Lightning spurred by motivational speaker on way to winning Stanley Cup

The Tampa Bay Lightning were challenged before the season to own their past failures, talk about them and ask themselves, "OK, what are we going to do now?"

It became a core covenant that helped them win the Stanley Cup with a 2-0 victory against the Dallas Stars in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Monday, formed when author and motivational speaker Jon Gordon spoke to players, coaches and management three days before the start of the regular season. The wounds were still fresh then after the Lightning were swept by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the 2019 Eastern Conference First Round, which followed 62 wins and the Presidents' Trophy for the best regular-season record in the NHL.
Gordon tapped into a philosophy he learned from UCLA women's basketball coach Cori Close called Hero, Highlight and Hardship by having the Lightning share a positive highlight and a hardship from their past. He gave a similar talk to the University of Virginia men's basketball team one season after it became the first No. 1 seed to lose to a No. 16 seed in the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, 74-54 to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County on March 16, 2018.
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One year later, Lightning coach Jon Cooper sat at a podium with his staff, UVA hats before them, explaining how players, coaches and management were spurred by the Cavaliers winning the 2019 NCAA championship.
"We used a little inspiration from Virginia basketball team and that hat's been with us for this whole time," Cooper said. "When you see somebody else do it you say, 'Why not us?' Basically, we went from the outhouse to the penthouse."
The author of "The Energy Bus" and "Power of a Positive Team," Gordon suggested focusing on who was inside the locker room in lieu of outside noise. The Lightning went 7-0 in games following a loss and won the Cup with forward Steven Stamkos unfit to play throughout the postseason except for a stirring 2:47 in Game 3, when the captain scored on his first and only shot after not playing a game in 211 days.

Like Virginia, Gordon said the Lightning were a team looking for answers ahead of a new season and how to tap into opportunity.
"I sense that they got it," Gordon said. "Sometimes what happens is they get it in a training camp, but it's not reinforced. They were hungry and they wanted different results and they were eager to create something different."
Tampa Bay had winning streaks of 10 and 11 games and were 43-21-6 (.657 points percentage) when the NHL season was paused March 12 due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus, but the postseason was where the Lightning needed to write a different narrative. They exorcised their demons with a five-game win against the Blue Jackets in the first round, including a five-overtime victory in Game 1, one Cooper said was vital to the eventual Cup win.
"We don't win that game, all of a sudden, doubt creeps in," Cooper said. "You need to see some sort of success. You need to feel it. You need to taste it. We don't win that game, who knows, Columbus might be in our head.

"In a team sport, I truly believe that failure, you have to feel it before you can have success. It keeps you up at night, but it also drives you, and it almost, the fear of losing becomes greater than the joy of winning. We got it done, and it wasn't without failures along the way."
They showed their resolve was stronger than last season by eliminating the Presidents' Trophy-winning Boston Bruins in five games in the second round and a double-overtime win against the Islanders in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Final that clinched their first berth in the Stanley Cup Final since 2015.
Virginia owned its past. The Lightning owned it by unlocking the secret: Healing the past and attacking a new opportunity.
"It all goes to the coach, it all goes to the leadership and how those leaders lead and whether they embrace and ingrain the mindset, the principles and how they take that forward," Gordon said. "Every great team will be tested on their victory march. They have to go through the training ground to see if they're worthy. They had to slay dragons."
It was one of many the Lightning conquered on a journey longer than any taken since the Stanley Cup became the NHL championship trophy in 1926. They waited five months to play a game. They were 12-3 in one-goal games during the postseason and 7-2 in overtime, playing more OT minutes than any team in NHL postseason history (221:14). They proved they were better by playing a heavier game, grinding out victories they couldn't when they were swept by the Blue Jackets the year before.
"We were finding our identity," Lightning defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk told NBC after winning the Cup. "Guys were still dwelling on that and anywhere we went, people were talking about the sweep against Columbus. And then once we realized we had a brand-new team here, lot of new faces … we looked at the University of Virginia men's basketball team and what happened to them and used that as a source of inspiration as well. Everyone to a man wanted to make this happen and had that hunger."
A 62-win team that failed got tougher and rode a core covenant to the second Stanley Cup title in its 27-season history and first since 2004.
"When I showed up, they were a team obviously looking for answers," Gordon said. "They were frustrated the year before, what happened and the results, and they wanted to create a new opportunity. I think that goes to the power of a coach ... you see the power of a coach with Jon Cooper, the power of an organization, the power of culture."