TAMPA, Fla. — Large banners of Stanley Cup-winning captains were unfurled around the room, creating a hockey shrine of sorts and reminding Steven Stamkos why he has often awoken in fits of anxiety and expectation amid the rising pressure of these playoffs.
To his left hung a photograph of a joyous Rangers captain, Mark Messier, clutching the Cup in 1994; next to Messier was an ecstatic Wayne Gretzky hoisting the Cup for Edmonton in 1984. Stamkos, the 25-year-old captain of the Tampa Bay Lightning, glanced up from his podium and admired how such scenes have increasingly played out in his dreams.