Congrats NHL Champs Pittsburgh Penguins!

[samosa4u]

Here are my thoughts on Penguins winning the cup:

First off, let me discuss the disallowed Nashville goal in the 2nd period. Now although I was rooting for the Penguins, I am going to admit that it was a bad call. The ref clearly lost sight of the puck and blew the play dead when he shouldn't have. It was clear that the other refs weren't happy with this call either. Now there is just one question I have: did the Penguins players hear the whistle and stop playing? Did the Penguins goalie hear the whistle and stop playing? Because if they did stop playing, then allowing the goal would have been really bad. Either way, this will always be a controversial call and fans will discuss this for a long time.

It seemed to me that the refs tried to make up for this mistake afterwards by awarding Nashville power plays. They were given at least 4 PPs, including a 5 vs. 3 opportunity, however they failed to score a single goal. Penguins weren't given a single PP the whole night. Furthermore, Nashville didn't score a single goal in game 5 either and Pekka Rinne couldn't stop an inflatable beach volleyball from getting past him in Pittsburgh - all of this is the reason why the team failed to win.

Now here is what surprised me: the Penguins won the cup without their #1 defenseman (Kris Letang). Imagine how Nashville would have looked like without Subban. What about an Ottawa team without Erik Karlsson or LA Kings without Drew Doughty? All those goals scored against the Penguins were due to Letang not being there, and yet they still found a way to win. This is very impressive.

Now the only thing which I didn't understand is why did the NHL award Crosby the Conn Smythe trophy? Was he the best player on his team during this playoff run? I don't think so. Now I am not trying to take anything away from him here. He was concussed (again!) and yet he came back after only a few days rest and fought like a true warrior, however, did he deserve it more than Malkin and rookie forward Jake Guentzel?

Anyways, congrats to the people of Pittsburgh. First you had Lemieux and Jagr win you two cups, and then Crosby and Malkin won you another three. You guys are very lucky to have gotten such amazing players in the draft. This is a really exciting time to be a hockey fan in the city of Pittsburgh.

And to the Nashville fans, you guys have been great. It's great to see hockey getting some love in the south. I know many of you went nuts last night and I don't blame you. You guys came so close, so this is definitely something that will sting for a long time. Anyhow, you have a very deadly team and I won't be surprised if you win it all next year.