Reality check: It’s tough
Takes ‘a little bit of luck,’ so much more to win Cup
The path to the Stanley Cup is rarely a straight line. Sometimes it’s the direction a puck takes when it banks off the post and in — or out.
Four years ago, Artemi Panarin clanked a shot off the post late in regulation that could have put the Blue Jackets up three games to none in the first round against the Capitals. Lars Eller scored, the Caps won the series and went on to lift the Stanley Cup.
Andre Burakovsky looks back now and acknowledges he and the Caps got some lucky bounces on the way to their first championship in franchise history. Now with the Avalanche, he’s well-aware that’s just one part of what it takes for a playoff team to get over the hump and win it all.
“It’s so hard to win the Stanley Cup,” Burakovsky said. “You’re going to need a little bit of luck and you’re going to need everyone in your team to be extremely dialed in and sacrificing and doing whatever it takes to win.”
The NHL is full of title contenders that turn out to be pretenders and plenty of success stories about teams that figure it out and get the job done.
As the playoffs began Monday night, Burakovsky and the Avs, the Hurricanes and the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Panthers are among the teams looking to make the leap — a challenge that is part good health and great luck but more about figuring out how to ride the roller coaster of wins and losses through four rounds.
“Once you commit to something, be it the defensive part of the game or whatever was holding you back and you commit to it and you break through, then it becomes easier because you know what’s there,” said Barry Trotz, who coached the Caps to the Cup. “It’s almost like climbing Mount Everest. You want to do it, you think you can do it and then you actually have to do it and you get to a certain place.”
Players and coaches who have won the Cup or reached the final described that climb as a combination of consistency, confidence and the right combination of goaltending and timely scoring.
The Lightning certainly had all that when they won back to back the last two years. In 2021, they eliminated the Panthers in the first round, Hurricanes in the second round and Trotz’s Islanders in the Eastern Conference final.
Ken Daneyko, who won the Cup with the Devils three times, pointed to a penalty by Sam Bennett that cost the Panthers last year. Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin said special teams were the difference against the Lightning and in their previous playoff exits to the Bruins.
Five of the last six champions have finished top five on the power play or penalty kill in the playoffs.
Rod Brind’amour, who captained the Hurricanes to the Cup in 2006 and coaches them now, said getting strong goaltending and keeping guys in the lineup are among the keys.
“... You’ve got to be healthy,” Brind’amour said. “If your top guys are out, it’s going to be hard.”
Brind’amour and the Hurricanes go into the playoffs with a double whammy there: starting goalie Frederik Andersen is injured. Penguions goalie Tristan Jarry is also out, while the Caps’ Alex Ovechkin and Panthers’ Jonathan Huberdeau are among the other top players banged up at the start of the postseason.
Some Cup champions overcame injuries, like the Blues losing Robert Thomas in 2019 and the Lightning winning again after Alex Killorn went out during the 2021 final.
When the Penguins fired Mike Johnston early in the 2015-16 season, Mike Sullivan took over and told players to forget about what happened the previous game or outside the rink and “just play.” Several months later, they won the first of consecutive Cup titles that veteran defenseman Ian Cole credits to that mindset.
“We had so much confidence,” said Cole, who’s now with the Hurricanes. “We would lose, go down in a series and it was like, ‘OK, go win the next one.’
“It’s just a confidence and a consistent game plan. I think it’s having the right mindset and knowing how to win and not getting rattled if you don’t.”
No matter how the hockey happens, the key is getting to the playoffs to have a chance to win. Among recent Cup champs, the Lightning have made the playoffs eight of the last nine years, Blues 10 of 11, Caps nine of 10 and Penguins 16 in a row.
“You have to get there as much as possible and breaks are going to happen,” Blues GM Doug Armstrong said. “You need health, couple breaks and then ride it as far as you can.”