When it comes to staying competitive in the NHL, the Tampa Bay Lightning play like they are immortal.

Since the Lightning won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2020 and 2021, and then reached the Final in 2022, rivals have predicted their imminent demise. 

For three consecutive seasons, we heard the Lightning were on the decline. But they essentially averaged 100 points per season.

Steven Stamkos left. Victor Hedman is 35 years old. There have been nights this season when you haven’t heard of most of their defensemen. A guy named Darren Raddysh is playing 21 minutes per night and leads the blue line corps with 12 goals.

But if you believe this team is on the decline, then you may want to check the standings. You will see the Lightning have won eight games in a row and sit No. 1 overall in the Eastern Conference with a 26-13-3 record and .655 points percentage. Last night, they pinned a 4-2 loss on the Colorado Avalanche who happen to be the league’s No. 1 team with only three losses in regulation.

Since this latest run of Lightning success started on Dec. 20, the Lightning have swept over the league like a tidal wave. Tampa Bay hasn’t scored fewer than four goals in any game. They have averaged 4.87 goals per game and only allowed two teams to stay within a goal of them.

No deep dive is necessary to understand why this franchise has been able to stay on top. Like most championship teams, they experienced the salary cap issues that eroded depth. Too many players deserved to be paid more than Tampa Bay could pay them. They had to say goodbye to players they would have preferred to keep.

But here we are four years after their second championship, and they rank second in the NHL in scoring (3.45 goals per game), second in goal-differential (+34), are tied for third in goals-against (2.64) and fifth in penalty-killing.

Nikita Kucherov is still on the team and he’s fourth in scoring and goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy is on the team and he’s considered one of the league’s top goalies.

But probably the No. 1 reason why the Lightning’s competitiveness has been impossible to kill is the presence of, GM Julien BriseBois and coach Jon Cooper. 

BriseBois rebuilds a section of this team every summer, bringing in players such as Brandon Hagel or Jake Guentzel or J.J. Moser. Some are more talented than others, but BriseBois pieces it together like he is putting together a puzzle.

And Cooper then takes what Brisebois gives him and molds the group into pure competitiveness. There’s a reason why he’s the NHL’s longest-tenured active coach. Â