Whether Steven Stamkos plays again in the Stanley Cup final is beside the point.
His presence on the ice in Game 3 ended a 21-game stretch in the playoffs, including the round robin, that the Lightning played without their captain.
And that, in itself, was enough.
The 2 minutes, 47 seconds of ice time that Stamkos logged in the first period Wednesday allowed Tampa Bay to avoid being on the wrong side of an almost unbeatable historical trend.
For only once in the past 40 years has a team gone on to win the Cup without their captain playing in the postseason: the 1979 Montreal Canadiens, who completed their 16-game run without Yvan Cournoyer.
That Stamkos scored on his first shot, helping the Lightning to a 5-2 win and 2-1 series lead over the Stars, was a bonus.
A captain’s role in the postseason cannot be understated, especially with his team playing in the final, said Lightning television analyst Brian Engblom, who played two seasons with Cournoyer before the captain’s retirement in 1979.
“(Stamkos is) at the top level of the entire league,” said Engblom, 65. “He’s had a star quality for a very long time and has shown great leadership skills over the last three or four years. And he learned his way along. He watched the guys that he played with when he was a kid first coming in, and he’s a very smart guy and he carries himself very well. That’s always important for a captain.”
The 1982 Canucks saw the difference a captain can make when Kevin McCarthy suffered a broken ankle just before the start of the playoffs. Vancouver had to play all 17 postseason games without him and were swept by the New York Islanders in the Stanley Cup final.
The ‘79 Canadiens met a better fate without Conoyer, who hoisted the Stanley Cup 10 times in his career, including four straight as captain between 1976-79.
“It’s learning, and there was a lot to learn from Yvan,” Engblom said. “He didn’t talk a lot. He wasn’t a boisterous guy, but when he came in and said something, he meant it. And it was great that way. It was a great atmosphere to feed off.”
Engblom sees some of the same qualities in Stamkos.
Lightning players and coaches have reiterated that while Stamkos has been out of the public eye for much of the postseason, he’s been a consistent presence in the dressing room and around the team. You could see that Wednesday as he sat on the bench for the last two periods, celebrating and chatting with teammates.
“Just because Stammer couldn’t play physically on the ice, it didn’t mean he didn’t play a big part in helping us win,” coach Jon Cooper said. “His presence on the bench and a lot of the things he was saying to the group, it takes a team effort. Regardless if you’re on the ice or not, he was contributing.”
The Tampa Bay Lightning take a 2-1 lead in the Stanley Cup final against the Dallas Stars. Game 4 will be played on Friday.
While the ‘79 Canadiens got accustomed to playing without Cournoyer, who appeared in only 15 regular-season games after undergoing a procedure on his back, the Lightning had to adjust on the fly after Stamkos — who played in 57 of 70 regular-season games — took a step back in his recovery from core surgery at the start of camp in July.
Without Stamkos for 28 games going back to the end of the regular season, the team leaned on cornerstone defenseman Victor Hedman, former Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh, reigning Stanley Cup Champion Pat Maroon, team player rep Alex Killorn and 12-year veteran Kevin Shattenkirk.
With every game the Lightning won in his absence, the more time they gave Stamkos to recover and the better the chances of him returning while the team was still playing in the postseason.
While getting Stamkos back on the ice was important to the team, the Lightning are focused on bigger goals.
There’s still unfinished business for the nine players who lost in the Stanley Cup final in 2015, as well as those who were on the roster when Columbus swept the 62-win Lightning out of last season’s opening round.
“I know that Stammer and all of those guys have been talking about it since 2015,” Engblom said. “Having lost in the finals and finding out how hard it was to get to the finals. That’s an experience that you can talk about all you want, but until you experience it, you don’t know. You really don’t know.
“You get a taste of it, teams who win one round or two rounds, they’re getting an idea, but they really don’t know what it’s like until you actually get to the finals and then when you actually win, what that feeling is all about.”
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