The Tampa Bay Lightning have won the Stanley Cup!
After 65 days in the bubble, both in Toronto and now Edmonton, the Lightning prevailed with a 2-0 shutout win over the Dallas Stars to claim the best trophy in the world … The Stanley Cup. It was quite a lot to ask the players and personnel to be away from their families for over nine weeks but the Lightning and the Stars managed to do so and the fans should be most appreciative.
It must have felt weird to Commissioner Gary Bettman to award the Cup with nary a boo from the crowd, the first time this has probably happened since he became Commissioner in 1993. This was only possible due to the fact there were no fans in the building in Edmonton.
Steven Stamkos only played 2:47 in the Stanley Cup playoffs due to injury, but he dressed after the game and as captain, he was awarded the Cup from Bettman. He eventually handed the Cup to defenseman Victor Hedman and the procession began with every player and personnel from the Lightning, holding the Cup high over their head.
Hedman was named the Conn Smythe winner as the Most Valuable Player of the Stanley Cup playoffs. He had 10 goals (third best all-time for a defenseman in one playoff season) as well as 12 assists in an outstanding effort.
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TAMPA BAY 2 DALLAS 0 (Tampa Bay wins the Stanley Cup 4-2)
The Lightning scored once in the first and once in the second and then played ‘kitty bar the door’ as they shutout the Dallas Stars 2-0 to win the best-of-seven Stanley Cup Final four games to two.
Andrei Vasilevskiy picked up his first shutout of the 2020 playoffs as he stopped all 22 Dallas shots to pick up his 18th win of the post-season. Vasilevskiy was a warrior for the Lightning as he played every minute in net, playing 25 games in less than two months. He finished the playoffs with a 1.90 GAA and a .927 save percentage.
It was a great playoff as well for Anton Khudobin as the Stars netminder made 27 saves on 29 shots. He was responsible for the Stars getting to the Final as he was spectacular in the previous three series and although he had a couple of tough games in 3 and 4, Khudobin was a stud through most of the playoffs. He ended the post-season with a 2.69 GAA and a .917 save percentage.
Brayden Point opened the scoring on the power play with his 14th of the playoffs. He led all scorers in goals, one ahead of Joe Pavelski. He finished second in points to linemate Nikita Kucherov as Kucherov assisted on Point’s goal to give him 34 points.
The period ended with the Lightning up 1-0 and they made it 2-0 when fourth liners Pat Maroon and Cedric Paquette teamed up to set up Blake Coleman for his fifth of the playoffs. That was all the Lightning needed as they outshot Dallas 21-8 in the first two periods before Dallas threw everything they could at Vasilevskiy in the third, outshooting Tampa Bay 14-8.
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Coleman and John Klingberg each had five shots on goal.
Denis Gurianov and Zach Bogosian each had five hits.
It was not a great playoff -points wise- for Tyler Seguin who did not find the back of the net in his last 15 games. He managed six assists in that timeframe, with five coming in Games 4 and 5 against Tampa Bay.
Pat Maroon won his second Stanley Cup in two years, also winning last season with St. Louis. He became only the eighth NHLer to do so with two different teams in two straight seasons.
And it was back-to-back for the Schenn brothers as Brayden Schenn won it last season with the Blues, while Luke Schenn raised it this season with the Lightning.
And so it ends. In normal seasons, we would be participating in our fantasy drafts at this time with the regular season starting next week.
This year, next week will have the NHL Entry Draft as well as the start of free agency.
The NHL has not decided when the 2020-21 season will begin and it could easily be just a 2021 season.
The fans will wait patiently but hopefully the game will be back on the ice as soon as possible.
Thanks go out to all the players and support staff for an outstanding effort during the pandemic. They all deserve kudos.
NIGHTLY LEADERS
Goals
Brayden Point – 1
Blake Coleman – 1
Assists
Nikita Kucherov – 1
Pat Maroon – 1
Victor Hedman – 1
Cedric Paquette - 1
Shots on Goal
Blake Coleman – 5
John Klingberg - 5
Hits
Denis Gurianov – 5
Zach Bogosian – 5
Penalty Minutes
Ryan McDonagh – 4
