The Stanley Cup Final is nothing new for the Chicago Blackhawks—2015 marks the third time in six seasons the team will compete for hockey’s ultimate prize. For the Tampa Bay Lightning, it’s a different story, as the franchise has been overhauled top-to-bottom since it last won a postseason contest in 2011.
Back then, it was the heroes of 2004—Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier—who were the leading lights as the Guy Boucher-coached team took Boston to seven games in the Eastern Conference Final. Only Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman remain from that team; every other player on the roster has changed in the span of just four years.
The result is a hockey club that bears a lot more in common with a younger version of its opponent than it does its own prior iteration.
When the Jonathan Toews/Patrick Kane Blackhawks won for the first time in 2010, the team had a young forward core leavened with some older players. Six of the club’s top-nine forwards were 25 years of age or younger. Marian Hossa and Patrick Sharp provided experience ...
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Article written by Jonathan Willis