The Tampa Bay Lightning were dominant for the entirety of the 2018-19 NHL season, so it's no surprise their final game before the Stanley Cup Playoffs cemented their place in history.
With a 6-3 rout of the rival Boston Bruins on Saturday, the Lightning not only wrapped up a Presidents' Trophy-winning campaign with momentum for the postseason, but also with their NHL-record tying 62nd regular-season victory -- a feat accomplished only one other time, by the Detroit Red Wings, in 1995-96.
THIS. TEAM.
These boys earned their 62nd win of the year to tie the @nhl record for most wins in a single season, set by the Detroit Red Wings in 1995-96.
What a crew. ⚡️ #GoBolts pic.twitter.com/3mMeI9tg1U
— p - Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) April 6, 2019
Tampa's 128 standings points also rank fourth among all teams in NHL history. And that's not all. By beating the Bruins in Boston to close their 2018-19 season, Tampa also becomes just the second NHL team to ever log 30 road wins in a single season -- second only to the 2005-06 Detroit Red Wings' 31 road victories.
All season long, the Lightning showcased historic production. Behind 126 points from likely Hart Trophy favorite Nikita Kucherov, one of three different Tampa players with at least 40 goals on the year, the team ran away with the Atlantic Division, finishing 19 points ahead of the second-place Bruins and blowing away the rest of the NHL in goal differential with a plus-100 mark. Fueled by a combined 165 goals between Kucherov, Steven Stamkos and Brayden Point, they enter the Stanley Cup Playoffs as the clear-cut favorite to win it all following a 62-16-4 record.
