Pittsburgh Penguins Take The Prize

They obliged (for the most part.)

As much as I love hating on the Sharks, this was the first time I was in a stadium for a moment of silence (for the tragic shooting in Orlando claiming 50 lives) where the crowd has actually remained silent. I respect their respect. Then the cheers started for their team in earnest and wow are they loud! They’ll cheer for just about anything. An icing. An offsides. A media timeout. They wouldn’t be held silent while the Penguins continued to dominate play, coming out strong and keeping the Sharks on their heels. They seemed to have all the chances and almost all of the shots. Murray, who is 5-0 following a loss with a 1.76 GAA and a 0.935 SV%, came up big when he was unexpectedly called upon; Matt Nieto capitalized on a neutral zone turnover, streamed down the left with two other Sharks on his right and any Penguins far enough behind not to be a factor. Murray made the right read, made the first save and gave his teammates enough time to get back and block any further attempts at net.

7:50 into the first the penalty box opened for the first time that evening, and thankfully for my ears, a Shark stepped in. It took 26 seconds for the Penguins to, yet again, score the first goal of the game. It came from Brian Dumoulin, and it went straight past Jones. Minutes later Melker Karlsson took a clean but brutal hit into the boards and has to be escorted off the ice, limping. It was all coming up Penguins, but they were getting sloppy in the neutral zone and allowed a second clear Sharks breakaway on an unnecessary turnover. Still, halfway through the first there were only 4 total shots, and the Sharks were only responsible for 1 of them. Both goalies were playing to the standard you’d expect (and crave) from a Stanley Cup Final game, Jones again coming up big and being a major part of the reason the Penguins hadn’t closed out the game and series already. Things got a little heated towards the close of the period; both teams had some good looks and each clearly wanted to finish it with at least one more goal on the scoresheet. Neither succeeded. Shots were 9-4 Penguins.

As no one was really comfortable with only a one goal lead, the Penguins continued to put on the pressure. Letang offered some big hits. Each line was showing great chemistry and created stellar scoring opportunities, including a special bid from Evgeni Malkin and Chris Kunitz who couldn’t quite connect; had Malkin read Jones a second earlier and made a cleaner pass, Kunitz would have gotten the pass in front of an open net instead of half a skate behind it. So the second closed with the Penguins still one goal ahead, and me safe from any Shark chomps. That is until 5:26 when Sheary hooked Justin Braun right in front of a referee and made his way to the box. So. Close. The resulting Sharks power play was desperate – in a good way, for the Sharks at least. It was like the Penguins had already won the Cup and eased up, letting the Sharks take far too much control. They had all the space and time, and peppered Murray with a barrage of different chances. He was up to the task. And a Brent Burns penalty at 11:02 deflated the momentum they’d been gaining, not necessarily giving it back to the Penguins, who played lackadaisical, as if half a period isn’t a lot of hockey and they had a 5 goal lead. However as the clock ticked down, once again, San Jose relied heavily on Jones to come up big. He did, flatly refusing to give Pittsburg anything to work with. (Scuttlebutt is he ended up on a lot of Conn Smythe Trophy ballots. And deservedly so – he put on a clinic, making it a contest rather than a slaughter. He flat out stole game 5 and was the main reason the Sharks got as far as they did. Let’s be clear without Jones not even CaliSports News lack of presence in game 4 could have stopped the Penguins from sweeping.) Save after spectacular save Jones did everything he could to get this series to a game 7. But the rest of the team couldn’t step up to his level. With 90 seconds remaining Coach DeBoer pulled him, oping for the extra skater. To no avail; Patric Hornqvist scored the empty net goal that would seal the fate of the Stanley Cup. Never one to give up DeBoer pulled Jones again for the final 30 seconds. With 9.8 seconds to go Pittsburg took a penalty (and here I was thinking I’d only have to endure the Shark Chomp once this game!) but with only 9.8 seconds everyone in the stadium knew it wasn’t going to make a difference.

The buzzer sounded. The Penguins streamed out onto the ice. There were the handshakes, and the presentation of the Conn Smythe trophy to Crosby. (Not shocking but not entirely deserved; I’m not saying I actually expected Jones to get it, though there is precedent. Four of the five times a player from the losing team has won, that player was a goaltender. The second Conn Smythe Trophy winner in the history of the award Roger Crozier was the goaltender of the losing team. Two years later Glenn Hall won when his team St Louis lost. Reggie Leach, the only forward to do this, was a right wing playing for the Flyers, Ron Hextall won in 1987, and Jean-Sébastien Giguère  of the Anaheim Ducks won the award when the Ducks lost in 2003.) With regards to Crosby, it’s just that he didn’t particularly stand out to me, while players like Phil Kessel or Kris Letang made a more obvious contribution.) Then that beautiful Cup was presented. Now it’s not as special seeing it presented to a team I have no attachment to, but it’s always a remarkable thing to behold. Congratulations Pittsburgh. Thank you for keeping the Sharks at bay. And enjoy your time with the Cup this summer; the Kings are coming to take it back next season.
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