It was the seventh straight one-goal game to open a Cup Final. It was the sixth straight time the winning goal was scored in the last five minutes to open a Cup Final. It was a great game that could lead to a great series.
"It felt like a Stanley Cup Final game, that's for sure," Sharks defenseman Brenden Dillon said.
For much of the game, it seemed like the fast-forward button was stuck on the DVR, like the action was set at 1.2-times speed. How fast was it? Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, a two-time Hart Trophy winner and finalist again this season, said he was "trying to keep up with the pace" and that "it was another level, as to be expected here."
Both teams played their game for stretches. Coach Mike Sullivan wanted the Penguins to play fast and fearless. He wanted them to dictate the terms and not feel out their opponents, and they did, dominating the first period and taking a 2-0 lead. But the Sharks carried the play in the second and tied it 2-2, getting pucks deep and grinding down low before the Penguins pressed again in the third.
Both teams' top lines drove play: Crosby, Conor Sheary and Patric Hornqvist for Pittsburgh, and Joe Thornton, Joe Pavelski and Tomas Hertl for San Jose. Both teams' top defensemen made an impact: Letang for Pittsburgh, Burns for San Jose. One team won, and the other left feeling disappointed, not discouraged.
"We feel we could have won that game," Burns said.
The biggest question now is why the Penguins were able to play their game more often than the Sharks were, and whether they can continue that over the course of the series or whether the Sharks can impose their will.
The Penguins made the Sharks look slow in the first period and parts of the third. As San Jose coach Peter DeBoer said, the Sharks spent too much time standing around and watching, turning pucks over, giving up odd-man rushes and breakaways. If it wasn't for a great backcheck by Burns to break up a Carl Hagelin chance at the end of the first and big saves by Jones in the first and third, the score might have been lopsided.
"We obviously weren't prepared," Sharks center Logan Couture said. "It doesn't take me to say that. You guys saw it yourselves. It was ugly. Tough to explain. We need to be better than that."
Experience was no excuse. Though only one Sharks skater had played in the Cup Final before, forward Dainius Zubrus, several Penguins were making their Cup Final debuts too, including the forwards who gave them a 2-0 lead: rookies Sheary and Bryan Rust.