Brenden Morrow (K) of the Tampa Bay Lightning moves the puck against Mark Barberio during the practice day prior to the 2015 NHL Stanley Cup finals at Amalie Arena in Tampa.

AFP/New York

The NHL’s top offence will face off against the number one defence when the Tampa Bay Lightning and Chicago Blackhawks meet in the Stanley Cup finals following a pair of game seven victories.
The tradition-rich Blackhawks, who are aiming for their third title in six years, aren’t about to surrender their championship pedigree without a fight to the upstart Lightning who will host game one of the finals on Wednesday at Amalie Arena.
“We are moving on for a reason,” said defenceman Duncan Keith, after Chicago beat the Anaheim Ducks 5-3 Saturday to win the Western Conference final series 4-3. “I don’t think anybody is tired anymore at this time of year.
“We are just excited to be able to beat a great team like Anaheim and have the opportunity to try and beat another great team in Tampa Bay.”
The dynamic and youthful Lightning have made a habit of eliminating “Original Six” teams in their surprising march to their second championship series in club history.
Tampa Bay beat the Detroit Red Wings in seven games, the Montreal Canadiens in six and the New York Rangers in another seven game series which wrapped up on Friday.  

‘Hardest four wins’
“We still haven’t accomplished anything yet,” said Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop, whose team is in the finals for the first time since winning it all in 2004.
“We are four wins away. That is probably going to be the hardest four wins of all of our careers. We know there is a lot ahead of us.”
The Blackhawks, who came into the league in 1926, won in 2013 and 2010.  Chicago has the edge over Tampa in experience as they boast the same core group that won the Stanley Cup two years ago. They needed every ounce of energy from their players and coaching staff to eliminate the bigger and more physical Ducks in a roller-coaster series that had plenty of plot twists and heroic performances on both sides.
But the Lightning present a different type of challenge for the Blackhawks. Their speedier, high-scoring forwards match up well against Chicago’s super-skilled defence. The Blackhawks though have had to lean heavily on their top four defenceman, especially Keith who logs more than 30 minutes on average a game.
Instead of fading down the stretch against the Ducks, the Hawks defence got stronger and managed to nullify Anaheim’s top line of Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry and Patrick Maroon in game seven.
Keith, a two-time Norris Trophy winner as the league’s top defenceman, now has 18 points in 17 playoff games and is one of the leading candidates for the Conn Smythe award as the MVP of the postseason.
Brent Seabrook, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Johnny Oduya are all averaging more than 25 minutes a game for Chicago.
Former Conn Smythe winners Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane carry the offensive load for Chicago. Canada’s Toews, who won the award in 2010, had five goals in the final four games against Anaheim and has nine goals and 18 points in the playoffs.
Kane, the 2013 Conn Smythe winner, leads Chicago with 10 goals and 20 points in 17 games. The 26-year-old American isn’t showing any signs of rust after sitting out the last 21 games of the regular season with a bad shoulder injury.  
Chicago also has a rising star in Finnish forward Teuvo Teravainen, who is having a breakout postseason and is a perfect fit on a line with veteran Patrick Sharp and Antoine Vermette.

‘A lot of options’
The Lightning are led by captain Steven Stamkos and their “Triplets” line of Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat and Nikita Kucherov.
Of their 55 goals in the playoffs, 45 have come from their top six forwards with 24-year-old Johnson, an American, getting 12.
Johnson has 21 points while Moscow-born Kucherov is second with 19 points. Czech forward Palat has seven goals and 15 points, and each time he scores it seems to be at a crucial moment of the game.
In the semi-finals, the Lightning beat a powerful and disciplined team in the Rangers, that are just one or two players away from winning it all next season.
“Watching their series against the Rangers, they have a lot of options with their skill, how dangerous they can be with putting pucks in the net,” said Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville of the Lightning.