After a back-and-forth battle and a goaltending showcase for the ages, the Pittsburgh Penguins finally broke a 0-0 tie with the Nashville Predators with 1:35 remaining in the third period of Game Six on Sunday night and added a empty netter with seconds left to take a 2-0 win and capture the 2017 Stanley Cup title. The Penguins successfully defended their 2016 championship to become the first team since the Detroit Red Wings in 1997 and 1998 to win back-to-back titles. It is the first time in the salary cap era of NHL hockey that any team has won consecutive Stanley Cups.
On their road to another championship, the Penguins entered as the #2 seed out of the Atlantic Division and wiped out the upstart Columbus Blue Jackets in just five games. Pittsburgh then took on the top-seeded Washington Capitals, knocking out the President’s Trophy-winners for the second straight season, in a hard-fought seven-game series. The Ottawa Senators, out of the Atlantic Division, also took the Penguins to a Game Seven in the Eastern Conference final, but again the Penguins were victorious. The Stanley Cup Final was a face-off against an unexpected opponent, a Nashville Predators team that had entered as the second wild card team in the Western Conference and the 16th-seed overall, but swept the powerhouse Chicago Blackhawks and beat both the St. Louis Blues and Anaheim Ducks in six games. The performance of the Predators and the enthusiasm of the city of Nashville should not be understated and will likely be how many remember the 2017 playoffs. However, the Penguins were too much for the Predators, outscoring Nashville 17-4 in their four wins, including a shutout in the series-clinching win on the road.
The Conn Smythe Trophy, awarded to the MVP of the Stanley Cup playoffs, was given to Sidney Crosby. The captain of the team and the NHL’s leading scorer, Crosby notched 8 goals and 19 assists on his way to the title. Crosby became just the third player to ever win back-to-back Conn Smythe Trophy’s, joining Bernie Parent and Penguins owner Mario Lemieux. Other standouts of the playoff run include Crosby’s partner in crime, Evgeni Malkin, who outscored the captain by one point to lead all postseason scorers with ten goals and 18 assists. Both goalies, veteran Marc-Andre Fleury and rookie Matt Murray were phenomenal, with Fleury winning nine games while Murray was sidelined, and the youngster taking over to win the final seven and take home his second Stanley Cup despite still being a rookie. Murray posted a .931 save percentage and 1.87 goals against average in 10 appearance as he continues to develop a legacy as a clutch performer. Chris Kunitz lifted the Stanley Cup for the fourth time, the most among active players, while on the flip side trade deadline acquisition Ron Hainsey, who at 35 years old had never even played in the postseason, made the most of his first appearance. Justin Schultz was incredible as the surrogate leader of the defense for the sidelined Kris Letang, as he fought through injuries himself and posted 12 points during the Cup run. And who could forget rookie Jake Guentzel, who led the team with 13 goals, including an amazing five game-winners. In an ironic twist, Patric Hornqvist the final pick of the NHL Draft by the Nashville Predators in the same year that Crosby went #1, got the game winning goal to deny his former franchise their first ever Stanley Cup.
The frightening part for NHL fans is that, unlike their dynastic rivals in Chicago among others, the Penguins should remain largely intact heading into 2017-18. Fleury will likely be gone, but is no longer the starter anyway. Several veteran defenseman and bottom-six forwards could go as well, but Pittsburgh will for the most part return at full strength in October as they look to keep this incredible streak going. Crosby is still just 29 years old and he and the Penguins are far from finished. Congratulations to the 2017 Stanley Cup champs from the staff at PHR.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a team get helped along so much on the way to a Stanley cup.
Couldn’t agree more!
How does Crosby always win Conn Smythe? Guentzel lead the league in playoff goals, Malkin in points, and Murray has back to back shutouts and was fantastic. They always have to kiss Crosby on the a**. Ridiculous
Crosby lead the team in assists and 1 point back of Makin for total points. Lead the team in points in the finals. Leadership counts as well. Get over your hatred.
Lol lol lol. All I can do is laugh at you both.
Go ahead laugh. You’ve got to admit the Redding was damn awful and the majority was in David of you. But be biased, you’re probably just like every other yinzer who ever existed
You need to huff less paint.
JD how many PP did the preds get last night? Your right the official was awful
So you think the only way Reffing is fair if there’s the same amount of power plays each way? I know you probably only started watching hockey the past couple of years, but that doesn’t make sense. One team should get more power plays if the other team is taking penalties. The other guy is right, the reffing was awful all playoffs and it mostly turned out in Pittsburghs favor. You can’t deny that
Woo how JD back to back baby!! Thank you NHL for all the help!
Sour grapes. Make some whine.
Penguins are an incredibly good team and we all know that… more talent and way more experience than Nashville. I thought they were going to win all along, but it is still a little exhausting seeing every little call go one way all postseason… capped off with that rank amateur last night getting woefully out of position and quick whistling a goal away.
Thank you. They shouldn’t be a team that gets the calls. There’s no reason that the rich should get richer. If Pittsburgh fans disagree they just don’t understand hockey or are biased.
Nashville got all the Power Plays in an evenly played territorial game. Including almost 45 seconds of a 5 on 3 with less than 10 minutes left in the game.
JD do you police officials in all sports? Like calls the Pats may get or the non calls against the warriors? You seem like a very bitter person that complains to complain. I wouldn’t be surprised if you weren’t the whiner owner or the Sens
The NHL has been unbelievably inconsistent with its officiating and discipline this year.
Bahahaha
Sad day for the nhl in my opinion.
Penguins back to back champs! Can’t wait to see how much shade the anti-Crosby commentators throw.
How much more will it take to make the hate stop on Crosby? Lol. 3 championships still isn’t enough
Cant wait until Crosby retires and the Pitt fans let their team go bankrupt again lol. But on the bright side we get to read all the Pitt fans tweet about how much better Crosby is then Gretzky, Orr, Bossy, and Esposito combined lol
Come on bob you can do better than this lame post. Bankrupt? Lol shows how ignorant you are
All the Crosby haters can go suck a catfish head.
Crosby didn’t deserve the Conn Smythe last season & didn’t deserve it this season. Kessel or Murray should’ve won it last year. Guentzel or Malkin should’ve won this year. Crosby wins it because he’s Crosby & the NHL wants to build his legacy. It’s an absolute farce that they give him the Conn Smythe.
Agree with the first part Murray or Malkin should of won it last year Crosby def deserved it this year his points were at crucial times and carried the play in game 5
Did you watch games 4 and 5 vs Nashville. He could of easily had 10 points instead of the four he accumulated. If the league protected the best players, instead of allowing hacks to club and claw through them. Players like Crosby, McDavid, and Malkin would be that much more dominate.
The NHL is run by the old Canadian guard who promoted thuggery and violence. It’s amazing any of the sears are healthy enough to lift the Cup.
Stars not sears
I’m still trying to figure out how Murray can win 2 cups in his rookie year and still not be in the running for ROY.
Infuriating. NHL misses Crosby beating Subbans head into the ice and blows a whistle way to early on that non-goal last night. Yet another unwatchable Stanley Cup finals.
Amazing how Subban, Josi, Ellis, and Irwin aren’t repeatedly called for boarding and interference every shift.
Sid and PK both got roughing minors on that play.
Drinking the tears of the sad losers who don’t have the first clue about hockey makes it all worth it.
If are claiming you’ve never seen the whistle blow when the puck isn’t covered, you’ve either never seen a single hockey game in your life (go toss more catfish, morons) or you are just a bitter stupid empty loser who can’t accept reality.
Either way…enjoy.
Or the Bimini dive, or the kessel dive, both at crucial points in games. Or calling a play dead when kessel gets hits with a puck, but not werenski. Or the 5 minute power play because Crosby fell into niskanen. But who cares they won
Good teams overcome adversity. You act like the caps, sens and preds didn’t get calls. Or have power plays they didn’t score on. There were 2 calls last night like Rinne interference that were not called on the pens or the gift call against Daley to give a 5 on 3.
Here is the bottom line…. the caps and Preds both had chances and neither could score a goal in game 7. The preds couldn’t even score in game 6. You want to blame the officials but they weren’t the one not scoring goals in back to back games in the FINALS!!! Champions don’t get shut out in back to back game with 4 power plays including an extended 5 on 3. Quit whining. I agree the ref blew it on the first goal but don’t act like the preds didn’t have any other chances.
To be fair, the Preds DID score in game 6. ;)
Not according to the rules or score board.
Gee, you don’t say? Thanks for the correction Drax.
You always have to outplay the refs or the umps or whoever happens to be officiating what you’re doing. But that doesn’t diminish how hard it is to when an official blows a call because of amateurish positioning (try to officiate sometime, maintaining the right sight lines is everything).
It just caps off a 16-17 NHL season that was horrifically inconsistent in this regard.
Yes, Refs were horrible in every series and especially after the 1st round. Many non-calls and many inconsistent calls. Many make up penalties called in every series to “even things out” If you want to say the Pens were helped, you did not watch many games this playoff season. Every team had to deal with the same inconsistent calls in every game. Not one team was helped more than any other.