Power plays have been hard to come by in the final where San Jose and Pittsburgh had combined for 21 penalties in five games. They won 14 of their final 16 regular-season games, and as a result Sullivan had a room filled with believers as the playoffs got underway.
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The Penguins sealed it when Crosby blocked a shot from Marc-Edouard Vlasic that set Hornqvist’s empty-netter.
When the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup in 2009, a dynasty appeared to be in the offing. “But it’s not easy to get this point, so just try and enjoy it as best as I can”. “At a young age, going back-to-back like we did, you just think it’s going to be an annual thing”.
Instead of using muscle and physicality to capture the Stanley Cup, the Penguins overwhelmed the Sharks with their superior team speed, applying relentless pressure in the defensive zone to block shots and force turnovers. “But it does. That’s kind of the reality of playing hockey”. The same goes with defenceman Letang, goalie Matt Murray and forward Evgeni Malkin, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy in 2009. Ironically, this year it was the Penguins’ depth that made them so dominant.
There he was on the ice, bearded and smiling, hoisting the Stanley Cup above his head, then smacking it with a kiss, after the Penguins beat the San Jose Sharks, 3-1, to win it all.
“You have to make sure you’re contributing other ways (than scoring goals)”, said Crosby. “He’s that good in my mind”. I know a lot of people will say he shouldn’t because the Sharks lost. His numbers don’t indicate the impact he had on helping this team win, or the impact he had on a game-to-game basis.
“He was our leader all the way through and he was great”, right wing Patric Hornqvist said.
There are many elements of Pittsburgh’s championship run that other teams will emulate – cheap goaltending, mobile defensemen, depth at forward – but establishing strong puck possession might be the most hard. The Penguins, on the other hand, notched power play goals in the last three games of the series, going 3-for-7 in that span.
Crosby had to adapt to make it happen.
Sidney Crosby clutched the Stanley Cup close and seemed to not want to let go.
Even more impressive: Jones stopped 93 percent of Pittsburgh’s shots in the series, and goodness, there were a lot of shots – more than 200 of them.
The early goings of the season weren’t easy for Pittsburgh.
Sullivan was a hockey lifer who had been coaching the Penguins’ minor league team.
“Everyone takes that personal, puts the responsibility on their shoulders to be better”, Crosby said. “I think the fact that a large number of them are back is a great sign”. Joe Thornton said that after the Sharks had gotten through the West, “we thought we had the team”. It continued with an emotional seven-game victory over the Nashville Predators and a physical six-game win over the St. Louis Blues to advance to the Cup final for the first time. Was he the primary reason the Penguins won and got to the Finals?
The San Jose goalie, who stole two wins for his team, gave the Sharks a chance for another upset in Game 6.
The San Jose Sharks had a goal by Logan Couture in the second period.
“I thought all playoffs, everybody took a turn stepping up, ” Jones said.
“We felt as though, if we were a team that could play fast in every aspect of the game, it could be our competitive advantage on some of our opponents”, Sullivan said.
And now 24 seasons later, serving as an assistant coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Tocchet guided the club to their fourth Stanley Cup title in franchise history. “He’s a great player, but he’s an even better person”.
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“We’ll reflect on it in the next couple days”, he said. The Pens didn’t just have a tough stretch early on.
