Tampa Bay Lightning to Visit Joe Biden's White House to Celebrate Stanley Cup Wins

The Tampa Bay Lightning are heading to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., next week to celebrate their back-to-back Stanley Cup championships.

According to Lauren St. Germain of ABC Action News in Tampa, the Lightning will meet with United States President Joe Biden at the White House on Monday.

While it has become tradition for championship-winning sports franchises in the U.S. to visit the White House, the Bolts' 2020 Stanley Cup win came during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, which threw a wrench into plans.

The Lightning followed that up with a second consecutive Stanley Cup win last year, however, and they will finally get the opportunity to be recognized by the president for both triumphs.

Tampa Bay's first of two consecutive Stanley Cup wins in 2020 was its second in franchise history, with the first coming back in 2004.

Since COVID-19 forced the interruption of the 2019-20 season, the playoffs were formatted differently, with more teams having a chance to qualify.

That did little to deter the Lightning from their ultimate goal, as they lost a total of just four games in their first three playoff series before beating the Dallas Stars 4-2 in the Stanley Cup Final.

Head coach Jon Cooper led the way, while Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, Victor Hedman and Andrei Vasilevskiy were among the players who won their first Cup. Hedman was named the Conn Smythe Trophy winner as playoff MVP.

The following season was a unique one as well, with COVID-19 delaying the start of the campaign and forcing temporary realignment with all Canadian teams being in the same division.

Because of that, the Lightning faced the Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Final, which couldn't have happened under normal circumstances since both teams are in the Eastern Conference.

The Habs felt like a Cinderella team of destiny, but Tampa's talent level proved too much to overcome, as the Lightning won the series 4-1 and Vasilevskiy won the Conn Smythe Trophy thanks to his spectacular goaltending.

Tampa Bay is playoff-bound again this season with 102 points through 77 games, and it has a legitimate chance to three-peat.

If the Lightning do so, they will become the first NHL team to win at least three Stanley Cups in a row since the New York Islanders won four in a row from 1980 to 1983.