The mayor of Tampa got her wish. Mayor Jane Castor wanted the Lightning to win the Stanley Cup at home in Tampa, in front of the team’s fans.

The only way for that to happen was for the Canadiens to win last night’s game in Montreal, so the series could shift cities, and that’s exactly what happened. Though it took the whole game and some overtime to be settled.

Lightning lose in overtime, 3-2 as Montreal avoids the sweep

So now we all have to wait for the Cup to be handed out in Tampa on Wednesday, unless of course this wish turns into a nightmare and the Habs win again on Wednesday at which point the series goes back to Montreal for another game on Friday. As you probably know, the moment Gary Bettman passes off the Cup to the captain of the winning team a line of dominoes start to fall in the realm of league business, and the off-season calendar begins with all the pre-draft trades, signings, and contract buyouts that have been planned out for weeks are finally announced. But we now all have to wait for another game to knock over that first domino and see what all the teams have ready to go.

A very Florida wrinkle in all this is the arrival today of Tropical Storm Elsa in the state. It will pass the Tampa area sometime overnight tonight. We’ll see if and how this impacts the game schedule later today.

Hurricane watch issued for Tampa Bay as Tropical Storm Elsa moves north

Matiss Kivlenieks

Blue Jackets goaltender Matiss Kivlenieks dies in accident - The Cannon
The Latvian goalie was just 24 years old when he died in a fireworks accident at a party in Michigan on July 4.

Other News

The new Seattle Kraken continue to fill out their staff roster.

Sergei Mozyakin retires from the KHL - TSN
The 40-year-old, who spent the past 10 seasons with Metallurg Magnitogorsk retires as the league's all-time leader in goals and points.

Penguins’ analytic department takes hit with loss of departing Sam Ventura - PensBurgh
[SPECIES: I guess Brian Burke didn’t like their Pittsburgh Models.]

Her fight with NHL over, Kelli Ewen wants to help partners of struggling players - TSN
Ewen’s husband, Todd, a 12-year NHL veteran player, died by suicide in 2015 and Kelli argued in a lawsuit filed in 2019 in U.S. federal court in California that the league used Todd to wrongly cloud the science over brain trauma, and profited off his fighting ability while never warning him of the dangers of repeated concussions. The NHL responded by seeking intimate details of the couple's relationship.

From The Branches