TALL ORDER: 2-TIME CHAMPS
Colorado favored but Lightning will try to cement their legacy
Nathan MacKinnon wouldn’t have it any other way.
He and the Colorado Avalanche have stubbed their toe many times in the playoffs over the past several years, never getting past the second round. Now that they’ve broken through to reach the Stanley Cup Final, naturally they need to beat the back-to-back defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning to win this core group’s first title.
Game 1 is tonight in Denver.
“I’m glad we’re playing Tampa,” MacKinnon said Tuesday. “There’s no Cinderella story or anything: Two of the best teams in the league going at it and really excited for this challenge. And it’s going to be very, very difficult, but I believe this group and we all believe in each other. Hopefully we get this done.”
Colorado is favored but must beat an opponent that has won 11 consecutive playoff series. The Lightning have become the NHL’s gold standard for success in the salary cap era and would
join the company of hockey dynasties if they become the first to three-peat since the New York Islanders lifted the Cup four times in a row from 1980-83.
MacKinnon will try to follow the lead of fellow Cole Harbor, Nova Scotia, native Sidney Crosby, who won his first championship in 2009 when Pittsburgh beat defending champion Detroit in the final. The Lightning are the first team since Wayne Gretzky’s Edmonton Oilers from 1983-85 to reach the final in three straight years.
“They’ve been the best for a while now, and we have the opportunity to kind of knock them off the pedestal,” Colorado defenseman Cale Makar said. “We’re trying to start something special here, and they’re trying to continue something that will turn into a dynasty for them. You couldn’t write it up any better.”
This Cup showdown is one Lightning captain Steven Stamkos is surprised did not happen earlier. While he and his teammates have been making long playoff runs, the Avalanche were among the titans of the West and predicted to do the same.
Colorado instead lost in the first round in 2018 and the second each of the past three seasons. Much like Tampa Bay getting swept in the first round in 2019, those defeats have strengthened the Avalanche and prepared them for this challenge.
“Certainly a lot of lessons have been learned over the last five, six years from myself, from our team going through some heartbreak in the playoffs,” coach Jared Bednar said.
The Lightning finished their comeback against Toronto in the first round — and got through the next two rounds — without firstline center Brayden Point, who injured his right leg earlier in Game 7.
If Point returns for Game 1 as expected after skating well in practice, Tampa Bay would be at full strength against Colorado, which could be without injured forwards Nazem Kadri and Andrew Cogliano and ruled out defenseman Samuel Girard after breaking his sternum in the second round.
“We still got to see,” Point said. “I don’t think anything is guaranteed, but it’s just fun to be out there with the team again.”
Colorado goaltenders Darcy Kuemper and Pavel Francouz said Tuesday they had not yet heard who was starting Game 1. But that’s not unusual.
“That’s how we handled it all year,” Kuemper said. “We would usually get a text the night before the game, and they’ll let us know who’s starting the next night.”
General Manager Joe Sakic deemed Kuemper fully healthy after the veteran goalie missed the bulk of the Western Conference final with an undisclosed injury.
New coach for Vegas
Bruce Cassidy has been hired to coach the Vegas Golden Knights a week after being fired by the Boston Bruins.
Cassidy becomes the Golden Knights’ third coach. He replaces Peter DeBoer, who was fired after Vegas missed the playoffs for the first time in its fiveyear history. Cassidy had a 245-108-46 record and led the Bruins to the playoffs for six straight seasons.
He was fired on June 6, a month after the Bruins lost a seven-game first-round series to Carolina.