It is all over! The fat lady is singing. In Game 6, the Chicago Blackhawks became the 2015 Stanley Cup Champions with a decisive 0-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning. Duncan Keith, who scored the series- and game-winner, won the Conn Smythe Trophy for being the most valuable player throughout the playoffs. This was the first time that the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup on home ice since 1938, and fans certainly turned it into the Madhouse on Madison showing their appreciation for their team.
The game started off strong with both sides firing on all cylinders. The Lightning took a couple of penalties, but the Blackhawks were not able to take advantage. In the first penalty against Cedric Paquette for tripping Jonathan Toews, Tampa Bay had possession of the puck more than Chicago. In the second penalty on Brian Boyle for roughing Patrick Kane, the Blackhawks had a few shots on goal and some good chances in the first minute of their power play. However, the second minute became the ultimate penalty kill for the Bolts who dominated, and Paquette nearly scored a short-handed goal. Chicago outshot Tampa Bay 13-4, but both sides remained scoreless heading into intermission.
The second period opened, and for the first minute, it seemed much like the first. However, after that first minute of play, the Blackhawks then went roughly twelve minutes without a single shot on goal. Tampa Bay seemed to have the edge for a large chunk of the period. Then Chicago broke through and rattled off four shots on goal within a minute and a half. It looked as though the tide was beginning to turn. Then with just under three minutes left in the second, Patrick Kane passed it to Duncan Keith who shot it. Ben Bishop gave up the rebound right back to Keith who scored on his own rebound. This turned out to be the game-winning and series-winning goal. Although no one knew that yet, the momentum definitely seemed to weigh heavily toward the Blackhawks.
When the third period opened, the Lightning started to push back hard. They played with desperation, like a team who knew that this could be the very end of their season. Despite getting a number of really good chances that either rattled off the post or Corey Crawford was miraculously able to stop, it wasn’t enough. With about five minutes left in the third, Brandon Saad passed it back to Brad Richards who was wide to the right of Bishop. Richards saw Kane open across from him who scored in the wide open net. For Lightning fans it became a nail-biting end to the game because Andrew Desjardins took a tripping penalty against Anton Stralman not long after the Kane goal. Coach Jon Cooper pulled Bishop for the extra man, so it became a 6-0n-4 power play for the Bolts. However, Crawford became a brick wall and robbed some nice chances. Tampa Bay played with desperation and great effort, but it would not be enough. There would be no next game. The Chicago Blackhawks won their third Stanley Cup in six years. It was unbelievable!
Duncan Keith was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy for his valiant play throughout the playoffs. He scored only three goals, but all three were game-winners. His first two goals were both against the Nashville Predators in Games 1 and 6 of the first round of the playoffs, a round that the Blackhawks narrowly survived. He entered the Stanley Cup Finals with 16 assists and notched two more to lead the league in that category. Aside from Roman Josi of the Predators, Keith leads the league with averaging the most time on ice at 31:06. Erik Karlsson of the Ottawa Senators has the third highest at 28:58. He also became the fourth skater in the history of the NHL to log in over 700 minutes of ice time in the playoffs with 715:37. With his 3 goals, 18 assists and 21 points, he ties Hall of Famer Chris Chelios for most points in the playoffs for a defenseman in the history of the Chicago Blackhawks. This is his first Conn Smythe Trophy, and this is the first time a defenseman has won this trophy since Scott Niedermayer in 2007 when the Anaheim Ducks won the Stanley Cup.
Anyone who watched Toews hand the Cup to Kimmo Timonen, who will now retire, had a little tear in their eye. After sixteen years in the NHL and battling this season to return after being diagnosed with blood clots, Timonen finally kissed that glorious Stanley Cup. Just last August, Timonen was given the bad news about the blood clots, and he was not even sure he would be able to return to hockey, much less play in the Stanley Cup Finals. He fought back and recovered. He started the season with the Philadelphia Flyers, but he did not play a game for them this year and was traded at the deadline to the Chicago Blackhawks. Despite his exceptional career, Timonen was given few minutes and was more of a role player. He had previously played in a Stanley Cup Final in 2010 when the Blackhawks won their first Cup in recent years, only he was on the other side for the Flyers. He knows what disappointment is like. Up until he was traded to Chicago, he probably believed that the elusive Cup would not be in his future. Although this probably wasn’t the way he envisioned his role on a Stanley-Cup-winning team, he speaks the words of a true, classy, grateful hockey player, “I leave this game a Stanley Cup Champion. I can’t ask for anything more than that.” Congratulations Kimmo! Well deserved!
Stanley Cup Fan Reaction
During the Stanley Cup Finals, I’d like to include fan reactions. Please add your comments below. You can also tweet me (@SportingAJenDa) or the website (@TheAOSNOfficial). Make sure to please include #SCFR in your tweet!
@ZeokeSteve: “#SCFR Was hoping for Stamkos. He missed the ’14 Olympic Dream Team with a broken leg. Some goals from him would’ve been nice though.”
Steve offers some great analysis here! I was also for Stamkos to raise the Stanley Cup this year. I’m such a huge fan of his, and it was too bad that he missed the Canadian Olympic Team last year (even though I’m USA all the way). I’m not sure why he had so much trouble scoring goals throughout the playoffs as he did. He was able to contribute in other ways on assists, shot-blocking, and other areas, but he seemed to have a heck of a time finding the back of the net. However, he really should have scored like five goals at least in the last two games, but Crawford somehow stopped him. Some of those saves were unreal.
@ZeokeSteve: “#SCFR Crawford is invincible when it counts. Keith still wants to play and eat his opponents. Toews can’t lose a faceoff. It’s a #Dynasty.”
Some people have already tagged the Chicago Blackhawks as a dynasty team, and I tend to agree. No asterisk needed either (wink, wink, nudge, nudge). If any Oakland Raiders fans also like hockey and happen to be reading this, which is a totally small cross-cross-section of people, they are so agreeing with me right now. It’s also hard to argue that Joel Quenneville isn’t the best coach in all of sports right now. Since 2010, they have won six Stanley Cups and have appeared in four Western Conference Finals. In the salary cap era, this has been extremely hard to do, and in 2010, it seemed like they would be a one-hit wonder with a large chunk of the team having to be traded or made free agents because a lot of the signings were all-in type moves, championship or bust. More like championship then bust? Anyway, the Blackhawks still made the playoffs the following year despite the overhaul in personnel, but they were bounced in the first round. What many hadn’t realized was that young core was really all they needed to then build through smart free agency signings to build a winning team around the Toews, Kane, Keith and Co. That’s exactly what Stan Bowman has done as the general manager of the team.
I go back-and-forth with Crawford. He isn’t an elite goaltender the way Carey Price is, but he has had some incredible moments. Winning two Stanley Cups is also a good notch in his belt, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. To me, the Blackhawks don’t necessarily need a star goalie, i.e. dependably top 3 in goals against average and save percentage, in order to win because they have so much talent on offense and defense. Crawford was so bad in the first round of the playoffs that he was benched for Scott Darling, and the Blackhawks still pushed through. In addition, despite the fact that the last few games have been low-scoring, I don’t feel like we’ve been watching a goaltender duel. Although Crawford has had some amazing stand-on-his-head moments, I’m not sure if he’s necessarily essential to the team. Another goalie who could be better than average could possibly do just as well given the talent throughout the rest of the ranks of the team.
@ZeokeSteve: “#SCFR Toews & Keith become only hockey players in Earth’s history to have won two Olympic gold medals & three Stanley Cups. They’re young.”
This is the downside of hockey for me. I look at guys like Toews and Keith and all these incredible things they’ve been able to accomplish, and then I think about how old I am and wonder why I fail at life. It is very exciting though to think about what the future holds for these guys and how we are all watching the careers of Hall of Famers unfold. This also makes the Justin Williams fan in me really want him to win another next year (wherever he ends up though hopefully with the Los Angeles Kings), so he can be the only one with four Cups, but that’s just me, probably? But honestly, what Steve points out here is just more proof of how insanely talented this Chicago Blackhawks team is!
Bonus Game 5 Rant
Since I wasn’t able to cover Game 5, I have just one thing to say about it that I really have to get off my chest. And if you’re still reading, thank you! That Patrick Sharp goal is still eating me alive. It is all Bishop’s fault, and I can prove it. If you don’t remember, in Game 5, Ben Bishop decided to come out all the way to the face-off circle to play the puck. I was literally screaming, jumping up and down, and having a fit when I saw that Bishop (when he’s bad, he’s not BishMode), had gone out that far, which is stupid because why would you do that? Maybe on a delayed penalty since the play would be blown dead should the puck be in the opponent’s possession. What happened next was so unbelievably dumb that my brain could not comprehend it. I saw Bishop go down, and I thought, “Well, has 2011 Ryan Miller-Milan Lucic taught you nothing whatsoever? You come out that far, you deserve to get run, and of course, Sharp scored on a freaking open net!” Then I was wondering who hit Bishop in order for him to go down… and that’s when I saw it. It was Victor Hedman who was coming down in a puck race against Sharp, but Bishop got in the way. Both Hedman and Bishop fanned on it, and Sharp just skated around the two to score.
So why do I think it’s Bishop’s fault? First, goaltenders should never play the puck all the way out there, especially ones who, I don’t know, have mobility issues in the first place (which have now been confirmed as a groin tear). Imagine you are Victor Hedman. You are racing for the puck with Patrick Sharp just a hair behind you, and you’re heading into your own zone. Suddenly, something gigantic, blue, with a futuristic head appears only a few feet in front of you:
Yes, I postulate that Victor Hedman believed that an actual Transformer magically appeared in front of him because that makes just as much sense as the 6’9″ (on skates), home-blues-wearing, Tron-helmeted, four-foot-high-pads-wearing Ben Bishop playing the puck at the face-off dot. He could have even mistaken the goalie stick for a samurai sword. Can you really blame him for fanning on the puck when presented with a Transformer being dropped down from the heavens, or at least the rafters of Amalie Arena, right in front of him? And with Hedman going full speed because he was in a puck race, he was inevitably going to crash right into Bishop, who should not have been there in the first place. Then Bishop fans on it because… I have no idea since he was fully aware that Hedman was coming. I guess you could argue that he would have thought that Hedman got it, so it was literally a comedy of errors. And Sharp was probably laughing all the way to the net. Now, I’m not saying that had this unfortunate incident not happened that the Blackhawks would not have won, but I am saying that it never should have happened. So Hedman thought he saw Drift from Transformers: Age of Extinction, and it completely distracted him because Bishop was completely out of place! All Bishop’s fault. This is my theory, and I think it makes absolutely perfect sense.
