Stanley Cup Finals: Avalanche vs Lightning

We are finally down to two teams. Both teams were in the top five most likely teams to make it to the final, and most people had both of them going. This is going to a fun matchup. This should be one of the best Stanley Cup Finals matchup we have seen in a while. We have the back-to-back Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightning and then we have the young and flashy Colorado Avalanche. I was 9-3 up until last round and ended up spilling the conference finals. The record is at 10-4 and looking to add one more win to make it 11.

Colorado Avalanche vs Tampa Bay Lightning

Colorado has been the the Stanley Cup two times and has won both. In fact, they are the only team in the whole league that has appeared at least two times and not lose, but they haven’t won one since the 2000-01 season. They are an young team that will more than likely be here for a long time. Majority of their good players are under 28 are getting better.

Tampa Bay has been to the Stanley Cup four times and are 3-1  in those 4. Winning back-to-back is hard in any professional sports, but no team has won 3 straight Stanley Cup’s since the New York Islanders from 1980-83. They are a veteran driven team. Majority of their best players are over 25 and have been part of the team the last two seasons. I personally don’t think they have that many more runs in them. They have the best goalie in the league, but he hasn’t been himself in the playoffs. When he is on, he is on, but he has had a few games where he isn’t like himself.

Prediction

This will be a great series and I believe that the Lightning will finally get dethroned. The boys are banged and you don’t now what to expect out of Vasilevskiy. Colorado looks too dominant to lose 4 games in a series. The have two sweeps in three series. The Lightning are not as deep as the previous two years and don’t know if they can handle the speed that Colorado will put on them, I have Avalanche in 6.