Crosby said he wasn’t thinking about 2009 all that much when he held the trophy for the second time. “I don’t think there’s any doubt, too, that this time of year, the teams get to play a little bit more”.
Advertisement
However, collectively, it was the defense as a whole that won the Penguins this championship.
Throughout the Cup Final, coach Mike Sullivan never had to hide Crosby from matchups.
“In the playoffs, suddenly we thought we could beat any team”, Malkin said.
Sunday’s Cup-clinching victory was six months to the day after the coaching change. In the first part of the season, there were plenty of whispers that Crosby was starting to slip from his perch as the best player in the National Hockey League. And as dominant as the Sharks were in the Western Conference playoffs, they simply ran into a buzz saw in the final.
The Penguins went 33-16-5 after Sullivan took over, while sitting near the top of the league in puck possession.
“They had the ability to move the puck up the ice pretty quick”.
A no-name defence beyond Letang was especially effective, holding San Jose’s top weapons largely in check.
When that happened, the crowd audibly gasped because nearly always, it’s the reverse-Thornton will pass up a shot to pass to Pavelski.
For much of his 10-year career, Phil Kessel has been a seemingly easy target.When Kessel returned to TD Garden in late October of 2010, Bruins fans chanted “Thank You Kessel!” following a Tyler Seguin score (Seguin was drafted with the first-round pick acquired in the Kessel trade). “I think we did a fantastic job shutting them down”.
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.
Kessel, who led the Penguins with 22 points, was among the key additions made to the roster over the course of the previous year, joined by Carl Hagelin (16 points in the playoffs), Nick Bonino (18 points), and Trevor Daley, among others. Pittsburgh has also had timely goals from depth forwards such as Conor Sheary and Eric Fehr.
Pittsburgh had to find another goalscorers, and they did through the defenceman Brian Dumoulin, who opened the scoring in Game 6 on a power play, later to be joined on the scoresheet by Kris Letang, who scored the go-ahead goal – Crosby set up that goal, which came just over a minute after the Sharks evened the score at 1-1 – and eventual game-winner.
Daley had played 838 regular-season games with the Dallas Stars, Chicago Blackhawks and then the Penguins before winning the Cup for the first time.
It was a well deserved honour for a player who has now won two Stanley Cups, two Olympic gold medals and is still adding to his growing legacy. The Sharks seemed to be flat during the series. This culminated in the 3rd period of the final game when the penguins were able to maintain a precarious 1 goal lead by limiting the Sharks to just 2 shots on goal. He ended up hoisting the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.
Penguins owner Mario Lemieux pointed to general manager Jim Rutherford and a series of transactions – including the acquisition of Phil Kessel from the Toronto Maple Leafs – as the reason the Penguins won it all.
Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan raises the Stanley Cup after Game 6 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Finals against the San Jose Sharks Sunday, June 12, 2016, in San Jose, Calif. So congratulations to the Penguins, the 2016 Stanley Cup Champions. Joe Thornton said that after the Sharks had gotten through the West, “we thought we had the team”.
Advertisement
It was the summation of a sharp turnaround. I think everyone just competed, everyone tried to do what’s expected of them, tried to play their role.
