The long, seemingly interminable wait for Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin to bookend the championship the helped capture seven years ago came to a blissful, euphoric end on Sunday night in San Jose. Crosby often went up against Logan Couture or Joe Thornton and carried the play thoughout the series. They controlled puck possession the rest of the period and carried that into period two as well.
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The acquisition of Kessel during the offseason was one of Jim Rutherford’s key moves, as was acquiring players like Carl Hagelin and Nick Bonino.
Pavelski missed what appeared to be a fairly open net in the second period when he misfired after taking a cross-ice pass. NBC analyst Pierre McGuire told the national TV audience that it was the kind of shot that Pavelski buries “10 out of 10 times”. However, without some truly unimaginable goaltending from Jones, team teal easily could have seen themselves down by three or four goals despite their pressure of Pens goalie Matt Murray.
“Phil had a great playoff, it was cool to watch him lift the Cup after all that frustration in Toronto”, Burke, now president of hockey operations for the Calgary Flames, said via text message Sunday night. “He had to go out and lead through example and became a better player”.
“I haven’t changed anything”, Kessel said. I’ve said all along here through the course of the playoffs, he’s deserving of the Conn Smythe. Having come in and played the way he did, he just handled it better than you’d expect.
Teammates in Pittsburgh describe him as a quiet, happy and competitive guy when it comes to hockey and off-ice pursuits like ping-pong.
“I mean, how can you ask for anything better than this?” said Kessel, beaming, with a glint of emotion in his eyes. Their six-game triumph over the Sharks in the final capped a meteoric six-month sprint under Mike Sullivan, whose arrival in mid-December provided the wake-up call the talented but erratic roster desperately needed. He was, as Sullivan often said, playing “the right way”. The play began when Roman Polak failed to clear the puck out of the Sharks zone.
Kessel produced at least six points in every round of the post-season, scoring with his quick shot or setting up teammates with passing ability that’s always been called underrated and should now be well-established as part of Kessel’s arsenal.
In 53 regular season games with the Penguins, Daley tallied 6 goals and 22 points. Crosby had six tallies and 13 helpers for 19 points in 24 games, scoring three times on the man advantage and adding nine power play points. But he was under a point per game. The Wisconsin native sits a touch below Alex Ovechkin (0.98), but ahead of similar scorers, past and present, like Dany Heatley, Corey Perry, Paul Kariya and Brett Hull, albeit in significantly fewer games. The Pittsburgh Penguins won 3-1 to win. “It feels really good to win your last game of the season”.
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The Penguins didn’t reach the 35-shot mark on Sunday after averaging that number through the first five games, but a lot of the shots they did get on Sunday were fantastic chances that were shut down by Jones. They would try to capture the Cup, Crosby said.
