Let’s get the ugly business out of the way first before we get to predictions.
Regardless of religion, political affiliation, race, sex, gender, eye color, whatever one could possibly use to divide and pit us against one another, violence is tragic. Offering up thoughts and prayers in the wake of a mass shooting is a hollow thing to do that changes very little. Nonetheless, the people of Orlando and those affected by the shooting today deserve support. They deserve love. With a heavy heart, I urge those people to stay strong.
Al Michaels wrote in his autobiography that he always hated the phrase, “This puts things into perspective.” Things should be in perspective anyway, he wrote. Sports are just that. Sports. A game. Life gets priority. So, apologies for bringing this into the article today, but something like this cannot be ignored. Hockey is not the most important thing in the world going on today. Acknowledgment of grief and of horror and of disappointment is not politicizing a hockey article, it’s being a human being.
With that in mind, let’s transition over to sports.
Here are the top picks, plays and predictions for Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final.
June 12th, 2016
Penguins vs Sharks
ML: -107 / -103
O/U: 5
Here are tonight’s starting goaltenders, courtesy of LeftWingLock.
Before Game 5, I went against my gut. I took the Pittsburgh Penguins to win the Cup that night and clinch on home ice, as did a lot of people. The Sharks were significant underdogs that had not led yet in the series and had been getting badly outshot in each of the previous four games.
In Game 5, the tides began to turn a bit.
For once, the Sharks scored first. Baby steps! Just over a minute into play, Melker Karlsson dumped the puck in deep and retrieved, cycling the puck behind the net to Brent Burns. Burns stepped out from behind the net, turned and rifled a wrist shot through Matt Murray, who continues to struggle reading shots from the post. The goal was remarkably similar to Joonas Donskoi’s overtime winner in Game 3.
Less than two minutes later, the Sharks struck again. Their play along the boards again led to a scoring chance, as a puck battle in the far corner led to the puck coming to the point. Justin Braun’s shot tipped off the stick of Logan Couture to give San Jose an early 2-0 lead.
But because it’s the Cup, the Penguins were not about to go quietly. The Penguins got a powerplay opportunity just a few short moments later and took full advantage. Their pressure and puck movement caused Evgeni Malkin to hold the puck at the near circle. A cross-crease pass deflected off a sliding defender and into the net. Just like that, the Pens were on the board.
Mere seconds later, Pittsburgh erased the deficit. Before the last name “Malkin” was even completed by the public address announcer, Carl Hagelin had found the back of the net on a deflection in front.
Five minutes into play and there had already been two goals a side. Hockey is crazy.
We finally got a break from the scoring for a little bit…for about 10 minutes. Later in the first, Melker Karlsson buried a sick no-look feed to give San Jose their lead back. The shot caught a huge piece of Matt Murray’s glove but still trickled into the back of the net.
There was a question posed by NBC Sports both on air and on Twitter on whether or not Murray should be pulled for Marc-Andre Fleury for the remainder of the game. Just days ago, Murray was being compared favorably to Ken Dryden. Again, hockey is crazy.
Pittsburgh would knock on San Jose’s door for the remaining 40 minutes. Shot after shot, attack after attack. Martin Jones would wind up stopping 44 of 46 shots, 31 of them in the final two frames. Jones stole this one, plain and simple.
Joe Pavelski finally potted an empty-netter to clinch the victory for the Sharks. They escaped by the skin of their teeth.
Before the Red Sox completed their comeback on the New York Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series, Kevin Millar warned his teammates: ‘don’t let us win Game 4. Then we got Pedro [Martinez] in Game 5, Curt Schilling in Game 6, and Game 7, anything can happen.’
This is pretty close. Win Game 5, come home to California, and all of a sudden the Sharks have a real chance to come back and win this. A home victory sends the series back to Pittsburgh where anything can happen in a Game 7.
More importantly, a win tonight means I should never doubt my gut again since I said this series was going the distance.
Prediction: I went against my gut and it burned me. Won’t happen again. Take the Sharks to win tonight. Play the over.
