The 2020 season has been unlike any other. We had a pandemic that shut down the season for almost five months. The season restarted in two hub cities with a postseason that looked unusual and gave us a different brand of hockey. At the end of the day, the best teams have made it to the Stanley Cup Final. The playoffs have felt different, but we have seen a thrilling playoff thus far and are ready for an epic Stanley Cup Final.
The two teams in the Stanley Cup Final have taught and retaught us some virtues of a Stanley Cup Champion. It is an unprecedented truth that a great goalie can carry a team to the cup. This is all the more true in this season as both teams possess lockdown goaltenders. The Lightning with Andrei Vasilevskiy and the Stars with Anton Khudobin. We also were reminded how important the depth is to a Stanley Cup contender. Both the Stars and Lightning have proven throughout the playoffs that any player can erupt for a great game or be a literal wall on defense.
Here are some questions we should ponder as the Stanley Cup Final starts Saturday night.
Should the Lightning bring Steve Stamkos back into the lineup? If they choose to, how should they integrate him into the lineup?
Messing with chemistry at this point be too catastrophic. The Lightning has mastered their scoring lines and bringing Stamkos into the lineup can be a mistake that costs the Lightning the cup. At the same time, Tampa Bay does not want to deal with a resounding “what if”. Meaning, if they lose the series and never play Stamkos, they will forever have to live with that decision. I see the Lightning waiting for two games to see how the team is faring. If the offense struggles, we should anticipate a Stamkos return.
Should the Stars play aggressive defense on Nikita Kucherov and constantly check him to wear him down as the series goes on?
This dilemma is a reoccurring one in every Stanley Cup Final. You want to play rough against the scorers of the opposing team and wear them down but don’t want to risk penalties. I see the Stars running that risk. The Islanders gave Kucherov too much space to create. The Dallas Stars need to constantly bombard Kucherov if they have any chance of winning.
Which Stars team will we see, the offense-happy one that beat the Avalanche or the low-scoring, the grind-it-out team that beat the Golden Knights?
I see the latter as a more realistic result for the Stars. Goals will be scarce against Andrei Vasilevskiy. The same will be true for Tampa with Khudobin stopping everything he sees. The Stars will have to take advantage of the opportunities given since goals will be a minimum.
Who wins and why?
I want to believe that the Stars can upset the Lightning and take the Cup. It would honestly come as no surprise, the Stars have all the qualities you’d expect in a cup team. At the same time, I have to pick the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games. This series is going to be close and have mostly close games. At the end of the day, I see the Lightning avenging the demons of last season and winning the Stanley Cup. Tampa Bay is favored but only slightly, making this a much anticipated close series.
