The Stanley Cup Final between the Nashville Predators and Pittsburgh Penguins will begin on Monday. The Pittsburgh Penguins are trying to become the first team since the Detroit Red Wings of 1997-1998 to repeat as Stanley Cup Champions. It just doesn’t happen very often.
Nashville is in their first ever Stanley Cup Final. Here is a look at a couple big storylines to follow for this series.
Pittsburgh’s Offense vs Nashville’s defense
This is arguably the biggest storyline of the series as it strength vs strength for both teams. The Penguins have the best group of forwards that the Predators defense will see and they were the highest scoring team in the league this past season. Pittsburgh has gone up against some really good defenses so far in these playoffs, especially the Capitals, but Nashville’s is the best that they’re going to see.
On the top pair, the Predators have Mattias Ekholm and P.K. Subban and they’ll likely be getting the matchup of Sidney Crosby’s line. Subban has been getting most of his minutes these playoffs against other teams top lines and they have done a marvelous job. In the series against Chicago, they helped limit Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, and Artemi Panarin to just five points combined in four games. Against the Blues, Tarasenko only had three points in six games. Stopping Crosby will be their biggest test yet as he has 20 points these playoffs, which is second in the league only behind Evgeni Malkin and it looks like Conor Sheary may have awoken after a great performance in game seven on Crosby’s wing.
Nashville’s second pairing would be a top pairing on many teams across the league as they have Roman Josi and Ryan Ellis on it. Ellis has been nothing short of outstanding through three rounds as he has four goals and 11 points in 16 playoff games. On the other side, they have Josi who’s one of the most underrated defenseman in the league. He has five goals and 10 points so far through three rounds and rocked a 53.0 CF% this season which is outstanding. He’s a fast skater and one of the best puck-moving defenseman in the league. He’s also amazing defensively in his own zone. Going up against the Evgeni Malkin line with Phil Kessel will be no easy task for that pairing as Malkin has 24 points so far in the playoffs. It’s hard to pin these top two pairings in their own zone but if the Penguins can do it and gain some sufficent zone time, they’ll start to potentially wear them down a bit.
Can Pittsburgh’s defense continue to hold?
One of the biggest surprises, if not the biggest surprise of these playoffs has been how the Penguins defense continues to play well despite missing their number one defenseman in Kris Letang. It’s been defense by committee as the minutes have been spread out very evenly all playoffs for all defenseman that play. Players have had to elevate their game and that includes Brian Dumoulin who’s been playing through a back injury and Olli Maatta who’s been mostly rock solid for most of these playoffs. Maatta’s had a couple rough patches such as not skating well enough in game one against Ottawa when Bobby Ryan scored in overtime but other then that, he’s been good.
Trevor Daley didn’t have nearly as good of a year as he did last year as his CF% was 46.1 this year which was way off from 53.7 last year. Since he came back from injury, he’s looked more like he did last year as his skating seems to be a lot better and he’s moving the puck better as well. Getting Daley back to that level would be a added bonus for Pittsburgh as they need all the help they can get with Letang being hurt.
Justin Schultz is playing hurt but having him in the lineup is massive regardless as he’s the closest Pittsburgh has got to Letang. This unit as a whole has a tough task with stopping some of Nashville’s speedy wingers such as Filip Forsberg, who’s one of the more underrated goal scorers in the league. He has eight goals and 15 points which leads the team. James Neal is also another one of those great wingers that Nashville has and he has five goals this playoff run. Slowing both of those players down needs to happen if the Penguins want a chance to repeat.
There’s also some depth players that Nashville has that have been good such as Colton Sissons who had a hat trick in game six against the Ducks. Having Ron Hainsey not lead the Penguins in ice time or come close to doing so needs to happen this series as he looks like he’s fatigued a lot when he’s out there and has caused numerous turnovers. Peter Laviolette will want to have his top wingers out there whenever Hainsey is since he’s a lot slower then the other defenseman that the Penguins dress.
Prediction
This series is going to be amazing to watch as it’s two teams that play a fun entertaining brand of hockey. Pittsburgh’s depth down the middle is too much for Nashville to handle and that’s where I think the Predators will lose this series. It’s going seven games but the Penguins will be the first team since the 1997-1998 Red Wings to win back-to-back Stanley Cups.
Penguins in seven.