Here we are. It is Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The two best teams in the conference are taking the maximum time necessary to decide a winner.
In hockey a one game playoff can do just about anything. A team can dominate the game and lose due to hot goaltending. A team can dominate and be rewarded. A team can win a game as a result of making excellent plays. A team can win because it went off three bodies and then into the net. Brace yourselves for anything.
Goaltenders will play a huge role. Great possession can be thwarted by excellent goaltending. The two goaltenders will remain the same for Game 7. It will be Matt Murray against Andrei Vasilevskiy. The Penguins haven’t had an issue scoring goals. They have 3 or more goals in every game this series with the exception of Game 1. You would think Tampa wasn’t getting quality play from their goaltender but Vasilevskiy still has a .918 save percentage in the series. That speaks to how well the Penguins have been playing. The only way to give up that many goals and still have a good save percentage is to have an incredibly high workload. Pittsburgh’s best chance to succeed is to maintain that shot volume. It might not yield a win but it can’t be argued that is the best way to acquire victory.
To this point Pittsburgh has a sizable advantage in a few categories this series. Pittsburgh has a 308-251 advantage in 5v5 shot attempts. That advantage is 391-299 in all situations. At even-strength the Penguins have a 107-80 advantage in high danger scoring chances. Scoring chances favor Pittsburgh 245-190.
There will be no changes to the Penguins lineup for Game 7. The lines are the same. The defense pairings are the same.
You wouldn’t know it based on the way some people are talking but Evgeni Malkin is on a four game point streak. His play isn’t without mistakes but a four game point streak combined with a Score-Adjusted Fenwick of 59.9% in the series isn’t an indicator of a player who is playing bad. The biggest key for Geno, as always, is to play emotional without taking a minor penalty. He has yet to master that balance.
Sidney Crosby will look to score his fourth game winning goal of the series. I can’t say for certain if one player has ever scored all four game winning goals in a Conference Finals but I doubt it has ever happened.
Chris Kunitz needs to keep dishing those sweet area passes to players with speed.
Kris Letang needs to be Game 6 Letang.
If Matt Murray is average it will probably be good enough.
Members of the HBK line have individually contributed offensively the last two games, but it wasn’t at even-strength with all three members on the ice. The last time the line produced an even-strength point as a complete unit was in Game 4. Look for that to change tonight.
The team that has the lead in the third period can’t be afraid of making controlled exits out of their zone. The blind clearances to the neutral zone will only fuel the opposition’s ability to gather themselves and turn the heat back towards the offensive zone. Both teams have been guilty of this after being up by three goals or more. Both teams almost saw their lead evaporate because of it.
A great piece of advice that I received from my coaches and I now pass along to my players about single game eliminations is trust your training. You work incredibly hard all season long to make yourself better. Trust that all the things you did throughout the year will guide you right. It helps to eliminate overthinking and allows players to rely on the instincts they have developed.
The thing to remember heading into a one game playoff in the sport of hockey is just how fickle it is. There is no need to make sweeping long term judgements about either club no matter what happens in this game. Both teams have literally made it as far as you can go within their own conference. Both teams clearly have a lot of things going for them in both the short and long term futures. It is pro sports so neither squad will have the exact same roster moving forward but the core players who go each team to this point will still be around (sans Stamkos but he hasn’t played in playoffs).
A Pittsburgh victory and the Crosby/Malkin era will have made one more Stanley Cup Final than the Lemieux/Jagr era. They've already been to one more Conference Finals.
Is Paul Martin going to the Stanley Cup Final?
He sure is. Congratulations to the San Jose Sharks especially the core group on that team. They have taken a lot of criticism over the years but they have always been excellent hockey players.
Making it to the Stanley Cup Final is incredibly difficult. Especially when you are in the same conference as Chicago and Los Angeles.
No matter which team makes it out of the Eastern Conference it should make for a great Final. All three teams are based on speed and skill.
Lastly, to break some of the Game 7 tension up. Here was something funny from The Tonight Show featuring Matt Murray
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Brand new Hockey Hurts Podcast talks about the Eastern Conference Finals on the cusp of Game 7 as well as the San Jose Sharks. You can find that
here
Thanks for reading!
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