The Tampa Bay Lightning’s lengthy season has just been cut to an end with their loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night in the Eastern Conference Finals. With the series going to a Game Seven, it was very entertaining for fans to watch.

Sadly for Lightning fans, they won’t be seeing their team play in the Stanley Cup Finals for the second straight year. With high hopes of redemption from last year’s loss in the finals, many fans were devastated by this year’s early elimination. Now they won’t be able to watch Lightning games until October, when the regular season starts back up.

“I had a feeling the Lightning were going to lose once they lost Ben Bishop, but Andre Vasilevskiy played great and I don’t think anyone is blaming him for the loss,” said Junior, Brian Seybold.

The team had heavily relied on Nikita Kucherov, Ondrej Palat, and Tyler Johnson just as they did last year, but Steven Stamkos’ untimely blood clot didn’t leave the team with many other options. All three players stepped up when it was needed, especially Kucherov, who took over for an injured Bishop during Game One.

Although the series went all the way to seven games, Pittsburgh was fairing rather well against Tampa Bay’s defense, outshooting them 268 to 178 as well as having more time on attack.

“It was fun going to all the watch parties with my friends and it sucked that we lost, but I think the Lightning had a good run this season. If they didn’t have all the injuries, I think they would have won the series,” says Junior, Catherine King.

The Lightning truly had an outstanding season considering all the injuries they had faced. The concern now is re-signing important players such as captain Steven Stamkos, Kucherov, Johnson, and Ben Bishop.

The future looks promising for the Lightning as long as they continue to play as well as they have been as of late. Making it to the Eastern Conference Finals two years in a row is not an easy task and definitely shows that this team has potential to win the Stanley Cup in the future.