Photo Credit: Don Wright/ USA TODAY Sports
The Pittsburgh Penguins are back in the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 2009. After making the playoffs every year after they won the most prized possession in sports, the Pens have failed to raise the Cup since then. But now they are back, and ready to take the Cup home with them.
The Penguins started their season with the return of their head coach Mike Johnston. After watching his team post a 15-10-3 record, landing them fifth in the Metropolitan division, and seeing star captain Sidney Crosby be held to just 19 points during this time, he and assistant Gary Anew were relieved of their coaching duties on December 12th, 2015. Johnston was replaced by then head coach of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and former head coach of the 2003-2006 Boston Bruins, Mike Sullivan.
During his time in Wilkes-Barre, Sullivan coached the AHL team to a 18-5 record, and would begin his tenure as the Pittsburgh Penguins head coach hoping to continue his hot winning streak. Erik Heasley, Hockey Operations Assistant for the Penguins, has been with the organization since 2008 and only had good things to say about Sullivan’s efforts as a head coach. “He’s a tremendous coach and his track record speaks for itself,” said Heasley when I had the opportunity to speak with him on Wednesday, just before the Penguins were set to play Game 2 of the final against the San Jose Sharks.
Heasley continued to note Sullivan’s successful coaching to a specific game back when he had just taken on the role. “It was right around the beginning of Sullivan’s tenure as coach and we were down early, maybe 3-0 and the Pens came back to score five consecutive goals,” Heasley remembers. He insists that this was the turning point of the Penguins season, where Sullivan’s message and game plan as head coach started to come through and attributed to the team’s dramatic change.
Up to this point in the Final, the Penguins have done everything right. What seems like forever ago, they took four of five games against rival New York Rangers. In a rematch of the first round of the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs where the Penguins ultimately lost in five games. Sullivan’s Penguins took four out of six games against Alex Ovechkin and the President Trophy reigning Washington Capitals, and went to a thrilling seven game series against the Lightning for the title of Eastern Conference Champions and the right to fight for Lord Stanley’s Cup.
The Penguins are riding a four game winning streak, dating back to May 24th, where they beat the Lightning to tie the best of seven series at three games a piece. Two days later, the Penguins faced the Lightning who welcomed back their captain Steven Stamkos, who returned from a blood clot condition that kept him sidelined since March. The Penguins have been almost unstoppable, with their captain stepping up to score three game winners in the Playoffs, the return of Evgeni Malkin from an upper-body injury, but also to the young stars on the team who have been notably rising throughout the season.
With starting goaltender Marc-André Fleury injured to start the Playoffs, the Penguins had to turn to Jeff Zatkoff, 28, and more notably Matt Murray, 22, to get the job done between the pipes. Murray, a second year rookie, has played in seventeen of the Penguins twenty 2016 Playoff games, posting a 13-4-1 record and a .926 save percentage against some of the biggest teams in the NHL. Heasley praised the efforts of Murray, “whose pedigree with his time in the juniors and winning both Goaltender of the Year and Rookie of the Year” has helped the Penguins be so successful.
While goaltending is a big part of their success, the Penguins “depth at forward has been special,” said Heasley. He continued to praise the forwards, adding that each line can score goals and that any given player can be the one to net the game winning goal. Take rookie Bryan Rust. A four year member of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish hockey team, Rust has proved that some time in the minors can truly benefit a player. A seemingly unlikely hero, Rust opened up the scoring and netted the game winner in the Stanley Cup Final clinching game 7 against the Lightning. Besides, Rust, Heasley praised Brian Dumoulin on the backend, remarking his efforts all year long that seem to continue throughout the playoffs. Another notable player is Conor Sheary, who’s overtime winner in game 2 of the Final helps send the Penguins to the SAP Center in San Jose with a 2-0 series lead.
When asked about the team’s previous Stanley Cup run in 2009, Heasley noted that this time feels much different. “Very different,” he said, “the first time being around the Cup is a special feeling, definitely different for me.” He recalled something that Mike Lange, play-by-play broadcaster for the Penguins told him. “He said to me, “In order to go on a long run, you have to have at least one short series” and he’s definitely right.” Heasley mentioned his feelings about traveling to San Jose with a possible 2-0 lead over the Sharks, saying the lead would “keep the Sharks on their heels” going into their home building.
A statistic shared by the National Hockey League shows that 73.7% of teams that win game two in the best-of-seven series go on to win the Stanley Cup. The Pittsburgh Penguins take on the San Jose Sharks at the SAP Center for Game Three on Saturday, June 4th with coverage starting at 8 PM.
