Edmonton (Canada) (AFP)

A favorite, Tampa Bay, or an outsider, Dallas, will win the second Stanley Cup in its history at the end of an unprecedented final in more than one respect, the first game of which will be played Saturday behind closed doors in the Edmonton bubble. , safe from coronavirus.

They are starting to get used to it for more than a month and a half since the play-offs began, but the absence of fans and therefore of the advantage of the field that this implies makes this home stretch all the more particular.

The culmination of an exercise that could just as well not have continued because of the pandemic that had suddenly interrupted the championship on March 12.

It took the NHL first to redesign the finals, involving 24 teams, twelve per conference, with group stages and play-offs to come up with a classic format of eight qualifiers on each side.

It was especially necessary to find two host cities to welcome these delegations of players and managers, Toronto for those of the Eastern Conference, Edmonton for those of the West.

Finally, it was necessary to put in place health protocols, made of daily Covid-19 tests, social distancing measures and to make everyone agree to come and go only from their hotel to the gym to train or play. .

- Zero positive cases -

And all this led to zero positive cases.

A real victory, 56 days after the arrival of the Stars and the Lightning in their respective bubbles, that each of the two teams obviously want to crown with a coronation.

"It will be perhaps one of the most difficult titles to win. Whoever lifts this Cup, he will have deserved it, I'll tell you," said Jon Cooper, the coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning who first took revenge on the Columbus Blue Jackets (4-1), who took him out in the first round last year, before dismissing the Boston Bruins (4-1) and the New York Islanders ( 4-2) in the Eastern Conference final.

Game 1 will be the 20th play-off for Tampa Bay and the 22nd for the Stars.

But they had a few days to rest by dismissing the Las Vegas Golden Knights (4-1) in the Western Conference final, after suffering to get rid of Colorado (4-3) and Calgary (4-2) .

Dallas, which few imagined finding itself in such a position, will play its third final since that lost in 2000, a year after its first coronation.

- Dallas "hungry" -

The Lightning also won the Stanley Cup in 2004 before being defeated by the Chicago Blackhawks in 2015. And it's been five years, with two conference finals lost along the way, that they've been among the favorites.

Last season was one of enormous disillusionment when he was swept away to everyone's surprise, in the first round, by Columbus (4-0), when he had managed to equal the record of victories (62) of the Detroit Red Wings , in the regular season.

"All this is behind us," said defender Victor Hedman, one of the key elements - 9 goals scored in these play-offs - of the team with Russian Nikita Kucherov, MVP of last season, and goalkeeper Andrei Vasilevskiy whose save percentage is 93.1%.

Dallas is not without strong men, like Finland's Miro Heiskanen, 21, who has 5 goals and 17 assists (22 pts in 21 games) and Kazakh goalkeeper Anton Khudobin, 34, and his 92 % of stops.

"We have a really hungry squad. From young to old ... the whole club really wants to do everything they can to win this last series," said forward Andrew Cogliano.

"There was the hiatus of the season, times when it wasn't perfect, but we always found a way to live up to each series," he summed up.

© 2020 AFP