Victor Hedman

A preview of the Stanley Cup Final between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Dallas Stars, including each team’s candidates for Conn Smythe, how they got to the Final and what they need to do to win the Cup.

The Tampa Bay Lightning reached the Stanley Cup Final with a Game 6 overtime win, a look at the Cup Final schedule and news of an interesting trade from this week in our look around the NHL.

Nicolas Aube-Kubel scored two goals, Joel Farabee added another and Carter Hart made 23 saves to secure a 4-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning and claim the top seed on Saturday night. 

In Saturday's game against the red-hot Tampa Bay Lightning, the Flyers fell behind early and fell into a 3-0 hole again. Instead of erasing the deficit, the Flyers were down by two in the third and challenging to cut into the deficit further before they made the one mistake that did them in. The Flyers got two goals in short order after falling behind 4-1 with under eight minutes to play in the third, but were not able to complete the comeback in a 5-3 loss to the Lightning.

The Flyers final game of a three-game road trip comes against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Much like the first meeting against the Lightning, Tampa enters as the hottest team in the league, currently on a nine-game winning streak, just as they were when they paid a visit to Philadelphia on Jan. 11.

Travis Konecny had three assists in the Metropolitan Division's 9-5 loss to the Atlantic Division. The Pacific Division claimed victory in the 3-on-3 tournament with a 5-4 win over the Atlantic in the final at the 2020 NHL All-Star Game in St. Louis.

The Flyers next opponent was one of the bigger disappointments in the NHL a month ago, but since then, the Tampa Bay Lightning have risen to second place in the Atlantic Division and sixth in the league in points, due in large part to a current nine-game winning streak that they will bring to Philadelphia on Saturday night.