five things to know before Lightning v Avalanche

Tampa Bay: apparently still very good!

Well, here we are, back where we started – and closer to having the answer to a question we asked prior to this postseason. With a 2-1 win in Tampa Bay on Saturday night, the Lightning secured their spot in the Stanley Cup final for the third straight year, with captain Steven Stamkos scoring both goals, and are now flirting with all-time greatness.

Whatever you make of that winning goal, New York Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin is to blame for neither the game nor the series result. Shesterkin played a great series. Tampa just does this to teams: they’ve done it 11 straight times in the postseason over the last three years. Whether or not the Rangers were tired from the previous two series, both of which went seven games, Tampa made them look tired. After Games 1 and 2, Tampa out-chanced, out-shot, out-passed and ultimately out-scored, the Rangers. New York were also out-coached – this has also happened a lot to teams facing the Lightning recently. Jon Cooper has a lot to work with, but he’s also an effective communicator: more of a corporate manager than classic hockey coach.

Anyway, here’s how it played out on the ice: After being the first team to get back-to-back wins against Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy in three years, the Rangers stopped scoring. New York notched nine goals in the first two games, but managed only five more through the last four – only one of which they scored at even strength. This is just not going to cut it. Tampa Bay is simply too disciplined a team, too willing to play hardcore defense when it counts, and have too good a goalie to rely on your power play to beat them.

You have to be capable of out-scoring them in all situations. You have to be a team like the Colorado Avalanche.

Avalanche are an offensive machine

There were perhaps only two points during the regular season where the Colorado Avalanche looked like a normal hockey team: at the very beginning, when they struggled out of…