Lightning Round: The Lightning unveil the 2020 Stanley Cup Championship Ring

More than a half year after the Tampa Bay Lightning won the 2020 Stanley Cup, the team has officially unveiled their 2020 Stanley Cup Championship Ring. The ring ceremony was held in private, keeping the social distancing rules – only team members and their families could attend the event.

Unlike the 2004 ring ceremony, when the Stanley Cup wasn’t there due to its travel schedule, this year the Cup was at the ceremony. Luckily for the team, the Cup was already in the city due to the Tampa’s Champions Day, which was celebrated on the same morning in honor of the Stanley Cup winners Tampa Bay Lightning, the Super Bowl champions Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the ALCS winners Tampa Bay Rays and the USL Eastern Conference champions Tampa Bay Rowdies.

Just like in 2004, the Lightning partnered with Jostens, an American manufacturer of memorabilia, to design their championship ring. The Championship ring has 557 diamonds, 81 genuine blue sapphires and was crafted in 14-karat white gold, making the Lightning’s 2020 Stanley Cup Championship Ring the largest ring by carats in Jostens history. It has an inscription of “Stockholm”, where the Lightning played in Global Series during the regular season before winning the Cup, the results of their playoff victories and the “2:16:14” as the amount of playoff overtime minutes on its inner side.

The ring also features the words “GRAVY TRAIN”, which was the Lightning’s victory song and unofficial anthem of that Stanley Cup run.

More photos from the ring ceremony available at the Tampa Bay Lightning’s website.

The replica rings will be available at the Jostens’s website from this morning at 10 AM EST. The limited edition of the ring (also the closest in design to the original rings) will be available a little bit later and will only feature Victor Hedman’s number 77 as a recognition of the Conn Smythe Trophy winner.

Lightning Links

Our writer Matt analyzed the last 15 games by the Lightning and tried to predict their Stanley Cup chances ahead of upcoming playoffs [Raw Charge]

Plainly put, Tampa Bay is still one of the elite teams in the NHL. Laden with talent up and down the lineup, especially when they’re healthy. However, it’s apparent they’re not as strong as last season and haven’t found a consistent formula for success that doesn’t involve Vasilevskiy becoming a wall combined with opportunistic goal scoring. To me, the most jarring aspect of their play has been their inability to consistently generate pressure in the slot this season. I’m not inclined to believe it is solely due to Kucherov’s absence, it’s hard to fathom one player altering their shot locations that drastically. Does it hurt them? Absolutely, but this shift the Lightning has taken seems deliberate, and it’s unclear why. No amount of conjecture is going to provide an answer.

Jan Rutta returned to practice after his absence due to a lower-body injury and is hopeful to return before the end of regular season.

The Orlando Solar Bears defeated the Indy Fuel 5-3 on Friday night. Forward Michael Joly scored in his first game since joining the team.

Hockey News

The Calgary Flames cancelled their yesterday’s morning skate after their player Josh Leivo was added to the COVID Protocol list, but the game against the Montreal Canadiens was played according to the schedule.

Former Lightning player Jonathan Drouin was absent from this game due to a non-covid related illness.

The Calder Trophy race between Jason Robertson and Kirill Kaprizov intensified after Kaprizov scored twice yesterday against the Los Angeles Kings, setting the Minnesota Wild record for most goals by a rookie in a single season.

The Wild also signed forward Ryan Hartman to a three-year extension.

Lightning Stanley Cup winner Zach Bogosian will miss next four weeks due to shoulder injury.