Tampa-dallas final might be a tough sell
Casual sports fan just might wander away
And then there were two.
Almost five months after Gary bettman outlined a wildly ambitious return to Play plan that seemed like something he scribbled on the back of a beer-soaked cocktail napkin, the NHL is now one round away from pulling it all off.
Congratulations to everyone involved. The bubble never did burst. There has not been a single case of COVID-19 in the hub cities of Toronto or edmonton. Those qualifying teams that had no business being in an expanded 24-team post-season never did make it out of the first round after all.
Whoever ends up winning the Stanley Cup, which begins on Saturday between the Tampa bay Lightning and the dallas Stars, will not have an asterisk attached to their name — although maybe they should, based on everything they went through and how hard it was to get to this point.
Of course, the hardest part is still to come: convincing Canadians to care about a final played between two southern u.s. teams that don’t have a prepackaged star player to build a marketing campaign around.
Whether you live in Canada or the u.s., this series won’t be an easy sell.
Hard-core hockey fans will no doubt love this series, which will pit russia’s Andrei Vasilevskiy against Anton Khudobin, four-time Norris Trophy finalist Victor Hedman against future Norris winner miro Heiskanen, and the likable Jon Cooper against the even-more-likable rick bowness. but hardcore hockey fans also probably sat glued to their TV sets watching the six-hour, five-ot marathon between Tampa bay and Columbus early in the first round.
It’s the casual sports fan whose wandering eyes the NHL should be worried about.
The sporting landscape has never been this crowded, this competitive. The Toronto blue Jays are in the midst of a playoff run. unlike last year, the Toronto raptors are out of the playoffs. but the NBA western final still has Canada’s Jamal murray up against Lebron James.
The NFL is in Week 2. Golf ’s u.s. Open is this weekend. Tennis’ French Open begins on monday.
up against all of that is Tampa bay versus dallas.
It’s a matchup that many hockey fans might have predicted, but not likely one that Sportsnet executives had been hoping for.
With six Canadian teams in the mix, they had wanted some Canadian content in the final. They wanted Toronto against edmonton or montreal versus Vancouver. They wanted Crosby, Ovechkin and Price. Or Pettersson, Tkachuk and Scheifele. If not matthews and mcdavid, then they would have at least settled for matthews versus mackinnon.
The closest they got was the Canucks reaching Game 7 of second round.
The maple Leafs, Oilers and Winnipeg Jets all failed to get past the qualification round. The Habs, who provided the playoffs’ biggest shocker by upsetting the Pittsburgh Penguins, went out in the first round along with the Calgary Flames.
And so, here we are: dallas versus Tampa bay.
This, like last year’s final between boston and St. Louis, has the potential to be a great series. Then again, it’s not exactly as if the previous four rounds raised the bar.
For all the uniqueness of an expanded post-season that featured a best-of-five qualification round, this has been a rather unremarkable playoffs.
What was the most memorable series? Was it the kids in Vancouver going the distance against a bigger and meaner team out of Vegas? Was it Colorado nearly beating dallas with a thirdstring goalie? Was it the roller-coaster battle of blown leads between Toronto and Columbus?
It definitely wasn’t the defensive slog between the Lightning and New york Islanders. Or the seven different series that were over and done with in just five games.
There’s no telling if dallas and Tampa will go the distance or if it will be put up there with Pittsburgh versus detroit in 2009 or boston versus Vancouver in 2011. but at the very least, the Stars and Lightning should put on a far more exciting show than what we’ve seen so far.
These teams deserve to be here. This isn’t montreal against Chicago. Neither team had to play in the qualification round. There was no controversy surrounding their previous wins.
dallas and Tampa bay were among the top four in their conference when the regular season ended. Since then, each has shown that they are both worthy of winning the Cup.
The Lightning, who should have been here a year ago when they won the Presidents’ Trophy and then got swept in the first round, are the favourites. but they also have the most to prove. They are what the Washington Capitals were before they won the Cup a couple of years ago.
Tampa bay is missing its captain Steven Stamkos, but it doesn’t really matter. The team still has brayden Point, who may or may not be 100 per cent healthy, as well as the reigning Hart Trophy and Vezina Trophy winners, as well as the best defencemen in the world.
For the Stars, this has been their coming-out party.
If you didn’t know who Khudobin or Heiskanen were before the playoffs began, you probably do now. The same goes for bowness, a hockey lifer who took over the reins after dallas fired its head coach back in december for an off-ice incident. meanwhile, this is Jamie benn’s first time in the final and probably Joe Pavelski’s last chance at winning a Cup.
It has the potential to be a good final, one without an asterisk attached.
The question is, with so many other sports competing for airtime, how many casual sports fans will bother watching it all unfold.