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Thrilling overtime victory places Pittsburgh back into Stanley Cup Final |
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The Pittsburgh Penguins will be heading to their fourth Stanley Cup Final in the salary cap era. No other team has been to more. They are also the first team to go to back-to-back finals since… the 2009 Penguins (and Red Wings). The run the Penguins are on has been quite remarkable. Being in the Metropolitan Division with the new playoff format was less than ideal. Being without Kris Letang for the entire playoffs is even less ideal.
The Ottawa Senators didn’t make it easy. Craig Anderson and Erik Karlsson were amazing. Guy Boucher made the most of his roster with his tactical decisions. The result was taking the defending champions to a Game 7 in overtime. They were one shot away from winning the series.
Let’s look back at this memorable Game 7
First period
Sidney Crosby came out of the gate flying. He was buzzing all over the ice for the first half of the period. There were quite a number of near misses whether it was from backhand shots or sneaky passes. Weirdly, he only finished the period with around six minutes of ice time.
Pittsburgh’s strategy was evident from the beginning. They were going to activate their defensemen. This was a great decision. Mike Sullivan knew that his team was not going to generate a ton of controlled entries so he put his players in a position to extend the time they had in the offensive zone. Trevor Daley was great all night long pinching down and keeping plays alive.
When Pittsburgh wasn’t extending their zone time they were finding it difficult to earn that zone time. There were numerous dump-ins and I would argue most of those didn’t have a purpose. What I mean by that is that the Penguins players would smash the puck into the zone without intent. If you have to dump the puck in you should at least try to make it an indirect pass. A lot of these plays ended up on Craig Anderson’s stick and easily diffused.
This was a low event period. The kind of period Ottawa wanted to start the game. No goals
Second period
Conor Sheary was put back into the lineup and what a decision that was. His playoff sample this year hasn’t been great after a tremendous regular season. After two games as a healthy scratch he came back in Game 7 looking like the player he was all year long. His speed and tenacity was very noticeable throughout the game. He started on the fourth line and would continue to earn time with Sidney Crosby throughout the game.
It was Sheary’s brilliance at the defensive blue line that created the game’s first goal. He expertly deflected the puck past the Ottawa defender and sent Chris Kunitz on his way through the neutral zone. Despite being flat-footed Sheary turned on the after burners to join Kunitz and create a 2 on 1. It ended with a Chris Kunitz goal, his first in 35 games.
We’ll have more on that Chris Kunitz guy later.
Conor Sheary led all players on the possession front at 67.74%. He also did great with scoring chances (10 for 3 against) and high-danger chances (4 for 1 against). Great game.
It is always a big deal to score first on a team that can successfully deploy the 1-3-1 forecheck. Unfortunately, for the Penguins Erik Karlsson is the best at what he does. Their lead didn’t even last 30 seconds. Just look at the pass Karlsson makes to Stone here. Karlsson sells the Penguins defender like he is going to curl and drag a snap shot, but that is just a clever ruse. He elegantly slips the puck to space for Stone to skate into and roof the puck over Murray’s shoulder.
Mark Stone was just able to stay onsides by dragging his skate along the ice. Mike Sullivan thought about challenging the play, but correctly abstained.
If you haven’t noticed by now the game is being officiated with prison rules. Missed calls galore.
Third period
It wasn’t just Conor Sheary who entered back into the lineup. The Penguins actually had a right-handed defenseman last night. Justin Schultz returned and he made his mark on the game. Dion Phaneuf committed an interference penalty that even prison rules couldn’t ignore. Phil Kessel sold the call and who could blame him? If he didn’t there probably wouldn’t have been a call with how this game was being officiated.
Here was the immediate result.
Not bad for the worst player in the NHL. Schultz was rumored to be playing with broken ribs. He finished with the best possession numbers by a defender from either team at 65.71% in 23:51 of 5v5 ice time.
Craig Anderson couldn’t see the shot because of a Chris Kunitz screen. Kunitz is up to a goal and an assist so far. This game was a nice reminder of the days when Kunitz was consistently good.
Pittsburgh did a better job of holding this lead, better being a relative term. Ottawa got the equalizer three minutes later. Erik Karlsson was able to get off an absolute bomb from the point.
Look how hard that shot was and he was able to generate that force while standing still.
The puck did take a fortuitous bounce off of the post to create the goal, but that’s how this sport goes. Puck luck can be an SOB.
With that goal we had ourselves overtime. If you told both teams they would have the chance to advance to the Stanley Cup Final if they could win a Game 7 in overtime they would both have taken it. Each team defeated the odds to put themselves into this situation.
First overtime
The pace of the first overtime was great. This must have been intensely fun for neutral bystanders. Pittsburgh was awesome for the first half of this period. In fact, the Penguins did not allow a shot until there was only 9:42 left in the period. I couldn’t help but think how difficult that must have been for Matt Murray to sit there with no shots and then the first one he gets is a good look from the slot on a rush play. The birthday boy was up to the challenge.
Phil Kessel was doing Phil Kessel things during the first overtime. He came oh so close on two separate occasions. Here was the first chance he barely missed on
It doesn’t look like much, but that little pump fake Phil put on totally ruined Craig Anderson. He was frozen. Phil’s shot didn’t miss by much. He definitely had room above the elbow to go bar down.
He followed that chance up with the following:
Phil turned on the jets because it was Mark Stone, not a defenseman, who was skating backwards on this sequence.
Another crazy bounce that stayed out of the Ottawa net. Pittsburgh fans in attendance were in a frenzy because for some odd reason the jumbotron only showed the overhead view which looked like the puck went into the net. Some fans littered the ice with towels. It wasn’t until intermission when they were shown the definitive view that television viewers were privy to.
Bryan Rust came very close to scoring his most dramatic Game 7 goal. He was unable to bury a wide open chance on the back door.
After about a million icing calls the first overtime period came to an end.
Erik Karlsson has played 37:15 so far in the game. The next closest player was Methot at 31:55. He is a cyborg.
He followed that up with a shift of 1:42. Erik Karlsson’s playoff run with a broken foot this year is legendary and I’m not sure if we will ever truly put a handle on how great it was.
Second overtime
It only took five minutes. Elation for the Penguins and devastation for the Senators
Have yourself a game, Chris Kunitz. The long time Penguin dialed back the clock on this night to when he was pouring in close to 40 goals a year on the Crosby line. His play throughout this night earned him a promotion to the Crosby line and he did not disappoint. The game winning sequence was straight out of 2013-14. Crosby’s first touch on the puck off of the end boards was just another one of those understated plays that he makes look so incredibly easy. Kunitz out of habit found that great soft spot that has led to so many of those low to high goals throughout the years. Sure, Kunitz didn’t wire it off of the cross bar like he used to but you don’t get extra style points in Game 7 of overtime when the puck goes in.
This era of Penguins hockey is obviously defined by Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang, but that trade Ray Shero made to acquire Chris Kunitz in 2009 is one of the better ones in team history. The player who went the other way had some humor about it
So let’s talk about the birthday boy. Matt Murray has been excellent since returning to the net. Marc-Andre Fleury’s play in relief was superb, but this is Murray’s net. Since coming in for Fleury after weeks off this is what Murray accomplished in the Ottawa series.
Game 3: .950
Game 4: .923
Game 5: 1.000
Game 6: .933
Game 7: .931
Overall he has an all-situations save percentage of .946.
Consistently excellent. Matt Murray is still a rookie and he is going to his second straight Stanley Cup Final as the starting goaltender.
Losing the Stanley Cup Final in 2008 was heartbreaking for the team, but if there was one positive to take it is the fact that Sidney Crosby is superstitious and altered his perception on the Prince of Wales Trophy. Instead of standing next to the trophy while being afraid to touch it the Penguins have been able to celebrate their tremendous achievement with the trophy itself. More Captains should take this approach. Mario Lemieux touched the trophy both times the team won during his tenure and Pittsburgh has won both times Crosby has touched it. Touching the trophy isn’t why they won, but it shows how meaningless that superstition is.
The Crosby/Malkin era has been everything Penguins fans could have wanted and then some. This will be the fourth Stanley Cup Final for the duo and that is two more than Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr.
This has been a special run and has defied some odds. The journey isn’t over. PK Subban and the Nashville Predators await. It should be a very entertaining Stanley Cup Final.
Thanks for reading!
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