SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Take one talented, resourceful, resilient hockey team, add one big Irish mug of fresh inspiration, stir in a stock of youthful energy, and sprinkle on just a dash of pure puck luck so that everyone could see what Pittsburgh had cooking.
Braving the Shark-infested waters of the Stanley Cup Final, the Penguins on Sunday night delivered the Pittsburgh region's newest major sports championship in the form of the oldest trophy in North American sports.
The fourth Stanley Cup for the franchise was not secured until Patric Hornqvist pumped home an empty-net goal with 62 seconds remaining in Game 6, cementing a 3-1 victory against the San Jose Sharks and triggering long-anticipated celebrations all over western Pennsylvania.
Exactly seven years earlier in Detroit, another coach who was cast into Penguins turmoil in midseason -- Dan Bylsma in relief of Michel Therrien -- guided the franchise to its third Cup. On Sunday, Mike Sullivan finished off his own dream-sequence season -- which started behind the bench in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., with the Penguins' American Hockey League affiliate -- by scratching his name onto the same hallowed hardware.
"Mike came in and made it pretty clear how he wanted us to play," Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said. "He let us know what he expected from each individual guy, and I think guys just welcomed the opportunity and welcomed the challenge."
Sullivan was the most critical in a stream of deft personnel moves executed by Jimmy Rutherford, the Penguins' general manager and NHL lifer. Mocked in some quarters as a retread when Penguins ownership brought him in after a playoff collapse just two years ago, Rutherford began his Cup-sculpting with the acquisition of Phil Kessel, the Toronto Maple Leafs' goal sniper.
Kessel not only helped make the Penguins the hottest team in hockey down the stretch this season, he led them in scoring in the playoffs. Now, after an unfulfilling career in Toronto, he takes his place among Pittsburgh's ice age immortals, with Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Kevin Stevens, Ulf Samuelsson, Larry Murphy, Tom Barrasso and with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Marc-Andre Fleury and the balance of the hagiography.
Fleury, who led the Penguins to the Stanley Cup Final in 2008 and to their third Cup victory a year later, watched most of the postseason from the bench because of a concussion suffered in late March. But his goaltending replacement, rookie Matt Murray, was among the most brilliant of the Penguins' stars this spring.
Murray won 15 times in the postseason, tying an NHL record held by three other goaltenders. More importantly, he went 7-0 after Penguins losses in the postseason, keeping Sullivan's team on its fateful stride for the better part of two months.
But it was Crosby, who did not score a goal in the Cup finals but set up two goals Sunday night, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy honoring the best player in the NHL playoffs.
Crosby accepted the Cup itself from NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, who was booed lustily for congratulating the Penguins at the commencement of the award ceremony, and skated in a triumphal arc back toward his teammates. Crosby first handed the Cup to defenseman Trevor Daley, another of Rutherford's key acquisitions, who broke an ankle earlier in this postseason. Daley handed it to Pascal Dupuis, who missed most of the season due to complications from blood clots, and Dupuis handed it to Fleury, who was probably Pittsburgh's most valuable player before he was injured.
"Getting hurt at the time he did, after he'd played so long, [Daley] told me he'd been to see his mom between series and she wasn't doing to well," Crosby said about why he handed the Cup first to Daley. "She wanted to see him with the Cup, and that kind of stuck with me."
Which of the four championship teams was the best is perhaps a topic for happy, idle conversation, but the 2015-16 Penguins were close to dominant. San Jose had allowed 40 shots in a game only twice all season; the Penguins got 40 three times in these six games.
Sports on 06/14/2016