We're used to delayed gratification, like suffering through a decade of soul-crushing playoff losses to see Alex Ovechkin finally lift the Stanley Cup. The hockey gods feel that struggle makes the victory all that much sweeter, that the hero's journey needs to be one with an arduous path.

The Tampa Bay Lightning lost in the Stanley Cup Final in 2015 and the Eastern Conference finals in 2016 and 2018. Their journey has brought them here, and my prayer to the hockey gods is that they're finally gratified.

They're the juggernaut we need. They're the steamroller we deserve. I want them to run through the Stanley Cup playoffs like Sauron ran his mace through the Last Alliance of Elves and Men in "Lord of the Rings."

As of Friday, the Lightning have a 47-11-4 record for 98 points and a .790 points percentage. They're 18 points clear of a very good Boston Bruins team in the Atlantic. They're 17 points ahead of the best in the West, the Calgary Flames. They're first in goals per game (3.85), which would be the fifth-highest average in the last 25 years and the highest since 1996. They're fifth in goals-against average (2.61), but are 0.02 goals per game away from being third.

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They have 20 games remaining on their schedule. If we apply that points percentage to the available points remaining up for grabs, we find the Lightning capping out at around 129 points, just shy of the second-highest point total in an 82-game season by the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings -- whose 131 points, incidentally, were one point off the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens' NHL record of 132.

That Canadiens team won the Stanley Cup. That Red Wings team, infamously, did not: After being swept by the underdog Devils in the 1995 Stanley Cup Final, they ran into the eventual 2006 Stanley Cup champion (and instant blood rival) Colorado Avalanche in the West final and lost in six games.

The Red Wings would finally win in 1997 and then again in 1998.

Delayed gratification. The hockey gods demand it.

The similarities between this Lightning team and that Red Wings team are eerie: the Canadian captain who posts stellar offensive numbers but over time has learned to be more than that; the 25-year-old force of nature Russian dynamo who leads the team in scoring; a defense anchored by a homegrown Norris winner and surrounded by high-priced imports; the grinders down the lineup who provide backbone support for both teams; the coach who might be the smartest guy in any room he walks into, or at least convinces you he might be.

None of this should come as a surprise when Hall of Famer Steve Yzerman, who spent his entire playing career with the Red Wings, is the connective tissue between the franchises. As general manager of the Lightning, before stepping down after last season to be closer to his family, he meticulously crafted this team into what he felt it needed to be to win the Stanley Cup.

That he did it under the salary cap is what makes this Lightning team even more impressive, from the standoff he won with pending free agent Steven Stamkos to the hardball he played with players like Nikita Kucherov. That he did it while managing his young assets so expertly -- giving up blue-chippers like Jonathan Drouin when necessary, and holding onto his best chips while acquiring half the Rangers' roster specifically -- is just as remarkable.

But all of it was in service of this season, this run at the Cup. The Lightning have half their blue line up as UFAs this summer. Brayden Point needs a new contract after a star-making year, while Kucherov's cap hit jumps to $9.5 million. The math indicates the Lightning aren't going to be the same team after this run.

So let them run, hockey gods. The cap era has given us flawed champions and "pretty good" teams pretending to be great. It's given us a porridge of parity that results in races to mediocrity like we're seeing in the Western Conference this season.

What it doesn't give us is a team like the Lightning that just marauds though the regular season en route to a championship, and it's time we get another one of those. It won't be easy, given the Bruins or Leafs await in Round 2 and any of four teams in the West will be up to the task of facing Tampa. But then, when has it come easy for the Lightning?

I want their journey here rewarded. I want their team building rewarded. I want these players rewarded for taking a little less so the Lightning could add more and for being as good as they are. I want this market rewarded for turning a specious non-traditional market into a hockey hot bed under the Florida sun.

Last year, we watched Justify wire the field at Belmont to win the Triple Crown, reminding us that sometimes in sports, it's just fun to see a champion win in a squash. The Lightning are that horse to back this season.

The Week In Gritty

In preparation for the NHL Stadium Series game between the Flyers and the Penguins in Philadelphia this weekend, our favorite Cheeto monster has started ... blogging.

Gritty is doing an NHL.com diary, and it's exactly what you might expect:

"I don't want to give too much away, but just know that I have been training for this day for months. Every day for the past seven weeks, I have taken showers at approximately 32.8 degrees for 2 1/2 hours in case of severe winter weather. I have also invested in an industrial, natural wind, dehumidifying fan that I have faced head-on without blinking for as long as possible to prep for strong winds. I've also conquered both the easy and intermediate levels of Sudoku to keep the brain sharp."

Meanwhile, it's taken about five months for Gritty to go from debut to "Jeopardy!" answer.

"The Philly Flyers." And you call yourself a Canadian, Trebek ...

Best Player In The World Of The Week

Taggart Corriveau, Trinity College. The junior forward was a cardiac kid last weekend. He scored the game-tying goal in an eventual 6-5 win over Wesleyan on Friday and then had the game-winner with 4.6 seconds left against the Cardinals on Saturday. That earned Trinity the conference title and the top seed in the NESCAC tournament. And yes, this is the son of the great Yvon Corriveau.

Jersey Fouls

From Madison Square Garden:

Wtf is this at msg pic.twitter.com/y10vtZlJHk — Hello (@BGenco) February 22, 2019

What are the odds this is actually Brent Gretzky and they just misspelled his novelty nameplate?

Meanwhile, in Vancouver:

@wyshynski not sure if you're still doing jersey fouls, but found this on a canucks Facebook page. As a canucks fan, I'm embarrassed. pic.twitter.com/XbYEy80ZB1 — Jason Silzer (@Vintagesiz) February 22, 2019

For the Canucks impaired: Brock Boeser wears No. 6 while Elias Pettersson wears No. 40, and hence this is the sum of their greatness. Somewhere, Bo Horvat silently weeps, unable to have his number included in this Jersey Foul.

Listen To ESPN ON ICE

We had an amazing podcast this week. Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon joined us to talk about his investment in the Alliance of American Football and Don Cherry's "bunch of jerks" criticism of his team. Plus, Jogmo CEO Martin Bachmayer explains the future of puck and player tracking in the NHL. Stream here or grab on iTunes here.

Puck headlines

Kim Davis, head of NHL diversity, talks about what's happening in the NHL. "It's a conversation that I frankly have had with the commissioner about everyone owning diversity and inclusion. It's much more powerful when white guys in positions of power are actually the champions as opposed to putting people of color in the forefront."

Lambert on the Rangers' rebuild: "The Rangers continue to be what they shouldn't: bad, but not bad enough to get a high chance at drafting elite talent. Instead, you watch this team and it seems like they're currently just on a path to be the 10th-worst team in the league for the next few years."

In The Crease Postgame analysis and highlight show airing each night throughout the season from Barry Melrose and Linda Cohn. Watch on ESPN+

Four University of Maine women's hockey players were suspended for "violating the student-athlete code of conduct."

Scott Burnside on what happens logistically ($) when a player gets traded.

Artemi Panarin to the Winnipeg Jets? "The Jets should not be wagering their future right now; not with how they are playing and not without knowing if a player they are trading for will sign with them long-term."

Ken Campbell does not agree with that Radko Gudas suspension. "To give Gudas two games for what he did to Kucherov goes against everything the league and those meting out discipline say about putting an end to the kind of behavior they claim to want to eradicate."

A hockey dad breaks the bank on the Canadian "Shark Tank."

Well here's a 180-foot goal. Wow.

THIS. IS. INSANE.



You will probably never see a goal like this again. pic.twitter.com/uQlPP7f4Yx — KHL (@khl_eng) February 21, 2019

Hockey tl;dr (too long; didn't read)

Inside the rousing success of the Arizona State men's hockey team. "You get to be a pioneer, a trailblazer -- whatever you want to call it -- and that's the opportunity you have here that you do not have anywhere else."

In case you missed this from your friends at ESPN

An updated Trade Tier list with all of the key players who are potentially on the move at the deadline, many of them not on the Ottawa Senators.