By Savannah Tam
The Stanley Cup playoffs is a tournament in the National Hockey League (NHL) where the top eight teams from 2 conferences and 4 divisions compete for the Stanley Cup. They play best-of-seven series to move on. The original Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup was donated by Lord Stanley, and was first awarded in 1893. Since 1970, the newer and bigger Stanley Cup you see today, has been awarded to the winning team every year (except 2005). The fanbase for the teams have grown and so has the league. It now holds 32 teams compared to the 6 it started with. You can enjoy the game live at the stadium, on the tv, or on other devices to cheer for your team.
Who will the 2022 Stanley Cup Champions be? Everyone wants to win the Stanley Cup but only 1 team can win it all. Before the playoffs started, people had their bets on the Colorado Avalanche and the Florida Panthers since they had the top 2 records for the 2021-2022 season. There is never a guarantee on who will win as underdogs come back from behind and the unexpected may rise up to the challenge. The most recent winners are the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020 and 2021 and the St. Louis Blues in 2019. Tampa is going for a “three-peat” (three championship wins in a row), and right now they are on the right track, having made it to the Stanley Cup Finals. They beat out the Florida Panthers and will face the favoured Colorado Avalanche in the finals.
Canadians have been waiting and hoping for the cup to come back to Canada, especially because the last victory by the Montreal Canadiens was in 1993 (almost 30 years ago). Hopefully, a Canadian team will win again in the future, but unfortunately, this year is not our year because the last Canadian team in this year's playoffs, the Oilers, lost in the Western Conference Finals on May 31. The playoffs are an on-going competition and a winner will most likely be crowned by the end of June, it just sadly won’t be a Canadian one.