Nico Sturm is transferring from the Minnesota Wild to the Colorado Avalanche. In June he is in the Stanley Cup finals. The opponent won the trophy in 2020 and 2021 – and is still an outsider.
If the bookmakers in the USA have their way, Nico Sturm will soon be the fifth German Stanley Cup winner and will celebrate the NHL championship with the Colorado Avalanche.
The Tampa Bay Lightning won the title in the previous two years and are the first team in four decades to win the world’s top ice hockey league for the third time in a row. In the final series that starts on Thursday morning (02:00 a.m. CEST), however, many ice hockey experts and betting providers see them as just outsiders against the Denver team.
Avalanche as a favorite
For Sturm, these are the most important ice hockey games of his life, and he left no doubt about that recently. “I don’t think the Stanley Cup final can be compared to anything you’ve experienced before. That’s the biggest thing there is!” he told the “Ice Hockey News”. “But it’s a good idea not to let it get too big at the moment. We’ve done that quite well so far.” In the previous rounds, the Avalanche had sent one opponent after the other into the summer break as favorites – most recently the Edmonton Oilers around NHL star Leon Draisaitl with four wins in four games in the finals of the Western Conference.
21 years after title number two, the Avalanche now have a chance at the third Stanley Cup in their history. So far, the success rate is 100 percent: Colorado won in both 1996 and 2001, and there has never been a defeat in the final series.
Atmosphere in the team “very good”
After Philipp Grubauer, Tom Kühnhackl, Dennis Seidenberg and Uwe Krupp, Sturm would be the fifth German ice hockey professional to win the massive trophy and, according to tradition, be allowed to exhibit in his hometown – in Sturm’s case that would be Augsburg. Most recently, the pot came to Rosenheim after national goalkeeper Grubauer had won the final series with the Washington Capitals in 2018. Grubauer is now one of the best goalies in the league and was the Avalanche’s No. 1 for three seasons until last summer before joining the Seattle Kraken. In 2018, however, he only played a supporting role in the title-winning team from the US capital.
How big Sturm’s influence on the outcome of the season finale will be is open. The 27-year-old moved from the Minnesota Wild to Denver during the season and received good feedback for his performances, but as a fourth-row forward he is not a regular and was only used in one of the four playoff duels against Edmonton. “The line-up will be as the coaching staff thinks we have the best success. Of course I hope that I’ll get my chance again in the final,” he said. “The most important thing is that everyone is happy for the other when they play and are successful. The atmosphere among the players is very good. We are all working together towards the same goal.” That means winning the Stanley Cup.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
