The win made the Penguins the first team in almost two decades to repeat as champions while Crosby became just the third player to win the Conn Smythe Trophy in consecutive years as Stanley Cup MVP.
"It's hard to win the Cups as we've found over the last 10-12 years", Lemieux said. All within a calendar year.
"You have a small window to play and have a career", Crosby said.
That means late Detroit Red Wings legend Gordie Howe will no longer have his name on the Stanley Cup.
Like them or not, the Pens will be remembered as a dynasty in the salary-cap era.
"I always say best organization, wonderful team", Malkin said. And with 33 points in 40 games with the Penguins, he was on pace to finish second behind Auston Matthews in rookie scoring.
With the win, the Penguins won the best-of-seven series four games to two and became the first team to win a second consecutive Stanley Cup since the Detroit Red Wings defended their National Hockey League title in 1998.
Hagelin iced the game with 14 seconds left when, with Rinne out of the goal in favour of an extra attacker, he scored into the empty net. We should start finding out about deals Vegas has made with other teams this week and will know who the Lightning and every other team are going to protect in the expansion draft on Sunday. "A lot of these guys played injured in the playoffs and showed a lot of character". "We feel like we contributed a lot to the win with Jake and some of the other guys, like Carter".
The Pittsburgh Penguins Capture Second Straight Stanley Cup
For years people believed and yet Pittsburgh won with a defence that should not have been able to win a championship. Another player who deserves recognition in the Penguins' repeat as Stanley Cup Champions is goaltender Matt Murray .
Catfish on the ice before Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals.
Nashville appeared to score early in the second period as Colton Sissons poked home a rebound sitting in the crease. He was brilliant during a 3:28 stretch of power play time by Nashville midway through the third period, coming up with four stops.
One problem. Referee Kevin Pollock blew the whistle dead because he lost sight of the puck. "I think we gained a ton of experience from this run". "It was tough for sure".
The Penguins were led by team captain Sidney Crosby, who scored eight goals and 27 points in 24 games en route to his third championship and second straight Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. Sullivan picked up on that same spirit when he replaced Mike Johnston behind the Pittsburgh bench last season. He gave coach Mike Sullivan the blunt directive to cut through the noise when he hired him to replace Mike Johnston in December 2015.
It sounds impossible. But people said the same thing about them repeating. This playoff year, they didn't have Kris Letang, their only all-star on defence, in the lineup.
The Penguins captain has earned three Stanley Cups, two Olympic gold medals, a World Cup title, a world championship and world junior title. In doing so, the Predators became the first eighth-seeded team to sweep a first-round series since the current playoff format was introduced in 1994. Nashville made the playoffs as the 16th-best team in the regular season before knocking off Chicago, St. Louis and Anaheim. And the only rookies to ever post a shutout in the final series were Patrick Roy, in 1986, and Cam Ward, in 2006, with one apiece.
Notes: Lemieux won the Conn Smythe in 1992 and 1992, and Bernie Parent was the first to win the MVP trophy in consecutive years in 1974 and 1975. Pre-game coverage also featured segments on Fisher and Penguins goalie Matt Murray. But whatever happens now, he has cemented a special place in the game's history for himself that goes far beyond being one of the first goalies to paint a design on his mask.
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