San Jose Sharks coach Peter DeBoer, foreground, draws on a white board during practice on Sunday, the day before Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final.Charles LeClaire
This is the sort of matchup the hockey world hopes for when East meets West in the Stanley Cup final.
Two highly skilled teams that have won with offensive flair more than dead-puck defence. Two evenly matched teams loaded with superstars – including several who have yet to win it all – and compelling storylines.
And an intriguing clash of styles on top of it all.
The ratings for the playoffs are down, in Canada and the United States, but the NHL won big in terms of watch-ability when the Pittsburgh Penguins and San Jose Sharks advanced out of the conference finals. Hockey purists will get everything they dreamed of in this series, including a lot of goals and a lot of games.
It will be a stunner if it ends before Game 6.
The pace of play is also guaranteed to be high.
"This is going to be some of the fastest hockey any of us have ever played," Penguins captain Sidney Crosby told reporters gathered in Pittsburgh on Sunday for media day.
The Cup final has been a letdown the past four years in large part thanks to the imbalance of power in the conferences. The West was notably – and sometimes significantly – better than the East for most of the past decade, which has meant Rounds 2 and 3 in the Western Conference have typically had the best showdowns.
It isn't a coincidence that the L.A. Kings and Chicago Blackhawks – the two Western powerhouses now hampered by some cap woes – won five of the past six Stanley Cups.
But the East finally made some inroads this year, producing three plausible Cup contenders: Washington, Tampa Bay and – after a coaching change in December – Pittsburgh.
Three things have helped make the Penguins a threat again: (a) an up-tempo style introduced by coach Mike Sullivan that plays to the strengths of top defenceman Kris Letang, (b) a very balanced attack with Phil Kessel dropped to a so-called third line that has been the most dangerous line in the league of late and (c) the infusion of team speed from unheralded newcomers such as Bryan Rust and Conor Sheary up front.
It's proved a difficult combination for their competition to handle. But this deep and hungry San Jose team is also their most formidable challenge yet.
Key No. 1: The matchup down the middle
Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin vs. Joe Thornton and Logan Couture
Those were a lot of positive words on Pittsburgh without a mention of the Penguins two star centres. Crosby and Malkin are the NHL's top producers – in terms of points a game – in both the regular season and playoffs the past decade so they'll factor hugely in the outcome in this series.
Either one is capable of breaking out in a bigger way than they have so far in the postseason and pushing themselves into the lead in the Conn Smythe Trophy conversation.
Working against them will be the Sharks first line of Tomas Hertl, (Big) Joe Thornton and (Little) Joe Pavelski. They've confounded opponents in the postseason with a deadly combination of being able to make something out of very little offensively and spending very little time in their own zone, owing in part to the fact all three are natural centres and comfortable in every zone.
No line has been tasked with assignments as tough as theirs and thrived as they have in these playoffs, making this trio the backbone of San Jose's (long-awaited) Cup hopes. But can they continue to dominate, and control nearly 55 per cent of possession, if they're up against a noted possession dominator in Crosby?
There's no simple answer to that question, but the resulting battles should make for wonderful theatre.
Key No. 2: The thin blueline
Kris Letang vs. Brent Burns and Marc-Édouard Vlasic
The Penguins have the best record in the NHL since Christmas: a 44-18-5 run that includes 12-6 in the postseason. That success is far from a fluke, but it's also hard not to look at their defence core and forecast some problems up against the Sharks.
San Jose's a big team. The Sharks have seven regulars listed at 220-plus pounds compared to zero for the Penguins. While it's true that the NHL has embraced small more in recent years, especially on the blueline, this is a big part of that clash of styles mentioned previously.
The Sharks have players such as Thornton, Hertl, Joel Ward and even Burns who can use their size and reach very effectively in the offensive zone on the boards and in front of the net, and it remains to be seen if the Penguins relatively no-name defence – beyond Letang – has an answer to that.
With Trevor Daley likely done for the year because of a broken ankle, the Penguins blueline has Brian Dumoulin – known in some circles as Who-moulin? – as its No. 2 option followed by Ben Lovejoy and Olli Maatta, all of whom have struggled at times in the playoffs. That's not the top-four depth we're accustomed to seeing from a Cup winner, and it lacks the ultra-steady presence of someone such as Vlasic who the Sharks will lean on to nullify Crosby.
On paper, there's no bigger mismatch between these teams than in their depth on D – and Letang can't play 40 minutes a night.
Key No. 3: Inexperience in goal
Matt Murray vs. Martin Jones
Young goaltenders in these situations are like a box of chocolates: you never what you're going to get. So making a prediction as to what will unfold in the crease over the next four to seven games feels a bit foolhardy.
What we know is both of these young Canadian goalies – we'll stretch the definition of young to include 26-year-old Jones – have been pegged as good No. 1s for a while, and this season has turned into their first shot to really prove it. They've both got the tall, lanky frame that's dominating NHL creases right now, although quite a few goalie coaches and analysts seem to favour Jones's serene style over Murray's athleticism. Jones is also the older, and more experienced, of the two – for what that's worth.
What this matchup really is is further confirmation teams don't need to plow a huge amount of money into their netminders to get competent goaltending. This is the biggest wild card in the series, as either goalie could implode early and be replaced by their backup.
The prediction
Barring exceptional heroics from Crosby, Malkin or Murray, San Jose is the favourite here. The Sharks have beaten some great teams already with their combination of size, skill and depth, and it says here they will again. But it'll be close.
Sharks in six.