Burns: Remembering September 28, 2020

On this date one year ago, September 28, the Tampa Bay Lightning reached hockey's pinnacle by defeating the Dallas Stars 2-0 in Game 6 of the 2020 Stanley Cup Final to win the series 4-2 and lift the Stanley Cup for the second time in franchise history.
It's still hard to believe when Bolts Nation woke up a year ago today, the Lightning were on the cusp but still hadn't climbed over the proverbial hump after so many seasons of near-misses and almosts. In the year that followed, the Lightning would win not one but two Stanley Cups, dream up a boat parade that would be the standard by which all other championship teams in the Bay Area would follow, and then do it again only to have the second half of the celebration cancelled due to, well, lightning.
The party at Raymond James; Nikita Kucherov hugging the Cup; owner Jeff Vinik chugging a beer poured by Kucherov; number one bull\\\\; $18 million over the cap; Vasilevskiy, I've seen coupons save more than you: all of that was still yet to come in the most eventful one-year period in Tampa Bay Lightning history.
Do you remember where you were when the Lightning won the Stanley Cup a year ago?
I certainly do.

I was deep in the bowels of AMALIE Arena in the office of the Lightning Vision crew covering the game with my friends and co-workers Gabe Marte and Mikey O'Halloran. In a normal season, we would have been on the road reporting on the game in person. Having to follow from afar was a different experience, but if there was anyone I was going to watch a potential Cup-clinching game with, it was those two.
I started coming to the arena to watch all of the playoff games after my internet went out during Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Final versus the New York Islanders and I lost the game feed for most of the second period, forcing me to listen to the radio broadcast to keep up. Dave Mishkin and Phil Esposito are remarkable at painting a picture for their listeners, but I still need to see the game to do my job. I had been covering the games from the comfort of my couch, but, from that point on, I decided to watch the rest of the playoffs from the arena. I mean, hey, if the feed goes out there, at least we're all in the same boat.
I remember cheering when Brayden Point scored on the power play what would end up being the series-clinching goal and cheering with my buddies in Lightning Vision and then hearing different groups of people hollering and clapping from various offices down the hall or viewing areas inside the arena.
As the final seconds ticked off and it became clear the Lightning were going to win, I tried my best to just step back and take everything in. The players talk about how those past playoff defeats motivated them: the loss to Chicago in the 2015 Cup Final when nobody expected them to be there, falling to Pittsburgh a year later in the Conference Final after holding a 3-2 lead in the series, getting shutout over virtually the final eight periods to lose in seven games to Washington in the 2018 Conference Final, the shocking sweep in the 2019 First Round to Columbus when the Lightning were the clear favorite after a historic regular season.
Those losses took a lot out of the staff too.
My first season with the organization, I got to cover the Lightning in the Cup Final against the Blackhawks. With a young team returning all of its core pieces, I thought there'd be many more trips to the Final. Some of those series losses were gut wrenching. It felt like with each passing year, the window was closing.
Seeing the players, coaches and staff celebrate by hoisting the Stanley Cup over their heads is something I'll never forget. Even if it was a bit bittersweet they were doing it in an empty arena over 2,800 miles and another country away in Edmonton while we celebrated inside another nearly empty arena in Tampa.
I remember doing a radio interview with my buddy and Bolts Breakdown co-host Jay Recher around 1 in the morning. Jay was broadcasting well into the night, taking calls from celebrating listeners and trying to keep the party going as long as people wanted it to. I can't remember anything I said on air, mostly just rambled in a bit of a fog, not really sure how to put into words how satisfying the experience had been.
I didn't finish writing my championship story until around 3 a.m. I mistakenly referred to Stars goalie Anton Khudobin as Nikolai Khabibulin, my mind somehow switching one Russian goalie for another in my deliriousness. A reader was still up and pointed out the gaffe right away, and we were able to make the edit. Appreciate the assist.
I think I walked into my house around 5:30 a.m. after finishing my work and celebrating for a bit with the staff that remained at the arena. Funny story: The game prior when the Lightning lost 3-2 in double overtime in Game 5 with a chance to clinch the Cup in the second half of a back-to-back set, I also arrived at my house after work ridiculously late. Probably around 4 in the morning. As I tried to quietly open the door, our dog Lola started barking. Then my wife came screaming around the corner.
Literally.
She was still half-asleep and yelling at the top of her lungs, thinking an intruder was breaking in. I'm simultaneously trying to calm the dog while telling my wife, 'Jess, it's me. It's okay,' until she snapped out of it. In the confusion I squeezed the car keys still in my hand and hit the panic button on my key fob, my car siren blaring while my wife is screaming and the dog is going nuts with the front door wide open.
Took us both about an hour to doze off after that unexpected jolt of adrenaline. I stayed awake a bit longer expecting the cops to show up at any minute and having to explain why there was a blood-curdling scream coming from our house.
The next day was a blur. The team plane landed at the jet center. One by one the players I'd covered all season but hadn't seen in 65 days since they took off for the Toronto bubble disembarked from the plane to a hero's welcome from their friends and family who were there to greet them.
It was emotional watching the players hug their wives and pick up their kids for the first time in over two months. My favorite picture I snapped from the experience was of Victor Hedman embracing his wife Sanna while the Conn Smythe Trophy he won as playoff MVP rested on the ground next to his feet. It really didn't hit home the sacrifice the team made until seeing those tearful homecomings on the tarmac.
Later, the Lightning re-enacted their Cup celebration from Edmonton to their families at AMALIE Arena. I sat on the ice on a carpeted area for media next to Jay. We watched and talked about how fortunate we were to be there, reflected on the paths we took to bring us to this point. It was surreal.
It still feels surreal.