Month: June 2022

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AP Photo/John Bazemore

The king is dead. Long live the king.

The Colorado Avalanche beat the Tampa Bay Lighting 2-1 on Sunday night to win the 2022 Stanley Cup Final in six games and end the Lightning’s two-year run as NHL champions.

Artturi Lehkonen’s goal with 7: 32 remaining in the second period proved to be the game-winner after Tampa Bay had opened the scoring in the first period and Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon evened it up just 1: 54 into the second.

Cale Makar, who won the Norris Trophy earlier this week as the league’s best defenseman, was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the playoffs.

He’s the first player in league history to win the Hobey Baker Award as the nation’s best college player and the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s rookie of the year, in addition to the Norris, the Conn Smythe and the Stanley Cup.

The B/R hockey team took a look at Game 6 and put together a list of takeaways. Scroll through to see what we came up with, and drop a thought or two of your own in the comments.

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Of the young stars in the league, MacKinnon ranks up there among the best.

But even if you’re among the groups that claim Connor McDavid or Auston Matthews are superior to the Colorado Avalanche forward, he officially has something they don’t.

The Stanley Cup.

After five series games in which he’d scored just once on 28 shots, the 2013 No. 1 overall pick flexed his championship-ready muscles in the clincher by scoring the game-tying goal early in the second and assisting on the Cup clincher half a period later.

He finished the playoffs with 13 goals, tying Edmonton’s Evander Kane for the league lead, and 24 points, which were third on the team behind Conn Smythe-winner Makar and linemate Mikko Rantanen.

Now 26, MacKinnon has been a point-per-game player in the regular season for five straight years and has now produced at that rate in all six playoff appearances with Colorado, registering 93 points in 70 games.

For comparison’s sake, Matthews has 33 points in 39 career playoff games with the Toronto Maple Leafs, while McDavid has 55 points in 37 games with Edmonton.

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AP Photo/David Zalubowski

Joe Sakic was a Stanley Cup-winning player in Colorado.

But the moves he made to assemble the Avalanche’s latest championship team as a general manager warrant a similar amount of praise these days.

Among the players that hoisted the Cup on Sunday night, several came in trade-deadline moves that Sakic made to support homegrown core players like MacKinnon and Makar.

Artturi Lehkonen was drafted by Montreal and had spent parts of six seasons with the Canadiens, including an appearance in the 2020-21 Final against the Lightning, before Sakic brought him over on March 21 in a deal for minor-leaguer Justin Barron and a second-round pick in 2024.

Veterans Josh Manson and Andrew Cogliano, who’d combined for more than 1,500 NHL games, were brought over the same week from Anaheim and San Jose, respectively, for a collective haul that included one player and two draft picks.

Several weeks prior to the 2021-22 season, Sakic acquired goalie Darcy Kuemper from Arizona for two picks and a player, and, one year earlier, he snatched defenseman Devon Toews from the New York Islanders for two picks and immediately signed him to a four-year, $16.4 million deal.

All played vital roles, with the skaters combining for 19 goals and 24 assists in the 20-game playoff run and Kuemper going 10-4 in 16 starts with a 2.57 goals-against average and a .902 save percentage.

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AP Photo/Phelan Ebenhack

No Avalanche player was doubted more than Kuemper.

He won the first two games with little sustained pressure on him but was pulled from Game 3 after giving up five goals and surrendered just enough soft ones to make people think the needle had moved to Tampa Bay’s side as the series progressed.

Then Game 6 happened.

And while Kuemper hardly had to be Vezina Trophy-quality in stopping 22-of-23 shots, he held up well after allowing the game’s first goal less than four minutes in.

He was only called upon nine times in the second and then only four times in the third,

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Dustin Bradford/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

The NHL season is still not over.

The Tampa Bay Lightning fought off elimination with a 3-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final at Ball Arena in Denver on Friday.

The compelling win by the two-time defending Cup champs sent the series back to Amalie Arena in Tampa for Game 6 on Sunday, with the Avalanche leading the series 3-2.

If Colorado wins, it’ll be the organization’s first Cup since 2001. If Tampa Bay wins, it’ll force a deciding Game 7 back in Denver on Tuesday.

The B/R hockey team took in all the action and put together a list of takeaways from Friday’s game. Scroll through to see what we came up with and leave a thought or two of your own in the comments section.

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Ondrej Palat was a seventh-round draft pick in 2011.

In fact, no fewer than 207 players were selected before the Lightning called his name.

But not too many of them have had the impact he’s had, particularly when it matters most.

The game-winning goal scored by the 31-year-old winger Friday night was the 11th of his playoff career with Tampa and set up what could be a particularly compelling swan song to his time with the two-time defending champions.

Palat will be an unrestricted free agent July 13, and the Lightning are already right up against the salary cap for 2022-23, meaning this could be his final run with the team.

The Game 5 winner came with 6: 22 left in the third period and broke a 2-2 tie when Palat snapped a centering pass from Victor Hedman through Colorado goalie Darcy Kuemper.

It was his 11th goal of the playoffs and his 48th in 137 postseason games.

“I thought we played a good game. A great road game,” he told ESPN’s Emily Kaplan after the win. “It was a great play. [Hedman] found me, I had an open net and I was lucky enough it went in.”

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AP Photo/David Zalubowski

There’s a reason these Lightning have won the Stanley Cup.

Twice.

The two-time defending champs had their championship grit, heart and determination on full display throughout Game 5, just as they have throughout this year’s run in particular.

Tampa Bay never faced anything beyond a 1-0 deficit while winning eight straight series in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 playoffs, and it only played one elimination game—Game 7 against the New York Islanders in last year’s Eastern Conference Final—in going 32-14 overall.

The Lightning have been much less dominant this year, however, going down 3-2 to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round before winning two straight and trailing the New York Rangers 0-2 in the conference final before rattling off four straight wins.

If they go on to win the Cup, it’d be the most elimination games won by a champion since the 2013-14 Los Angeles Kings won six, including a rally from being down 0-3 against the San Jose Sharks in the first round.

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In spite of the 3-1 series deficit, the Lightning arrived at Game 5 having outscored Colorado 10-9 at even strength through four games.

Where the biggest problems came were on special teams.

The Avalanche had outscored Tampa Bay 6-1 in power-play situations, but things weren’t quite so one-sided Friday.

The Lightning scored one power-play goal in four chances and just as importantly kept Colorado off the scoresheet during its two opportunities with a man advantage.

Nikita Kucherov scored with assists from Steven Stamkos and Corey Perry during Tampa Bay’s four-on-three power play at 8: 10 of the second period, and the Lightning killed off a high-sticking penalty called on Ross Colton eight minutes later after also killing a tripping call against Stamkos in the first period.

Kucherov’s goal was his eighth of the playoffs and sixth on the power play but also his first since the Eastern Conference Final against the Rangers.

The Avalanche are still 6-of-15 (40 percent) on the power play in the series, while Tampa Bay improved to 2-of-18 (11.1 percent).

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AP Photo/Jack Dempsey

As a whole, Kuemper has played well in this series.

He’s made 116 saves on 129 shots across five games, registered a shutout in Game 2 and was particularly steady in the face of a 17-shot barrage during the first period of the Game 4 victory that gave the Avalanche a commanding 3-1 series lead.

And he looked sharp early Friday, particularly with the glove hand.

But there have been moments where things haven’t looked so good.

Two of Tampa Bay’s three goals in Game 5 came on shots that Kuemper got a piece of but could not stop. Lightning defenseman Jan Rutta beat him with a slap shot from the right-side boards

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Dustin Bradford/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

The NHL season is still not over.

The Tampa Bay Lightning fought off elimination with a 3-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final at Ball Arena in Denver on Friday.

The compelling win by the two-time defending Cup champs sent the series back to Amalie Arena in Tampa for Game 6 on Sunday, with the Avalanche leading the series 3-2.

If Colorado wins, it’ll be the organization’s first Cup since 2001. If Tampa Bay wins, it’ll force a deciding Game 7 back in Denver on Tuesday.

The B/R hockey team took in all the action and put together a list of takeaways from Friday’s game. Scroll through to see what we came up with and leave a thought or two of your own in the comments section.

1 of 5

Ondrej Palat was a seventh-round draft pick in 2011.

In fact, no fewer than 207 players were selected before the Lightning called his name.

But not too many of them have had the impact he’s had, particularly when it matters most.

The game-winning goal scored by the 31-year-old winger Friday night was the 11th of his playoff career with Tampa and set up what could be a particularly compelling swan song to his time with the two-time defending champions.

Palat will be an unrestricted free agent July 13, and the Lightning are already right up against the salary cap for 2022-23, meaning this could be his final run with the team.

The Game 5 winner came with 6: 22 left in the third period and broke a 2-2 tie when Palat snapped a centering pass from Victor Hedman through Colorado goalie Darcy Kuemper.

It was his 11th goal of the playoffs and his 48th in 137 postseason games.

“I thought we played a good game. A great road game,” he told ESPN’s Emily Kaplan after the win. “It was a great play. [Hedman] found me, I had an open net and I was lucky enough it went in.”

2 of 5

AP Photo/David Zalubowski

There’s a reason these Lightning have won the Stanley Cup.

Twice.

The two-time defending champs had their championship grit, heart and determination on full display throughout Game 5, just as they have throughout this year’s run in particular.

Tampa Bay never faced anything beyond a 1-0 deficit while winning eight straight series in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 playoffs, and it only played one elimination game—Game 7 against the New York Islanders in last year’s Eastern Conference Final—in going 32-14 overall.

The Lightning have been much less dominant this year, however, going down 3-2 to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round before winning two straight and trailing the New York Rangers 0-2 in the conference final before rattling off four straight wins.

If they go on to win the Cup, it’d be the most elimination games won by a champion since the 2013-14 Los Angeles Kings won six, including a rally from being down 0-3 against the San Jose Sharks in the first round.

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In spite of the 3-1 series deficit, the Lightning arrived at Game 5 having outscored Colorado 10-9 at even strength through four games.

Where the biggest problems came were on special teams.

The Avalanche had outscored Tampa Bay 6-1 in power-play situations, but things weren’t quite so one-sided Friday.

The Lightning scored one power-play goal in four chances and just as importantly kept Colorado off the scoresheet during its two opportunities with a man advantage.

Nikita Kucherov scored with assists from Steven Stamkos and Corey Perry during Tampa Bay’s four-on-three power play at 8: 10 of the second period, and the Lightning killed off a high-sticking penalty called on Ross Colton eight minutes later after also killing a tripping call against Stamkos in the first period.

Kucherov’s goal was his eighth of the playoffs and sixth on the power play but also his first since the Eastern Conference Final against the Rangers.

The Avalanche are still 6-of-15 (40 percent) on the power play in the series, while Tampa Bay improved to 2-of-18 (11.1 percent).

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AP Photo/Jack Dempsey

As a whole, Kuemper has played well in this series.

He’s made 116 saves on 129 shots across five games, registered a shutout in Game 2 and was particularly steady in the face of a 17-shot barrage during the first period of the Game 4 victory that gave the Avalanche a commanding 3-1 series lead.

And he looked sharp early Friday, particularly with the glove hand.

But there have been moments where things haven’t looked so good.

Two of Tampa Bay’s three goals in Game 5 came on shots that Kuemper got a piece of but could not stop. Lightning defenseman Jan Rutta beat him with a slap shot from the right-side boards