The moment we’ve all been waiting for has finally arrived: it’s June, and that means it’s the Stanley Cup Final—summer hockey at its finest. After some seriously exciting playoff hockey, two are left standing: The Chicago Blackhawks and the Tampa Bay Lightning. Chicago is highly experienced in the Cup Final, winning it all twice in the past five years (2010 and 2013). Tampa is a young, dynamic team that is starting to gel into a championship-calibre contender. These two teams may not know each other all too well, but there is no doubt that this series will be absolutely phenomenal, showcasing the best the NHL has to offer.
Capping off a thrilling series against Anaheim, with a steamroll game seven led by Jonathan Toews (also known as “Captain Serious” or even “Captain Everything”), the ‘Hawks are confident heading into the Final. Their big stars have stepped up at critical times all through these playoffs. Despite the sometimes-inconsistent quality of goaltending from Crawford, their depth has kept them in it the whole way. Depth forwards have regularly provided offence when needed, like in Game 1, where Vermette and Teravainen scored two goals to seal the deal for Chicago.
The Hawks’ are dangerous and experienced all through the line-up. And if Duncan Keith is on the ice, forget about the puck ever going in the net no matter how poorly Crawford plays. Keith is an overwhelming favourite for this year’s Conn Smythe Trophy (i.e.: Playoff MVP), for good reason: His phenomenal defensive play has carried his team through difficult games—and he plays a frankly insane number of minutes game in, game out. If Tampa is going to strike, it’ll be when this man isn’t on the ice.
Following a great series that also went the distance against the 2014 Cup finalists in the New York Rangers, Tampa has a tall task on its hands, facing off against the closest thing to a dynasty the present-day NHL has seen since Gretzky’s Edmonton Oilers. Led by deadly sniper (and arguably still a youngster) Steven Stamkos, the Lightning are one of the youngest, fastest and offensively potent teams in the league. If you manage to contain Stamkos, good luck doing the same against the Triplets: Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat and Nikita Kucherov. They are so dangerous, tick-tack-toe passing apparently indicating some sort of telepathy in which they don’t need to look where they pass the puck. Sports psychologists at top institutions around the world are working hard to understand this new phenomenon… (Okay I may have made that part up, but you get the idea).
The Lightning defense led by top pair Victor Hedman and Anton Stralman has been no slouch either, playing an utterly suffocating shutdown game ever since the last two games of the New York Series. They will need to keep this up to keep the ‘Hawks in check. Though depth forwards are not contributing too much offensively, they have been very effective in their own end. Again, they will have their work cut out for them: Tampa coach Jon Cooper keeps re-iterating to this young depth forwards to only worry about containing the other teams big guns so that Tampa’s offensive big men won’t have to deal with the other team’s stars when they’re on the ice. Cooper will be playing the matchup game when he can, particularly when the series moves to Tampa where they’ll have last change.
This is a series that could go either way. Whoever wins, expect this to go at least 6 games. It will be fast, furious and ferocious. A hard-nosed garbage goal could make all the difference—that’s how close it’s going to be. Chicago is the closest team to a dynasty now. But Tampa could easily become the dynasty of the future with all of their young talent, and steadily improving goaltender, Ben Bishop. Hang tight hockey fans—the duel of the dynasties has only just begun.
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