Duffer’s Dabbles: Lightning Poised To Join Red Wings In Unique Cup Feat

Is Steve Yzerman’s old team about to be doing to the Montreal Canadiens what only Yzerman’s current team has ever done? The Canadiens are appearing in their record 36th Stanley Cup final as they clash with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Following Friday’s 6-3 verdict, the Bolts, the team that used to employ current Red Wings GM Yzerman as their GM own a 3-0 stranglehold on the best-of-seven set. Montreal has lost nine previous Stanley Cup final series. Only one saw the other teams fans pulling out the broom and deploying them in a sweeping motion. That was the 1951-52 Red Wings.

Should the Lightning win the Cup, Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy would join Mike Vernon, Terry Sawchuk (four times), Turk Broda (twice) and Hap Holmes (twice) as the only goaltenders to defeat the Habs in a Cup final-clinching game. Vernon, Sawchuk and Holmes all played for Detroit. Broda was a Red Wings farmhand. The Lightning ended up drafting Vasilevskiy with a first-round pick acquired from the Red Wings.

Are Isles Stranded?

• Here’s how GM Lou Lamoriello can keep the Islanders core intact for next season. 
• Washington: How will Alex Ovechkin’s new pact with the Washington Capitals be put together? What’ up with Evgeny Kuznetsov’s tenure with the team? Sammi Silber takes a swing at both pressing Capitals issues.
• Detroit: Here’s some weird Red Wings history – a photo of the 1931-32 Detroit Falcons, at a train station in Montreal – the final photo taken before the boys became the Red Wings.
• San Jose: Is Brent Burns destined to finish his career, or even his current contract with the San Jose Sharks?
• Vegas: Golden Knights owner William Foley has formed “Foley Entertainment Group LLC.”