Guess who’s back, back again, Lightning’s back, tell a friend.
The Tampa Bay Lightning are headed back to the Stanley Cup Finals after defeating the New York Rangers. Now, the last opponent that stands between a third straight cup is the Colorado Avalanche. Colorado swept the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference Finals.
Quick Facts
- The Avalanche swept the season series 2-0
- Tampa Bay will be returning to their third cup final in three years, and fourth since 2015
- Colorado will be returning to the final for the first time in 21 years
- Nathan MacKinnon is second in the playoffs in goals with 11
- Nikita Kucherov has the highest playoff point total of any player in the final, with 23
Tampa Bay Lightning
Tampa Bay’s path to the Stanley Cup began with the Maple Leafs in round one. In a back and forth series, Tampa Bay won in game seven to extend Toronto’s misery. Round two was intended to be a blood bath between the high-scoring Florida Panthers and experienced Lightning. Instead, the Bolts made quick work of the series with a sweep. In the Eastern Conference final, Tampa Bay started off 0-2. However, they rallied back with four straight wins for a date in the final once again. Ignoring superstition, and in their case bringing luck, the Lightning touched the Prince of Wales trophy.
Tampa Bay also has a curious situation on their hands. Pat Maroon has won the last four Stanley Cup finals. On the other hand, Corey Perry has lost the last three Stanley Cup finals. More importantly though is how the Bolts match up with the Avs. In the playoffs, the East Conference has had defensive series, while the West has had offensive series. The Lightning have let in 0.45 goals per game less than Colorado. But, Colorado has scored 1.58 more goals per game than Tampa Bay. It will be vital that the Tampa Bay Lightning increase their scoring in the final. An x-factor to improve their goal scoring will be Brayden Point. If he can get healthy to play, he will kickstart the Lightning offense.
Colorado Avalanche
Colorado’s path to the final began with an easy sweep of the Nashville Predators. In Darryl Sutter’s wise words, it was “a waste of eight days” for Nashville. After, the Avs found themselves with a fight against the St Louis Blues. Colorado struggled at home in the series going 1-2, but went undefeated away, winning the series 4-2. In the final, in what was expected to be a high scoring battle for the ages, Colorado annihilated Edmonton. Similar to the Battle of Florida series, Colorado won one, two, three, four and advanced. Prior to the presentation of the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl, the Avalanche deliberated on whether or not to touch it. It seemed as though Joe Sakic advised them to touch it, also ignoring superstition.
Colorado’s defense shut down Edmonton in the middle two games and all other teams they have faced. The Avalanche gave up four or more goals in an offense-loaded west on only four occasions. For Colorado, offense and defense are no worries as of right now. However, most of the ice time is loaded on to a handful of shoulders. Cale Makar and Devon Toews play the bulk of Colorado’s defense. Makar plays an average of 27:05 a game, and Toews plays an average of 25:50 a game. The remaining four defenseman all play around 17 minutes a game. This series should be a long hard-fought series between what is arguably the best possible matchup from the playoffs. Therefore the bottom-four will need to pull a little more weight.
Author’s Prediction
This is a coin flip, to say the least.
Asking Siri (on the iPhone) to flip a coin will give more confidence to my guess than thinking. However, Tampa Bay has done it twice already and proved doubters wrong all playoffs long. Therefore, I am taking the Lightning to three-peat in seven games.