Penguins became Penguins again
Penguins’ best game of the playoffs and certainly their best of the final.
They have regained their identity in the nick of time.
“I think that’s about as close as we’ve played to a consistent 60-minute game all playoffs,” winger Chris Kunitz said.
Nobody need remind these guys of what one more win will get them.
“It’s impossible not to think about,” defenseman Justin Schultz said.
The madness started before the puck drop. PPG Paints Arena rocked pregame like it has rarely rocked before — perhaps a message from Penguins fans to “Smashville” that they can get pretty loud with all their rowdy friends, too.
It only got louder on the first shift. Sidney Crosby caused all that, splitting Dan Ellis and Roman Josi on a Herculean effort that resulted in Crosby cracking one off the post and Ellis going to the penalty box.
Next came the miracle — a power-play goal. Schultz ripped a low liner that found its way through Pekka Rinne’s pads. Five minutes later, Kunitz sent big-game Bryan Rust for a beauty of a backhander past Rinne’s glove. The place erupted.
Nashville returned fire for a stretch, but that was before Crosby and P.K. Subban engaged in a scrum right out ofWWE. Or maybe “The Three Stooges.”
It happened behind the Penguins net and quickly morphed into Sid sitting on top of Subban and pounding his head into the ice so hard it looked like he was trying to strike oil (my goodness, was Subban’s breath that bad?).
Referee Brad Meier stood there and watched, apparently too transfixed by the weirdness of it all to locate his whistle. He finally, and insanely, called coincidental minors. Predators coach Peter Laviolette lost his mind, literally foaming at the mouth as he screamed for justice.
He wasn’t happy afterward, either
“I really don’t understand the call,” he said. “I saw my guy get his head crosschecked into the ice 10 times.”
Laviolette had a right to be angry, but you know what? This is the NHL world we live in. It’s the one Crosby has lived in since he set foot in the league. He did unto Subban as the Ottawa Senators and countless others have done unto him.
Live in that environment long enough, you either adapt or you perish.
Besides, Crsoby said something else was going on down there: “He was doing someUFC move on me there. I don’t know what that was.”
The incident worked in the Penguins’ favor, leading to some 4-on-4 hockey and a Phil Kessel-to-Evgeni Malkin goal with 11 seconds left in the period.
That was it for Rinne, who must get homesick a lot. He’s an entirely different human away from Bridgestone Arena.
In came the one and only Juuse Saros, and he promptly surrendered a onetimer to Conor Sheary, off a wondrous backhanded feed from Crosby.
The Penguins did not let up. Kunitz made like Mike Mitchell on a couple of hits, notably one where he flattened Matt Irwin, which made Mitchell’s teammate Ben Roethlisberger stand up and cheer.
Once Kessel made it 5-0, the drama was gone. Or nearly so. Ron Hainsey and some hot tempers provided a bit more.
Hainsey began a memorable play by sidestepping James Neal, who was going for a kill shot in the Penguins end. Neal instead almost killed teammate Mike Fisher.
“I didn’t see that part of it,” said Schultz, who was watching from the bench. “But I heard all the boys goin’ nuts.”
They were about to go nuttier. Hainsey lugged it down the ice, passed to Kessel at the Nashville blue line and eventually tapped in Malkin’s backhanded feed (which he slid between Subban’s skates).
Hainsey sensed the train that was Neal coming his way.
“I mean, I saw a flash of something,” he said. “I think they collided behind me … and I did what some wingers over the years here have done and went to the net.”
From that point on, the fans periodically broke into a joyous chant: “We Want The Cup! We Want The Cup!”
One more win, and they will have it.