Even after an overtime loss in Game 4 on Sunday, the Tampa Bay Lightning remain in great position to win the Stanley Cup, returning to Amalie Arena for Tuesday's Game 5 up 3-1 against the Canadiens. One more win would make the Bolts champions for the second straight year.
While great dynasties have littered the American sports landscape for a century - think of all the great Yankees, Canadiens or Celtics teams that dominated for entire decades - free agency and salary caps have made repeating an incredible challenge. In short, we don't see it too often anymore. Case in point? Here are the most recent teams to have done it across the four major sports this century:
NBA - Golden State Warriors (2017 & 2018): We'll get basketball out of the way first, since repeating here is "easy" comparatively speaking, but that's the exception to the other three sports' norms. Golden State won the first title in this stretch 2015, but after its infamous 3-1 implosion against the Cavs in 2016 brought on Kevin Durant to join Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and company, and you know the rest. The 2017 and 2018 editions cruised through the Finals against Cleveland, winning the first in five games and sweeping the series in the latter.
Besides Golden State, LeBron-Wade-Bosh Miami (2012 & 2013), Kobe-Gasol Los Angeles (2009 & 2010), and the Kobe-Shaq Lakers (2000-02) have all repeated as champions this century alone. That was preceded, of course, by Jordan's Bulls and their pair of three-peats, sandwiching a Rockets back-to-back, then the Bad Boy Pistons before them, and the Showtime Lakers before them... frankly it's surprising when there aren't consecutive champs in the NBA.
NHL - Pittsburgh Penguins (2016 & 2017): The Pens have also repeated as champs within the last five years. The 2016 one was more surprising, given the team fired head coach Mike Johnston in December and replaced him with Mike Sullivan. Just 15-14-3 on December 19, Pittsburgh went 33-12-5 the rest of the way and wound up beating the Sharks in six games.
The next year there were no such regular season struggles, as the Pens finished second in the East, won a pair of Game 7s to get to the Final and edged the Predators in six games. Before Pittsburgh (and potentially Tampa Bay), the last NHL team to go back-to-back was Detroit over 20 years ago ('97 & 98).
NFL - New England Patriots (2003 & 2004): You're probably not surprised to see that the Brady-Belichick Pats are the last NFL team to repeat as Super Bowl champions... but it's nearly been 20 years since then. Adam Vinatieri's heroics against the Panthers and another three-point win over the Eagles gave New England a second and third title in four years, but then the Pats didn't win again until the epic against Seattle in 2015. That, of course, started another stretch of three titles in five years, but none came consecutively. Those two Patriots teams are the only to go back-to-back this century.
MLB - New York Yankees (1998-00): Even without a salary cap, an expanded postseason and a third of the league not trying half the time, parity has reigned supreme in baseball. There have been seven different champions in the last seven years, spanning the east coast and west, big markets and small and everything in between. You have to go back to the dynasty Yankees of the turn of the century to find your last repeat champion.
The '98 team, of course, might be the greatest of all-time, winning 114 regular season games before going 11-2 in the postseason. The '99 team only won 98 games, but went 11-1 in the postseason. And although the 2000 team won just 87 games, it was enough to win the division, and enough to beat Oakland in five games in the ALDS, Seattle in six games in the ALCS and the Mets in the Subway Series for a three-peat. The Blue Jays (1991 and 1992) are the only other to repeat as World Series champs since the 1970s!