TAMPA, Fla. — Ten groups over the past three years have tried to get rid of the Tampa Bay Lightning within the postseason as they’ve pursued a dynasty. They tried within the 2020 bubble, they tried in Canada, in North Carolina, throughout the state of Florida and on the islands of New York, however all of them failed.
Since 2019, nobody had discovered a approach to unseat a staff that made its approach to the head, till Sunday, when the Colorado Avalanche found the proper mixture of talent, pace and dedication wanted to knock out the champ.
For the primary time for the reason that onset of the pandemic, the N.H.L. has a brand new champion. The high-flying Avalanche defeated the Lightning, 2-1, in Recreation 6 of the finals, to seize the Stanley Cup, considered one of sports activities’ most elusive and enduring trophies.
One after the other within the postgame celebration, the Avalanche gamers held the gleaming Cup aloft, kissing it as they paraded it across the Amalie Enviornment ice, simply because the Lightning had accomplished on the identical rink, their house rink, the 12 months earlier than.
It’s the third title for the Colorado franchise, and its first since 2001, when Joe Sakic was the staff’s captain. Sakic, who additionally performed seven seasons with the group earlier than its transfer from Quebec, was readily available as soon as once more to share within the newest celebration, this time as the final supervisor and architect of a membership so deep in expertise that it meant Tampa Bay had lastly met its match.
Cale Makar, the dazzling, 23-year-old defenseman, performed at a excessive degree, with eight targets and 29 factors. However different excellent gamers, like middle Nathan MacKinnon, wing Mikko Rantanen, the gritty ahead Nazem Kadri and wing Gabriel Landeskog, the captain, all performed a task in wresting the Stanley Cup away from Tampa Bay’s cussed grip.
The Lightning have been hoping to turn out to be the primary staff to win three Stanley Cups in a row for the reason that Islanders gained 4 consecutive titles from 1980 to 1983. However carrying out such a job is a take a look at of endurance: The magnificent goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, and skaters a part of the staff’s core group of stars like defenseman Victor Hedman, wing Nikita Kucherov and defenseman Mikhail Sergachev, have been taking part in of their 68th high-intensity sport in a postseason collection starting with the 2020 playoffs, which have been performed in so-called bubbles in Canada because of the pandemic.
The Lightning had performed extra video games than another staff over the previous three years, keeping off elimination in 4 video games over that span, and after three years of fixed psychological and bodily pounding, they lastly gave approach to a brand new champion.
In 2020, the Lightning defeated the Dallas Stars at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, a impartial website with out followers, and final 12 months, they beat the Montreal Canadiens.
This 12 months, they grew to become the primary staff since these early-Nineteen Eighties Islanders to succeed in a 3rd consecutive closing collection, however Colorado was the perfect of the ten groups the Lightning have performed prior to now three postseasons (together with the Islanders and the Florida Panthers twice every).
Sakic, who has proved to be practically as adept at making a winner from the entrance workplace as he was with skates on his toes and a stick in his hand, is chargeable for constructing a staff that has been well known for a number of years as one of many rising powerhouses within the league. However that got here solely after Colorado missed the playoffs six occasions in seven years, from 2011 to 2017.
These have been grim years for N.H.L. hockey in Denver, however Colorado’s entrance workplace, led since 2013 by Sakic, added proficient gamers every year. A lot of them got here in by way of excessive draft picks, due to all these shedding seasons. Landeskog was taken with the second general decide in 2011. MacKinnon was tabbed with the primary decide two years later and Colorado chosen Rantanen with the tenth decide in 2015. In 2017, they’d the great sense to take Makar at No. 4 and two years after that they added defenseman Bowen Byram, additionally with a No. 4 decide.
With these homegrown gamers, plus key additions through the years like Kadri defenseman Devon Toews and wing Andre Burakovsky by trades, and wing Valeri Nichushkin by free company, Colorado climbed into competition. Final 12 months, the Avalanche gained the Presidents’ Trophy, given to the staff with the perfect common season file. However till now, the group was unable to transform common season success into playoff glory, falling within the second spherical in every of the earlier three years.
This season, with Makar breaking out to win the Norris Trophy because the league’s greatest defenseman and the 31-year-old Kadri establishing a profession excessive with 87 factors, the Avalanche set franchise information for wins (56) and factors (119) and most essential, carried that dominance into the playoffs with a 16-4 file.
From coaching camp, the query for the Avalanche surrounded the staff’s potential to beat previous failure and eventually win a title. That was examined within the finals, because the Avalanche misplaced Recreation 5 at house and confronted the prospect of turning into solely the second staff out of 37 to lose within the finals after taking a 3-1 collection lead.
However in Recreation 6 the Avalanche confirmed some championship resolve of their very own.
The Lightning scored first on a aim by Steven Stamkos, the staff captain, who wheeled round in entrance the aim and slipped the puck between the pads of Avalanche goalie Darcy Kuemper. The Lightning held that lead till MacKinnon evened the rating on a one-time shot to the proper of Vasilevskiy simply 1 minute and 54 seconds into the second interval, stifling the cheers of the group.
Minutes later, Artturi Lehkonen, who joined the Avalanche in a commerce Sakic made in March with Montreal, scored to provide Colorado its first lead of the sport, inching the staff nearer to its first Stanley Cup celebration since Sakic held the trophy aloft as a participant, 21 years in the past.
Within the third interval, the brisker legs of the youthful Avalanche pressured the puck to remain contained in the Tampa Bay finish for lengthy stretches, offering additional proof that the time had lastly arrived to crown a brand new champion.
