The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the San Jose Sharks to win the Stanley Cup in Game 6.
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Captain Sidney Crosby had two assists in the championship-clinching game, including one on Kris Letang’s game-winning goal, and was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player during the Stanley Cup playoffs.
“Maybe certain situations you’re really aggressive, certain situations you play body, others you focus on your stick”, Wingels said. “He was a great leader for our team”. With the core we have, you think everyone’s going to stay together, the team’s not going to change. He was easily San Jose’s best player, and in a series in which the Sharks managed only 12 goals, Jones alone would not be almost enough.
League commissioner Gary Bettman urged Canadians to tune in to the playoffs anyway, but the lack of Canadian content led to a dip in ratings for Rogers, which signed a 12-year, $5.2-billion deal for NHL rights in Canada in 2013.
He overwhelmed San Jose early in the Stanley Cup final, stubbornly controlling the puck, fighting off defenders with sudden reversals in direction, creating scoring chances aplenty for himself and his teammates.
If you’re a Penguins fan, then you should be decking yourself out in all the latest gear for your team and the Stanley Cup Finals. With San Jose’s net empty and the Sharks pressing for the tying goal, Crosby blocked a shot in the defensive end and then fed Patric Hornqvist for the insurance marker with 1:02 remaining.
The Penguins were in control for nearly the entire Cup final.
San Jose’s struggles to penetrate were epitomized by managing only one shot on goal during the first 19 minutes of the final period – a wrist shot by Logan Couture at 3:45. Vlasic missed a long stretch of the second period for undisclosed reasons, but would return with under five minutes to go.
Although that shot shouldn’t have been overly hard for Jones, the Sharks goalie made up for it with a series of phenomenal stops later in the period.
Brent Burns, Joe Pavelski, Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau combined for eight points in the series, as the Penguins took away their time and space to be creative and make plays.
The championship in Detroit was supposed to be the first of many for a team led by players like Crosby and Malkin.
Sullivan’s story in Pittsburgh reads much like Bylsma seven years ago. A monster shift by Letang, thanks in part to a slow-footed Roman Polak failing to get to a loose puck along the wall, was capped off the Penguins defenseman directing one in off of Jones’ arm at 7:46.
It marked the fifth time in six games Pittsburgh had drawn first blood as the Sharks, who had four shots in the opening frame, once again had difficulty generating scoring chances.
What Crosby seems to recognize is his place as one cog, albeit an incomparably important one for the Penguins, in the complex wheel of a team.
“That’s all I can say”.
Matt Murray, meanwhile, responded with a fine 18-save performance.
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Coach Peter DeBoer said the Sharks will be without forward Tomas Hertl for the fourth consecutive game.
