Penguins Win Stanley Cup

The Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the San Jose Sharks 3-1 last night and won the Stanley Cup in six games.  I have to admit, this series didn't look anything like my prediction (a not unusual circumstance, to be sure). I had thought that this might be a more free-skating affair with up and down action and lots of scoring chances. And, yes, there were the lots of scoring chances - pretty much all for the Penguins.  Pittsburgh was dominant in all phases of the game - they were faster than the Sharks; they won all the puck battles; they kept the Sharks bottled up in their own defensive zone for minutes at a time; and they outshot and out-chanced San Jose by a 2-1 margin, or even more, in virtually every game of the series. The Penguins stars of Crosby, who won the Conn Smythe award as the series MVP, and Malkin thoroughly outplayed the Sharks' pair of Thornton and Marleau, who was particularly invisible throughout the series. In fact, this looked like the same San Jose teams that just never showed up in the playoffs over the last few years. They consistently passed up chances to shoot, instead looking to make the perfect play, and constantly turned the puck over.

Martin Jones, the San Jose goaltender who I had surmised might be the weak link in this series, was, in fact, probably the only reason this series went to six games. In game five, he made 44 saves, the most by any goalie whose team faced elimination in the post-expansion era, almost single-handedly winning the game for the Sharks. And in game three, he was spectacular in the first period, keeping the San Jose in the game so they could pull out an overtime win. Joe Pavelski, who had been unstoppable in prior series, only had one point against the Penguins and that was an empty net goal.

For the Sharks, this is probably the end of the road as this looks like the last gaps of a very veteran team. It might be time to rebuild.  For Pittsburgh, this was a completely dominant performance and showed that they were clearly worthy of winning the fourth Cup in franchise history. And with their superb performance throughout these playoffs, both Crosby and Malkin solidified their Hall of Fame credentials. Congratulations Penguins!