When these Stanley Cup Playoffs began three rounds ago I said yes and I’m still saying yes.
I like Tampa in six games to repeat as the winner of Lord Stanley’s Cup minus the Lightening getting decimated by injuries.
They not only have the best powerplay in hockey, they in my view have the second best goalie in Andrei Vasilevsky. The best goalie in hockey is the Canadians’ Carey Price so what we have here is the potential of an epic goaltending Finals.
Do the Canadians have a puncher’s chance?
Yes they do. They have Carey Price in net, a nice array of defensemen, the hottest penalty killing unit in these playoffs and an interesting assortment of forwards who aren’t the glamour boys of Tampa, but an interesting group with the ageless Corey Perry once again in the Finals after his run with the Dallas Stars in last summer’s NHL Bubble Tournament.
On my note sheet before the playoffs began I had 1 Tampa, 2 Colorado, 3 Vegas, 4 NY Islanders, 5 Boston, 6 Washington Caps, and 7 the Montreal Canadians.
I had Montreal at 7 for one reason…Carey Price. He’s Montreal’s best player and the adage in hockey is simple…’you build your team from the net out.’ A stud goalie, a defensive defenseman, a two way defenseman, and a guy or two who can play the point on the powerplay.
You then put a roster of guys together who can skate, check, pass and read and react all over the ice in the various situations such as even strength, short-handed, and powerplay.
Simple game.
But if you have the No. 1 stud in the entire NHL in your net you can do some glorious team things if the other nineteen on the team pull their proverbial links on the chain.
This is about doing your job on the ice.
This should be a very interesting series for those who love hockey.
I can’t wait.
I don’t really care who wins now that Colorado and Boston have flamed out, but I do want to see a great seven game series. I want to see Montreal play their asses off and give us a show. So this is for Carey Price, Corey Perry, and the Canadians…let’s go boys. Simple game…it’s always about two things—space and time.