{"id":181383,"date":"2026-03-06T22:54:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T22:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/181383\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T22:54:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T22:54:13","slug":"the-tampa-bay-lightning-just-sealed-their-stanley-cup-fate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/181383\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tampa Bay Lightning Just Sealed Their Stanley Cup Fate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you know the true lore behind Corey Perry, you&#8217;ll realize the Lightning&#8217;s folly.<\/p>\n<p>PublishedMarch 6, 2026 4:40 PM EST\u2022UpdatedMarch 6, 2026 4:40 PM EST<\/p>\n<p>FacebookTwitterEmailCopy Link<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">When trying to select a Stanley Cup contender this postseason, it&#8217;s hard not to pick a team like the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outkick.com\/category\/tampa-bay-lightning\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">As of Friday morning, they sit at the top of a very competitive Atlantic Division and are second in the league behind only the juggernaut Colorado Avalanche in goal differential (+49).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">In addition to all of this, they have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outkick.com\/sports\/lightning-players-hit-major-milestones-back-to-back-goals\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">some of the best players in the world<\/a> on their roster, such as Jake Guentzel, Brayden Point, and Art Ross mainstay Nikita Kucherov, all of whom have Stanley Cup Finals experience.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">With all of that in mind, it&#8217;s hard to think of anyone more equipped to represent the Eastern Conference in the Finals this year, but what about winning the whole thing?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">Well, as much as it may pain fans in the greater Tampa-St. Pete area, the Bolts made a move ahead of Friday afternoon&#8217;s trade deadline that may have just sealed their fate as Stanley Cup runners-up.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outkick.com\/sweepstakes?cmpid=org=ok::ag=owned::mc=editorial::src=ok_content::cmp=cbb_sweeps::add=cbb_Sweeps_Promotion\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Learn More About The Ultimate College Hoops Experience<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">That&#8217;s right, folks! Corey &#8220;The Worm&#8221; Perry (no relation) is heading back to Tampa Bay, where he spent two years in 2022 and 2023.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">Now, to the uninitiated, this looks like a pretty good pickup for a team chasing a Cup.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">While he&#8217;s a little on the mature side (he turns 41 in May), he has playoff experience and even won a Cup with the Anaheim Ducks back in 2007.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">But, if you know the true lore behind Perry, you&#8217;ll realize the Lightning&#8217;s folly.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outkick.com\/sports\/panthers-lightning-end-season-series-beating-life-out-each-other\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">READ: Panthers-Lightning End Season Series By Beating The Life Out Of Each Other<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">Since the start of the 2020s, Corey Perry has been on five Stanley Cup-losing teams, each one making it to the Finals before bowing out.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">His most recent stint in Edmonton earned him back-to-back heartbreaks in June, as the Oilers couldn&#8217;t get over the hump against the Florida Panthers.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">He is now Tampa&#8217;s problem, and you have to wonder why they even decided to make this trade in the first place.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">The Worm will likely be in the Hockey Hall of Fame someday, but hockey is a very superstitious sport, and the front office in Tampa had to be aware of his bad mojo.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">Everyone on the internet sure knows about it.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outkick.com\/sports\/jeremy-swayman-andrei-vasilevskiy-create-instant-classic-outdoor-game-moment-goalie-fight\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">READ: Jeremy Swayman And Andrei Vasilevskiy Create Instant Classic Outdoor Game Moment With Goalie Fight<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">The Tampa Bay Lightning are tempting fate and laughing in the face of the Hockey Gods, and that rarely ends well for anyone.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">Then again, maybe they are finally the team to break the Corey Perry Cup Curse.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">Time will tell, but if I were a Bolts fan, I&#8217;d be despondent about the fact that my team just seemingly pissed any chance of hanging a Stanley Cup banner this year down the drain.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">But, to paraphrase the Canadian Hockey Federation, The Prince of Wales Trophy shines just as bright.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you know the true lore behind Corey Perry, you&#8217;ll realize the Lightning&#8217;s folly. PublishedMarch 6, 2026 4:40&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-181383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}