Steven Stamkos watched the Colorado Avalanche the past few years and figured he and the Tampa Bay Lightning would see them in the Stanley Cup Final before this.
The Lightning are back, looking for the NHLās first three-peat in almost 40 years, and the Colorado core led by Nathan MacKinnon is finally playing for the Cup following a series of crushing playoff disappointments. A potentially epic best-of-seven series between the two-time defending champions and hockeyās best in the West begins with Game 1 Wednesday in Denver.
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Stamkos called the Avalanche āprobably the best team in the leagueā and knows the Lightning will have their hands full slowing down the offensive juggernaut that leads the postseason in scoring.
āThereās no secret that they have some electric players,ā Stamkos said Saturday night after Tampa Bay closed out the New York Rangers in six games in the Eastern Conference final. āNow theyāve broken through. They just have an unbelievable mix of veteran presence, star power, grinders, a goalie. A huge challenge for us.ā
Itās perhaps the biggest challenge yet for the Lightning since this unprecedented run of playoff success in the salary cap era began two years ago. Tampa Bay isnāt just the first team to go to the final three consecutive years since the cap was put into place in 2005, but the first in league history since Wayne Gretzkyās Edmonton Oilers from 1983-85.
The Lightning are looking to become the first to three-peat since the New York Islanders won the Cup four times in a row from 1980-83.
āThereās still some games to be played and weāre still not at the end of our goal, but in saying that, this group is pretty amazing,ā said Stamkos, who scored twice in the clinching 2-1 victory against the Rangers. āWeāre going to the finals again, and we have a chance to do something really special.ā
This is Tampa Bayās fourth trip to the final since 2015. Stamkos, top defenseman Victor Hedman, wingers Nikita Kucherov, Ondrej Palat and Alex Killorn, goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy and coach Jon Cooper have been around for all of it, from the loss to Chicago seven years ago to two East final exits, an embarrassing first-round sweep after the best regular season in league history and the back -to- back championships.
MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog, Mikko Rantanen and the Avalanche have until this point only experienced the playoff low, bowing out in the first or second round each of the past four years while the Lightning were making long runs.
āThatās what every team is trying to (do) is not just to get there but stay there and be relevant every season,ā Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. āThey're in all the conversations as one of the best teams in the league and then go out and prove that they are one.ā
The Avalanche aren't there yet, but theyāve come a long way in the decade-plus since veteran defenseman Erik Johnson arrived at the start of a seven-year run with just one playoff appearance.
āThereās been a lot of ups and downs,ā Johnson said. āWeāve been knocking on the door here the last couple years. Some injuries and things that happened along the way, you never know if that opportunityās going to come.ā
That opportunity sometimes passes hockeyās best players by. San Joseās Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau, the Rangersā Henrik Lundqvist and many others only reached the final once.
According to six-time champion Mark Messier, the key to winning is trust among teammates.
āTrust is everything,ā said Messier, now an ESPN analyst. āYouāve got to be able to trust everybody thatās going on the ice to make the right decisions, and thatās the beauty of playoff hockey because nobody can win alone. Everybody needs the person sitting next to you to be their best, and youāve got to be confident that theyāre putting in the work and the detail in order to be the best they can be.ā
That trust has developed for Bednar's Avalanche over his past six years behind the bench. It is well-established for the Lightning, to the point Stamkos brought it up unprompted Saturday night and sounded just like Messier.
āTrust, thatās the word,ā Tampa Bayās longtime captain said. āWe trust every guy that goes over that boards to do his job. Whether you score a goal or not, itās the little things that you do. Itās the defending, itās the blocked shots, itās the sacrifice, itās not complaining about your role. Itās just going out and just playing as hard as you can for the next guy that sits beside you in that locker room.ā
Only the Avalanche, looking for the organizationās first championship since 2001, stand in the way of the Lightning hoisting the Cup a third consecutive time.
āWe donāt know whatās going to happen here in the next 10 to 14 days, but we know weāre going to give it our all,ā Stamkos said. āItās gotten us this far again, and itās just a special group and a treat to be a part of.ā
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AP Sports Writers Arnie Stapleton in Denver and Fred Goodall in Tampa, Florida, contributed.
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Follow AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SWhyno
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