B2B: East 2.0

This article is an abbreviated excerpt from the book: Pittsburgh Penguins Back-to-Back Champions. This article is part 11 of a 12-part series complimenting AT&T SportsNet's re-airing of the 2016 and '17 Stanley Cup Final victories by the Penguins. Click here for AT&T SportsNet's re-air schedule.
Click here for 2017 Stanley Cup Final rewind content.

The puck dropped in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final between Pittsburgh and Ottawa on May 13 at PPG Paints Arena. The Penguins had every opportunity to grab the lead as the Senators took four penalties in the opening period. But Pittsburgh's power play went 0 for 4, which included 45 seconds worth of 5-on-3 play. Instead, the Senators struck first in the series when Jean-Gabriel Pageau tallied late in the first period. Ottawa goaltender Craig Anderson played brilliantly throughout the game and stymied the Penguins with 27 saves. Pittsburgh managed to tie the game with a late third-period goal from Evgeni Malkin and the game would require overtime. In the extra session Bobby Ryan chipped the puck past Bryan Rust and then outraced Olli Maatta for a breakaway. Ryan's backhand shot gave the Senators a 1-0 series lead.
The Penguins faced a serious threat entering Game 2 two days later. Dropping the first two games of the series at home was a very real possibility, and would put Pittsburgh in dire circumstances. Anderson continued his spectacular goaltending play, stopping Malkin on a one-time chance in the slot in the opening period. Not to be outdone, Marc-Andre Fleury made a couple of highlight reel stops of his own. He made a split pad save on Mark Stone in the waning seconds of the first period. He also denied Ryan Dzingel and Stone, again, on the doorstep in the second frame.
The game entered the third period scoreless. As the game clock dropped under seven minutes the Penguins had to wonder if they would ever solve Anderson. The frustration was boiling over on the bench as Malkin and Phil Kessel had a demonstrative verbal exchange. That disagreement only seemed to fuel the duo. Malkin gained the blue line and drew two Senators players to him. Malkin pushed a pass across to Kessel, who had space high in the zone. Kessel's initial snap shot was blocked by Pageau, but the rebound ended up back on Kessel's stick. This time the puck evaded Pageau and Anderson to break the zeroes.
Pittsburgh 1, Ottawa 0

There was still 6:55 remaining on the clock. The Penguins leaned on Fleury for the remainder of the game. The revived franchise goaltender made five saves, three of which came in the final minute of regulation. Kyle Turris ripped a one-timer with 35 seconds left. Fleury got his shoulder on the shot and the puck squirted free. Fleury, in a desperation move, threw his body to his left and blindly denied Mike Hoffman on the rebound. That save salvaged the game. Pittsburgh evened the series at 1-1.
Fleury made 23 saves in the game to record his franchise-record 10th career shutout, and second shutout in his last three games played. The game was one of Fleury's finest in his 12 seasons in a Penguins uniform. Though it was unknown at the time, Fleury's game-saving (perhaps series-saving) stop on Hoffman would be his final stop in Pittsburgh as a Penguin.
Also unknown at the time was that a 138-second stretch in Game 3 would cause a dynamic shift that would forever alter the remainder of the Penguins' title defense, and bring the end of an era for one of the team's most beloved players.
On April 11, 2007, a 22-year-old Marc-Andre Fleury played in his first career NHL playoff game in Ottawa against the Senators. He received a rude awakening from Ottawa, being challenged early and allowing a goal just 97 seconds into the game. Fleury surrendered six goals in the game and was replaced by backup Jocelyn Thibault. The Senators would go on to play in the Stanley Cup Final that season.
A decade later, Fleury again graced the ice surface in Ottawa for a playoff contest in what would become the bookends of his playoff career for the Penguins. Unfortunately for him, the 2017 edition at Canadian Tire Centre was very reminiscent of the 2007 version.
Fleury had stonewalled the Senators in Game 2 in Pittsburgh, posting a 23-save shutout. But it took a mere 48 seconds for Ottawa to breach Fleury in Game 3. Hoffman found a deflected puck below the goal line. Before Fleury could reach his post, Hoffman banked the puck off of the netminder's pad and into the goal.
The Penguins shook off the early deficit and responded by generating their own chances, but halfway through the opening period the bottom fell out.
Marc Methot would begin the onslaught. He jumped into the circle and took a pass from Ryan. Methot's shot was stopped by Fleury's facemask, but the puck then bounced off of the skate of Ian Cole and fell behind Fleury, who knocked it over the line while backpedaling. Derick Brassard made it 3-0 Ottawa with an easy tap-in following a Clarke MacArthur setup. Just 24 seconds later a Zack Smith wraparound would increase the advantage to 4-0 Ottawa.
The Senators scored three goals in a span of 2:18 minutes, and Fleury allowed four goals on nine shots. Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan walked to the end of the bench and nodded to Matt Murray. The Penguins goaltender nodded back and said, "Okay." Murray put on his goalie mask, grabbed his stick and took over in the crease.
The Senators would cruise to a 5-1 victory and take a 2-1 series lead. But just like the 2016 Eastern Conference Final, the biggest question surrounding the Penguins was which goaltender they would turn to in Game 4. In the previous season, Murray started the series, but was pulled in Game 4. The team made the switch to Fleury for Game 5. Following an overtime loss, Murray got the call for Game 6 and led the Penguins for the remainder of their Stanley Cup championship run. The Penguins were now in the reverse situation.
Murray usurped Fleury as the team's No. 1 goaltender during the 2016-17 regular season, earning the majority of the starts despite missing portions of the season due to various injuries. Murray had boasted better numbers across the board, but he hadn't started a game in six weeks after suffering a hamstring injury during warmups of Game 1 in the First Round. He was certainly fresh, though a little rusty.
Meanwhile, Fleury had played brilliantly during the Penguins' postseason run. Against Columbus Fleury faced an average of 38.8 shots per game during the five-game series, including 51 in the decisive Game 5 victory. Fleury was also masterful in the Second Round against Washington. Despite getting outplayed drastically in the series, Pittsburgh was able to prevail mostly because of the play of Fleury. His best performance came in the do-or-die Game 7 when he stopped all 29 shots against to post a shutout - one of those saves with the butt end of his stick on Alex Ovechkin in the slot.
Ultimately, the decision would fell on the shoulders of Sullivan.
"It was the most difficult decision I ever made as a coach, and probably will ever make," said Sullivan, who admitted he lost sleep over the decision. "Marc had been so good for our team and he's such a great person. Same with Matt. He had been so good prior to him getting hurt. It was a really, really difficult decision."
Sullivan avoided answering the media's inquiries both in the aftermath of the Game 3 loss and the following day at the team's practice. But on the morning of Game 4, he made his decision. The Penguins would start Murray in Game 4.

There were two major factors in his decision. One is that Fleury's play had been digressing. Although Fleury had posted two shutouts in his previous three games, overall he was 2-4 in his past six contests, and had allowed 15 goals in those four losses. Sullivan attributed Fleury's decline to fatigue from a heavy workload.
The second factor was the nature of the opponent and how each goalie matched up against a team like Ottawa. Fleury plays his best when he's facing a lot of shots and is relying on instinct - which is why he was so successful against Columbus and Washington, two teams that like to produce a high shot count. But the Senators played a defensively disciplined game under head coach Guy Boucher. Ottawa liked to sit back, clog the neutral zone with a 1-3-1 trap and then counterattack off of turnovers. That style of play leads to lower shot totals and long durations of inactivity for an opponent's goaltender. Those lapsing stretches don't play well to Fleury's strengths. But they do for Murray.
"The nature of the series plus the fact that (Fleury) had started so many games in a row and his numbers started to trend down a little bit were the major factors that had an impact on why I chose the route that I did," Sullivan said.
Murray would handle the goaltending duties for the remainder of the playoffs, but Fleury played an integral role in the Penguins' championship repeat. The Penguins likely wouldn't have survived without him. But Fleury's run in Pittsburgh had drawn to a close. His 23-save effort in Game 2 in Pittsburgh was his final game in his adopted city. And the 12:52 minutes he played in Game 3 were his last as a Penguin. Fleury remained a leader in the locker room for the rest of the run. When the Penguins eventually repeated as champions, Fleury poetically handed the Stanley Cup to Murray in a literal and symbolic passing of the torch.
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In Game 4 Murray made his first playoff start since his Stanley Cup-winning performance the previous June in Game 6 of the Final against San Jose. And he rewarded his coach's faith in him by stopping 24 of 26 shots against in a 3-2 Pittsburgh victory to even the series at 2-2.
Murray's job really was to hold the line. The Penguins scored the opening three goals of the contest and held a 3-0 lead halfway through the game. Murray fended off a push by the Senators to preserve the win.
The biggest contributors to the Penguins' offense were their defensemen. Olli Maatta and Brian Dumoulin each tallied their first goals of the playoffs in the win. The defense stepped up again in Game 5 with Maatta, again, and Trevor Daley posting goals in Pittsburgh's 7-0 rout to take a 3-2 series lead and pull within one victory of returning to the Stanley Cup Final.
The Penguins' beleaguered defensive corps had been bruised and battered for much of the regular season. Their reward was to play the entire playoffs and attempt a Stanley Cup title defense without their leading stalwart on the blue line in Kris Letang. When the Penguins won the Cup in 2016, Letang was an irreplaceable force, logging a team-best 28:56 minutes of ice time, playing in all situations and contributing on both sides of the puck.
In Letang's absence it was up to Dumoulin, Ron Hainsey, Maatta, Justin Schultz, Daley and Ian Cole to absorb his minutes. None of those players were built to handle the minutes Letang played so the coaching staff decided that an even distribution would be the best course of attack. Under assistant coach Jacques Martin's guidance and calculations, the group evenly allotted ice time throughout the six-man unit. Dumoulin led the charge with 21:59 minutes per game, which wasn't much higher than Cole's 18:50.
Though they were undermanned, the Penguins defensive corps managed to fight, scrape and claw their way through games. And during the most critical portion of the playoffs - Games 3-6 of the Eastern Conference Final - Pittsburgh would be without its top two offensive defenseman - Letang and Schultz.
"Our defense group is, in a lot of ways, the unsung heroes of this team," Sullivan said. "I think they fly under the radar for obvious reasons. We have a lot of dynamic forwards that make a lot of great plays through the course of games that a lot of times become the storyline. But this team doesn't have success if that group of defensemen doesn't play the way the they've played throughout the course of this playoffs."
The Penguins looked to close out the series in Game 6 at Ottawa. The contest had a promising start after Malkin gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead early in the second period with a ridiculous one-man effort. But Ryan tied the game with a power-play goal and Hoffman gave the Senators a 2-1 lead just 94 seconds into the third period. Pittsburgh threw an astounding 46 shots on goal, including a franchise-record 23 in a single period, but could only muster one goal on Anderson. The Senators somehow survived to force a do-or-die Game 7 battle in Pittsburgh.

For the second year in a row the Penguins and the city of Pittsburgh would host a decisive, winner-takes-all contest for the right to play in the Stanley Cup Final. Pittsburgh's dream of repeating as champions would come down to 60 minutes. Or rather, 85.
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The fate of the Penguins and Senators would be decided in the waning minutes of May 25. Nine months of work and 100 games had led to this night for Pittsburgh. The city's dream of repeating as Stanley Cup champions would hang in the balance of one night.
Both teams traded chances for the first 30 minutes of the game, but neither managed to break the goaltending barriers. Pittsburgh's depth at forward would shine on the game's opening goal. The Penguins' fourth line consisted of veterans Chris Kunitz and Matt Cullen and the youthful Conor Sheary. All three players had been top-line performers at different points in their careers.
Cullen pushed the puck out of the defensive zone to Sheary at the blue line. Sheary let the puck ricochet off of his stick to a streaking Kunitz in the neutral zone. Sheary jumped around his defender to create a 2-on-1 rush up ice. Kunitz gave the puck back to Sheary, who returned the favor with a perfectly lofted pass over the stick of All-World defenseman Erik Karlsson. Kunitz buried his shot for the all-important first goal.
Kunitz's first goal in exactly 14 weeks, the same number on the back of his jersey, gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead against Ottawa in the decisive Game 7 contest. But it wouldn't last long. In fact, it would hold for a mere 20 seconds.
Karlsson led a 3-on-2 rush for Ottawa and pitched the puck to Stone in the near circle. Stone roofed a shot over Murray's shoulder that evened the game at 1-1. The score would remain that way until the third period.
Senators defenseman Dion Phaneuf took an interference penalty, impeding his old teammate Phil Kessel, that gave the Penguins their only power play of the game. And they made it count.
Pittsburgh's Justin Schultz, playing in his first game back from an injury that forced him out of the lineup for four contests, reclaimed his usual position as the quarterback of the team's top power-play unit. He took a pass at the midpoint of the blue line and whipped a wrist shot that sailed through a Kunitz screen off the far post and into the netting. The Penguins bench exploded.
But Ottawa would not go away. With under six minutes remaining in regulation, the Senators would once again tie the score. Karlsson took a slap shot from the blue line that rang off of the post behind Murray. The puck fell right at the feet of Dzingel, who whacked it in from out of the air.
Sixty minutes would not be enough.
Pittsburgh outshot the Senators, 8-2, in the first overtime session. Kessel nearly ended the series twice - once on a breakaway, but Kessel's shot would fly just wide of the post. Kessel's other opportunity came late in the period as he made a power move around Stone and cut to the net. Kessel's shot went off of Anderson's pad and popped into the air. The puck deflected off of Kessel's arm and bounced on top of the net.
Eighty minutes would not be enough.
For the first time since 1994, a Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final would enter a second overtime period as the evening drifted toward midnight. Ottawa would produce the first two shots of the period, both turned aside by Murray. Pittsburgh would only muster one shot on goal.
It would be the shot that ended the series.
Kunitz, being rewarded for his excellent play during the game, was reunited with longtime linemate Crosby halfway through regulation. And the pair executed a play that the duo had utilized countless times before. With Crosby working the puck low, Kunitz drifted into an open spot above the circle. The captain pushed the puck to Kunitz, who ripped a one-timer toward the net.
The puck fluttered toward the net through Pageau's body. Anderson, not seeing it, dropped to his knees and put both arms in the air. It would be to no avail.

The mob of 18,604 inside the building and 20,000 more outside erupted in a roar of equal parts cathartic relief and excitement. Kunitz kicked his leg and leaped into the glass. The entire Penguins team rushed to greet him. Pittsburgh had achieved the unachievable. The Penguins became the first team to win back-to-back Prince of Wales Trophies since they had previously accomplished the feat in 2008 and '09.
And the hero was an old face that proved he still had plenty left to give to the Penguins. Kunitz hadn't scored a goal since Feb. 16, yet he netted two goals, including the double overtime series winner, and an assist for a three-point night in the biggest game of the season.
"I think he's got that knack for being a big-game player and he does so many little things, probably a lot of things go unnoticed," Crosby said. "But I don't think those two goals will go unnoticed."
With one flick of the wrist, Kunitz engraved his name in Penguins' history and folklore. The Game 7 double overtime hero will be spoken in the same breath as Petr Nedved, Darius Kasparaitis, Max Talbot and even Bryan Rust. It was Kunitz's finest performance in his twilight hours as a Penguin.
"Never knowing if you're going to get another chance to come this far, never knowing if you're going to play on this ice again with this team, you've got to make sure you make that last as long as you can," Kunitz said after the game. "Sometimes it comes down to luck for a goal going against you and your season's over. So I'm happy that it's not over for us yet, and we have another challenge in front us and a chance to win another Cup."
That next challenge would be the Nashville Predators. They were the only thing standing between the Penguins and history.