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2021-22 Stanley Cup Finals: Tampa Bay Lightning (Wales Champion) at Colorado Avalanche (Campbell Champion) - (COL WINS 4-2)


TBL vs COL  

17 members have voted

  1. 1. Stanley Cup Champion: Beast of the East or Best of the West?

    • 1-- Bolts in 4. Defending Champs blow the hype right the hell up and disappoint many Western fans, and irritate odds makers!
    • 2-- Bolts in 5. Series doesn't quite live up to the hype as TB makes short work of the Avs, only giving up one game due to Bolts' team bus running late...
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    • 3-- Bolts in 6. Great series that sees a bit of everything, but the Lightning still show why they have been the best for the last three seasons...and why the Avs still need a bit more work.
    • 4-- Bolts in 7. Fantastic set that truly shows hockey can be a game of inches....and rulers and yardsticks favor the defending Champions who make it 3 in a row!
    • 5-- Avs in 4. Predators, Oilers....Lightning. Makes no difference to the powerful, hungry Avalanche. They sweep. New Champs.
      0
    • 6-- Avs in 5. TB tries but finally finds a team that matches and exceeds them at every turn. Vasy steals a game, but that's it.
      0
    • 7-- Avs in 6. Colorado grows by leaps n bounds even during this series, and dethrones the defending champions on their own ice!
    • 8-- Avs in 7. Epic set. New Champs crowned. Old Champs fall just shy of historical greatness. And all in front of the Denver home crowd!

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Thanks for another fun playoff season with these series threads, TFG.  Your team’s amazing run has ended, or at least had a blip, but I think we all hope your run here making the forum a real blast does not.  

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2 minutes ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

All yours Colorado, you are now the kingpins, and have become The Hunted next season. 
 

 

That's the REALLY difficult part.

 

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5 minutes ago, JR Ewing said:

Well, good for the Avs. I thought they were ready last year, but it took another season of... seasoning. IMO, this IS a dynasty for Tampa Bay, who had another great run.

 

No question about it. These Tampa Bay Lightning are the best team, since the 80s Oilers or Islanders. Winning two in a row, and getting this damned close to winning 3 in a row in this era...is phenomenal.

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One cool thing about this Colorado win:

My other team, the Minnesota Wild will get their chance to go head to head with the top team in hockey more often, being divisional rivals, and see how THEY measure up...and how much more work they need to put in to do what the Avs have done.

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4 minutes ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

One cool thing about this Colorado win:

My other team, the Minnesota Wild will get their chance to go head to head with the top team in hockey more often, being divisional rivals, and see how THEY measure up...and how much more work they need to put in to do what the Avs have done.

You do realize if the seedings were proper, The Wild might have faced the Av's and eliminated them again in the 2nd round . ;)
I couldn't resist. 😁

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Just now, ClusterChuck said:

You do realize if the seedings were proper, The Wild might have faced the Av's and eliminated them again in the 2nd round . ;)
I couldn't resist. 😁

 

Heh...perhaps........errr, or not... :bigteeth: 

Thing is, I've always contended that high level opposition FORCES the divisional rivals to elevate their game, both on the ice and in the front office, or else they sink fast into bottomless oblivion.
This Colorado win should be GOOD for teams like Nashville, Minnesota, St. Louis, Winnipeg, Dallas, hell, even Arizona....they get the measuring stick in their division, and they now better get their chit together or get squashed under the competitive roll!

The Lightning's own division, the Atlantic, has become one of the BEST, if not THE best division in all of hockey, where even bottom feeders like Buffalo, Detroit, and Ottawa aren't really pushovers for teams looking for easy wins.

Is it a coincidence that the Lightning and their playoff runs reside in that division and rival GM's are doing all they can to "do what Tampa Bay has done"?
I don't think so...I think that is by design.

If Colorado maintains their championship form, they could do the same for the Central, because now EVERYONE will want to "do what the Avalanche have done".

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Like all previous Stanley cup winners Tampa will have to play the salary cap game. 
Will they need to shed contract the way Chicago did or will they be able keep players on team friendly deals. 
That Tampa built a dynasty is a testament to the great GM’s they have had. 
Hopefully the Wild can create a dynasty. 

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NHL dynasty - in my opinion in the post-expansion era there are 2: the Oilers and the Islanders. Near-misses: the Pens, the Devils and Tampa Bay. The Lightning are obviously a great team but 3 Cups in 18 years = close but no cigar.

 

Of course TB is not done. Practically the whole roster is signed for the next few years. A couple free agents like Killorn and Sergachev, Cirelli but AFAIK that's it. I'm sure Licht will move hell and earth to keep that roster intact.

 

 

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20 hours ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

I've always contended that high level opposition FORCES the divisional rivals to elevate their game, both on the ice and in the front office


I’ll presume you are speaking to (and of) “your” Toronto Maple Leaves®  😝 
 

🍁 Good fortune to them next year (?) 🍁 

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Browsing through an assortment of hockey stories and found this reported by MSN sports.
List of Bolts who played through the Finals, and in some cases, the ENTIRE playoffs, with these injuries!

 

659505986_BoltsInjuries.jpg.cab0ee5726a6338707742c70848178ea.jpg

 

Hey, look, this is NOT an excuse as to "why the Bolts lost".
TB lost because the Avalanche were better than they were for that 7-game set, so still, full props to Colorado on their Cup win.

But putting this here because sometimes people forget just how much that Stanley Cup really means to the players in this league, and what they put their bodies through, the pain meds they take, just to keep playing for it.

We all know hockey players play through injuries, and I am sure Colorado had more than were revealed too....but some of these for the Lightning, wow, if these were regular season games, they don't even THINK about playing.

Amazing to me, even in the loss, just how good TB is that they put up the fight they did now that all this was revealed.

So, SOME people can put away the "Lightning weren't worthy" nonsense, or so and so team would have done better.
Those are some real warriors the Avalanche beat for that Cup!


 

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6 hours ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

Browsing through an assortment of hockey stories and found this reported by MSN sports.
List of Bolts who played through the Finals, and in some cases, the ENTIRE playoffs, with these injuries!

 

659505986_BoltsInjuries.jpg.cab0ee5726a6338707742c70848178ea.jpg

 

 

This is the reason that the Stanley  Cup is the hardest playoffs to win, and why the players are so excited when they win it.  The additional game for four rounds can add up to 28 games, or over 1/3 of the regular season.    Don't know if people noticed, but when Kadri had his time with the cup on the ice, he could hardly hold it up because of his thumb.   You have to really give a lot of credit to hockey players for their willingness and ability to play through injuries during the playoffs. 

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