We have our Stanley Cup Final set and ready to go and it has some pretty great storylines. The best one would be Alex Ovechkin finally having an opportunity to play for the Stanley Cup. He is going to go down as the best goal scorer of all-time and it certainly hasn’t been his fault the team has fallen short all these years.

So since 2008, Ovechkin now has 58 playoff goals. That’s 4 behind Crosby and 5 behind Malkin for the most (they’ve played 48 and 49 more games than him). He is first in goals per-game.

— Evan Sporer (@ev_sporer) May 24, 2018

I know for a lot of people Vegas making the final round is going to be the top story and it is a great one, but I can’t help but feel good for Alex Ovechkin who’s taken so much unfair abuse because of team related things. He’s an all-time great who deserves an opportunity like this.

We of course have George McPhee taking on his old team. We have Marc-Andre Fleury playing the role of potential Capital killer yet again. We have a bevy of other former Penguins on Vegas as well. This Stanley Cup Final has a lot going for it. I’m looking forward to seeing how things play out.

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There isn’t a whole lot of new stuff going on with the Pittsburgh penguins right now unless you’re into the faux Phil Kessel drama circulating around. Phil Kessel set career highs this year in assists and points. He scored 34 goals which was the most since 2013-14. He had a less than desirable performance in the playoffs this year. Shall we conclude he forgot how to play or cared less? Or do we go with the logical explanation that he was banged up. There’s a real chance the Penguins would have missed the playoffs altogether if not for Kessel propping the team up for the early parts of the season. It wasn’t until later in the year when the Penguins started to string together victories and solidified their playoff standing.

Jim Rutherford was complaining about Tom Wilson not fighting Jamie Oleksiak in the playoffs. Well, duh. Wilson isn’t going to take part in those kinds of fights. He will only pick on people when they are vulnerable or not as capable. He will never change who he is and the only people that can have an impact don’t lace up the skates.

Chris Kunitz didn’t end up getting an opportunity to play for Stanley Cup number five, but he did have himself a decent showing in the playoffs for the role that he was given. He finished with 54.04% possession which was a positive 2.5% to his teammates. His offense has dried up, but he’s still more valuable than the Matt Hunwick’s and Tom Kuhnhackl’s of the NHL world.

Thanks for reading!

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