Bedard23
Joined: May 2021
Posts: 9,356
Likes: 4,539
Ranking the last 10 Stanley cup finals matchups:
10: 2021, Montreal Canadians vs Tampa Bay Lightning: Might be the most anticlimactic finals matchup of the century, anyone with more then a quarter of a brain cell knew Tampa was winning and it wasn’t really close
9: 2014, Los Angeles Kings vs New York Rangers: The only reason it’s not last is because of that goal by Alec Martinez in the series clinching Game 5, apart from that, who remembers a single iota of this series? I certainly don’t.
8: 2016, San Jose Sharks vs Pittsburgh Penguins: Another forgettable finals, honestly could copy paste from 2014 and it’d be very accurate
7: 2015, Chicago Blackhawks vs Tampa Bay Lightning: The only two things about this series I remember as a Hawks fan is Hedman running into his own goaltender leading to the easiest Patrick Sharp goal of all time and Patrick Kane’s series clincher in Game 6
6: 2017, Nashville Predators vs Pittsburgh Penguins; God the mid 2010s wasn’t a good time for the Stanley cup finals
5: 2023, Vegas Golden Knights vs Florida Panthers: Basically Montreal’s run in 2021 just in a different jersey, ranks higher because this was an actually entertaining series, well until the last game of the series
4. 2018, Vegas Golden Knights vs Washington Capitals: A series that was much closer then the result suggests, apart from game 4 each game came down to the wire without needing OT
3. 2022, Colorado Avalanche vs Tampa Bay Lightning: Similar story to 2018 but ranks slightly higher because it went longer
2. 2020, Dallas Stars vs Tampa Bay Lightning; Would’ve 100% been first if there was an actual crowd to whiteness it go down, entertaining from beginning to end
1. 2019, St. Louis Blues vs Boston Bruins: As much as I despise the blues I can’t help but put this one first as it was both fun and a great ending to the blues Cinderella season.