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Stanley Cup Final: Penguins Go Back-to-Back

Stanley Cup

Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins have made history, winning the Stanley Cup in back-to-back years for the first time in nearly 20 NHL seasons.

This was the first game I was able to take in live. I finally returned from my trip to England (keeping up with the series on a five-hour time difference is inconvenient, to put it bluntly. The NHL really should have scheduled games to be at 4 in the afternoon so I could have watched live. The nerve!). As warmups were happening, I flipped to CBS to find Rangers legend Ron Duguay presenting a performance at the Tony Awards.

What kind of bizarro world did I return to?

Game 6 began in bedlam. Bridgestone Arena was a madhouse as fans packed Broadway for a pre-game Luke Bryan concert. The crowd was as it always was- loud, boisterous, and unified in their chanted taunts.

Shots were fairly even in the first period and the pace was brisk. Many of the chances early on were off plays behind the net- board battles, wraparounds and dirty work in the crease. Only one penalty was called and Pittsburgh killed off the ensuing powerplay.

The second period is where things took a bad turn. The Predators were buzzing in the offensive zone peppering Matt Murray with shots, and got one to bounce off his glove and land in the blue paint. Colton Sissons pounced on the puck and banged it home.

Inexplicably, the whistle blew. The referees had lost sight of the puck and thought it was safely secure in Murray’s padding. After consulting with one another, the officials disallowed the goal.

The refs had an opportunity to review the goal. They did not. There were rules in place to permit the officials to look at the replay and get it right. They ignored them.

I don’t quite know what to say, really. At the game’s biggest stage, with all of the nonsensical impossibly long video reviews that we have seen this NHL season from October to June, we choose now to keep the game moving? And to get the call wrong?

It confounds logic.

Regardless, there still was lots of hockey left to play. And the second period gave us one of the most thrilling frames of hockey this entire series.

Matt Murray stoned Craig Smith and Colton Sissons cold on breakaways. The Penguins nearly capitalized on a pair of turnovers in the neutral zone. Action was up-and-down and both teams were playing with the requisite sense of desperation needed for Game 6.

The third period began scoreless. Viktor Arvidsson was doing work in the offensive zone. Olli Maatta and Trevor Daley both got hit with penalties giving Nashville a 5-on-3 that got killed off. The game was deadlocked with 1:35 to go and shots are pretty much dead even.

Until.

Ryan Ellis made a questionable decision in his own zone, electing to blindly throw a backhand pass off his own endboards instead of attempting a clearing shot. Chris Kunitz got to the puck and fed Justin Schultz for a shot at the center of the blueline. The shot went wide and bounced off the side of the net. Former Predator Patric Hornqvist batted the puck out of the air, banked it off the hindquarters of Pekka Rinne and put it home.

Nashville would never really threaten in the final 95 seconds of hockey. Carl Hagelin, Swedish God of Empty Netters, would tack one on to seal the deal.

Pens win 2-0.

Sidney Crosby was awarded the Conn Smythe trophy for the second straight year. He became the fourth skater in NHL history to be awarded multiple playoff MVP awards, joining Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr and Penguins owner Mario Lemieux.

Evgeni Malkin finished as the postseason’s leading scorer with 28 points. Jake Guentzel led with 13 goals. Crosby led with 19 assists. Matt Murray was best with a 1.70 goals-against average and .937 save percentage, while also posting three shutouts on the way.

There’s a lot to unpack on both sides. Here are some bullet points.

Nashville:
1) The Predators’ inability to steal one on the road sealed their fate. Game 1 should have gone their way with the incredible shot discrepancy, but it didn’t. Pekka Rinne and the defense were awful in Games 2 and 5. A Stanley Cup series victory almost always includes a win on the road. The Predators just could not get it done.

2) While much of the blame falls on Pekka Rinne, he had himself an incredible run. There is not much you can criticize him for. I liken it to the rise and fall of Daniel Murphy for the New York Mets in 2015. He homered seven times in the NLDS and NLCS to get them to the World Series, then his bat cooled off and he made a crucial error in Game 4 against the Royals. It’s hard to truly be mad since he’s the one who got you there in the first place.

3) Blaming the defense is hard as well since they played so incredibly on the way to the final. They just could not handle the Penguins’ speed and could not possibly prepare for their incredible ability to make something out of nothing.

4) I picked the Nashville Predators to win the Stanley Cup Final. I was thinking more with my heart than with my head. I thought as a fan, who wanted to see P.K. Subban win a Cup. I wanted a new market to bring a championship home and reward a fanbase that was turned so many heads this season. I liked the idea of a team that many people thought might be swept in the opening round by the Chicago Blackhawks taking home the game’s ultimate prize.

My mind screamed at me that I was an idiot. I didn’t listen. Without Ryan Johansen, the Predators were missing a key playmaking element that even a great series from Filip Forsberg and Viktor Arvidsson could not salvage. The emergence of random heroes like Frederick Gaudreau, Pontus Aberg and Colton Sissons were no match for the Penguins’ star power.

Shame on me for simultaneously seeing it coming and choosing not to see it coming.

5) I truly, genuinely hope that this Nashville Predators team does not become one of those instances where in 10 years we look back and go, “Oh yeah, the Predators made the Stanley Cup that one time. How ’bout that.” In other words, I hope for the city’s sake and the players’ sake that this is not one run of greatness surrounded by years of mediocrity. Kind of like the Devils in 2012, or the Flyers in 2010, or the Senators in 2007, or the Panthers in 1996.

I worry the San Jose Sharks may suffer the same fate after last season.

This was an incredibly fun team with an incredibly fun fan base. They’re an easily likable bunch. I hope they stick around.

Finally, there’s no shame in losing to the best. Sidney Crosby is the best player in the world. This group of Penguins (Crosby, Malkin, Kessel, Guentzel, Murray/Fleury) is a marvel of a roster in the salary cap era. Losing to them in the Stanley Cup Final is nothing to be ashamed of.

Fans ought to enjoy the ride. The Predators slew many dragons on the way. They took down the heavily favored Chicago Blackhawks. They brought down Central Division rival St. Louis, who were red-hot at the time. And took down the Anaheim Ducks in the Western Conference Final.

Kane, Toews, Panarin, Keith, Tarasenko, Getzlaf, Perry… the Predators beat some of the best players in the game. That’s something to hang your hat on.

Penguins:
1) If this is the last time we see Marc-Andre Fleury in a Penguins uniform, he went out the classiest way he could. After leading the Penguins for more than half the ride, Fleury was benched in favor of Matt Murray during the Senators series and never got another start. Murray went on a tear again and will get all the glory for the Penguins winning the Cup, both last year and this year.

But never forget the incredible performance that Flower put up in the first two rounds.

It was Fleury that shut down the Blue Jackets. Fleury put on the performance of a lifetime in Game 7 against the Washington Capitals.

He’s been in the organization for 14 years, and even after losing his starting job, stayed a classy teammate and terrific mentor adored by his teammates.

In potentially his last act as a Penguin, he handed the Stanley Cup off to his successor. That’s special.

As of today, Marc-Andre Fleury will reportedly waive his no-movement clause and expose himself to the expansion draft. The Vegas Golden Knights may very well take him as a proven number one starter with tons of character and experience.

While he was not one of the most dominant goaltenders in league history, it’s hard not to like Flower. And for that, Fleury’s return to Pittsburgh ought to be a fun night.

2) Jake Guentzel went from no-name rookie to unstoppable force real quick. I distinctly watching his first game in the NHL (against the Rangers in which he scored on his first shot on his first shift) and thinking, “…who?!” Now that his name is forever etched on the Cup, Guentzel has an incredibly bright future ahead of him.

Sidney Crosby made Chris Kunitz, who was a very good role player, an elite scorer by simply being on his line. The same will likely be said of Guentzel in a few years. Heck, it could be said now.

3) Pittsburgh gets a lot of credit for blocking out the noise. When Kris Letang was ruled out for the season and a slew of injuries jeopardized their playoff run, they put their head down and played. When Marc-Andre Fleury was yanked for Matt Murray and some questioned if it was the right move, they put their head down and played. When Phil Kessel, Evgeni Malkin and Chris Kunitz had their apparent spat on the bench, they put it past them and played.

They’re a resilient bunch. Give Sidney Crosby and Mike Sullivan all the credit in the world. They pushed the right buttons as the leaders of this team.

4) In the offseason, the Penguins are going to have a few tweaks to make. They are going to be very fortunate in that with Fleury waiving his no-move clause, they likely will not lose a forward or defenseman. But there is always the possibility that Matt Cullen and Ron Hainsey will be retiring after this season as they get older.

The injury history on the blueline (Letang, Maatta) will make things interesting in the free-agent market when it comes to defensemen.

Rumors circulated that the Penguins were players in the Kevin Shattenkirk sweepstakes at the trade deadline. Perhaps the Pens will be interested in the offensive defenseman again.

That might make them threats to three-peat. As if they already weren’t.

5) Enjoying the ride when you lose is tough. Enjoying the party when you win is easy.

With that said, in the grand scheme of things, cherish what is on the ice. A team this expertly crafted is very unique and it is about to get even more unique as parity in the league gets blended even more. A new team means furthering the diluting of the talent pool.

So a team that features talents like Crosby, Malkin and Kessel may never come around again. It’s a three-headed monster that almost seems like something made by the NBA.

Go back and watch this series again. Watch highlights from this playoff run. Tally how many goals were scored off the rush. Off stretch passes. Off breakaways. See how many times the Pittsburgh Penguins wove magic when there was seemingly no tapestry to work with.

Savor this roster makeup. Offensive prowess like this comes around once a generation.

Bring on free agency.

Written by Casey Bryant

Casey is GetMoreSports' resident hockey fanatic and host of "Jersey Corner" on the GMS YouTube channel. He is the play-by-play voice of Marist College Hockey and the New York AppleCore. He currently works as a traffic coordinator for MSG Networks. Steve Valiquette once held a bathroom door for him.

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