Stanley Cup Final Takeaways: How the Colorado Avalanche beat the Tampa Bay Lightning

This entire postseason, we've been recapping every series upon its completion. It's been a rewarding experience unpacking each one after the fact, trying to make sense of what exactly happened. After two months, four rounds, 15 playoff matchups, and 89 total games, we've now finally reached the finish line.

The Colorado Avalanche became the first team to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning in three years, taking their place at the top of the league as the 2022 Stanley Cup Champions. Full credit goes to Lightning for putting up one last stand and making it a far more competitive series than I expected, especially after the comprehensive beatdown we saw in Game 2. 

They made the necessary adjustments as they always do, and things really tightened up once the location of the games shifted over to Tamp