Stanley Cup Final Game 1 Predictions

Let’s take a look at the Stanley Cup Final Game 1 predictions:

Here are tonight’s starting goaltenders, courtesy of LeftWingLock.

Game 1 starts at 8 PM Eastern Standard Time tonight, with home ice advantage belonging to the Pittsburgh Penguins. This is the first Stanley Cup Final game that Pittsburgh has seen since 2009, when the Penguins were playing in what was then called Mellon Arena.

On June 9th, the Penguins topped the Red Wings 2-1 to even up the series and force a Game 7, which they also won 2-1. With 13 seconds to go in Game 6, Rob Scuderi and Marc-Andre Fleury combined for a game-salvaging goalline save to seal the deal. Amazingly, that same fate would be repeated in Game 7, as with seconds remaining Fleury flung himself across the netmouth to save the game and the Cup.

How long ago those memories seem to be from. Marc-Andre Fleury has made one start this postseason and it went poorly. Their opponents from Detroit are not even in the same conference anymore. Sidney Crosby is now a 28-year-old grizzled veteran as opposed to a 21-year-old kid.

Now, let’s address the elephant in the room first and foremost. I have been informed that there is another sporting event going on tonight. Some college basketball game between some school in Oklahoma and Golden State? Yeah, whatever. Gimme championship hockey over everything and anything on any given day.

The over/under is set at 5.5 for one of the few times all postseason. These two teams have been lighting the lamp all postseason long, so it seems perfectly reasonable. The over was 4-2-1 in the seven game series between the Penguins and the Tampa Bay Lightning. It was an even 3-3 in San Jose’s series against the St. Louis Blues.

The Sharks are pretty significant underdogs all things considered tonight. The Penguins have been great on home ice, but they did fall into an early hole against the Lightning in the Conference Finals at home. The Sharks are 10-1 in their last 11 road games against teams with a home winning percentage greater than .600.

As has been mentioned countless numbers of times before, the Sharks posted the best road record in the National Hockey League this season with 29 victories away from the Shark Tank. The Sharks won a crucial Game 5 in St. Louis in the conference final to give themselves a 3-2 series lead. Their previous series against Nashville, however, was a home dominated one.

Trevor Daley is officially out for “4-8 weeks” with a fractured ankle, though Daley refuses to rule himself out of playing in the Stanley Cup Final. That math certainly does not add up, and against a team like the Sharks, the Pens need defensemen who can actually skate and keep up without their feet falling to bits under them. But kudos for competitive spirit, Trev.

For those who enjoy looking at past history, the Pens and Sharks split their season series with both games being won by the visitors. The Sharks have won 14 of the last 19 encounters. However, the last time these two teams met, they were totally different teams as I laid out in my series preview. Mike Sullivan was not yet the Penguins’ head coach. Carl Hagelin had not yet been traded to Pittsburgh from Anaheim. The Sharks were shopping Patrick Marleau. It was a simpler time when neither team was off to a very inspiring start.

The Penguins will be facing the biggest team in front that they have since the New York Rangers. The Capitals and Lightning are not terribly big in their top six, with some notable exceptions. They mostly get by on pure skill, speed and puck movement and leave the size and physicality to their bottom six.

They mostly had to deal with big bodied top line forwards against the Rangers when they contained Chris Kreider, Kevin Hayes and Rick Nash on the forward lines. But the Sharks are a whole different animal. They will have to deal with Joe Thornton (6’4″), Tomas Hertl (6’2″) and Patrick Marleau (6’2″) with some other wide bodies in Joel Ward and Joe Pavelski down low.

The Sharks, meanwhile, will have to slay some of the game’s most elite scorers yet again. They have neutralized Anze Kopitar. They topped Ryan Johansen and Filip Forsberg. They contained Vladimir Tarasenko and Jaden Schwartz. Now, they have the deepest team yet: Crosby, Malkin, Kessel, Bonino, Hagelin, Hornqvist, Kunitz, et all. It’s a tall order.

Prediction: Look for the Sharks to make an early impact in the series. If they cause havoc down low for the tall Matt Murray, they will find the back of the net. Take the Sharks to win Game 1. Play the over.