An improbable Stanley Cup final

This Stanley Cup final arrived like a Lightning bolt from the blue, a you-got-to-be-kidding me Calgary vs. Tampa Bay matchup that might see the winner retain the cup for far longer than the normal one year.

If this indeed is the last time hockey's most precious prize is hoisted in celebration for a few years -- and the NHL's pending labor talks will decide that -- at least the league picked a good way to go out.

Compared to last year's Anaheim-New Jersey seven-game snoozefest, where traps reigned supreme and the first goal sometimes was the only one needed to win, this final should have speed, scoring, end-to-end rushes, exciting transitional play and a minimum of dumping and chasing.

There are big stars, too, even if they aren't yet big names outside of hockey's hard-core fan base. Jarome Iginla, Calgary's captain courageous, might be his generation's Mark Messier, a scorer and unparalleled leader, and the Lightning's small but Indy car-fast Martin St. Louis is the likely league MVP.

The subplots aren't bad, either. There's Lightning captain Dave Andreychuk's quest for his first Cup in 22 NHL seasons at age 40, St. Louis going against the team that let him go and the league's No. 3 offense (Tampa Bay) against its No. 3 defense (Calgary).

Now, the question is whether anyone will be watching a final that seems certain to be -- Dare the NHL say it? -- entertaining. The first Canadian finalist in 10 years is pumping up interest in the land where the sport was born, but Calgary won't help ABC or ESPN land casual fans to whom Iggy is an aging pop star from the '60s, not the Flames' dynamic Iginla.

Still, perhaps more so than ever before, the Stanley Cup finalists and their home cities are a story in themselves.

The Lightning were so bad for so long that hockey fans once were as rare in Tampa-St. Petersburg as snowflakes; nobody ever dared call this place Hockeytown. Now, tickets that once couldn't be given away can't be had, with the Lightning fielding so many phone calls during Saturday's 2-1 victory over Philadelphia in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final that their phone bank went out.

"I am not going to lie to you, there's no chance we thought this would happen so quick," said Lightning coach John Tortorella, who has spent several seasons convincing his players the Stanley Cup really could come to the Sunbelt.

In the Great White North of Calgary, they never thought this would happen so slowly.

The Flames have been mostly invisible since last winning the Cup in 1989, missing the playoffs for seven straight seasons until this one. Attendance declined so dramatically that the Saddledome's uppermost seats were covered with tarps, and boosters held bake sales, raffles and bingo games to help sell 13,000 season tickets and prevent the team from moving.

"Now, you can feel the buzz in Calgary no matter where you go," said the Flames' Martin Gelinas, known as "The Closer" after scoring the decisive goal in three consecutive series.

The winner of the most improbable final since longtime loser Pittsburgh made its Stanley Cup debut against below-.500 Minnesota in 1991 might be the team that can solve the other's goalie -- and can win at home.

That's been no problem for the Lightning, who are 7-2 in the arena formerly known as the Ice Palace. But Calgary is a remarkable 8-2 on the road while eliminating three 100-point teams: Vancouver, Detroit and San Jose, and Tampa Bay awaits as a fourth consecutive 100-point opponent.

"They are relentless," the Lightning's Brad Richards said. "They never quit. Their feet are always moving, and they are playing with so much emotion -- and (with) a great goalie."

Both teams are relatively wide-open in an era where coaches talk endlessly about puck management and traps are a way of life, partly because their goalies allow them to be. Tampa Bay's Nikolai Khabibulin really has lived up to his nickname as the "Bulin Wall," with a 1.90 goals-against average that is exceptional but not lower than Calgary goalie Miikka Kiprusoff's 1.65.

Special teams are a key, too, and might be Calgary's most visible weakness. The Flames have scored on only two of their last 32 power- play chances, while Tampa Bay is converting at an exceptional 21.2 percent rate since the playoffs started.

For the next 24 hours or so, though, both teams are overjoyed merely to be here, especially with marquee teams such as the Devils, Red Wings, Flyers and Avalanche all gone.

"To say we were going to get to the Stanley Cup, you know, is hard to believe," Gelinas said.

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