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Host, TSN The Reporters with Dave Hodge

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Two seasons ago, the Tampa Bay Lightning missed the playoffs. Last season, they qualified but lost in the first round. Now, they have a chance to be Stanley Cup champions. So there's hope for teams in similar situations.

In fact, let's name five of them--five teams that missed the playoffs a year ago, lost in the first round this time, and would like to think they could be in Tampa Bay's current situation a year from now--Ottawa Senators, New York Islanders, Nashville Predators, Winnipeg Jets and Vancouver Canucks.

If there is reasonable hope for any of them, I suggest that it belongs to Winnipeg. The Jets made the cover of The Hockey News Future Watch edition as a team that could win the Stanley Cup in 2019. No doubt they were flattered, but if the future is bright in Winnipeg, surely it won't take quite that long. So, not that this should breed impatience--maybe the timetable could mirror that of Tampa Bay.

I would rank the chances of the other four teams mentioned above in the following order: Nashville, Ottawa, New York Islanders, Vancouver.

Something else to think about as you wait for Tampa Bay to determine how good their chances are. "Thumbs up" to the idea that a Stanley Cup might be won just two years after failing to make the playoffs.

Those who consider themselves the truest of hockey fans are the ones who don't want the hockey season to end. They're hoping for a seven-game Stanley Cup final and some of them don't care who wins it.

Since the year 2000, the NHL has produced six championship series decided by a seventh game, and the same number of Stanley Cup finals have stopped one game short of the limit. In the last 15 Stanley Cup finals, there has not been a four-game sweep.

There was another 15-year period in Stanley Cup history that was very different. I remember that time well, as it exactly covered my stay at Hockey Night in Canada. From 1972 to 1986, the Stanley Cup final never saw a seventh game. For that matter, there were only three of them in the 15 years before that. So modern-day hockey fans who want the most they can get out of a Stanley Cup final have been very well served.

"Thumbs up" to a seven-game classic, if that's what's in store when the Blackhawks and the Lightning start their series tonight, but it must be said that very few predictions have it that way. It would feel like jinxing a shutout if I repeated that line about the absence of four-game sweeps since 2000-so I won't.