What to know for the best Stanley Cup final matchup in years

This is an excerpt from The Buzzer, which is CBC Sports' daily email newsletter. Stay up to speed on what's happening in sports by subscribing here.

The matchup pretty much sells itself. A team trying for the first Stanley Cup three-peat in 40 years takes on arguably the most exciting squad in hockey. Here's a quick primer for the heavyweight tilt between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Colorado Avalanche, which opens Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET in Denver and can be watched live on the CBC TV network, CBCSports.ca and the CBC Sports app:

This is, by far, Tampa Bay's toughest final opponent yet.

The betting markets believe the more dominant-looking Avs will end the Lightning dynasty (if we can call it that yet). Based on the series odds, Colorado has about a 60 per cent chance of winning its first Cup since 2001, when current GM Joe Sakic led the Avs to their second championship.

There are great players on both sides.

Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon and Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov are two of the very best forwards in the sport, and both are producing like the superstars they are in these playoffs. MacKinnon has scored 11 goals in 14 games, while Kucherov has 23 points in 17 contests. A less-heralded key for the Avalanche could be Mikko Rantanen, who scored 36 times in the regular season but was slumping in the playoffs before busting out for a goal in each of the four games vs. Edmonton.

There's also a marquee matchup on the blue-line between Tampa veteran Victor Hedman, who won the Norris Trophy in 2018 and the Conn Smythe in '20, and Colorado's Cale Makar, the electrifying youngster who seems destined to become the game's next great defenceman (if he isn't already). Makar, 23, is the betting favourite to win the Conn Smythe as