The goal was vintage Sidney Crosby.
As the second-period clock ticked under 30 seconds, the Penguins’ captain took a short pass in the neutral zone from Patric Hornqvist, turned and accelerated.
Displaying the exquisite blend of speed, balance and deceptive power that make him such a singular talent, No. 87 blew past Ondrej Palat, Anton Stralman and late-arrival Victor Hedman before ripping an ice-hugging bullet between the pads of Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Sid’s sensational tally stunned the Lightning and provided his team with a huge lift going into the dressing room—not to mention a 3-0 lead. The Pens would need every inch of that cushion before prevailing, 5-2, in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals to stave off elimination.
Maligned, along with Evgeni Malkin and other members of the Pens’ glitzy core for past playoff failures, Crosby produced a big-game effort. A gritty, Steve Yzerman-type effort. One worthy of a two-time Hart Trophy winner.
Determined to lead by example, the Nova Scotia native busted his tail. At both ends of the ice. He dug in the corners. He took hits to make plays. At crunch time, he delivered.
Crosby had lots of help.
Phil Kessel continued to rise to the occasion on a big stage. Displaying remarkable hand-eye coordination, he swatted Sid’s bouncing, cross-ice feed past Vasilevskiy at 18:46 of the opening frame for the crucial first goal. Backing up his guarantee of victory, Malkin was a force, especially early on. “Geno” assisted on Kessel’s power-play marker.
Criticized for his undisciplined play of late, Kris Letang took a clever pass from resurgent Conor Sheary and lasered it past Vasilveskiy high to the stick side seven-plus minutes into the second period to provide some breathing room. “Tanger” finished a plus-2 on the night.
Matt Murray, yanked after yielding four goals in Game 4, returned to the Pens’ net with a purpose. The rookie goalie held the Bolts off the scoreboard until 5:30 of the final period, when Kessel inadvertently booted the puck past him. In all, the kid with the ice-water composure stopped 28 of 30 shots to outshine his more heralded counterpart.
“He doesn’t get rattled,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said of Murray. “If he lets a goal in, he just continues to compete. … Usually it takes years to acquire that, and to have it at such a young age is impressive.”
Olli Maatta? The youngster’s resembled the rookie phenom of two seasons ago since replacing Trevor Daley.
Let’s not forget Nick Bonino and Bryan Rust. A poor man’s Ron Francis, “Bones” assisted on Letang’s tally and scored an empty-netter while logging 19:52 of ice time—tops among black and gold forwards. The speedy Rust delivered the knockout punch with a stirring breakaway goal.
Truly, you could credit everyone. From the stars to the grinders to the no-name defense. The victory was a total team effort.
“I think everyone played great tonight,” Crosby said. “Everyone contributes in their own way.”
It all started with Sid.
RICK
NOW THAT WAS ONE SWEET HOCKEY GAME.
EXCITING UNTIL THE VERY END.
LET’S GO PENS 😀😀😀
Rick
Also it is being speculated today in various local media outlets that we witnessed the last game by Stamkos in a Tampa Bay jersey.
Cheers
If Stamkos goes and signs with Toronto or some other team, there is a HUGE lesson to be learned. If a team’s management treats a player like Tampa treated Vincent Lecavalier then why would/should the players care about the team? Stamkos got to see what happened with Lecavalier up close and personal and probably hasn’t signed so he can be in charge of his future instead of waiting to be treated like that himself.
Crosby & Malkin are what ?28 29? years old and people are all ready saying they are washed up. My opinion is, especially since this is their 3rd Cup run, they should be lifers. Set a huge example of how the team treats players and the good ones will come and stay.
Hi Phil
Thanks for those comments. Ur knowledge and fairness rings true. Not a lot of sports Teams practice that. I for one have posted indirectly that players are commodities and as such should be traded at the proper time in their careers for the benefit of the team…not necessarily the players. Hence the MAF comment.
But ur view point illustrates the other side
of the discussion..Many ,many people will agree with you.Reward long time players who gave their careers to the team.
I remember the Islanders when they failed to trade their stars soon enough and as a result the franchise floundered and never returned to the glory days.
Montreal of olden days always knew when to trade aging veterans for draft picks and young talent and that was one of their reasons for success.
Thank you so much for your opinion on this because it causes me to rethink my position. That to me is the true strength of this wonderful site that you created and with help from Rick and others that continues today.
Knowledgeable people respecting each others views while celebrating the joy of supporting our Team.
There is an old saying ” Brilliant minds think a like but Dumb ones seldom differ”…..You and most of the contributors to this site fall in the former category.
Great comment on Fleury and the coming changes to the Goalie equipment. Never considered that.
Cheers
Jim
Hey Phil,
It is funny, Crosby scored the WG in 3 of the 4 games against TB and Malkin has the 2nd best P/60 min and some people will still say they are over the hill.
Some people’s expectations are interesting.
I was thinking something similar about those 2 but haven’t written anything yet. Mario and Jagr only had 2-Finals appearances, Crosby and Malkin (not to mention Letang and MAF) are about to start their 3rd.
I’ve been reading everyone’s comments all season and it’s so refreshing to read ideas and thoughts that are backed up with facts. I read through other Penguins comment sections and usually get mad at myself for doing so after about 2 minutes.
There are generally two thoughts on a team over the long haul. One is the steady trade the older to replenish the team. This works well if you have a great coach like Mike Babcock.
The other would be to have a team run it’s course and tank it for a few years while rebuilding through the draft aka what the Penguins did and what Edmonton somehow has failed to do..
There are 12 teams that have never won the Cup, 5 teams that have never even played for the Cup. Toronto, which I consider the hockey capital, has kept the steadfast approach hasn’t even played for a cup in 50 years. Unfortunately for them, I think Babcock’s time has passed.
If for some reason the players (Crosby & Malkin) want out of town, that is a whole different story.
A special thanks to Phil and the other founders for setting PenguinPoop in motion and establishing the tone.
Win or lose (let’s hope win), it’s been a pleasure chewing the hockey fat with everyone and experiencing what’s been a true roller coaster of a season together.
Thank you, so much, for your support and contributions to PenguinPoop!
GO PENS!
The pleasure has been mine Rick. As posted before, we all owe you a debt of gratitude for the time and effort you put into this excellent blog. It has been a terrific year as a Pen’s fan and I have met some wonderful people thru your site. I hope you continue for as long as you like and that we as a collective group keep the content of this site high and in the off season you find the time to keep us all in contact with each other.
Tonight we will all be Pens fans !! From all over North America.
Go Pen’s ….
I will miss the first period only, hopefully but I’ll be racing home to watch the rest!!
LET’S GO PEN’S!!!
Oh yeah just one question…
Will this be the last game we see MAF in a Pen’s jersey??
Hi Pen’s 4ever,
Hope you do not mind me jumping in on your post. Great question.
If we get new owners in the off season,you can count on it. Why pay 5.7 million when you can get it done for under 900,000 a year. Makes no sense.
But for now I need to believe tomorrow will be a game for the ages….
Only thing I am not sure is if Tampa tries to out score us like in the past 6 games,the score could be 5-4 Pen’s. Pen’s would like that type of game.
But what if Tampa tries a different approach and goes all defensive and waits for us to get frustrated and start taking stupid penalties. Game could be 2-1 Pen’s or 2-1 Bolts. I am not so sure the Pen’s want to play a physical,defensive style of a game given Tampa’s size advantage.
We will have a lot to talk about next month once we win the Cup and Mario completes the sale of his team. There will some big changes for sure.
It still amazes me how much this team has changed since November ! We all thought we were done for. Now there are only 3 teams left out of 30.
We have come a long ways baby !!
Lets Go Pens !!
Hey Pen’s 4ever,
Nice to hear from you. I get off work around 10:15, and will be racing home to catch the end of the game. Fortunately, I work at a gym and can watch on a big screen TV there.
Interesting comment about Fleury. While I hope it’s not his last game just yet, I do wonder if he’s made his last start in a Penguins uniform. Looking ahead, it’s very difficult to envision a scenario where Fleury logs his standard 55-60 game regular-season workload while Murray backs him up.
Perhaps they do more of a 40/40 split…traditionally Murray hasn’t carried a super-heavy workload. But I don’t think that’ll happen, either.
I generally don’t try to play GM (because I’m so bad at it). And I have absolutely no insider knowledge on anything. But I have it in my head that Dallas might have interest in “Flower.” The Stars had a really strong team, and their goaltending (Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi) really let them down in the playoffs.
I have a sense we could see a Fleury-to-Dallas deal for talented but underachieving forward Valeri Nichushkin and, say, Niemi to serve as a veteran backup for Murray. Perhaps Beau Bennett gets thrown in going the other way. Nichushkin and Bennett are RFAs to be.
At current pay levels, the Pens would save about $1M.
This isn’t meant to demean Fleury, or his enormous contributions to the Pens’ success through the years. He’s been a true stalwart between the pipes—at least during the regular season.
But, as you suggest, I think the cat’s out of the bag and there’s no going back.
Hey Rick,
I am with you. I hope MAF has at least 5 more games in a Pens uniform, with Murray starting those games.
I am also with you about not demeaning MAF. I was an MAF critic early in his career. He had a serious over-reacting problem, making highlight real saves on one hand only to find himself way out of position on the other, and drifting too far away from the net to try and play/pass the puck. However, he has overcome most of those youthful issues, especially since the Pens realized the fault was management’s and went out and brought in a goalie coach. He has incredible stickwork, making it difficult for opposing forwards to try and stick-handle around him. And over the last couple of seasons, MAF has been the most valuable player, holding the fort, keeping them respectable through some extremely miserable coaching (or lack thereof) schemes. In a perfect world, he should retire a Penguin.
What happens in the off-season? I’ll give my thoughts when that comes, a couple of weeks from now.
Hey before we toss Fleury out with the bath water there are a few things that need to be considered.
Next year the GM’s are planning on shrinking goaltender equipment, leg pads, chest protectors and more. A more acrobatic goalie like Fleury will probably become a big commodity. The big goaltenders that just stand there and block everything because of their size could become a thing of the past.
Also, Fleury never got a chance to play under the 20 shots against system that Murray has had the luck of being a part of this playoff season. He is the #19 winningest goaltender in NHL history and one of the few playing that has won a cup.
He is also only 31 years old and has recently with the help of the new goaltending coach been playing pretty damn good. Let them face a season together splitting games and see how it goes before we trade him. There have been many rookie goalies that have had great playoff runs then you never hear from them again.
Hey Phil,
Excellent points. I never considered that the NHL was planning to shrink the size of goaltenders equipment.
Like I said, there’s a reason I don’t try to play GM … 🙁
I beg to differ, but only slightly, with your assertion that Fleury didn’t have the benefit of playing behind the new-look Pens. The team began to hit its stride in late January and by March had really heated up. Flower didn’t go down with the concussion till March 31.
I certainly won’t argue that there weren’t stretches where he carried the team. I shudder to think where we’d have been through the early going if not for Fleury. He was outstanding through October and November.
Last season, too.
Yet, he’s had a nagging tendency (from my perspective) to allow the goal you just can’t afford to give up. Especially come playoff time. Sunday night was a perfect example.
I realize he hadn’t played in weeks. And, given his overall body of work, it’s grossly unfair (not to mention unwise) to write him off based on a single, isolated performance. Still, it’s hard to argue that Murray appears to be the future in goal.
Perhaps they can coexist and share the Pens’ net for a season, as you suggest.
I was saying other than the one game Fleury didn’t have that in all the ‘playoff’ seasons he has played. I am ten times more comfortable watching the games with Murray in net, but I don’t see a reason why the Pens wouldn’t take a season to make sure he’s the real deal before we toss away world class goalie. Can’t wait for Monday! Go Pens!
Hey Rick,
Bryan Rust ! What a goal .. Taylor Hall or John Traveres could not have done it any better. Funny thing is, he was supposed to be a 4 th line defensive forward.
The kid has brains, speed,tenacity, and a scorers touch. I hope just because he was drafted 80th and only makes 600K a year, people only see him as “plugger” because I think this series shows how valuable he really is. With the right line mates and given enough ice time to develop his skills at the NHL level he could easily be a 30 + goal scorer a year, plus being very good defensively. Not bad at all.
Second point. Letang’s goal. Perfect shot ! Perfect goal ! It makes me crazy because every time he shoots the puck I envision the goal lite going on,but in reality most of the time he shoots wide of the net. Especially on the PP.
So when one finally connects like last night, it reminds how good he really is.
Third point. Crosby’s goal. Reminds me of the early years in his career when he would do that more often. They will show that goal many, many times in the next few years to prove he still got it ! What ever possessed him to do that I hope, really hope he does it again tomorrow night ! It certainly surprised Hedman…..he did not see that one coming at all !!!
One more to go…..we can do it ! Lets go Pen’s.
ps: Expect Bishop to play tomorrow night. So, we have to play 3 hard periods of hockey and not give an inch.Tomorrow night will be the best game of the series and Tampa will not lay down and go away quietly. This could be hardest fought game of the playoffs….. and we thought nothing could top the Cap’s series… We win… by 1 goal !!
This will be a game we will talk about for a long time.Bishop worries me , he handles the puck really well.
Cheers.
Hey Jim,
I am right there with you over Rust. I have mention to Rick several times how impressed I am not just with his speed but his ability to find a seem to the net. I will wait until after the Cup parade to go into my full thoughts.
On Letang, I actually missed the goal, so I can’t comment on his goal last night, but what I would love to see him start doing again is just whipping a quick wrist shot again, before the defense and goalie gets set, just off to the side of the net, that a driving winger could easily tip, like he was doing back in March and pretty much collecting at least 1-point per game for what seemed like a month.
Also, I agree, if Bishop can stand on his skates at all, I would expect to see him in there. But even if he isn’t, I don’t think this team goes away quietly. There is a reason they went to the finals last year and there is a lot of pride on the line. They are going to kick and scratch and claw. The Pens are going to have to match that desperation for a full 60 minutes, no matter what. They need to play every shift like is their last shift, because if they don’t it will be.
Well said Coach! 100% . Play every shift like it’s your last one….because it will be for many…..I learning from you…I want to write about what happens next month when we win the Cup, the coming draft and free agency, and the new owners…..but there is a time and place for that…and it’s NOT now.
Come on Pen’s.
Hey Jim,
I love Bryan Rust. He brings so much speed, grit and hustle to the table. I don’t think he possesses a finisher’s touch…the reason he was a third-round pick. But he’s a pretty smart kid.
This is the second time I’ve seen him pull this (or a similar) move on a breakaway. He skates 90 mph straight at the goalie…then abruptly pulls up and makes his move. Totally screws up the goalie’s timing… 🙂
While we’re at it, I’ve been more and more impressed with Tom Kuhnhackl. (Conor Sheary, too…I’ve already sung his praises.) Kuhnhackl’s been asked to fill a thankless role in the playoffs…fourth-line mucker. But he’s been increasingly physical along the wall and in the dirty areas without taking penalties. And he’s really well-schooled. Watch him away from the puck. He’s always in position…always working to present himself in a way that provides his linemates with a proper target or option.
Very subtle…and good.
Switching gears to Crosby’s goal. I couldn’t agree more. Very much old-school Sid.
I go out to NHL.com and watch video replays to help me with my blog posts. And on this particular goal, Sid scooped up the puck, turned and saw an opening. You can see it in the way he reacts. He took off in a flash…no hesitation. Aggressive. Dynamic. I think he knew in an instant what he was going to do.
Hopefully, we’ll see a lot more of that in the weeks to come … 🙂
GO PENS!
Hey Jim,
What’s up with that? Are you getting psychic? You called the score last game. Now, you praise Rust in the morning and he scores 2-Goals, the only 2-Pens-Goals this evening!
12 down 4 to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey Rick,
Great stuff today.
But then again, the black-n-gold gave plenty to write about.
As soon as I saw the way Crosby wheeled around after the Hornqvist feed I knew it was going to be a goal. There was that feel of “ain’t nothing goin’ a stop him”. Those Bolts may as well have been a couple of pylons for all the good they were going to do on that play. Number 87 wanted that one.
Also, I was having similar thoughts about Maatta. A brief stint in the press box has brought back out the kind of play he was projected to give. Funny thing is the same thing seemed to happen to Lovejoy and Cole. They were playing very sub-par and found themselves in the press box. but when they came back they played like they were expected to play.
Thank you, Other Rick.
Like you said, it was easy to find good things to write about. What a win!
It’s been an odd series in a way, hasn’t it? I was expecting lots of end-to-end action with the teams trading chances. Instead, one team will dominate for a period or two … then the other. More like an on-ice tug-o-war.
Switching gears, I’m happy to agree about Maatta. He’s been playing the way he used to. I really haven’t noticed his mobility issues the past two games, which had become quite pronounced. He’s even doing a nice job of jumping into the play … 🙂
One more to go … for now … 🙂
Rick