Tampa Bay Lightning clinched the Eastern Conference final on Saturday, and now they will face off against the Colorado Avalanche for the 2022 Stanley Cup.
The Lightning beat New York Rangers 2-1 in Match 6 of the Eastern Conference final, and the win saw them complete a remarkable comeback, fighting back from 2-0 down in the best of seven series, to win 4-2.
The comeback sees the Lightning get the chance to retain the title they won for the third time last season.
Standing in the way of Tampa Bay is the Colorado Avalanche. The Avalanche had no such problems winning their final; they thrashed the Edmonton Oilers 4-0 in the Western Conference final.
Colorado is the favorite to win this year’s Stanley Cup with the best NHL betting sites. The Avalanche is -175, and the Lightning is +155.
Bizarrely, the odds on the Colorado Avalanche have drifted out since the Lightning secured their place in the final.
The Avalanche were -210 in the odds to win the 2022 Stanley Cup when the series between the Lightning and the New York Rangers was all square at 2-2. This could only be down to the fact that the Lightning was seen as the main threat to Jared Bednar’s team.
But at that time, their qualification for the final was in some doubt. So, with qualification now assured for Tampa Bay, the top Vegas sportsbooks have slightly lengthened the odds of the Avalanche winning a third Stanley Cup.
The Colorado Avalanche go into the series starting with back-to-back home matches at the Ball Arena. The favorites also have home advantage in Matches 5 and 7, giving them an even bigger edge over the defending champions.
After the first two matches, the series heads southeast to Florida for two matches at the Amalie Arena. Full fixtures are below:-
In the betting, the best Las Vegas NHL odds setters have had the Avalanche as favorites all season. There was a slight drift ahead of the playoffs after the Avs seemed to tail off towards the end of the regular season.
At the time, it was a case of not knowing if the Avalanche had lost form, or had just eased off with qualification assured. We now know it was certainly the latter.
In the Western Conference final against the Oilers, Colorado started with two home matches, as they will against the Lightning, and they raced into a 2-0 series lead.
That was too much for the Oilers to fight back from, and they finished up on the receiving end of a 4-0 series hammering.
Before that, the Avalanche won their first playoff round by four games to zero against the Nashville Predators. They then beat the St Louis Blues 4-2 in the second round. Which was pretty much the sternest test they’ve been given in the playoffs.
So far in their history, the Avalanche has two Stanley Cups to their name. They first won the trophy back in 1996, and they then won it for the second and last time – to date – in 2001.
Tampa Bay’s route to the Stanley Cup final has been far less straightforward than that of the Avalanches.
They started with a real ding-dong battle against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Lightning eventually won that affair 4-3 but did need to win matches 6 and 7 to secure victory.
In the second round, the Lightning took care of local neighbours, Florida Panthers in a four-game sweep. The ease of the win was a bit of a shock. Especially given the two sides split their four games in the regular season.
Then in the Conference Final against the New York Rangers, they had it all to do after going 2-0 down in the series. And boy, did they recover, reeling off four matches in a row to win the conference and clinch a spot in the Stanley Cup final for the third year in a row.
All-in-all, the Lightning have won the Stanley Cup three times in their history. First in 2004, and then again in 2020 and 2021.
With two wins in the past two years, they certainly know how to get the job done. And they need that know-how against the Avalanche.
If both teams play to maximum potential, I do believe that Nathan MacKinnon and his teammates will have too much for the Lightning.
But the facts of the matter are that sport isn’t like that. The Lightning will be hell-bent on getting a hat trick of wins. This is a golden opportunity to go down as legends in modern-day history.
Despite all this, with the series yet to start, I do think it’s hard to back against Colorado. They’ve been the best team all season, and they will believe it is their destiny to win this season’s Stanley Cup.
