Predators, Penguins square off for hockey’s Holy Grail
Newcomer Ron Hainsey knows just how difficult it is to get an opportunity to win a Stanley Cup
The pep talk happened during a blowout loss.
At the time, it might have been a hard sell. Down 2-1 in the Eastern Conference final, the Pittsburgh Penguins spoke about the dangers of blowing an opportunity to reach the Stanley Cup Final for a second straight year.
Get hungry, the players said. This chance doesn’t come around often.
Except, for some of the Penguins, it has happened often. It has happened every single year, in fact.
Matt Murray, who is technically a rookie, is playing in his second Stanley Cup Final. The same goes for second-year Penguins’ Conor Sheary, Bryan Rust and Tom Kuhnhackl, and Brian Dumoulin, while Jake Guentzel and Scott Wilson have gone all the way in their first full season.
But as Ron Hainsey can attest, having waited 907 games before playing in his first Cup final, it’s not something you can take for granted.
“You never know when you’ll be back here again,” said Nick Bonino, who joined the Pens last season and played a major role in their Stanley Cup run.
“Just with free agency, the expansion draft, you never know what teams are going to look like next year or in the future of your career. It’s not something that comes around every year. You look at Ron Hainsey, he’s played a lot without being here.”
As for whether winning last year satiated there appetite for another Cup, the Penguins were universal in that they are even hungrier ever.
“We know what an opportunity it is to do it back-to-back,” said Phil Kessel. “It’s a special thing. For lot of us, we might not get that chance to play for it again or get this far. It’s tough to get here so whenever you get a chance, you have to take advantage of it.”
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On paper, it looks like poor Colton Sissons doesn’t have a chance. Then again, he’s not alone. With Ryan Johansen out, Sissons is the Nashville Predators’ No. 1 centre. That means that he will match up against Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin. Either way, it’s a mismatch. Of course, it usually is.
“Having Sid and Geno, not many teams are as strong down the middle just because of those two,” said Nick Bonino, Pittsburgh’s No. 3 centre. “I think (Matt) Cullen and I have just tried to win our faceoffs — we’ve had a lot of D-zone starts — and get out of our zone and give Sid and Geno that offensive zone time, which makes them so dangerous.”
How can Nashville counteract what appears to be an obvious weakness down the middle? Predators forward Filip Forsberg said the wingers will have to be that much stronger.
“They’re definitely a fast puck-possession team,” said Forsberg. “But we’ve proven we can play with anyone. We played fast against Chicago and we played heavy against Anaheim. If they want a rodeo, we’ll give them one.”
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Jake Guentzel still leads the playoffs with nine goals. But he did all of his damage in the first two rounds, having gone the last eight games without scoring.
Still, the fact that he had 12 shots in the conference final — two more than he did in as many games in the second — is the reason why Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan is confident the offence will come again.
“He didn’t score in the series, but I think there’s more to his game than just that,” said Sullivan. “He’s played some heavy minutes for us since he’s joined our team, in particular, in this playoff race.”
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Predators captain Mike Fisher is expected to be in the lineup for Monday’s Game 1 after missing the last two games of the Western Conference final with an unspecified injury.
Pittsburgh’s Patric Hornqvist, who missed the last six games with an upper-body injury, is also hoping he would be healthy enough to return for Game 1.
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Big-name against no name is how some are referring to the match up between Nashville and Pittsburgh’s respective defence.
While the Predators have relied on Roman Josi, P.K. Subban, Ryan Ellis and Mattias Ekholm for the bulk of the minutes, with Kris Letang out the Penguins’ approach is more by committee.
“Not one of us is going to replace Kris. He’s that good,” said Justin Schultz, who leads Pittsburgh defencemen with three goals and 10 points. “We’ve all done a good job of stepping up a little bit.”