NASHVILLE, Tenn. — In the end, as the on-ice celebration ended and the party headed into the warm Music City night in celebration of the Penguins’ second consecutive Stanley Cup, who better to put it all into perspective than Mario Lemieux?
“It’s hard to win a Cup. We feel fortunate to be able to win it back-to-back. It’s something special that these guys and all of us in the organization can cherish for the rest of our lives.”
As iconic announcer Mike Lange might put it, “You had to be here to believe it.”
The Penguins turned the lights out on Broadway Sunday night, beating the Nashville Predators, 2-0, at Bridgestone Arena in Game 6 for the fifth Cup in franchise history. It was the third Cup of the Crosby-Malkin era, one more than the incomparable Lemieux and his group of Hall of Famers won in the early-1990s.
“They’re generational players,” Mike Sullivan said of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. “They’re both elite in their own way. They can change a game single-handedly. That’s how good they are.”
Crosby won the Conn Smythe Trophy as postseason MVP for the second year in a row. He said he would have voted for Malkin, who was the top scorer in these playoffs with 28 points.
“I think I termed them a one-two punch, but it’s really 1 and 1A,” Sullivan said. “I don’t know that you could find two better people to build a team around.”
I’m guessing all of Pittsburgh was a nervous wreck Sunday night until Matt Murray made the last of his 27 saves and the clock ran out at precisely 10:59 p.m. Murray also shut out the Predators, 6-0, in Game 5, making Sullivan look like a genius — once again — for sticking with him after poor performances here in Games 3 and 4. This Murray shutout made Patric Hornqvist’s rebound goal at 18:25 of the third period stand up as the game-winner.
Murray’s best save came midway through the second period when he stopped Predators center Colton Sissons on a breakaway. Sissons must have known it wasn’t his or his team’s night by that point. He had a rebound goal waved off at 1:07 of the second period because of a quick and errant whistle by referee Kevin Pollock.
The Predators justifiably complained. What they didn’t say, though, was that all four of the game’s penalties were called on the Penguins, including ones on Olli Maatta and Trevor Daley in the third period that left Nashville with a five-on-three power play for 32 seconds. The Penguins’ penalty-kill said no. It was sensational all night, giving up just three shots.
The Penguins accomplished Sunday night what they couldn’t do in Games 3 and 4. They beat Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne, who, though abysmal in three losses in Pittsburgh, had been terrific at Bridgestone Arena with a 9-1 record, 1.44 goals-against average and .949 save percentage.
The Penguins didn’t exactly embarrass Rinne but did just enough to win. Thanks to Hornqvist for that. Carl Hagelin’s empty-net goal finished it off.
The win spared Pittsburgh a nerve-wracking Game 7 Wednesday night and the chance for one of its teams to clinch its first championship in the city since Bill Mazeroski’s home run beat the New York Yankees in the 1960 World Series.
I’m sure you aren’t complaining.
Once you started breathing again, I’m thinking you loved the on-ice celebration. Crosby, after going through the traditional handshake line — he met up with P.K. Subban, but didn’t get too close — accepted the Cup from NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.
“This feeling right here, you can’t match it,” Crosby said.
It never gets old.
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Crosby handed the Cup to Ron Hainsey, who played in 907 regular-season games before making the playoffs for the first time. From Hainsey, it went to Matt Cullen, who is expected to retire. Then on to Chris Kunitz, who probably won’t be back. Marc-Andre Fleury, who led the Penguins past Columbus and Washington in the first two rounds, took his turn with the Cup and handed it to Murray, who was the star of the Ottawa and Nashville series.
Lemieux looked on with a big smile, loving every minute. He would take his turn with the Cup a little later for the third time as the team’s owner. It never gets old for him, either.
The parade later this week should be incredible. If there is one thing Pittsburgh knows, it’s how to do a championship parade. This will be our fourth since the Steelers won Super Bowl XLIII after the 2008 NFL season.
How lucky are we?
In the end, the Penguins showed the resiliency Sullivan has talked about through the playoffs. He had many good reasons for calling their path to the Cup “very hard.” Twelve different players missed a total of 48 games because of injuries, including Crosby in Game 4 against the Capitals, which turned out to be an unlikely 3-2 win. The team survived losses in Games 5 and 6 against Washington before winning Game 7, 2-0, behind Marc-Andre Fleury’s 29 saves. It survived Ottawa in seven difficult games, getting the winning goal from Chris Kunitz in overtime. Finally, it solved the Predators deep in the heart of “Smashville” on a night the Country Music Capital of the World trotted out Luke Bryan for a pregame concert, Faith Hill for the national anthem and her husband, Tim McGraw, for the obligatory towel wave.
Star power?
I’m sure you’re satisfied with Crosby, Malkin and Murray.
“These guys are such a privilege to coach,” Sullivan said. “They’re great people, first and foremost, and they’re terrific hockey players. We believe we have a unique chemistry in our room. I’ve said many times you can’t win a championship without character. We have it in abundance.”
That point was reinforced after the Penguins learned they wouldn’t have Kris Letang for the playoffs. Crosby won the Smythe and Malkin could have won it, but there’s no way the team would have hoisted the Cup without the collective work of Brian Dumoulin, Ron Hainsey, Justin Shultz, Olli Maatta, Trevor Daley and Ian Cole, who finished a combined plus-32 led by Dumoulin’s plus-9.
“When Letang went down, there was a lot of worry around here,” Jim Rutherford said. “I said, ‘Don’t worry. This is going to be OK. This group can do it.’ ”
Some prophet, that Rutherford, who traded for Hainsey and Mark Streit at the deadline.
Some general manager.
“They knew the pressure that goes with losing a guy who plays 25 or 30 minutes a game,” Crosby said of the defensemen. “They weren’t intimidated by it. They took it on. They proved what they’re capable of.”
All of the Penguins did.
Lemieux called it “unbelievable.”
That it was.
Ron Cook: rcook@post-gazette.com and Twitter @RonCookPG. Ron Cook can be heard on the “Cook and Poni” show weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on 93.7 The Fan.
First Published: June 12, 2017, 5:33 a.m.