CHICAGO -- The Blackhawks' dynasty lives. It may not last long, but for now, that couldn't matter less.
Chicago won its third Stanley Cup in six seasons — and first in front of its home fans — with a 2-0 win over the Lightning on Monday night in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final.
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Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith scored the first goal of the game with an absurd individual second-period effort, firing a contested shot past Lightning center Cedric Paquette, then beating Paquette and defenseman Andre Sustr to the rebound. Keith fired a shot over Ben Bishop's shoulder, and the game barely felt close after that.
There were more than 23 minutes of play remaining.
Along the way, Keith became the fourth player to record more than 700 minutes of ice time in the playoffs since the league started keeping the stat. He was an obvious choice for the Conn Smythe by the second round, and that came to pass.
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The goal was Keith's third of the playoffs and 21st point, pulling him into a tie for the second on the team in points with Jonathan Toews. Scoring the second goal with less than five minutes remaining, his first of the Final was, naturally, Patrick Kane, who finishes with a team-leading 22 points.
Great as Chicago has been, and as well as GM Stan Bowman rebuilt them after their first Cup in 2010, climbing the mountain will be even harder moving forward. Top-pair defenseman Brent Seabrook is an unrestricted free agent, top-six winger Brandon Saad is eligible for an offer sheet, and huge contract extensions for Toews and Kane ($13.8 million cap hits for each) kick in next season.
That's a question for another day, though. Monday was about pulling off the exact thing the salary cap was instituted to prevent. It was a coronation, and it came in front of nearly 23,000 fans whipped, at times, into near-psychosis.
The Lightning's future, in plenty of ways, is brighter than Chicago's — their core is younger and, thus, cheaper — but that's irrelevant to them right now. The Eastern Conference champions held a 2-1 series lead and at times looked like the better team, but bad luck, an injury to Bishop that seemed to rob him of mobility and a lack of quality defensive depth did them in.
In Game 6, the Lightning had early chances; Steven Stamkos hit the post in the first period, then bungled a breakaway against Corey Crawford in the second, forcing him down, but failing to elevate the puck over his pads. Paquette missed an open net in the first-period, too.
After all those missed opportunities, the result felt inevitable. Few things are, though — so maybe the Blackhawks can pull it off again.