PITTSBURGH – If you were to go only by the scores you might think this is one of the worst Stanley Cup finals in history.
5-3, 4-1, 5-1, 4-1.
Except that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Through four games the Nashville Predators and Pittsburgh Penguins have given us exactly what you want out of a championship series. They’ve both provided us reasons to believe they’re on the verge of lifting the Cup. They’ve also dropped a few hints of doubt.
As we return to PPG Paints Arena for Game 5 on Thursday night, there is legitimate tension and intrigue with three games – at most – to play before summer.
Ask yourself: Who is going to win this thing?
"We’ll see over this next little bit," said Sidney Crosby, when asked Wednesday if his Penguins team has a special winning quality to it. "But what got us here is we’ve found ways, that we believe in each other. We’ve gone through things like injuries and stuff like that. We’ve been told how hard it is to even get to this position, so I think the fact that we’ve gotten here we’ve overcome certain things.
"We’ve got to find a way to get two more wins here."
The series went to another level in Nashville. Games 3 and 4 were fast and physical. Electric. They saw the Predators produce two victories to tie it up 2-2, but Pittsburgh had its strongest showing so far on Monday night.
Mike Sullivan is asking his wingers to abandon the stretch pass in favour of coming back closer to the defencemen. The Penguins want to re-establish their fast transition game after getting hemmed in the defensive zone for stretches and being outshot by an average of eight shots per game.
There have been unlikely heroes – Pittsburgh’s Jake Guentzel (4) and Nashville’s Frederick Gaudreau (3) are the leading goal-scorers in the final – and plenty of big moments.
Heck, there were eight breakaways during the last two games alone.
To review: You had Nashville erasing a 3-0 deficit, and losing, in a strange Game 1. You had the ridiculous Pontus Aberg goal and Pittsburgh’s late offensive explosion in Game 2. The shift to Nashville saw a scene unlike any other, with a crowd of 50,000 outside Bridgestone Arena for Game 3 and a raucous 17,283 inside to watch the Preds climb back in the series. Game 4 featured Crosby’s lovely goal and Pekka Rinne’s frantic "soccer goalie" save.
Now the real history will be written.
"Amazing," said Rinne. "Obviously you don’t want to look back yet. Been playing for a long time, never had this opportunity. It means everything to me right now. Just living my dream right now."
[relatedlinks]
Nashville has enjoyed a territorial edge with 55.6 per cent of the even-strength shot attempts and an 83-64 advantage in scoring chances, according to naturalstattrick.com. The gap is narrower in high-danger chances – 33-26 for the Preds – in part because the Penguins have two of the best centres in the world.
Crosby and Evgeni Malkin have each been on the wrong end of the possession game in this series, but are still producing offensively. Only the smallest window is required.
"Their team is so dangerous," said Predators defenceman Roman Josi. "They play with a lot of speed. Yeah, you really have to be aware of them for 60 minutes."
The heat has been turned up in Pittsburgh on Phil Kessel, now six games without a goal, and to a lesser degree goaltender Matt Murray, who is almost certain to start Game 5 despite some renewed Marc-Andre Fleury chatter.
Kessel had eight shot attempts in his last outing and believes it’s only a matter of time.
"It’s his time to score," Malkin said of his teammate. "We play at home, it’s our building, our emotion. Just main people we need big game. It’s how teams win."
[snippet ID=3322139]
Time is running short on an electric 2016-17 campaign for the NHL.
Within a week, there’ll either be another championship in Pittsburgh – one that would give Crosby and Malkin more than the Mario Lemieux/Jaromir Jagr teams – or a first for Nashville. That would also be the first for P.K. Subban and Rinne and veteran captain Mike Fisher and … literally every player on the roster.
"They’ve come through three tough teams and so have we," said Fisher. "We’re all here for a reason. Part of that’s because of hunger, that desire. For us, it’s the first Cup. At the end of the day, everyone wants that. That’s what we all as kids dream about.
"Regardless of how many, that’s a special thing, and it means a lot. That’s what it’s going to come down to here in the next few days."
May the best team pass around the trophy at the end of this compelling best-of-three.