HOME SWEET HOME FOR PENS
Pittsburgh dominates Game 5
The problem was never Sidney Crosby. It never is.
No, the reason why the Pittsburgh Penguins headed into Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final having blown a 2-0 series lead to the Nashville Predators was because of the players surrounding Crosby. He played great in the back-to-back road losses. The rest of his teammates might not have even been in the same city.
The fact Crosby once again showed up and played arguably his best game of the playoffs wasn’t necessarily the story in Thursday’s 6-0 blowout.
It was that, unlike the previous two games, it wasn’t just a oneman show.
The Penguins’ best players were their best players.
Heck, their worst players were better than the Predators’ socalled best.
Phil Kessel, who went six games without scoring, had a goal and two assists. Evgeni Malkin, who went without a shot in Game 3, had a goal and assist. Justin Schultz and Bryan Rust scored their first goals of the series. Even Ron Hainsey scored.
Then there was Matt Murray. The Penguins goalie, who allowed nine goals combined in the last two games, rebounded in a big way by stopping all 24 shots.
The question for the Penguins, now so close to repeating as Stanley Cup champions, is whether on Sunday they can continue that effort on the road in Nashville, where they have had so much trouble.
“We’ve got to get one more win now,” Schultz said. “We know it’s not going to be easy. We had a clincher last year at home and we didn’t get it done. I think we can learn from that … it’s impossible not to think about. ”
Before the game, a Predators fan tossed a catfish onto the ice.
But once the game started, the ice belonged to the Penguins
— or at least their captain.
Crosby didn’t score in Game 5, but he set up three goals and could have easily assisted on three more. He was that good, that dominant. He set the tone, both offensively and physically. The rest of the team followed.
On his first shift, Crosby split Nashville’s defence and rang a shot off the post, drawing a holding penalty in the process. Pittsburgh scored on the ensuing power play, with Schultz onetiming a pass from Crosby that seemed to redirect off a Nashville player’s stick on its way in.
“He certainly had it going,” Hainsey said. “I think everybody fed off that a bit as far as we were going to be aggressive and go and get it. We continued to do that.”
If Crosby brought his A game, Pekka Rinne once again brought his road game.
The Predators goalie, who gave up only two goals in two games in Nashville, gave up two goals in his first six minutes. After the third goal — on the ninth shot — went by him to end the period, his night was over.
Rinne, who had also been pulled in Game 2 and has a .755 save percentage in the three Pittsburgh games, was replaced by Juuse Saros to start the second period — not that anyone could have stopped Crosby and company on Thursday.
In the second period, Crosby found Conor Sheary with a backhand pass from behind the net to make it 4-0. Still, the Penguins kept attacking.
A day earlier, Malkin had publicly called out Kessel, saying that it was the streaky sniper’s “time to score.” Even though the win was a sure thing, Kessel responded, whipping a shot past Saros for his eighth goal of the playoffs. Crosby picked up an assist.
“I think everybody knows Geno’s drive in the locker-room,” Penguins veteran Chris Kunitz said. “We know how good he can be, and when he’s vocal, it pushes you to be better.
“We need to do it again to win another game.”
This was a different Pittsburgh team than we had seen in the series — and that included the wins in games 1 and 2. The Penguins played fast and with a purpose. The defence, which had been the team’s biggest weak spot in the series, moved the puck with ease and efficiency.
It was as if after watching the Predators for four games, the Penguins were finally able to figure out their opponent’s weak spot. Now, they have to do it again.
“This is obviously a great win, a great feeling,” Hainsey said, “but come tomorrow, it’s got to be parked because we have to get one more win.”