Vegas Or Florida? Determining The Ideal Stanley Cup Champion
The battle for the greatest prize in all of sports begins tonight...
Only four more wins stands between the Vegas Golden Knights or the Florida Panthers and sporting immortality.
For two teams who have already navigated a gruelling war of attrition just to reach this point, one more herculean effort will be needed in order to etch their names in hockey history forever.
The Stanley Cup Final begins tonight and one thing we do know already is that Lord Stanley will be hoisted for the first-time ever by either of these teams. The Vegas Golden Knights are playing in their second Stanley Cup Final having lost to the Washington Capitals in 2018 following a magical inaugural season, while the Florida Panthers have not been this close to glory since being swept by the Colorado Avalanche in the 1996 Stanley Cup Final.
It looks set to be both an intriguing and compelling Stanley Cup Final in equal measure. The Panthers are riding a magic carpet ride of destiny it seems having shocked the hockey world every single step of the way so far, while the Golden Knights are looking to get their hands on the Stanley Cup in just their sixth year in existence.
I’m really, really looking forward to this series and, sticking with what I’ve been saying all week, I think the Golden Knights will win their first championship in franchise history in seven games.
It’s gonna go the distance, for sure.
But, what outcome will be best for the wider hockey population? Let’s dive right in and see if we can come up with an answer…
Florida Panthers
It sure seems like every single hockey fan - and maybe even sports fan - outside of Nevada are rooting for Florida in this one.
And why not? The Panthers are a freaking good story and part of the fun of being a sports fan is the tangible storylines we can all get behind.
Part of what also makes sports so magical is the underdog. The gritty, relentless, loveable warrior we all fall in love with very quickly and can root for incredibly easily.
And, despite boasting plenty of star power, the Panthers entered the Stanley Cup Playoffs very much as a dog with not much as a fighting chance to even make it past the First Round.
Finishing the regular season with a record of 42-32-8 and becoming the last team to claw their way into the postseason, the Panthers were not given a shot to defeat a true juggernaut in the Boston Bruins, who had just completed a historic regular season for the ages on their way to winning the Presidents’ Trophy.
Not only did they find a way of stunning the B’s, however, Florida mounted gutsy comeback after gutsy comeback to do. They then knocked out two more of the best four regular season teams to make the playoffs to book their place in the Stanley Cup Final.
Sometimes everything just clicks into place for a team and a euphoric outcome is already written in the stars. That seems to be the case for the Panthers who must feel like they are playing with house money right now.
Destiny certainly awaits this team and, if they can navigate one more giant hurdle and lift the greatest prize in all of sports, then they will go down as both one of the most unlikely and most lovable Stanley Cup Champions in the rich history of the National Hockey League.
They’ve faced arguably one of the hardest paths to the Stanley Cup in recent memory, all while doing it without home-ice advantage. Not only that, but the Panthers have morphed into an easy team to root for and they play a hard-nosed, team-first style of hockey that is easy to get behind and cheer for.
The fact they are entering Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final sporting a slew of battle scars from a taxing postseason run will help, as will the fact that Head Coach Paul Maurice seems to have discovered the magic sauce for his team during these playoffs when it comes to systems and winning the matchups battle.
We all know that star power wins in the postseason and it sure seems as though Matthew Tkachuk has willed his team to victory at every single turn so far. Fast morphing into the poster boy that the NHL desperately craves, Tkachuk leads all players in the Stanley Cup Final with 21 points (nine goals, 12 assists) and he’s a pain in the ass to deal with. He combines style with substance to perfection and his four game-winning goals (three of which came in Overtime) highlights his burning desire to win at all costs.
If the Panthers are to shock the hockey world one more time this summer, expect Tkachuk to be at the heart of it.
For hockey purists, it has also been pretty fun to see goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky enjoy a redemption for the ages this postseason. Long known for being a great regular season goalie but then collapsing like a cheap pack of cards in the playoffs, the veteran has flipped that script this year.
He’s carried Florida on his back at times, complying a 11-2 record with a 2.21 Goals Against Average and a .935 Save Percentage. The absurd thing is that Bobrovsky didn’t even begin the postseason as the guy for the Panthers, having backed-up Alex Lyons for the first two games against the Bruins.
The underdog always wins the battle of the narratives and the Panthers going all the way and winning the Stanley Cup would sure as hell be a massive W for the NHL and sports fans in general.
A second wild card team wiping out top seed after top seed before winning it all?
Now that’s a story. And it would be a fairytale finish to cap off what has been a storybook start to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for a perennial underachiever.
Vegas Golden Knights
It is almost impossible to not to want to root for the Florida Panthers given just how much of a feel-good story they’ve been, but it helps that they are going up against the Vegas Golden Knights.
The Knights have become the hip team to root against and even hate for NHL fans given the ridiculous amount of success they’ve enjoyed since entering the league in 2017.
Since making an inconceivable run to the Stanley Cup Final during their inaugural year, Vegas has missed the postseason just once, played in three Western Conference Finals and appeared in two Stanley Cup Finals.
That’s impressive by anyone’s standards.
They’ve also become the villains of the NHL thanks to the front office’s ruthless habit of discarding with fan favorites and franchise icons in order to stockpile star after star after star.
The Golden Knights have almost become the Evil Empire of Hockey.
With that in mind, they will have few fans outside of Nevada throughout the Stanley Cup Final but that may not matter. Not only have the Knights built up a passionate and devoted fanbase in record time, but this is a damn good hockey team.
While they boast an array of stars in the like of Mark Stone, Jack Eichel, Jonathan Marchessault, Shea Theodore and Alex Pietrangelo to name just a few, they’ve found most of their success during this year’s run by relying on their impressive depth.
Time and time again Vegas has been able to get the job done thanks to players up and down the lineup stepping up and making sizeable contributions. The fourth-line drove the play and dominated against the Dallas Stars in the series-clinching win in Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals, while William Karlsson - an original member of ‘The Golden Misfits’ - has been conducting his own personal revenge tour with 10 goals and four assists for 14 points.
Then there is Adin Hill. Every single year a player emerges from the dark, gloomy underbelly of hockey mediocrity to carve out a new, heroic chapter in their legacy. It has been Hill’s turn this season with the goaltender with a previously unremarkable career going 7-3 with a 2.07 Goals Against Average, a .937 Save Percentage and two shutouts. If Hill can continue this unlikely but awe-inspiring run, then he won’t have to pay for another drink or meal in Vegas ever again.
You can’t just rely on big hitters to get the job done in the postseason. It is all about the fine margins this time of year and having a stacked lineup that can roll four effective lines may well just give Vegas the edge in this series.
Again, it is shaping up to be a gripping and absorbing Stanley Cup Final that will be fought to the death. The fact that neither of these teams have ever lifted Lord Stanley before only adds to the intrigue, and the Florida Panthers winning it would certainly be a feel-good story for the ages. On the other hand, the Golden Knights probably aren’t the neutrals' pick, but they do appear to be the favorites and a Stanley Cup win this early in their history would vindicate the NHL’s decision to put a hockey franchise in Sin City.
Andrew’s Final Pick
I’m sticking with my guns and going with the Vegas Golden Knights in 7. It is going to be close, it is going to be fun and Matthew Tkachuk is going to have his share of moments in this series, but I just think depth wins the day in the postseason and the Knights have the edge in that department.
It could be one hell of a party in Sin City this summer.
