While the Pittsburgh Penguins are looking to repeat as champs, the Nashville Predators are intent on their very first title.
This year’s Stanley Cup finals match the Pittsburgh Penguins, who are seeking to become the first repeat champions since the Detroit Red Wings in 1998, and the Nashville Predators, who entered the league later that year.
The finals, which begin Monday in Pittsburgh (8 p.m., NBC) , are the Penguins’ sixth in franchise history and the first for the Predators, who had not advanced beyond the second round before this season.
Pittsburgh (50-21-11) has continued to enjoy a bottomless supply of useful players at every position, and it has needed them. A rash of injuries that would have doomed some teams merely precluded the Penguins from finishing first in the extremely competitive Metropolitan Division. Meanwhile, Nashville lagged well behind the top teams in the Central Division, and entered the playoffs with the worst record among the 16 qualifiers (41-29-12) .
But the Predators’ in-season struggles were erased in just four games, as they swept the West-leading Chicago Blackhawks. Then Nashville dispatched the St. Louis Blues in six games. In the Western Conference finals, the Predators topped the Pacific champion Anaheim Ducks in six games despite the loss of their leading scorer, Ryan Johansen, and their captain, Mike Fisher, in Game 4.
The Penguins dispatched the Columbus Blue Jackets in five games. But they needed a 2-0 shutout in Game 7 to hold off the Washington Capitals, who had the best regular-season record in the league. Then the Ottawa Senators pushed the Penguins to double overtime in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals.
Pittsburgh, the highest-scoring team in the regular season, has also scored the most in the postseason, at just over three goals per game. Nashville tied Anaheim for second, at 2.94. The Predators have been by far the best defensive team, posting a stingy 1.81 goals against average, while the Penguins rank fifth, at 2.32.
Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Matt Cullen and Nick Bonino may be the best quartet of centers in the league. Both Crosby and Malkin have scored a Conn Smythe Trophy as the postseason’s most valuable player. They may add another, as Malkin leads all playoff scorers with 24 points and Crosby trails him with 20. The Predators will be challenged to counter that since they lost their No. 1 center, Johansen, to a thigh injury. But left wing Filip Forsberg has had a breakout postseason, with eight goals.
The Penguins cannot match the Predators’ depth on defense. Top defenseman Kris Letang has been out since February with a herniated disk in his neck, and Pittsburgh has been hard pressed to keep anyone on its blue line healthy. Frantic trade pickups have plugged leaks that seem to sprout at every turn.
The Predators have arguably the best defensive corps in the N. H. L. Roman Josi has emerged as a composed leader and a complete player after the trade of his former partner, Shea Weber. The return in that deal, P. K. Subban, has gone from flashy Norris Trophy winner to steady two-way player, reining in, rounding out and refining his game for the benefit of the team. The undersized but competitive Ryan Ellis has become an asset at both ends of the ice. In the conference finals, Mattias Ekholm assisted on three of four game-winners, and he and Subban have stifled opposing top lines throughout the playoffs.
Pekka Rinne, 34, has unequivocally spearheaded the Predators’ unlikely run, with a 1.70 goals against average, a .941 save percentage, 12 wins and two shutouts. He is also probably the only two-way player in net this postseason: He has recorded three assists and provided his team with a seventh defenseman by artfully handling the puck.
The Penguins faced questions all season about the fate of goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, the subject of rampant trade speculation. Fleury, the franchise’s career leader in wins, ceded his net to Matt Murray last year in the playoffs, but hanging on to Fleury proved wise. After Murray was injured before the first game of the playoffs, Fleury won nine games, including two shutouts, to propel Pittsburgh to the conference finals. But after a 5-1 loss in Game 3 against Ottawa, Murray returned to the top of the depth chart and has compiled a 1.35 goals against average and a .946 save percentage in five games.
Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena has become one of the most distinct and revered home arenas in the league. The Predators have lost only one game at home in the postseason. The showmanship, rowdiness and country music the city is known for permeate the atmosphere. During the playoffs, stars of country music have performed the national anthem, including Trisha Yearwood, Luke Bryan, Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum and Carrie Underwood, Fisher’s wife. Tim McGraw’s “I Like It, I Love It” accentuates every goal. The fans have their own songs as well, adding taunts like “It’s all your fault!” Outside the arena, Nashvillians can partake in an unusual catharsis: taking a sledgehammer to an old car with the opposing team’s logo painted on it.
Seldom does a general manager last two decades with one team, and much less often does he become the most recognizable figure of that team. But such is the case with David Poile, Nashville’s architect since Day 1. He is the longest-tenured general manager in the top four North American sports leagues. He guided the Predators to prominence in the face of relocation rumors, just as he did the Washington Capitals in the 1980s and 1990s. He departed Washington in 1997, and the Capitals would make their lone Stanley Cup finals appearance the next year. In Nashville, Poile’s teams have reached the playoffs 10 times in the last 13 seasons, but he finally gets to soak in the pageantry of the Stanley Cup finals for the first time.
Among the Predators, only their captain, Fisher, has finals experience. He was a member of the 2007 Senators, who fell to Anaheim in five games. Only Subban and wing James Neal had reached the conference finals before this season. But Coach Peter Laviolette is appearing in his third finals with his third franchise, having won a Cup in Carolina in 2006 and having reached the finals with Philadelphia in 2010.
Beyond their multitude of returning players and coaches from last year’s championship, the Penguins have five players on the ice who will have appeared in the finals three or more times, including this one.
