(Denver, Colo.) The Ball Arena conference room is bustling with activity on Tuesday afternoon. For the first time since 2019, the NHL is organizing a real media day, this event where practically all the players of the two finalist teams are available for interviews. They are six or seven at the same time, scattered on different podiums, to answer questions.
Posted at 9:30 p.m.
This is basically the last chance to talk to them before everyone goes into endgame mode. Before the answers get shorter. This is therefore an opportunity to tackle lighter subjects. For example, when Nick Paul was asked to tell his interview between two periods with Renaud Lavoie at TVA Sports.
We don’t see him in the video, but Lightning head coach Jon Cooper calls out his forward. “He was right behind me, I only heard him, I didn’t see him,” Paul said on Tuesday, the eve of the start of the final between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Colorado Avalanche.
“We had just allowed a goal, and I had lost my battle along the ramp. I wasn’t very happy, either. Jon arrives, he says: “Come into the locker room right away!” It had never happened to me before. There was no way I would stay here! »
It was during the first intermission of Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The New York Rangers had won the first game and led 2-1 in the second. They won that game, but the Lightning won the next four games to end up here in the Finals.
“It was an important game. We understood what we had to do. We lost, but the message was clear. We would then go home, and that’s what started our revival,” Paul continued.
Twelve days later, here is the Lightning in the final for the third year in a row. It’s unheard of since the New York Islanders from 1980 to 1983. The Lightning is also trying to win a third Stanley Cup in a row, another unprecedented feat since Alger Arbor and his troops.
In fact, lining up three championships in a row is a feat in any sport. It never happened in the NFL in the Super Bowl era. In major baseball, the New York Yankees from 1998 to 2000 are the only ones to have achieved this in the last 40 years. In the NBA it was more common, but the Los Angeles Lakers from 2000 to 2002 are the last real dynasty.
This theme of successive championships has been studied by the staff of the Lightning. “One of the things we wondered is, why is it so rare for a team to win twice in a row? Is it because these teams breathe a little, once they have their name on the Cup, and that buys them a few years of peace of mind? said Cooper.
“One, human beings can do a lot physically, more than you think. Two, NHL players are elite athletes. It’s amazing what they can do to their bodies. It’s more on the psychological level that it becomes difficult, ”noted Julien BriseBois, general manager of the Lightning.
“I’ve spoken to people in different organizations who have won two titles, not necessarily three. What often came up was that the players lacked appetite in the third year. I never felt that with our team. In meetings with my players, they always said that we remained on mission. »
In the specific case of hockey, the rigid salary cap creates a parity that makes it almost impossible to maintain the core of a team in the long term. The Lightning have been there in recent years, including last summer, when the team lost its third line outright in the offseason due to lack of salary room. For once, BriseBois will be able to breathe this summer, he who has only one contract to renew within his core, that of Ondrej Palat.
strong opposition
It’s quite the opposite with the Avalanche. This team has 10 unrestricted free agents on its roster, including goaltender Darcy Kuemper and forwards Nazem Kadri and Valeri Nichushkin. That’s not to mention the fact that Nathan MacKinnon only has a year left to play at $6.3 million under the salary cap, a pittance (in context) for one who is among the top three players. of the NHL.
“Over the next few years, other teams will also have this challenge,” said Joe Sakic, general manager of the Avalanche. We must therefore take advantage of our opportunities. But we have a good young core. »
The opportunity the Avalanche have is first to win the Stanley Cup, after years of being seen as a power in the making. From 2009 to 2013, the team drafted three times in the top three, but the good results in the season never converted into long springs.
Next is to prevent the Lightning from becoming a dynasty. If we trust the words gleaned from one podium to another, it is certainly a source of motivation.
” That’s exciting. They are the best for a long time, and we have the chance to knock them off their pedestal, expressed defenseman Cale Makar. We try to start something special, and they try to continue writing their dynasty. »
“They lost to Columbus in 2019, and it’s like everyone forgot about them. And there they are trying to win a third Cup in a row. The whole league is trying to emulate them,” added another defender, Erik Johnson.
Like in 1999
If anyone understands what’s at stake, it’s Sakic.
The former glory of the Quebec Nordiques has lived. As a player with the Avalanche, he notably experienced the violent rivalry with the Detroit Red Wings. In 1999, these two teams met in the second round, and the Wings were then the double champions. The Avalanche won in six games before losing the Western Conference Final.
“They were an incredible team. We had a lot of admiration for them, remembers Sakic. We didn’t like them, but we had to respect them. I’m sure they thought the same of us. These teams, you have to respect what they did.
“There, we face the double champions, and we want to bring them down. »
The Avalanche will have to succeed where the Lightning’s last 11 playoff rivals have failed.