The problem was never Sidney Crosby. The rest of his teammates might not have even been in the same city. The final score tied for the seventh-biggest blowout in Cup Final history.
He added his third assist on the first goal of the series from Phil Kessel, who had three points in the win. He skated in alone from the blueline and deked to his right, sliding the puck between Rinne's pads for his eighth goal and 24th point of the playoffs.
Justin Schultz's power-play goal early in the first was the eventual victor, while Bryan Rust, Evgeni Malkin, Conor Sheary and Ron Hainsey also found the back of the net. They had 10 total giveaways; Ron Hainsey had four alone.
The way the Pittsburgh defense is now structured, it can't properly insulate goaltender Matt Murray as it did a year ago.
The question for the Penguins, who are one win away from repeating as Stanley Cup champions, is whether they can get that same team-wide effort on the road in Game 6 on Sunday, where they had so much trouble. You may not think home advantage and fan support is that important of a factor, but this series has shown that it could play a bigger role than we all thought. "We know we're going to be facing a desperate team". "It all started with that start and got us going for the rest of the game". I think we can learn from that ... it's impossible not to think about.
The Nashville Predators need a victory here in order to force a game seven on Wednesday. The Penguins captain was skillfully maneuvering his way through a sea of Washington Capitals when he was suddenly and shockingly knocked out by Caps defenseman Matt Niskanen. He's played well throughout the postseason, to be fair, but his 20+ minutes of ice time a night just isn't working for the Penguins. That set the tone for the night. The rest of the team aptly followed. Crosby then started hitting Subban in the head repeatedly, eventually drawing a roughing penalty while Subban - who quipped that Crosby was complaining about Subban's bad breath during a Game 3 exchange - went off for holding.
"It's hard to win when you score one goal", Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said after the game.
"I'm not an official so I'm not going to judge what's over the line and what's not", Subban said.
"I enjoy it. We have a good group of kids and they don't feel like kids anymore after what they went through and what they did past year with Guentzel being the exception", Cullen said. "We continued to do that".
Dramatic footage released showing deadly London attacks
The three attackers were wearing fake suicide belts consisting of plastic water bottles wrapped in grey duct tape. Butt hired the van used in the attack from a B&Q store in Romford in the morning of the attack , it said.
"It's a good game but it's still not done", Malkin said. Rinne got the hook after allowing three goals on nine shots in the first period, and Nashville backup Juuse Saros didn't fare much better, giving up three goals in relief.
Nashville still is allowing just 2.19 goals per game, but the Predators are being stretched by the NHL's top scoring team. "They've had some high-quality chances, and the puck hasn't gone in the net for the last couple of games". Crosby undoubtedly will be Public Enemy No. 1 at Bridgestone Arena, especially after Thursday night's performance.
On the fourth goal, Crosby wheeled behind the net and found Conor Sheary with a backhand pass. The Penguins kept attacking. The panic came back when the Senators scored late in the third period and forced overtime. "I'm not breaking earth-shattering news: The NBA Playoffs have not been very good". "We had good communication in our zone working the puck out quick and with speed". And when he's vocal, it pushes you to be better. Pittsburgh's one-sided win sets up the champs to repeat Sunday in Smashville. The Penguins lead the series 2-1.
Erixon hasn't played a game for the Penguins since coming over - spending the last two seasons with their AHL affiliate Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins notching 37 points in 119 regular season games. The defence, which had been the team's biggest weak spot in the series, moved the puck easily and efficiency.
Who should be in the net for Game 5 for the Pittsburgh Penguins? Now, they have to do it again. "We've got to get one more win".
A position of strength could turn into a position of weakness.
The Penguins promptly won the first two games of the Cup Final, and it looked like they were well on their way to lifting the Cup again. Sheary took a pretty feed from Crosby and sent it by Saros 1:19 into the second to push Pittsburgh's lead to four.
PITTSBURGH (AP) - Pekka Rinne's struggles in Pittsburgh have his Nashville Predators on the brink of elimination. "Not that I will".
The Predators outscored the Penguins 9-1 in the past two games.
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