| 2021 Stanley Cup Finals | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
| * – Denotes overtime period(s) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Location(s) | Montreal: Bell Centre (3, 4) Tampa: Amalie Arena (1, 2, 5) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Coaches | Montreal: Dominique Ducharme (interim) Tampa Bay: Jon Cooper | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Captains | Montreal: Shea Weber Tampa Bay: Steven Stamkos | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Referees | Francis Charron (1, 3) Gord Dwyer (3, 5) Eric Furlatt (2, 4) Dan O'Rourke (1, 5) Kelly Sutherland (2, 4) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Dates | June 28 – July 7, 2021 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| MVP | Andrei Vasilevskiy (Lightning) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Series-winning goal | Ross Colton (13:27, Second, G5) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Hall of Famers | Canadiens: Shea Weber (2024) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Networks | Canada: (English): CBC/Sportsnet (French): TVA Sports United States: (English): NBCSN (1–2), NBC (3–5) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | (CBC/SN) Chris Cuthbert and Craig Simpson[1] (TVA) Felix Seguin and Patrick Lalime (NBC/NBCSN) Kenny Albert, Eddie Olczyk (1, 3–5), Brian Boucher (1–2, 4–5), and Pierre McGuire (2–3)[2][3] (NHL International) E.J. Hradek and Kevin Weekes | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
The 2021 Stanley Cup Finals was the championship series of the National Hockey League's (NHL) 2020–21 season and the culmination of the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs. The series was between the Montreal Canadiens and the defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning. The Lightning won the best-of-seven series, four games to one, for their second consecutive and the third overall championship in franchise history. Tampa Bay had home-ice advantage in the series with the better regular season record.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic that both shortened and delayed the start of the regular season, the series began on June 28, 2021, and concluded on July 7, 2021, marking the first time that games in the Stanley Cup Finals were held in July. The cross-border travel restrictions under the pandemic also forced the league to temporarily realign this season into four divisions with no conferences, putting all seven Canadian teams into one of those divisions. Consequently, a divisional-based postseason format was held, featuring intra-divisional matchups in the first two rounds. The four divisional playoff champions were then re-seeded by regular season points in the Stanley Cup Semifinals, with the winners of the Semifinals advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals.[4] Under a normal playoff format, this finals matchup would be impossible, as both the Lightning and Canadiens compete in the NHL's Eastern Conference. However, under the temporarily realigned divisions, some had mixed conferences, which enabled this scenario.
This was the first Finals since 2009 to be played entirely in the Eastern Time Zone, the first since 2011 to feature a Canadian-based team, the first since 2015 to end in a team winning the Stanley Cup at home, and the first since 2018 to require less than six games.
This Finals matchup broke the Stanley Cup Finals record for highest combined seed between teams, with twenty-six (Tampa Bay eighth, and Montreal eighteenth).[5] This record was previously held by the 1991 Stanley Cup Finals, which had a combined seed of twenty-three.[6]
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
SN PRwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
NBC PRwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
NBC Gm2was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cotsonika, Nicholas (May 14, 2021). "Stanley Cup Playoffs: Key questions, answers". NHL.com. NHL Enterprises, L. P. Retrieved June 8, 2021.
- ^ "2020-21 NHL League Standings".
- ^ "1990-91 NHL League Standings".