Last year’s Stanley Cup Final started on Memorial Day. Now it’s well after Labor Day and the St. Louis Blues are still Stanley Cup champions, the longest NHL reign since… well, these same Tampa Bay Lightning that find themselves in this year’s Final got to keep it an extra year due to the 2004 lockout. Unless you consider the “Season not played” engraved on the Cup the true champ. It’s Tampa Bay’s first time back since 2015. The Dallas Stars, who last won in 1999 with a skate in the crease in triple overtime, will join them.
Will Lightning or Stars rule the Stanley Cup skies in this virus-clouded season? Let’s see what the experts say.
Scoreboard Page: Lightning in 7. To put this season in perspective, opening day in the NHL was October 2, 2019 and the Stanley Cup Finals begin September 19, 2020. Game 7 would be September 30. In Edmonton, even though Dallas and Tampa Bay are the finalists. I’m told you never wear white after Labor Day, but the Lightning have home ice advantage, which puts Dallas in white for four of the seven games – the four games they will lose. It’s 2020… anything goes. Even lame rationale. Our record is 3-4 in NHL picks, anyway, so let’s go sartorial this season and celebrate that a Stanley Cup will be hoisted in a Canadian arena. Next year, maybe a Canadian team will finally be the one doing it for the first time since Montreal in 1993.
Here’s how the picks of experts at other media outlets broke down:
USA Today: Lightning 3, Stars 0
Sporting News: Lightning 1, Stars 0
NBC Sports: Lightning 1, Stars 0
NHL.com: Lightning 11, Stars 5
The Athletic: Lightning 1, Stars 0
Sports Illustrated: Lightning 1, Stars 0
Dallas Morning News: Lightning 3, Stars 11
The Detroit News: Lightning 1, Stars 0
Click the links above for their full predictions.