitals.

The off season should be interesting. 

 

 

Thrilled that the Avs finally broke through and fulfilled their promise that has fallen short for the last few years. They were clearly the best team this postseason, completing two sweeps and losing only one game on the road in the entire playoffs. And they did it with frankly mediocre to average goaltending. Could you imagine if they had someone like Vassy behind the rest of the team? Yowza. 

Colorado was clearly the better team but I thought Tampa's experience might pull it out. Impressive that the Lightning went three times in a row, even in defeat. And as @DragonFire said, Colorado fulfilled their promise after some missteps and look capable of winning again in the future. NHL playoffs are awesome - I have no real rooting interest and find myself on the edge of my seat for about two solid months!