The Tampa Bay Lightning are officially in the race for the 2026 Stanley Cup.
The Lightning clinched a berth to the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs thanks to the Detroit Red Wings’ 4-1 loss to the New York Rangers on Saturday afternoon.
Tampa Bay is 47-22-6 this season and currently sits in first place in the Atlantic Division. On Thursday, the Lightning became the fifth team in the league to reach 100 points this season.
Tampa Bay has now qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs for a ninth consecutive season, tied with the Colorado Avalanche for the longest active streak by any NHL team.
The Toronto Maple Leafs had qualified for nine straight seasons entering this year but have already been eliminated from the 2026 postseason.
Tampa Bay leads the NHL with 74 playoff victories since 2016, winning back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2020 and 2021. No NHL team has scored more playoff goals than Tampa Bay’s 372 over the last 10 years, and their 2.66 goals against average is fourth-best among all NHL teams.
Forward Nikita Kucherov—who is in the running for a third consecutive Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s leading regular season scorer with 124 points—ranks second among all players with 148 postseason points since 2015.
Current Bolts teammate Corey Perry leads the NHL in Stanley Cup Playoff games in that time, appearing in 147 games, and goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy’s 66 playoff wins are also an NHL-best.
The Lightning continue regular season play tonight with a 5 p.m. game against the Boston Bruins.
