Tampa Bay Lightning lost the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs at the hands of Florida Panthers. However, this loss was perceived in a positive way by the General Manager of Tampa Bay. Julien BriseBois addressed the media at Amalie Arena on Friday Morning as part of the Tampa Bay Lightning’s exit interviews for the 2024-2025 NHL season, where he said, “The history is written by the Victors. When you win, you are perceived as being better than you actually are, and when you lose, you are perceived as being worse than you actually are. But the reality is that we have one heck of a great hockey team.” – Reminding us that even though the Tampa Bay Lightning lost the First Round of the best-of-seven series of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the team won a lot of achievements.
Tampa Bay Lightning has finalists for the Vezina Trophy, Hart Memorial Trophy, Frank J. Selke Trophy, and James Norris Memorial Trophy
Achievements as enlisted by their GM, “We have a Vezina Trophy finalist goaltender, we have a scoring champ / Hart Trophy finalist, we have a Selke finalist, and we could easily have had two. I think, when the voting results are revealed, I would expect that Victor Hedman will have finished 4th or 5th in voting for the Norris.”
GM BriseBois could not stop praising his team, Tampa Bay Lightning at the Exit Interview, “We have 435 goalscorers, 720 goalscorers, the third-highest defenseman group, an outstanding head coach, and an outstanding coaching staff. That’s the makeup of a really good hockey team. We finished first in the league in goals for, 4th in goals against, 5th on the power play, 6th on the penalty kill.”
Julien BriseBois talks about how hard it is to win a Stanley Cup Trophy
Then came the part when the general manager presented statistics regarding the pursuit of the Stanley Cup Trophy. Julien BriseBois said, “Like in the 20-season history of the salary cap era, only 8 teams can say they finished in the top 6 of those 4 categories(goals for, goals against, power play, and penalty kill) within the same season. 5 of those 8 teams won the President’s Trophy for having the best regular season. And of those 8 teams, 4 lost out in the First Round of the Playoffs. 3 lost out in the Second Round of the Playoffs, one made it to the Stanley Cup Finals, and none of them won the Stanley Cup.”
“It is important to be ambitious with our goals but also realistic with our expectations,” says Julien BriseBois at the exit interview of Tampa Bay
Talking about the reality of how difficult it is to win a Stanley Cup Trophy, the GM of Tampa Bay said, “Like, it’s really hard to win a championship! You need a really good hockey team, but you also need breaks along the way. And the reality is that only one team gets to lift the trophy at the end of the season. I think in our business, it is important to be ambitious with our goals but also realistic with our expectations.”
BriseBois looks forward to a fulfilling next season, “I really enjoyed this season’s team, enjoyed how they played, enjoyed how they competed. I’m excited about our future. On the one hand, I’m disappointed that our season’s over, but I’m also really excited for next season to start and for us to chase the championship again next year.”
Also Read: Game 1 of Round 2 – Florida Panthers vs Toronto Maple Leafs: Past series, where to watch, Stanley Cup and Series odds | NHL News – The Times of India
