NHL Power Rankings: Top X-factors for 2022 Stanley Cup Final

In this week’s edition of the NHL Power Rankings we turn our attention to the 2022 Stanley Cup Final between the Colorado Avalanche and Tampa Bay Lightning.

As far as matchups go, this is as good as you can get in the league today.

On one side we have an Avalanche team that has been on the rise for the past four years and has been one of the league’s best teams this season. They were finally able to break through the Second Round ceiling and have cruised into the Cup Final with a 12-2 record in their first three series, losing only a single game in regulation.

On the other side we have a Lightning team that is playing in its third consecutive Cup Final (and fourth in the past eight years) and trying to become the first back-to-back-to-back Stanley Cup champion since the early 1980s New York Islanders.

Here we are going to take a look at 10 potential X-factors that could help swing the series. The X-factors could be individual players, entire positions, injuies, specific situations, and everything in between.

What all makes the cut?

1. Colorado’s goaltending. In what is mostly an evenly matched series this is the one area on paper where Tampa Bay looks to have a substantial advantage. Andrei Vasilevskiy is already one of the NHL’s all-time greats at the position and is money in big games. The Avalanche, meanwhile, have a pretty unsettled situation. Darcy Kuemper has been injured twice this postseason and missed most of the Western Conference Final. When healthy, he has not been great (and the Avalanche have not needed him to be). Pavel Francouz has been solid in relief, but again, has not really needed to be a game-changer. Do the Avalanche go back to Kuemper as soon as he is ready? Do they stick with Francouz after his