Three Reasons The Tampa Bay Lightning Will Win The Stanley Cup Again
By Jim Lynch
The Tampa Bay Lightning are back in the Stanley Cup Final for the third time in three years. They have been the best team in the league for the past three seasons and are back in the final to finish off on their championship hopes.
While the Avalanche might be the favorite here to win it all, the case can be made for the Lightning to win. After beating the Maple Leafs in seven games, sweeping the Panthers in four games, and winning four straight against a tough Rangers team anything can happen in the Final.
Let’s go over three reasons the Tampa Bay Lightning will win the Stanley Cup once again.
1. The Tampa Bay Lightning have more experience.
The Lightning have a similar lineup as past seasons with stars like Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman and Andrei Vasilevskiy leading the charge to victory for this group. They also have some new guys like Nick Paul, Corey Perry and Brandon Hagel offering something up to help the team win.
The Lightning win the experience card going into this series, one bad game or one bad period won’t hurt them as much as it could hurt the Avs. The longer this series goes, the more it favors the Lightning.
2. The Lightning could potentially get Brayden Point back.
The Lightning have been without Brayden Point since midway through game seven of the first round of the playoffs. Since then the team has had to play without one of their best forwards and yet they have still found a way to win.
Getting him back this round would be a big boost for this team and could potentially help them win their third Stanley Cup. With Point back, the lineup would be that much deeper for the team. It is not confirmed whether or not he is going to be back for game one, however, he did practice before game six of the Eastern Conference Final.
3. The bigger the threat the better for the Lightning.
The Avalanche have not been that tested up to this point whereas the Lightning have had to beat some of the toughest opponents in playoff history this season. They started things off with one of the best players in the world in Auston Matthews, then it was the Presidents’ Trophy winners, followed up by one of the best performances by a goaltender in a long time.
No matter the challenge the Lightning have found a way to come out on top. It is fitting that a season like that would end with potentially beating the best team in the league in Colorado.
The Avalanche might be well-rested, but we have barely seen them face adversity this postseason. Sure, it was the 2019 champs that beat them in a game a few times this playoffs and now it could potentially be the winner of the last two cups that could find a way to send them home without a championship.