The Stanley Cup Final begins tonight out in Colorado, and that's a bit surprising. I mean, we're only halfway through June. Usually these things don't start heating up until the Fourth of July.
I'm being sarcastic, of course, and a bit geezerish, coming perilously close to sentences that begin "Back in my day ..." But it's a different world now, and refrigeration is better. And so the Stanley Cup Final can be anytime or anywhere the NHL decides it can be.
Shoot. Sometime in the misty future, the Final probably will pit the Quito, Ecuador, Ice Qs vs. the Lesser Antilles Canadiens, the latter having relocated from Montreal at some point. And they'll play all the games on the equator in the middle of August.
For now, it's the Avalanche vs. the two-time defending champs from Tampa, and even though I think the Avs are the better team, I'm picking the Lightning. This is because I think the three-peat is inevitable now that the Bolts have reached the Final again, and also because they've been harder to stamp out than velvet leaf.
After all, the Rangers had 'em down 2-0 in the conference finals, and the Lightning proceeded to win the next four games to win in six. And in the first round, Toronto led 3-2, only to see the Lightning win the last two games to advance -- including a Game 7 in Toronto, as the Maple Leafs Leafed it up again.
So ... yeah. I'm picking the Lightning. Three straight for Stammer (Steve Stamkos) and Pointer (Brayden Point) and Roons (Patrick Maroon) and Vasy (Andrei Vasilevskiy).
You know. All those boys of summer.
No comments:
Post a Comment