'This is the year' the Lions go to the Super Bowl and what else experts are saying
"Is this the year?"
It's a question asked annually by Detroit Lions fans and local media amongst themselves.
It is answered by some fans, the ones with the Honolulu Blue and silver-colored glasses while, perhaps, holding a cold beverage, with a defiant, exuberant "Yes!"
The Lions' final answer has been a resounding "no" in each of the first 59 seasons of the Super Bowl era. They are the only franchise to compete in each of those years able to say that.
Yet here we are again, asking the same question, nine months after the shocking home playoff loss against rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels and the upstart Washington Commanders.
And we should be, despite a deep and competitive NFC where the Lions (5-2) look as good as any other team, and are coming off a 24-9 beatdown of the previously NFC-leading Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.
There are NFL experts who are believers once again, when asked if the Lions will win the NFC this season and make Super Bowl 2026 in San Francisco.
"I do think that this is the year," Jeff Saturday, the former All-Pro center, Super Bowl champion and ex-Indianapolis Colts interim coach, said on ESPN's "First Take" show Tuesday morning. "I really like this football team and I'll say this, I think last night was kind of a big tell for me when you play a team like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who is as explosive as they are, with a defense when your four starters (in the secondary) don't play and you go in and limit to basically 250 yards on offense, but more importantly limit them to three explosive plays. That's doing something ... it's infectious. And then you flip it over, you look at them offensively, how explosive, they had eight explosive plays last night."
Saturday earlier on ESPN's "Get Up" show power ranked the Lions as the No. 1 team in the conference.
"Dan Campbell's got these guys rolling, it was their best game of the season to me, and I don't mean because of numbers, I mean beacuse of quality of opponent, and the way and the style they won, with physicality."
But it's not all gravy for the Lions, as former NFL defensive lineman Chris Canty pointed out, saying "Jared Goff has to be better," after the Lions left points on the board and he committed two turnovers. Canty was quick to say he knows Goff can do it, but especially with a superstar third-year running back in Jahmyr Gibbs, Goff doesn't need to carry the offense.
Kucherov’s turnover sparked an odd-man rush, and his lack of urgency on the backcheck sealed the game-winning goal for Chicago. When your stars don’t shine, the season gets darker. Tampa Bay will need more from its elite if it wants to avoid a long year
As the public address announcer at Benchmark International Arena belted the final tones of ‘This is the final minute of the period’ on Thursday night, Tampa Bay Lightning fans appeared due for at least one point banked in the standings and a period of overtime hockey.
Chicago cut that anticipation short, forcing a Lightning turnover in the offensive zone and bursting down the ice to score a rebound goal with 53.2 seconds left in the game and steal a 3-2 regulation victory.
The Lightning are now 1-4-2 this season.
While Tampa Bay outshot the Blackhawks 32-24 and overcame two separate deficits to tie the game, Lightning coach Jon Cooper mentioned too many penalties and late turnovers as errors proving to be too costly.
“In the end, they got it across the goal line one more time than we did, and that's it. And it's unfortunate, the breakdown we had at the end,” Cooper said. “And you can't just sit here and go, ‘There's a moral victory that we played a fairly good game.’ But we have to finish these off, whether we finish it off in overtime or in a shootout. But we can't let that happen. It was just a mistake on our part."
Chicago forward Teuvo Teravainen stole the puck in their defensive end in the final minute and sauced a pass to Frank Nazar at the offensive blueline. The latter’s initial shot was stopped, but Ryan Donato’s rebound attempt found the back of the net for a 3-2 lead that stood as final.
The goal was Donato’s second of the night.
"We have a lot of veterans in the lineup. Because you've done it before doesn't mean you're going to do it again. You have to understand what it took and what it takes to do it again,” Cooper said. “And right now we're not making a ton of mistakes, but when we are, we're getting burned. When it's capitalizing in a game of mistakes, we're making too many."
Chicago utilized the game’s first power play to claim a 1-0 lead 10:41 into the game. Forward Tyler Bertuzzi had the puck below the Lightning goal-line and fed a pass to Nazar, whose one-timer from the slot snuck into the left half of the Lightning net to make it 1-0.
Tampa Bay opened the second period by dominating puck possession time and got rewarded with the tying goal.
A rush chance for the Lightning saw Nikita Kucherov narrowly miss at the right post, but the forward corralled the puck behind the net and flung it to defenseman Ryan McDonagh at the top of the offensive zone. McDonagh’s shot from the point was tipped by Jake Guentzel to beat Chicago goalie Spencer Knight, who was on the ice due to the original rush chance.
Donato took the lead back for the visitors midway through the second period. Donato’s 2-1 goal came on a high-blocker shot on a rush chance from the top of the left circle.
Nikita Kucherov earned his second point of the night and 999th of his NHL career in the final minute of the period, drawing Chicago defenders near the goal line before dishing a pass to McDonagh at the right circle. McDonagh wasted no time in firing his team-high third goal of the season through Knight to tie the game with 42.1 seconds left in the middle frame.
The Lightning erased a 5-on-3 power-play chance for Chicago followed by 3:17 of a 5-on-4 penalty kill to keep the game tied 2-2 with 12 minutes left.
The teams continued to trade chances in the third period, and Tampa Bay hit numerous posts in the third period before Donato’s winning tally late.
"It's so close. That's the NHL, and we've been on the right side of it a lot of times when you know you don't deserve it and tonight, maybe you think you deserve at least something out of the game, especially to get through that PK in the third,” McDonagh said. “But at the end of the day, the final score is all that matters with this group, and we didn't find a way. We want to keep growing here and keep believing and keep trusting each other out there and find a way to play some winning hockey."
Up next for Tampa Bay is a bout with the Anaheim Ducks (4-2-1) at 5 p.m. Saturday.
Benjamin’s Three Stars:
- Ryan Donato, CHI (2 goals)
- Ryan McDonagh, TBL (Goal, assist)
- Frank Nazar, CHI (Goal, assist)
