Nastiness yet to Emerge in Stanley Cup Final

This story originally appeared on VICE Sports Canada.

The way the two head coaches in this Stanley Cup final talked about their respective goalies after Game 2, you'd think the series was being played on different planets.

Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Ben Bishop had to leave the ice twice in the third period, not to return. No reasoning was offered. Coaches hiding possible injuries is nothing new this time of year, but Lightning coach Jon Cooper was so damn affable as he opened his postgame press conference.

"I hate to be that guy," Cooper said. "I know I talk way too much when I get up here, but I will not answer a question about the goaltending or what happened tonight."

"I hate to be that guy?" Did Cooper not get the memo? This is the Stanley Cup final. You don't have to even feign any sort of empathy here.

Ask Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville.

"Just OK," was his terse response when asked about goalie Corey Crawford's play. Quenneville is a man of few words and doesn't mince them.

The "youth versus experience" storyline in these finals has been beaten to death, but it became painfully evident in Game 2 how different these two teams truly are.

Make no mistake, Game 2 was a wildly entertaining, lead-trading affair, but it had more of a December feel to it, without much animosity between the two teams.

Nineteen seconds after entering the offensive zone, the Lightning threw a whack of flailing shot attempts at Crawford before Cedric Paquette fired one through traffic to open the scoring in the first period. This was the Lightning in Game 2: ceaseless energy and little interest in engaging the Hawks in a physical battle.

Tampa Bay can play with wild abandon because this will not be the last trip to the finals for this young Lightning core. They are skilled, almost insanely so, but have not shown late playoff composure, and that's OK. They'll settle down and become a team like the Hawks, Bruins or Kings—the gold standard of strong playoff teams over the last five seasons.

Both Cooper and his Lightning team have, at times, seemed happy just to be in this position. There are traces of resilience in them, but there has been no bad blood between these two teams because they're operating on totally different trajectories.

Chicago's window is closing. Before contract extensions for Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane kick in next season, Hawks management will have to make tough salary cap decisions and certain players may not be re-signed. Their determination to win now is palpable.

Perhaps we'll eventually see these two teams develop a hatred for each other. But right now, this is good, clean, fun hockey that isn't reminiscent of past Cup finals. With no rivalry ingrained, and different approaches within the game, it's tough to imagine this series getting nasty.

Only at the end of the second period did the two teams show any hate for each other. It was, of course, Andrew Shaw, he of rumoured biting fame, in the middle of it.

Four years ago, the Bruins and Canucks faced off in the prime of their trajectories. With aging goaltenders and leaders, both teams' desperation played out in a dramatic seven-game series. There was pointed trash talking, psychological warfare and players biting each other for good measure.

This year? There was that alleged bite in Game 1, but a delay in a physical response from the Lightning in Game 2 would lead many to believe they're not interested in biting back.

This series doesn't have the built-in rivalry that the 2009 finals had. It was a rematch of the 2008 Stanley Cup, and the young Penguins outlasted a Red Wings team that had beat them the previous year in a seven game nail-biter. The physical and psychological elements present in classics like the 1994 Cup between the Canucks and the Mark Messier-powered New York Rangers haven't shown through two games yet.

When two teams at different stages with no history between them meet, the result is what we've seen so far—unpredictably entertaining hockey. There will come a time when the younger crop of emerging NHL clubs, including the Islanders, Jets and Flames, take over as the teams that will return to the finals every season. We might then see something close to the animosity expected this time of the year.

In the meantime, as the series shifts to the United Center—one of the most intimidating buildings in the league—we'll get a clearer idea of how far the Lightning's youthful energy can take them and how quickly the Hawks might be able to stop them.