Stanley Cup Final Preview

In one of the fastest series we will see, the 2016 Stanley Cup Final will feature the Pittsburgh Penguins and the San Jose Sharks.

It’s one thing to talk about the speed of a team, but does it really make that much of a difference? If you think it doesn’t, just ask the Rangers, Capitals, Lightning, Kings, Predators, and Blues. These are all teams that the finalists have beat, and all of them will tell you that they struggled with the Penguins/Sharks speed.

Both teams are exceptional at moving the puck quickly out of their own end and into the opponent’s end. For Pittsburgh, Mike Sullivan has them playing a swarm defense in which they don’t allow an effective cycle or forecheck, and end up spending very little time in their own end. This is really important for Pittsburgh, who with Trevor Daley out of the lineup with a broken ankle, lack defensive depth. For San Jose, their defensive depth has arguably been the best of the 16 teams entering the playoffs. There isn’t a single defenseman that Sharks coach Pete DeBoer needs to hide, as his 5^th and 6^th of Brendon Dillon and Roman Polak are competent players that aren’t liabilities.

The Penguins strength has been the fact that two of the best players in the league, and Pittsburgh’s two best players, aren’t even featured on their best offensive line. Pittsburgh’s hottest line down the stretch in the regular season and through much of the playoffs has been the line of Hagelin-Bonino-Kessel. Sidney Crosby, and Evgeni Malkin play on line 2 and 3, or 1b and 1c. Whatever you want to call it. It will be interesting to see how Coach DeBoer deals with the quick transition of the Penguins. Barry Trotz was not able to deal with it, and Jon Cooper made adjustments, but still saw Pittsburgh win 4 games. Both teams like playing off the rush, so the question may also become which of the teams is first to play more conservatively and limit the chances off the rush. San Jose’s offense has been led by Joe Pavelski and Joe Thornton, who are playing with Tomas Hertl. At times, it seems that they are able to score at will. The second line hasn’t been far behind, with Logan Couture and Joonas Donskoi, playing with Joel Ward or Patrick Marleau. These two lines have been able to make Drew Doughty and Jake Muzzin, Shea Weber and Roman Josi, and Alex Pietrangelo and Jay Bouwmeester look average at times. The two lines should not have any problem scoring on names on Pittsburgh’s defense that are much less known than the ones mentioned above.

One last thing to note about this series will be the goaltending. Although Matt Murray has been solid in net and there is no question that he deserves to start all of the games in the series, having Fleury right behind him is going to create an unnecessary distraction through the series. Mike Sullivan will undoubtedly have to answer questions about his confidence in Matt Murray after any game in which the Penguins lose. Unless Matt Murray stands on his head and is the best player for Pittsburgh, reporters will be quick to ask about the possibility of putting Fleury in net, and that will be a distraction for Sullivan, and more importantly, Matt Murray. On the other hand, Martin Jones does not have a Stanley Cup winner backing him up, so he won’t have to worry about this. But Martin Jones will also face his toughest challenge in the Penguins, and will need to make sure he remains as ice cold as he has been through the first three rounds.

Prediction:

Both these rosters are filled with superstars, but the difference will be the roster depth, and the adjustments that the coaches make. Both Mike Sullivan and Pete DeBoer are smart coaches, and it will be a duel throughout the series. I think San Jose can take 3 of the first 4 games, and end up winning the series 4-1. The Penguins defense is just not good enough to deal with the Sharks offense, and I don’t think the Penguins will be able to outscore San Jose in the series.

San Jose 4 – 1 Pittsburgh