2020 NHL Stanley Cup Playoff predictions wrap up
After nearly a full calendar year, the 2019-20 NHL season has finally come to an end.
Hello friends!
With the Tampa Bay Lightning securing their second Stanley Cup in franchise history, the 2019-20 season has come to an end. Over 130 games were played since the restart of hockey on August 1 after the season pause due to the coronavirus pandemic. It was a mad dash to get us to this point and yet, the NHL managed to hold a successful playoff in two hub cities over the course of two months to crown a new champion.
While I have no more predictions to give you until next season, let’s take a step back and look at how I fared in the Stanley Cup Final and over the course of the playoffs overall!
(Photo via Tampa Bay Lightning)
Before I kick this off, it’s quite incredible that the NHL was able to pull this whole thing off as well as they did. It wasn’t without its fumbles; between refusing to do anything substantial with the Black Lives Matter movement that continues to pass them by and the lack of promised amenities and accommodations to the players in the bubble, there’s a lot to criticize.
And yet, two months later the NHL has a new Stanley Cup champion with zero positive coronavirus cases after nine weeks, an impressive feat indeed considering the circumstances. No one knows what’s next for the future of hockey in the time of coronavirus, but the league was able to pull off their ambitious hub city plan and become the first professional sports league in North America to crown a champion since the March shutdowns.
Now that that’s out of the way, time to dive into my Stanley Cup Final prediction and see how I did!
Stanley Cup Final
No. 2 Tampa Bay Lightning vs. No. 3 Dallas Stars
Winner: Lightning ✅
Series length: Six games ✅
Bold prediction: Steven Stamkos scores a goal in his return to the ice ✅
Steven Stamkos played less than three minutes of ice time in his first game back since February 25, but boy did he make those seconds count. And I have him to thank too for getting a perfect score here with my Stanley Cup Final predictions!
This Stanley Cup victory by the Lightning was absolutely, 100 percent deserved. Unlike some members of the media who shall remain nameless, there’s no reason to put an asterisk on this season for Tampa Bay. Though these playoffs were unlike anything we’ve ever seen before between the lack of fans and the expanded format, the Lightning are a legitimate winner.
From their fall from grace in last year’s playoffs at the hands of the Columbus Blue Jackets to holding onto the team’s core and building as deep of a team as you possibly can get in the offseason and before the deadline, this is the ultimate redemption arc. This season wasn’t a fluke nor is it illegitimate. After shaking off a rough start to the year, the Lightning were one of the league’s top teams for the majority of the season and it all came together in this Stanley Cup victory.
Former general manager Steve Yzerman should get credit here for constructing a great core at the heart of this Lightning team, and current general manager Julien BriseBois absolutely gets credit for finding the perfect fits to fill the holes in this team. From top to bottom, this win was a team effort for Tampa Bay years in the making.
Getting into the hockey, it’s clear the Dallas Stars were overmatched by series end. Dallas got the early 1-0 series lead after looking like the better team through two thirds of Game 1, but from then on Tampa Bay just turned on a second gear. Of course, the Stars didn’t make it easy for the Lightning. While the big names on Dallas went quiet, new acquisitions like Joe Pavelski and Corey Perry kept the team afloat with their clutch goals to keep the series close.
At the end of the day, however, goaltender Anton Khudobin was not able to recapture that shutdown magic from previous series and the Stars offense was snuffed out by a stout Tampa Bay defense. It’s a crushing loss for Dallas, to be sure, but what a fun ride we had watching this team surprise us at every turn by taking out two Western Conference heavyweights and play Tampa to six games in the Final.
As for the Lightning, it’s hard to see how this team keeps all their major pieces with a flat cap looming over the next few seasons. However, this team did what it was constructed to do: win a Stanley Cup. After the crushing sweep at the hands of the Blue Jackets in the 2019 playoffs, the Lightning didn’t panic and instead made smart, aggressive moves to find those extra pieces needed to win.
Tampa Bay had been in the mix for Stanley Cup glory for a long time and it feels good to finally see the fruits of their labor pay off in the most satisfying way possible.
Final tally
Series winners predicted:Â 1/1
Series lengths predicted:Â 1/1
Bold predictions predicted:Â 1/1
Round total: 3/3
Overall total: 22/45
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