Penguins try to clinch on 7th anniversary of last Cup

And now 24 seasons later, serving as an assistant coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Tocchet guided the club to their fourth Stanley Cup title in franchise history.

“I mean, it’s an unbelievable feeling, obviously it’s special”, said the teary-eyed Kessel as his Pittsburgh Penguins teammates celebrated with friends and family Sunday night on the ice at SAP Center following a 3-1, Game 6 win over the San Jose Sharks.

The Pittsburgh Penguins, who won back to back Stanley Cups in 1991 and 1992, were the same years our Soo Greyhounds clinched two consecutive J. Ross Robertson Cups as the Ontario Hockey League champions.

It’s been quite a turnaround season for the player known as Sid the Kid.

The core of Crosby, Malkin, forward Phil Kessel and defensemen Kris Letang and Olli Maatta are all 30 or under and all signed through at least 2022. It just ends. We’ve been playing and traveling and playing every other day for a long time. Letang had the eventual game victor that he put past Sharks goaltender Martin Jones off of a feed from Sydney Crosby. He had to make just two saves in the third period.

We’ll have up-to-the-minute scoring and statistics here throughout the game.

It marked the fifth time in six games Pittsburgh had drawn first blood, as the Sharks, who had four shots in the opening frame, once again had difficulty generating scoring chances.

“Mike came in and made it pretty clear how he wanted us to play, what he expected from each individual guy”, said Crosby. Crosby was one of only five Penguins to also play for the Cup-winning team in 2009, joined by Letang, Malkin, Chris Kunitz and Marc-Andre Fleury, who served as Murray’s backup all spring. “The first half wasn’t easy and I think everyone just stuck together, kept going and found some momentum there in March and continued to keep it going”. It was not just the superstars that came through for the Penguins in the playoffs, or in this series. In the Stanley Cup Final, it was Sheary, scoring a goal in Game 1, and then adding the overtime victor in Game 2. Patrick Marleau, who waited 18 seasons before reaching the Cup, scored a goal in Game 1 but was otherwise mostly invisible the final. Joe Thornton had only three assists and a minus-4 rating as San Jose’s top line was unable to generate offense the way it did against Western Conference teams, especially after Tomas Hertl injured his knee late in Game 2. They won Game 3 on an overtime goal by Joonas Donskoi, then held onto a 3-2 win in Game 5 thanks to an out-of-this-world 44-save performance by Jones. Meanwhile, the Penguins dealt with the retirement of heart-and-soul player Pascal Dupuis due to a blood-clot condition and worked to find chemistry in a lineup that would eventually feature 11 new faces from last year’s team that fizzled out of the playoffs in the first round. They overcame adversity. They continuously out shot and out worked their opponents. But Jones allowed just 14 goals (2.33 per game) to a team featuring Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and the unsafe “HBK” line of Carl Hagelin, Nick Bonino and Phil Kessel.

Against the Penguins, the Sharks have picked up two wins on the strength of their goaltending after getting badly outplayed in even-strength situations throughout the series.

Take it away, Hockey Night in Punjabi broadcast.

One of the best parts of the Stanley Cup Playoffs on television is the cameras that are dedicated to watching front office people in their boxes to get reaction shots.

“We’ll reflect on it in the next couple days”, he said.