Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals starts tonight between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Tampa Bay Lightning, and I’m willing to bet that the NHL is pretty disappointed that the Lightning made it and not the New York Rangers, but I digress. I’m truly excited about this matchup because we have the young team from Tampa that can score with anyone, and the veteran laden Chicago team that is one of the better defensive teams in the NHL.
The Blackhawks seem to be the favorite to win the Cup largely in part because they’ve “been there before”. I don’t buy into that notion one bit, if you’ve made it to the Stanley Cup Finals, you clearly know what you’re doing. I’ll admit that the Blackhawks seem to be more stacked than the Lightning (Kane, Toews, Sharp, Hossa, Keith, Seabrook…), but the Lightning have a solid (if not underrated) lineup in Stamkos, Johnson, Kucherov, Palat, Callahan, etc.
It should be a hard fought battle between the two, but the defensive prowess and physicality of Chicago will prove to be too much for Tampa to handle. If the Blackhawks are smart, they will allow Toews, Keith and Seabrook to have their way with Stamkos and the “triplets” and have Hossa, Kane and Sharp handle the offensive workload. The Chicago Blackhawks will hoist their 3rd Stanley Cup in 6 years, 4 games to 2 with Duncan Keith winning the Conn Smythe. But at least Ben Bishop has an awesome helmet, so the Lightning have that…
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