Jun 1, 2015
Thumbs up to celebrations, down to Ducks
Dave Hodge is back with his Monday edition of Thumbs. Hodge gives his approval to the 'Hawks and Bolts unique ways of celebrating their respected conference championships and thumbs down to another disappointing end for the Ducks.
By Dave Hodge
The differences outweigh the similarities when examining the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Chicago Blackhawks, and the last time we saw them demonstrated that in an interesting way.
I refer to the way they came off the bench to celebrate their respective conference championships--very differently-- and it was easy to understand why, and to say "thumbs up" to both.
The Lightning poured onto the ice at Madison Square Garden, mobbed each other, and showed the hockey world how thrilled they were to be advancing to the Stanley Cup final. Captain Steven Stamkos did a television interview that he might have wished had been longer so he could keep smiling at a camera.
You felt good for him and his teammates because they felt so good and were eager to show it on the New York stage.
Then, one night later, there was a final buzzer in Anaheim and the Chicago Blackhawks, almost matter-of-factly, did their celebrating. If you didn't know it, you would have guessed that they were going where they'd 
been before and this was business that needed doing to get them there. The Chicago captain Jonathan Toews acknowledged that falling behind 3-2 in the series was doing it the hard way, but he was well aware that they wound up making it look pretty easy by building a 4-0 lead over a Ducks team that was overmatched when it counted.
The Stanley Cup final will show more of Tampa Bay's enthusiasm, probably mixed with nerves, and lots of Chicago's confidence, undoubtedly gained through experience.
In the end, the celebration will be the same, no matter which term wins. That, too, is as it should be.
It may be harsh but it's also true that the Anaheim Ducks wear a mark from a second straight, season-ending, game-seven home-ice loss. And you can't even be polite and say they lost narrowly. You have to say "thumbs down" to the fact the Ducks have swung and missed four times in their last two attempts to reach the Stanley Cup final. The missed chances to end series against Los Angeles and Chicago in six games proved just as damaging as the subsequent defeats in seventh games, but it's the all-or nothing games that'll be remembered, and those were the ones witnessed by the fans in Anaheim. They watched their Ducks lose 
last season to the eventual Stanley Cup champion LA Kings, and it'll be the same this year if Chicago goes on to defeat Tampa Bay. Can that provide consolation? Can anything make the Ducks forget about what has happened twice in a row? A game-seven victory next season? Avoiding a seventh game would be even better than winning one, perhaps.