The Tampa
Bay Lightning rallied from certain extinction to beat the Detroit Red Wings,
trampled the Montreal Canadiens and went into Madison Square Garden and did
what no one has ever done, won a game 7. So with all of that you’d think I’d pick
them to win the Cup. No, I picked the Chicago Blackhawks to win the Stanley Cup
in September so I’m not going to change my pick now. The reason the Hawks have
not won 4 straight Stanley Cups is the Los Angeles Kings and their excellent
goal tender Jonathan Quick. I knew the Kings wouldn’t repeat, no one does
anymore so I picked the Hawks. The Hawks are a great team. They use the regular
season to get ready for the playoffs and once they realized their nemesis Kings
didn’t even make the playoffs the Hawks knew destiny is theirs.
Strategic
notes –
If the Ducks
couldn’t wear down the Hawks defense the Lightning won’t be able to. Runblad
and Chumisky are enabling Hawks coach Joel Quenneville to even out some minutes
on the back end.
Ben Bishop has played very well but this is
the very deep end of the pool and he’s never seen a team as gifted as the
Blackhawks.
Both teams
have 2 great star studded top lines but Chicago’s bottom 6 forwards are much better than Tampa Bay’s.
BLACKHAWKS in 6
Conference Finals thoughts
Toews is the
best leader in hockey. His name is now spoken in the same reverence as Messier
and Yzerman. Stevie Y says Toews is a better player than he was, but that might
be some Bob Dylan esque pre Finals mind game.
Kane was
supposed to be out until the Finals. But instead he’s second in the playoffs in
points. He and Toews are the best 1-2 in hockey.
Ryan Getzlaf
and Corey Perry were the best 1-2 in the regular season but shrunk when it
mattered most in games 6 &7 of the Western Conference Finals. Getzlaf was
on the ice for the 6 of Chicago’s last 9 goals.
Joel Quenneville outcoached BBQ Bruce Boudreau
which is not hard. Putting Kane on Toews line and benching pitiful Kimmo
Timonen changed the series.
Brandon Saad
is already a great player.
Hossa plays
like he was born in Canada.
Duncan Keith
secured his place the Hall of Fame after this playoff season.
The Ducks
have a great team and have a bright future, they are closer to Chicago and Los
Angeles than St. Louis and San Jose.
Steven
Stamkos went from being a great player to being a great leader this season.
The Triplets-
Tyler Johnson, Andrei Palat, Nikita Kucherov went from being the best second
line in hockey to the best line in hockey ( when Toews and Kane don’t play
together)
Victor
Hedman is playing like the number 2 overall pick he was.
Ben Bishop does
not look good in net but he is always in position, or just too big and the puck
hits him but whatever the case he went into Madison Square Garden and won a
game 7. Kudos to him.
Much like
other past Ranger teams the Rangers relied too much on Henry Lundqvist.
Alain Vigneault
was out coached by Jon Cooper. The Lightning took away the wall and the Rangers
didn’t adjust.
Brassard and
Steppan are nice number 2s but Rangers need a bona fide number 1 center.
The Rangers
quit forechecking and played it too safe.
Hayes and
Nash should have been on the same line and used their big bodies to wear on and
slow down the Lightning.
The Rangers
played their srubs too much. Glass was ineffective and Dominic Moore was a
minus 2 in Tampa’s 2-0 game 7 victory.
One thought on Mike Babcock-
Mike Babcock is not afraid of a challenge. He
went to the only team that can ruin his legacy. Any other team and Babcock
could end up on a network panel when it doesn’t go right and all would be
forgiven, but not in Toronto. The Leafs got 6 million dollars worth of balls.
