The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-0 in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals on Monday night, to win the National Hockey League Championship for the 3rd time in the last 6 years. Duncan Keith and Patrick Kane provided the only scoring, and defenseman Keith also went home with the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player.
The Blackhawks were able to celebrate winning a championship on home ice for the first time in 77 years. Although the Stanley Cup was late in its arrival, it wasn’t too late for the excess capacity crowd of 22,424 to stick around to celebrate with their team.
The Lightning only scored a total of 2 goals in the final 3 games of the finals, all wins for Chicago. Tampa Bay ended their playoff run with the only 3-game losing streak of their entire season. Their captain, Steven Stamkos, ended the playoffs with an 8-game streak without scoring a goal.
Between Stamkos’ lack of productivity, and the injury problems that hit the Lightning during the finals, Chicago was just too much for them. Goalie Ben Bishop played almost all of the finals despite tearing his right groin in a Game 3 win. Tyler Johnson broke his right wrist early in the series. Nikita Kucherov missed Game 6 due to running into the Chicago goal post in Game 5, and incurring an injury somewhere in the area between his neck and right shoulder.
Injuries are a part of sports though. You can’t take anything away from the Blackhawks, who after winning the Stanley Cup 5 years ago, had to dump several players due to financial reasons, only to win it again in 2013, and today. Head coach Joel Quenneville continues to climb the ranks of the greatest coaches in NHL history. He now has 114 postseason wins, and 3 championships.
Every game in the finals was decided by one goal until Game 6. In fact, neither team even had a 2-goal lead in any game until Kane scored 14:46 into the 3rd period. Kane and Captain Jonathan Toews didn’t have a particularly good finals, but Kane finished the playoffs tied with Johnson for most points scored at 23, while Toews was tied with Keith for 4th. Kucherov was 3rd with 22.
Keith was the unanimous choice for the Conn Smythe, and finished the playoffs with 21 points, and easily the best plus/minus with a +21. He also led everyone who played at least 7 games in the postseason in ice time, with 31:06 minutes played per game. He richly deserved to be named the most valuable player.
The long hockey season is now over, but because the season lasts 8 months, we only have to wait until October, for the next regular season to begin. Will the Blackhawks be able to win back-to-back titles, and 4 in 7 years, or will someone else step up, like these young and talented Lightning, the Anaheim Ducks, who took Chicago to 7 games in the conference finals, or some other team. We shall find out…in 12 months.
If you would like to have future commentaries sent to you, click on the link below, to take you to my website, then just enter your email address:
Sports With Frank Thomas
Feel free to leave any comments below.
Loving the info on this website, you have done great
job on the articles.