Stanley Cup Final should be a dandy series
No clear-cut favourite in NHL final
The Vegas Golden Knights host Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Washington Capitals on Monday night, and this series shapes up to be a dandy.
The Golden Knights are the talk of hockey with their remarkable first-year success while the Capitals, led by Alex Ovechkin, are playing like a team possessed. The Caps and Golden Knights are the best teams in their respective conferences, and both have beaten very good teams to get to the finals.
Like the Golden Knights, the Caps are playing with a ton of confidence after getting a huge weight off their shoulders in finally being able to beat Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round. Ovechkin has always played in the shadows of Crosby, and finally being able to step out of those shadows has allowed Washington’s captain to relax and be the great hockey player that he is.
The Caps outworked a very good Tampa Bay team to get to the final, and will be a very tough team to beat. Vegas finds a way to win and their relentless work ethic has been unmatched thus far.
This is a tough series to pick a winner, and there’s no clearcut favourite. Fourteen hockey writers and analysts at NHL. com have an even split, with seven picking Vegas and seven picking Washington.
Great coaching
The Golden Knights are a very well-coached team, and there is little doubt that Summerside native Gerard (Turk) Gallant will win the Jack Adams Award as NHL coach of the year. When one thinks about what has taken place with the Golden Knights, it is simply amazing. One year ago, Vegas had a couple of free agents signed – and very little else. To think that a team could be picked from a pool of players in June, brought together in September for the very first time and developed into a Stanley Cup finalist is nothing short of amazing. A simple coaching method of hard work, forecheck, backcheck and roll four lines has these Golden Knights on the cusp of a Stanley Cup. It is oldschool coaching at its best that seems so simple and it really is. Believing in your players breeds confidence in your players, and Gallant is a master at it.
In the Winnipeg series, a fourth-line player took a penalty and the Jets scored the tying goal on the power play. A lot of coaches would sit that player, but not Gallant. The following shift that same player scored the game-winning goal. Gallant’s stock has risen to the point where he is, without doubt, one of the very best coaches in hockey, and not many would argue with that.
Islanders on the Cup
If the Golden Knights go on to win the Stanley Cup, Gerard Gallant and Mike Kelly of Cornwall will become the first P.E.I.born coaches to have their names engraved on the Cup since Billy MacMillan won the NHL championship as an assistant coach with the New York Islanders in 1979-80. They will also join Brad Richards, Adam McQuaid and Alan MacAdam as Islanders who won the Cup.
A long wait
The Washington Capitals joined the NHL in 1974. They have never won the Cup and have made only one Stanley Cup Final appearance, losing in four games to Detroit in 1998. It hardly seems fair that Washington fans have experienced a Cup final once in 44 years while Vegas fans get their first taste in their first year.
Turk’s best man
Lane Lambert is an assistant coach on the Washington Capitals. He was drafted by Detroit in 1983, and served as Gerard Gallant’s best man at his wedding in 1986.
Memorial Cup
Summerside’s Noah Dobson and the Acadie-Bathurst Titan will play in the Memorial Cup championship game Sunday night. The final will be televised on Sportsnet. Dobson has had a great tournament, and hopefully gets to hoist junior hockey’s most cherished prize. Have a great week!