The Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night to become the final team to punch their ticket to the 2021 Stanley Cup semi-finals where they'll face the Montreal Canadiens.
After the second round, the four winning teams were re-seeded based on their regular season standings. Vegas was the highest of the four seeds and as mentioned will play Montreal, who are the fourth seed. Tampa Bay takes the second seed and will play the third seed, the New York Islanders.
Several weeks ago, the National Hockey League announced that they were not going to hand out the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl or Prince of Wales trophies for conference champions due to the temporarily realigned divisions for the 2021 season, but it appears they have changed their minds.
Following Vegas' win on Thursday, the league announced that Vegas and Montreal will be competing for the Clarence S. Campbell bowl, which is given annually to the winner of the Western Conference Final, while the Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Islanders will be playing for the Prince of Wales Trophy.
It will be interesting to see who will be the winners of the 2021 Stanley Cup. If the Lightning win, they become the NHL's second team in the past six years to win back-to-back Stanley Cups. It also could be a team who hasn't won in a very long time in either the New York Islanders (last win: 1983) or Montreal Canadiens (last win: 1993). The Vegas Golden Knights could win their first ever Stanley Cup and if they beat Montreal, it would be their second appearance in the Stanley Cup Final since entering the NHL in 2017.
There are several intriguing storylines for both series. It will be a re-match of the 2020 Eastern Conference Final between the Lightning and Islanders, and New York will look to seek revenge for last year's loss.
In the Vegas/Montreal series, it'll be a former captain,
Max Pacioretty facing his old team, while
Nick Suzuki will face the team that drafted him in 2017, as he was their second ever draft selection. If he draws into the lineup,
Tomas Tatar will also be facing his former team. He played in 8 playoff games during Vegas' run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2018.
Full schedules were also released for both series. Tampa Bay and New York will kick off the third round on Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. ET at Amaile Arena, while Vegas and Montreal will open their series on Monday night at 9 p.m. ET at T-Mobile Arena. The remainder of the schedules can be found below.
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