TAMPA, Fla. – Ten teams in the past three years have tried to take out the Tampa Bay Lightning in the postseason while pursuing a dynasty. They tried in the 2020 bubble, they tried in Canada, in North Carolina, in the state of Florida and in the islands of New York, but they all failed.
Since 2019, no one had found a way to beat a team on its way to the top until Sunday, when the Colorado Avalanche discovered the right combination of skill, speed and determination needed to knock out the champion. .
For the first time since the start of the pandemic, the NHL has a new champion. The high-flying Avalanche defeated the Lightning, 2-1, in Game 6 of the Finals, to capture the Stanley Cup, one of the sport’s most elusive and enduring trophies.
One by one during the post-game celebrations, the Avalanche players held up the shiny trophy and kissed it as they paraded across the ice of the Amalie Arena, just as the Lightning had done on the same rink, their home rink, the year before.
It is the third title for the Colorado franchise and the first since 2001, when Joe Sakic was the team captain. Sakic, who also spent seven seasons with the organization before moving from Quebec, was once again on hand to take part in the final celebration, this time as the general manager and architect of a club so strong in talent it meant Tampa Bay. finally met his match.
Cale Makar, the dazzling 23-year-old defender, was named the Conn Smythe Trophy winner as the most valuable player in the playoffs for his eight goals and 29 points. But other great players, such as center Nathan MacKinnon, wing Mikko Rantanen, gritty forward Nazem Kadri and wing captain Gabriel Landesog, all played a part in wrestling the Stanley Cup from Tampa Bay’s stubborn clutches.
When asked in a televised interview what other teams could learn from the Avalanche, Landeskog said, “Go out and find a Cale Makar somewhere.”
The Lightning hoped to become the first team to win three Stanley Cups in a row since the Islanders won four consecutive titles from 1980 to 1983. The team’s core group of stars, such as defender Victor Hedman, wing Nikita Kucherov and defender Mikhail Sergachev, played in their 68th intensive game in a post-season series, starting with the 2020 playoffs, which are in Canada’s so-called bubbles. were played because of the pandemic.
The Lightning had played more games than any other team in the past three years, fending off elimination in four games in that span, and after three years of constant pounding mentally and physically, they finally gave way to a new champion.
In 2020, the Lightning defeated the Dallas Stars at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, a fanless neutral site, and last year they defeated the Montreal Canadiens.
This year they became the first team since those early 1980s Islanders to reach a third consecutive final series, but Colorado was the best of the 10 teams to have played the Lightning in the past three postseasons (including the Islanders and Florida Panthers twice each ). †
Sakic, who has proven himself almost as adept at creating a winner from the front office as he was with skates on his feet and a stick in his hand, is responsible for assembling a team that has been widely recognized for years as one of the emerging powerhouses in the league. But that only came after Colorado missed the playoffs six times in seven years, from 2011 to 2017.
Those were grim years for NHL hockey in Denver, but the Colorado front office, led by Sakic since 2013, added talented players every year. Many of them came in through high draft, thanks to all those losing seasons. Landeskog got second overall pick in 2011. MacKinnon got first pick two years later, and Colorado selected Rantanen as 10th pick in 2015. In 2017, they had the good sense to take Makar at No. 4, and two years after defeating defender Bowen. Byram, also with a number 4 pick.
With those homegrown players, plus key additions over the years such as Kadri defender Devon Toews and wing Andre Burakovsky through trades, and wing Valeri Nichushkin through free agency, Colorado climbed into the fray. Last year, the Avalanche won the Presidents’ Trophy, awarded to the team with the best record in the regular season. But so far, the group has been unable to turn regular season success into playoff glory, falling in the second round in each of the previous three years.
This season, with Makar breaking out to win the Norris Trophy as the league’s top defender and 31-year-old Kadri building a career high with 87 points, the Avalanche set franchise records for wins (56) and points (119) and the Most importantly, carried that dominance to the playoffs with a 16-4 record.
As of training camp, the question for the Avalanche was the team’s ability to overcome previous failures and ultimately win a title. That was tested in the final, when the Avalanche lost Game 5 at home and faced the prospect of becoming just the second team of 37 to lose in the final after taking a 3-1 lead.
But in Game 6, the Avalanche showed championship determination of its own.
The Lightning scored first on a goal by team captain Steven Stamkos, who spun in front of the goal, sliding the puck between the blocks of Avalanche goalkeeper Darcy Kuemper. The Lightning held onto that lead until MacKinnon tied the score with a single shot to Vasilevskiy’s right side just 1 minute 54 seconds into the second period, suppressing the crowd’s cheers.
Minutes later, Artturi Lehkonen scored, who joined the Avalanche in a trade Sakic made with Montreal in March and gave Colorado the first lead of the game, bringing the team closer to its first Stanley Cup celebration since Sakic held up the trophy. as a player. , 21 years ago
In the third period, the younger Avalanche’s fresher legs forced the puck to stay in the Tampa Bay end for long stretches, providing further evidence that it was finally time to crown a new champion.