For the past couple of seasons we have been talking about the dominant teams in the NHL. The thing is, both of those teams are in the western conference. The Chicago Blackhawks have won 2 Stanley Cups since 2010 and have just gained entry into the Finals to try to make it 3 in 6 years. The other team is the Los Angeles Kings, 2 Stanley Cup wins since 2012 and a conference final appearance that they lost to the Blackhawks in 2013. If you want to dig a little deeper maybe you could say Chicago and California as a whole own the western conference. in 7 of the past 9 playoff seasons there has been a California team in the western conference finals, 3 LA Kings appearances, 2 San Jose appearances and 2 Anaheim appearances. These conference finals appearances ended up in 3 Stanley Cups since 2007, 2 Kings, 1 Ducks. No doubt, the Chicago Blackhawks and the 3 California teams have owned the west.
Could we have that in the eastern conference? Ask me this question about 3 years ago and I would easily say Pittsburgh vs Boston, Pittsburgh won the Cup in 2009 Boston in 2011 and the 2 teams met up in the 2013 eastern finals. The Penguins have struggled in the postseason though, after winning the Cup in 2009 they have only gotten to the east finals once and that year they get swept vs Boston. The Bruins have had some success but there have been some pretty big questions as well. After winning in 2011, the Bruins were bounced in the first round in 2012, rebounded in 2013 by getting to the Cup final, but could have been dumped in the first round by Toronto when the Maple Leafs were up 4-1 in the third period of game 7. In 2014 the Bruins won the presidents trophy as best regular season team in the NHL but got eliminated in the 2nd round of the playoffs. Boston has definitely had more success than Pittsburgh but it’s not domination like the Blackhawks or California.
This season and a last season we could be starting to see the east’s answer to the west’s powerhouses. The New York Rangers weren’t exactly one of the best teams in the east last season but a successful playoffs saw the Rangers make the Stanley Cup Final eventually losing to the Kings in 5 games. I’ve said it before and it’s not uncommon that good playoff runs can turn good teams into great teams. LA was a good team in 2012 that sneaked into the playoffs as the 8 seed, they turn a 40-27-12 regular season record into a 16-4 playoff record win the Stanley Cup and are now a team you fear anytime your team plays against them. A successful playoff season for New York put them from a good team in the east to the best team in the league this past season and Cup favorites.
The Tampa Bay Lightning are a very different story. This is the young team trying to get experience in 2014 after a unexpected yet very good season for the Bolts. 101 points in the 2013-14 season and their first playoff berth since 2011 when they lost to the eventual champion Bruins in the conference finals in game 7 in a 1-0 game. Their first playoff series in 3 years didn’t go exactly as planned. Zero wins, to say it better, swept, by the Montreal Canadiens. The best you can do in that situation is say you had a learning experience. You learned what it what like to play playoff hockey and hopefully you figure out what it takes to win.
Fast forward to this playoff season, Rangers vs Lightning, two of the best teams in the east and the league. What comes out of that? A 7 game series that ends up possibly being one of the best this season. Both these teams had good defenses, could score and the goaltenders were both former Vezina candidates and the Rangers Lundqvist a former Vezina winner as NHL’s best goalie. In terms of what these rosters gave you, these are the two best teams in the east.
That begs the questions, Can these two teams be Blackhawks vs Kings/California of the east? There is a chance there is, not just because of what these teams have done this season or the past two seasons but looking at the rosters these teams have great players, but the thing about those great players is that they are young. We aren’t talking about a aging group where things will have to change soon. Both the Rangers and Lightning core of star players, starting with New York, Captain Ryan McDonagh is 25, Staal is 28, Yandle is 28, They got Fast, Hayes, Kreider, Miller, and Steppan all under 25, Zuccarello is 27 and Rick Nash is only 30 plenty of years left for him. Even the team MVP, one of the worlds best goalies is 33, not exactly young but plenty of years left to hang with this young team.
Moving on to Tampa Bay, Tyler Johnson, Alex Killorn, Nikita Kucherov, Vladislav Namestnikov, Ondrej Palat Cedric Paquette, Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman, Nikita Nestrov, and Andrej Sustr, all at or under age 25. Go to the goaltenders, Bishop is only 28 and maybe isn’t even the best the Lightning have because they have one hell of a talent in Andrei Vasilevskiy who people think could be a future star of the league is 20. This team is young and have just started to reach their potential.
Two young teams who are right in the middle or right at the start of their players primes, these two teams could very well be battling for eastern conference supremacy for years to come. You expect other teams to improve and try to get players to beat these two teams but if the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning can keep their young cores together for the next 5-10+ years these two teams could become something special like the Chicago Blackhawks and the LA Kings.
