Tampa. The team that plays the best hockey game doesn’t always win the Stanley Cup, but this time there’s nothing to discuss.
The Colorado Avalanches are incredibly deserving champions.
“Colorado is the best at playing hockey, but Tampa is the best at winning.”
That was the mantra that others and I had put together before the start of the 2022 Stanley Cup Final – and they go on to remind us of the longer the great series of matches lasted.
Because it often feels like when the infernal two-month Stanley Cup playoffs reach their climax.
The team that represents the most accurate ice hockey isn’t necessarily the one who will eventually drink the champagne from the famous dent. It’s the team that has real killer instinct and knows how to struggle to win the toughest field battles – and after the fifth edition of Midsummer Eve, when lightning destroyed the entire party in Denver, it looked like it was on its way to happening again.
But in the end, it turns out that even Colorado—which had been pretty impressive for several years but failed over and over in the playoffs—learned what it takes to win at the biggest, most decisive moment.
Incredible Drama
Final Six was a no-nonsense thriller, and I was a hundred percent convinced the Bolts would eventually tie because the awful winning machine from West Florida always worked, but Avalanche did everything right and fought back in goal.
Yes, even goalkeeper Darcy Comber – his Achilles heel throughout playoffs – was responsible for some really impressive tackles.
I had to play Lidas.
So when it was all said and done and the smoke of gunpowder settled at the Amalie Arena, Gabriel Landskog – like only another Swedish captain after Niklas Lidström – had to stretch the gap he’d been dreaming of all his life over his head.
It was touching to see firsthand. If there is one blue-and-yellow NHL wrestler who deserves to experience this victory, it is Gabriel. He’s come so tall and heroically, without ever complaining, despite his heart being broken year after year, and now he’s finally getting the right reward.
Can it happen more than once?
Mild.
Avalanche, in addition to a great captain, has the world’s best defender Cale Makar – who billed himself as a Conn Smythe winner – and one of the world’s most dynamic offensive performers in Nathan MacKinnon.
Now they also realized, once and for all, how to get the ultimate prize.
So they will probably win again – and they will be very worthy champions, too.