Three DI staffers debate who will take home the most famous trophy in sports.

Tampa Bay Lightning

Tampa Bay will hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup come season’s end, mark my words, take it to the bank, bet on it like the Sun coming up in the east.
Now, before you Chicagoans take up the pitchforks and torches, hear me out. Look past your blind fandom for a moment and accept the realities.

Tampa Bay is a good team, with a good goalkeeper in Ben Bishop, and a rising star in Tyler Johnson.

Nicknamed by some as Big Ben, which is quite appropriate given his 6-7, 216-pound frame, Bishop can seal up the net by virtue of his size alone. Albeit a journeyman by some standards, Bishop scored a breakthrough last season when he carried his team to the Stanley Cup Final.

In two seasons as the Lightning’s go-to goalie, the 28-year-old has a 77-27 record, and looks poised to improve on that, with a .916 save percentage bolstering him this season. Take out a flukey Patrick Sharp goal in Game 5 of the final, and the Lightning might have swung the series in their favor.

Then there’s Johnson, who at a diminutive 5-8 and 185 pounds, led the NHL in goals scored in the playoffs last season with 13 and total points with 23. Four of his 11 goals in the postseason were game-winners.

Stars show up for big games, and if Tampa Bay can replicate its success of last season, led by these rising stars, the Lightning will see a banner raised.
— by Ian Murphy

Chicago Blackhawks

Is an explanation needed?

Chicago is not just the defending NHL champion. Chicago is a dynasty.

The Blackhawks are coming off of a dominant Stanley Cup Finals performance. They have won two of the last three NHL championships, three of the last six.

Put any worry surrounding a relatively new look to the Blackhawks aside. Yes, they lost a few key players, but they did not lose out entirely this off-season.

Chicago brings in more money than any other team in the NHL, thanks in large part to colossal television deals with WGN and CSN. With all that money, the Blackhawks acquired key new players, including former Blackhawk and dominant left wing Bryan Bickell.

And even better news for Chicago fans, the “core six” — Jonathon Toews, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Marian Hossa, and Niklas Hjalmarsson — are all back. These six have carried the Blackhawks for years, and the six were on all three championship teams.

ESPN agrees. As the season begins, ESPN has the Chicago Blackhawks ranked No. 1 in the NHL power rankings.

Anaheim is the only team in the Western Conference that has a chance of giving the Blackhawks trouble on the road to the Stanley Cup Finals. The Ducks, however, are plagued with discipline issues and are vastly overmatched by Chicago.

Once the Blackhawks win the West, they will face the team that made it out of the clearly weaker East.

The Blackhawks will win the Stanley Cup yet again, and that should not surprise anyone.
— by Mason Clarke

Anaheim Ducks

Following a strong 2014-15 season, the Anaheim Ducks are hungry for a Stanley Cup victory after losing late in the playoffs.

The Ducks finished the 2014-15 regular season at the top of the Pacific Division and tied with the St. Louis Blues for first place in the Western Conference.

They had a strong playoffs, sweeping the Winnipeg Jets in the first round, then beating the Calgary Flames, 4-1, in the second. They then went on to lose to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals after a physically brutal series.

The Ducks have been consistently strong over the past few years and have made the playoffs three years in a row, steadily gaining in the playoffs making it to the quarterfinals in 2013, semifinals in 2014, and the conference finals in 2015.

The next step for the team is to make it to the Stanley Cup Final.

The Ducks historically have played a very physical style of hockey, dominating smaller teams with a hard back and fore check but sacrificing speed with size and strength. This year, the team has some speed with the addition of Carl Hagelin from the New York Rangers along with two younger prospects in John Manson and Kenton Helgesen, who should add some speed to the lineup.

Also, the Ducks obtained veteran defensemen Kevin Bieska from the Vancouver Canucks to add to the list of reliable veterans in Ryan Getzlaf, Correy Perry, and Ryan Kesler.

If the Ducks continue to play the style they did last year, along with the addition of some speed to their lineup, they have the best chance at getting to the Stanley Cup Final and closing it out for the championship.
— Rod Engblom