There is simply no detail that Sidney Crosby wants to leave to chance. They went more than 11 minutes without a shot at one point in the second and finished the period with only five shots, rarely assembling anything unsafe in front of Murray. Kris Letang – on precisely what he planned to happen. The young rookie has done a remarkable job thus far and has looked fantastic in each of the two Stanley Cup Finals games thus far.
Advertisement
“He’s an elite player”, said Letang. “It puts more pressure on them”, said Sharks goalie Martin Jones, who has kept San Jose from being completely embarrassed in the first two games.
“We wanted to hit them with our best game”, said Pittsburgh defenceman Ben Lovejoy.
Conor Sheary scored the winning goal at 2:35 of overtime on a wrist shot from above the left hash mark.
So why did Crosby tell an awesome shooter to not shoot the puck? A blocked shot nearly certainly would have resulted in an odd-man rush the other way. “The problem is, if you’re not scoring, every mistake you make potentially costs you the game”. If you think Pittsburgh can take a stranglehold on the series, you can get them at +127.
Crosby has always been next level in that department. Dillon crumpled to the ice on the top of the puck, which forced a stoppage of play and a faceoff in the offensive zone.
“He cheats and gets away with it”, Couture said.
When asked how it is exactly Crosby cheats, Couture followed up with: “He times them and [the officials] don’t kick him out for some reason”.
Crosby has played his way right into the Conn Smythe conversation with an elevated performance in the Eastern Conference final and Stanley Cup final. He’s leading in the true sense of the word.
If so, the Sharks need to play their own brand of hockey for 60 minutes better than they did here. Then toward the middle of their playoff stretch, he went seven games where he wasn’t on the scoreboard at all. Sid’s not doing anything that their guys aren’t doing.
Right out of the gate, the game was full of thrills.
One way Bergeron consistently wins the puck on the faceoff is his anticipation; he often times his stick-swipe perfectly as the referee’s arm drops the puck to the ice. “I’m sure our guys will handle it the right way”.
That last point is particularly important because the real strength of these Penguins is how they play as a team.
San Jose winger Joel Ward had the first good chance of the game less than two minutes into the opening frame, but from there the Sharks went cold. Not coincidentally, his team trails the series 2-0 with Game 3 scheduled for Saturday at SAP Center. We make those turnovers, and they cash in on them. The amount of pucks they knock down compared to the other teams we’ve played is awesome.
Ultimately, they will have to find some kind of answer for Crosby. Jim Rutherford of the Penguins is trying to become the first GM to win the Stanley Cup with two teams during the expansion era. The veteran Penguins have learned to expect it.
“It comes down to cleaner breakouts”, defenseman Justin Braun said. “After that he worked on his shot and he was a 50-goal scorer”. If San Jose wins one of those, we’ll be back in Pittsburgh for Game Five next Thursday. He was simply following Crosby’s orders when he found an open area and waited for the pass. “We hadn’t really done that before”. So, as I said before, my main focus is on our group and on our mindset going into this Game 3.
Advertisement
Just as the captain drew it up.
