Tim Benz: No, Twitter. Tampa Bay Lightning don't need an asterisk if they win back-to-back Stanley Cups.

Regardless of what happens the rest of the way in the Stanley Cup Final, the Tampa Bay Lightning are about to accomplish something monumental.

They’ll either eliminate the Montreal Canadiens with their next victory to become a rare squad that can boast back-to-back championships. Or they’ll blow a 3-0 series lead in historically ignominious fashion.

Given that Tampa Bay is up 3-1 and heading back to Florida for a potential elimination game, my money is on the former.

Even though their mayor did everything in her power to jinx the franchise with her request that the Lightning allow the Canadiens to win Game 4 to avoid a sweep, thus allowing Tampa’s Cup celebration to occur on home ice.

HOT TAKE: Mayor @JaneCastor thinks the Bolts should ditch the sweep and win the #StanleyCup in 5. What do ya think, #bolts fans? #GoBolts @TBLightning @BN9 @SpecSports360 pic.twitter.com/edPLUlAR3H

— Adria Iraheta ⚡️ (@AdriaIrahetaTV) July 4, 2021

By Tuesday — after the Lighting ended up losing 3-2 in overtime — she realized how dumb of a thing that was to say, even in jest.

Mayor @JaneCastor just now during Elsa presser: “Don’t try to be funny when you’re the mayor, especially when it comes to sports!”

(In reference to this video) ?

— Adria Iraheta⚡️ (@AdriaIrahetaTV) July 6, 2021

Political hexes aside, I still think the Lightning win one of their next three games to claim the Stanley Cup for a second straight season. That would make them just the third franchise to do so since the end of the Edmonton Oilers dynasty of the 1980s.

The Penguins turned that trick twice in 1991-92 and again in 2016-17. The Detroit Red Wings went back-to-back in 1997-98.

Predictably, hockey fans in other markets are preemptively trying to minimize Tampa Bay’s accomplishment, suggesting that an asterisk should be attached since a 2020-21 double-dip will have occurred during a pair of coronavirus-impacted seasons.

If the Lightning win again do we call them the Kings of Covid? Back to Back asterisk Cups?

— N€₩T○N (@ajnecho) June 28, 2021

Oh I’m on the Habs train for this final. Just want to make sure the Lightning are aware of their 2* cups wins. #asterisk

— Mike Hall (@MikeHall_84) June 27, 2021

Lightning about to have 2 asterisk Stanley cups

— Kevin ? (@2032President) June 26, 2021

I despise the whole lightning team. Putting an asterisk against both these stanley cups (if they win this yr) for my own personal pleasure lol.

— Ricky Mitchell ?? (@mitchell_ricky) June 9, 2021

The lightning are gonna have back to back mickey mouse asterisk cups wow

— Mark Weathers (@markweathers15) June 5, 2021

Yes, it appears the Penguins are part of the conversation, too.

I will say Pittsburgh two cups wins are better then The Lightning Cup wins. Lightning have better players and they were over the salary cap. Plus, they have better superstar talent than the Penguins did

— Nathan Starszak (@NStarszak) July 5, 2021

A good point. Also would point out that the lightning will have won 2 cups on shortened and very unordinary seasons.

— Southern Yinzer (@steelpengos42) July 6, 2021

Granted, both regular seasons were shortened. Two years of funky playoff formatting made things odd. So did the all-divisional regular season format in 2021. And the bubble environment lessened the travel grind during the 2020 playoffs as well.

But as TheHockeyWriters.com pointed out after Tampa’s win last year, many arguments could be advanced that claiming the 2020 Cup was every bit as hard—if not harder—because of the bubble schedule and circumstances.

I won’t go that far. But I will defend the Lightning against those who want to besmirch their potential back-to-back victories.

Especially Penguins fans. Because I remember fielding a lot of sports talk show phone calls, tweets, texts and emails from hockey fans in Pittsburgh dismissing such an argument back in 2013.

Remember that season? It was the lockout-shortened 48-game campaign in which the Penguins were favored to win the Eastern Conference heading into the playoffs. That was the “Jarome Iginla year.” And any such mention of an asterisk to what — at the time — would’ve been the franchise’s fourth Stanley Cup was met with frothy-mouthed fury by this fan base.

The Boston Bruins made that whole conversation a moot point in the Eastern Conference Final. But let’s avoid being hypocrites anyway.

In the end, the Chicago Blackhawks won the crown that summer. Their second of three over a six-year span.

I don’t see a lot of people going back in time and demanding an asterisk for them. Similarly, the 1994-95 Devils won a Cup during a 48-game regular season. They only lost four times during the playoff run, and it was the first of three titles in eight years. Do they deserve an asterisk as well?

Much like those two teams, this Tampa outfit is in a run of excellent hockey. Going back to 2015, this is the franchise’s third trip to the Final. Plus, it has two other Eastern Conference Final appearances which resulted in seven-game defeats to eventual Champions (the Penguins in 2016 and the Washington Capitals in 2018). Not to mention that 62-win Presidents’ Trophy juggernaut in 2019 that somehow got swept by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first round.

So it’s not as if you can argue that the shortened regular seasons and rejiggered playoff formats have allowed Tampa to somehow fluke their way to success these past two seasons exclusively.

When opinions raged at the outset of the pandemic about whether or not it’d be worthwhile to restart sports under modified conditions, I argued then that debates over asterisks exist in the moment. Then they fade into forgotten footnotes. But the teams themselves — and the memories they create — do not.

I feel the same way coming out of the pandemic while watching this club from Tampa.

In Wednesday’s podcast, Brian Metzer of the Penguins Radio Network joins me to debate this topic, some offseason Penguins plans, the network broadcast move to ESPN/Turner and if the Lightning are poised to close out the Stanley Cup Final Wednesday night.

Listen: Tim Benz and Brian Metzer discuss the Stanley Cup Final between the Lightning and Canadiens