Yeah I didn't know that either. It's always nice (and ideal) to hoist the cup in front of your home crowd.
It's been since 1960 that any major sports team has clinched a championship here at home. Hard to believe considering Pittsburgh's "City of Champions" reputation.
Mike, I am also impressed with Pens backchecking and defensive ability to close off passing lanes to the crease. Let's face it, Pens are not getting world class goalkeeping, yet still keeping Sharks off the scoreboard. Sharks have not held a lead in regulation in the 3 games so far...will be interesting to see what happens if they jump off to a 1 or 2 goal lead.
Keith, you are absolutely correct, the Pens are playing a COMPLETE team game, everyone is helping out in the defensive end and everyone is contributing on the offensive side. That is a recipe that simply cannot be beat. The Sharks looked dynamite the first three rounds, but the Pens' suffocating back-check has them looking very ordinary (or less-than ordinary).
uh-oh. Pens shaky goalkeeping catches up. First two Sharks goals short side and third goal was stoppable as well.
Yes. And if you recall, other game that the Sharks won, the victory came on a weak goal from a shot just inside the blue line. Murray looks like he has trouble handling a puck that 99.99% of NHL goalies would gobble up in their sleep. Pens better end it Sunday night, cause anything can happen in Game 7.
It's unlikely that Murray will have two bad games in a row. It makes no difference to me whether or not they win at home, so long as they win. I hope they can wrap it up tomorrow.
Pens should have won 2 games ago. Murray is a back up. Fleury seems to be one now as well. They need to find a solid starter. But that's next year. Crosby needs to score tomorrow at least once. Hard to put money on this series. Dave
They're both excellent, and either one could be number one. As for Crosby; they have enough depth that he doesn't need to carry the team.
My team, the Habs, have(had?) an excellent goalie. If the pens had excellent goalies, the series would have been over two games ago. Just saying...
Congratulations to both Sharks and Pens. Superior goalkeeping usually wins the Cup final series and that was not the case this time.
Well, there was superior goaltending on one end, which is why it wasn't a 4-game sweep for the Pens. The big names for the Sharks were invisible (Marleau, Pavelski, Thornton, and Couture) except for the two games that they won. 1 shot in 17 minutes last night?? Are you kidding me? 2 shots in the 3rd period??
That's what I meant Mike. Cups have been won in many finals by tremendous goalkeeping even when the team in front of them was outplayed. I thought Jones was for the most part outstanding. There was a flurry in the second period last night (as Pierre McGuire (who does a terrific job I think) pointed out Jones made 4 ten bell saves in about a 10 second onslaught.
I had Sharks Season tickets for 18 years, ending my subscription 2 years ago after the historic collapse against LA. This result was no surprise- so much so that I only watched maybe an hour of all the games combined. In all my time as a season ticket holder I've learned that you cannot build a team around Thornton and Marleau, who will go on vacation when the season ends. More importantly, you can't build a team around the GM Doug Wilson, who should have fired himself for the good of the organization years ago. Congrats to the Sharks for making it this far, and I hope they got in a little sightseeing during their stay in Pittsburgh.
