The Chicago Blackhawks are officially a dynasty.

To win 3 championships in 6 years is never easy which makes this Blackhawks run of success very special. As much as I root against them when they play my hometown Canucks, I’ve always had a great deal of respect for the way they have been able to win so dominantly. Toews, Kane, Keith, Seabrook and Crawford are as good of a core as any in the NHL and there is no reason to think that they can’t continue to win in the coming years. It’s scary to think that Kane and Toews are only now really entering their primes and they still have so much good hockey left in them. They will have to shuffle the roster again for next year as teams do in the salary cap era. What makes this team so good is that they have managed to keep their core together and just add complimentary pieces around them for each Cup run. This method along with drafting well has been instrumental to their success and the envy of the other 29 teams in the NHL. I’m predicting this core of Blackhawks players will win at least 2 more Cups before they choose or are forced to break up.

The Tampa Bay Lightning should feel proud of the season they had. Although they came up short, they pushed the Blackhawks in an incredibly tight series that could have easily gone to game 7. They are very young and their franchise player Steven Stamkos will only get better and come back with a big chip on his shoulders after being criticized for not scoring a single goal in the finals. Victor Hedman could become the best defensemen in the NHL in the next two years and their is no shortage of talent up and down the roster. As long as they can keep the core together and stay healthy, they should be contenders in the east for years to come.