After three gruelingly entertaining rounds, the Stanley Cup Finals are set to begin this coming Wednesday. Starting with sixteen teams, it’s come down to the Chicago Blackhawks and Tampa Bay Lightning to see which team will get to hoist hockey’s greatest prize, the Stanley Cup. It’s been fun for the staff here at Devils Army Blog as we’ve tracked the progress of the 2015 NHL playoffs and submitted our round-by-round predictions. Before we get into the final series of the Stanley Cup playoffs, let’s take a look at how we did with our conference finals predictions…
New York Rangers Vs Tampa Bay Lightning…80% chose Tampa Bay
Anaheim Ducks Vs Chicago Blackhawks…30% chose Chicago
Here are the statistical breakdowns of each team’s playoff progress…
| Teams | Record | GF | GA | PP/PK | SH | SH% | FO% | H |
| Blackhawks | 12-5-1 | 3.3 | 2.9 | 19.6/75.5 | 32.6 | 10.0 | 51.0 | 28.6 |
| Lightning | 12-8-0 | 2.7 | 2.4 | 22.2/81.2 | 28.5 | 9.6 | 50.5 | 29.4 |
Tampa Bay Lightning (2) Vs Chicago Blackhawks (3)
| Teams | Season | GF | PP | SH | FO% | H |
| Blackhawks | 1-1-0 | 1.5 | 0.0 | 33.5 | 50.0 | 12.0 |
| Lightning | 1-0-1 | 3.0 | 22.2 | 28.0 | 50.0 | 28.0 |
Taz: Lightning in 7
McChrohan: Lightning in 6
DBK: Lightning in 7
Matt Cook: Lightning in 7
Mike Luci: Blackhawks in 6
Mike Michalski: Blackhawks in 6
Conn Smythe Trophy candidate of each team…
Taz: Tyler Johnson, Brandon Saad
McCrohan: Tyler Johnson, Duncan Keith
DBK: Tyler Johnson, Brandon Saad
Matt Cook: Tyler Johnson, Jonathan Toews
Mike Luci: Tyler Johnson, Patrick Kane
Mike Michalski: Steven Stamkos, Duncan Keith
Which team’s pairing you would go with…
Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews
-Taz
-McCrohan
-DBK
-Mike Luci
-Mike Michalski
Steven Stamkos and Tyler Johnson
-Matt Cook
Each team has two longtime veterans looking for their first Stanley Cup. Defenseman Kimmo Timonen on the Blackhawks has had a remarkable career as valiant offensive defenseman. He made it to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2010 with the Philadelphia Flyers, where he was for the majority of his career playoff runs. Tampa Bay’s Brendan Morrow, the former Dallas Stars captain, has only been to the Stanley Cup Finals once in his rookie season, only to see his team lose to the New Jersey Devils.
Both players have led remarkable careers and equally deserve this shot at winning their first Stanley Cup at this state in their respective careers. Since only one of them will relish a first championship, who would you rather see it be?
Kimmo Timonen…
-Taz
-McCrohan
-Matt Cook
-Mike Michalski
Brendan Morrow…
-DBK
-Mike Luci