Inside Scoop: 2016 Stanley Cup Memories, Part 1

Members from the 2016 Stanley Cup Championship team - Matt Murray, Bryan Rust, and Conor Sheary - sat down with host Josh Getzoff to discuss some of their favorite memories from the run ahead of AT&T SportsNet's re-broadcasts of the four victories from that Final. Game 1 will air on Monday, while Game 2 will air on Wednesday.
Here are some of the highlights from the conversation, which covers through Games 1 and 2 of the 2016 Stanley Cup Final against San Jose. Part 2 will cover the remainder of the Final.
To view all 2016 Stanley Cup Final rewind content, click here.

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* Looking back on it, it truly is remarkable the path that these three took that season before ending it as Stanley Cup Champions.
They attended development camp in the summer before participating in the rookie tournament that fall. They all went to Penguins training camp before heading back to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, where their first game of the season was scheduled for Oct. 10 in Providence.
It was at that morning's video meeting that the boys quickly learned that their new head coach, Mike Sullivan, meant business.
"Somebody showed up late to the meeting, maybe like 30 seconds or a minute late to the meeting. And he just went off," Rust recalled. "That instilled it in our head that this guy means business and he's just so detail-oriented and if he says something, that's the way he wants it to be. He isn't just trying to say it just to say it. Ever since then we've tried to follow suit and stay in line."
"I think the exact quote is, 'Where's your (expletive) watch?'" Sheary chimed in with a laugh. "Then he went on with the meeting."
The three of them agreed that they all appreciated Sullivan's honest, no-nonsense approach.
"I think a lot of guys respond well to that," Murray said. "You know exactly what you're getting. You don't have to overthink anything. He tells you like it is. Definitely simplifies everything and you definitely know where he stands in that regard. Very intense guy and definitely a guy you didn't want to show up 30 seconds late for a meeting after that first time (laughs). We learned that."
A fun aside: on the morning of Dec. 12, Sullivan received a call from Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford offering him the position of head coach of Pittsburgh. And while Sullivan did not hesitate to accept, he still had some unfinished business with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
The players gathered for that morning's video meeting - all on time! - and the coaching staff conducted the meeting, business as usual, to get the team ready for the game. At the conclusion of the meeting Sullivan had one final message to his club: that this would be his final message to his club. The players, including Murray, Rust and Sheary, all gave Sullivan a standing ovation and cheered.
"It was emotional," Sullivan said of the moment. "It was a really nice feeling. They were a great group of players down there. They were so gracious when I told them the news. It was really a neat feeling as a coach."

* Eventually, all three of them joined Sullivan in Pittsburgh, albeit at different times. Murray and Sheary actually had their first call-up together just three days later on Dec. 15, taking a car service from Wilkes-Barre to Boston - where Sheary made his NHL debut against his hometown team while Murray served as the backup goalie.
"It was cool for Shears, that was his first game," Murray said. "In his hometown, too. I still remember that. I didn't play that night, I was on the bench. But that was my first taste of the NHL. Those are the kinds of moments you remember."
They all spent a lot more time in the NHL towards the end of the year, joining a few other call-ups at the Hyatt House in Southside that they nicknamed 'The Dorm.'
READ: Second-year Pens built bond during last year's postseason (published April 28, 2017)
READ: Murray and Rust reflect on growing up together (published Nov. 20, 2019)
"There was like eight of us in there," Sheary said. "We hung out with the same crew in Pitt that we did in Wilkes. We were pretty much all living together in the Hyatt House. That was cool. We'd go to dinner together and stuff. Our girlfriends at the time, now wives, they're all close and they were in the hotel as well. It was like a little community for us."
During that time, they took a lot of trips to the Cheesecake Factory - about 400, in Rust's estimation.
"They do have like a 6,000-page menu, so you had a lot of things to choose from," Getzoff said.
"You can get something new every time even though I probably got the same thing I always do," Rust said. "There were these chicken tacos that I always liked because I thought they were probably relatively healthy compared to the rest of the menu (laughs)."
From a hockey standpoint, as Sheary said, they knew Sullivan's system better than most of the players in Pittsburgh.
"So for us, we were just going out and playing the same game we've been playing all year," he said. "It was just fun for all of us. We were hanging out with all the guys, all the rookies, all the guys living together. It was an awesome time."

* I thought it was interesting that they said the first time they truly realized they were going to the Stanley Cup Final was during the Stanley Cup Media Day held on May 29 at PPG Paints Arena, the day before Game 1.
Normally media availability is held in the locker room, but for that podiums and different TV sets were spread around the concourse, which had been carpeted and decorated by the NHL.
"I would say the one moment where I was like wow, we're going to the Final is the Media Day," Murray said. "It's unlike any other media you've had to deal with. That was a little bit intimidating and a little bit like wow, this is a big deal."
At that point, Sheary chimed in with a story from that afternoon.
"We split up into two groups," he said. "I was in the first group to do media. The rookies obviously stay on the ice and clean up the pucks after practice. So I'm up on the concourse and Rusty and Tom Kuhnhackl are doing breakaways on each other while they're picking up the pucks. All our team and all the media are looking down on them like jeez, these guys probably don't even know where they are, they're just having fun out there. it was so funny, though, how many guys were watching and they probably had no idea."
"Just us trying to be kids again," Rust said with a laugh.
For Rust, thinking back, he said he was loose and didn't feel a lot of pressure because he didn't know how hard it was to get there.
"I was like ehh, it's year one, we have a good team, if you've got a good team you've got a good chance to do it," he said. "Now that we've been in the league a few more years, it's really hard. I think not knowing really how hard it was back then took a little bit of the pressure off. Off me personally, at least."
* All three players made a big impact in Game 1, with Rust and Sheary each scoring goals and Murray making 24 saves in Pittsburgh's 3-2 win.
A lot of the conversation about that game revolved around their current Penguins teammate, Patrick Marleau, who was on the other side with San Jose at that time.
"For me, I actually totally forgot until I was Googling it this morning and realizing it, but I got a bone to pick with Patty Marleau," Rust joked. "He's the one who got me up high and knocked me out with a concussion in Game 1. I totally forgot it was him, so I've got a bone to pick with him when we get back in the locker room."
Marleau, the longtime Sharks legend who made his Stanley Cup Final debut after 165 playoff games with San Jose that night, scored a pretty wraparound goal on Murray to tie the game at 2-2 before Nick Bonino eventually got the go-ahead goal for Pittsburgh.
"I'm trying to picture it," Murray said. "I don't know if I can remember the exact play. I'll have to ask Patty about that one. I just remember they came back and tied it 2-2 and then Bones scored late with a couple of minutes left. I just remember our resilience, I guess. We gave up a two-goal lead but we didn't back down, we kept playing hard. I think the third period, if I remember correctly, we were by far the better team and finally got rewarded for it. Bones got a pass in the slot and buried one and we were able to get the job done in Game 1.
"I was sitting in the quiet room with (assistant athletic trainer Pat Steidle) and we both just started screaming," Rust said before adding with a laugh, "From the sounds of the conversation, Patty Marleau is going to have some questions to answer by the end of this."
"I think I got him back in like Game 4, maybe?" Murray said. "I think I stopped him on a breakaway."

* Sheary scored the overtime winner in Game 2 to give the Penguins a 2-0 series lead.
"I think you can see it on all of our faces - everybody is just about as fired up as you can be short of winning the entire thing after that game," Rust said. "We had a lot of momentum, we were up 2-0, we were feeling good."
That being said, it was important for them to stay grounded and even-keeled - and they did that by just trying to be normal kids away from the rink.
"We didn't want to get caught up too much in what was going on," Murray said. "And honestly, I think the fact that we had each other in that Hyatt House, for me it helped keep me calm and gave you something to do to keep your mind off what's happening at the rink."