Tampa. It gets more and more difficult the longer the Stanley Cup Final drags on, but somehow the Colorado Avalanche should immediately recover from the fun of midsummer at home in Denver and flick the match ball at Amalie Arena tonight.
Otherwise, Game 7 awaits and no one beats Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 7…
They could feel the weight of a Stanley glass in their arms, they could feel the taste of champagne, they could feel the euphoria about to explode on a midsummer evening.
But it was all just hints and feelings Colorado Avalanche last Friday.
They lost their fifth final to a hard-hardened Lightning, and yesterday had to get on a plane and back to Tampa again.
Then the worst possible resistance
Here, tonight they have a new chance to decide and become champions – and perhaps the safest for them, this one.
Otherwise, they’ll have to go up in Game 7 on Wednesday night – against the worst possible resistance in such diabolical excitement.
As NHL anchor for ESPN Greg Wyshynski mentioned in his big final Sportbladet tips before the whole adventure got underway about two weeks ago:
“Colorado wins this, only they can avoid Game 7”
In fact.
smash victories
Not least because of her ability to fight her way to victory in such intense sea battles as hell – when there is no tomorrow for the loser – that Tampa Bay Lightning She won two years in a row and now has “Threepeat” on lye.
They have such a steely breath, uncompromising and stoic and know, thanks to their vast experience, a lot about how to deal with really pointy moments.
However, it will not be easy for Gabriel Landskog and his comrades to avoid this fate.
On the contrary, the toughest match they’ve ever played is waiting for you at Amalie Arena. It should be as perfect as in Round Two last weekend, eliminating all the bugs and producing a killer instinct completely different than it was in the midsummer fight, brutal enough to poke holes in the awesome Andrei Vasilyevsky more than any lucky occasion.
He needs to get up
Plus, Av’s goalkeeper, Darcy Comber, has to rise to a whole different level – how things should go.
He’s been the team’s sore Achilles heel throughout playoffs and if he continues to allow for the shots that Jean Rutte had to hit on a midsummer night, the 32-year-old Canadian – completely unscathed and protected in this position – could frankly cost the Colorado title.
So the moment of truth is here for those often called “the best in the world”.
Earn now – or set it right…