2026 Season Preview: Tampa Bay Lightning

2026 Team Previews After four consecutive first round exits, this could become a make or break year for the future in Tampa Bay. The Tampa Bay Lightning were just one goal short of punching their ticket to the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2022. But you know what they say: close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. The Lightning may have won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2020 and 2021, and made it back to the Cup Final in 2022, but their results in the years that followed have not been anywhere close to the…