Stanley Cup Final Takeaways

Photo by Julio Aguilar from Getty Images

The 2022 season of hockey is officially over, with the Colorado Avalanche lifting the Stanley Cup.

Let’s discuss the Stanley Cup Finals, the two teams and where they go from here.

Colorado defeats Tampa Bay in 6 games

In my preview, I picked Tampa Bay to beat Colorado.

I never doubted that Colorado was a better team overall this year, but it felt like their poor goaltending was going to let them down against a high powered offense like Tampa Bay.

I was proven wrong.

Part of that was Darcy Kuemper playing well in the finals (outside of game 3). Part of that was Nikita Kucherov and Victor Hedman underperforming and Brayden Point not being 100%.

But a big part of it was simple.

I underestimated just how much better Colorado was than Tampa Bay as a team.

The simplistic way to describe it was the third period last night when Colorado clinched the Cup.

Tampa are the two time defending Cup champions. They’re at home and down a goal. They need to score to save their season and keep the hopes of a 3 peat alive. They needed to come out and throw the kitchen sink at the Avs to get that goal.

They got four shots on goal.

And that’s not to say they didn’t give it everything they had. They did.

The Avalanche completely smothered them defensively the entire period.

They knew Tampa was going to come out swinging, and instead of trying to hold on for dear life, they decided to stop it from happening at all.

They are worthy Cup champions, and this is likely only the beginning

Tampa Bay Lightning

So why did Tampa lose? And where do they go from here?

It may seem like a lazy excuse, but I do think rest has a big part in why Tampa fell short.

Both teams made the playoffs the past three seasons, but Colorado exited in round 2 both times while Tampa won it all.

Throw in the fact that Colorado ran through the Western Conference in 14 games, facing backup goalies most of the way, Tampa had to go 7 against a great Maple Leafs team, take on the Presidents Trophy winning Panthers and then face the Rangers who have easily the best goalie in hockey.

Even ignoring the last two seasons, Tampa had a very difficult path to get here.

Last night was their 71st playoff game over the past three seasons. That’s basically an entire extra year of hockey.

But don’t be fooled into thinking this was their end of the road.

Stamkos is 32. Hedman is 31. Kucherov is 29. Point is 26. Vasilevsky is 27.

They’re still smack in the middle of their prime and aren’t up against the cap to keep the group together.

The league around them is getting harder, but they’ll still be right in the mix next season.

You can count on that.

Colorado Avalanche

But another team smack in the mix of it next season is going to be the Avs.

This was not a snatch and grab job. They’re better built for the future than the Lightning were when their run started.

They have some signings to make, like Kadri, Burakovsky and Nichuskin (not to mention Nathan MacKinnon who is a free agent next season and on an absurdly team friendly deal). So they’re probably going to have some issues, right?

Nope.

They have 25 million in cap space this offseason, more than enough to sign those three and a projected 45 million next season to add MacKinnon’s deal into that.

They are more than prepared for the future, and can even improve in areas if they feel like they need to.

But this is the same team who had a Vezina winning goaltender last year and decided not to re-sign him.

Joe Sakic knows exactly what he’s doing when building a team and dealing with the salary cap.

This Avalanche team won the Stanley Cup. None of their core is past their prime, and guys like Cale Makar haven’t even entered their prime (29 points in 20 games as a 23 year old is ridiculous).

The draft hasn’t happened. Free agency hasn’t happened. We don’t know what’s coming next.

But if someone from the future came and told me that Colorado and Tampa faced off in the Finals again the next two seasons, it wouldn’t surprise me at all.

The final takeaway is this.

The NHL is a copycat league. Teams will look at how teams won it all and build their teams around that.

Both the Avalanche and Lightning play an extremely exciting style of hockey.

If the rest of the league copies them, the league is in very good hands for the future.

See y’all in October.