What to watch for: 2016 Stanley Cup Final (Game 1)

During the next few weeks AT&T SportsNet will be airing a series of "Pittsburgh Penguins Classic" content. That includes re-airing the Penguins' four victories against San Jose in the 2016 Stanley Cup Final (Games 1, 2, 4, 6).
To get you set for these games we've provided a quick preview/recap of the game. Obviously, the Penguins won each game and we've all seen them before. So, we tried to highlight some stuff that you may not remember, or other interesting aspects of the game that may have gone under the radar in the grand scheme of things. It's the type of thing that hindsight can really bring into focus.
Enjoy!
To view all 2016 Stanley Cup Final rewind content, click here.

SETUP: After steamrolling the New York Rangers, besting the Washington Capitals and somehow surviving a seven-game series against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Pittsburgh entered the Stanley Cup Final against San Jose. Pittsburgh had home-ice advantage, meaning that Games 1 and 2 would be held at PPG Paints Arena. Penguins fans (inside and outside of the building) were amped up and ready to go, and Pittsburgh was looking to start the series off right with a W.
SUMMARY: The Penguins completely dominated the opening period. They outshot San Jose, 15-4, and scored twice (Bryan Rust, Conor Sheary) to take a 2-0 lead into the first intermission. The Penguins' speed completely overwhelmed San Jose, and it seemed like the series would be over very quickly judging by the first period. But San Jose rebounded in the second period, and thanks to a pair of Sharks' goals the game was even at 2-2 entering the third period. The teams remained deadlocked as the clock wound down to under three minutes remaining in regulation. It appeared this game was heading to overtime. That was, until Nick Bonino scored with 2:33 left to give Pittsburgh a 3-2 lead it would not relinquish. The Penguins won the opening salvo of the series.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR:
FIRST PERIOD
18:28:One of the Penguins' strengths was their quick transition game, and they got to that part of their game immediately. As soon as the puck touched Joe Pavelski's blade, Matt Cullen stripped him of it at the Penguins blue line and regrouped back to Brian Dumoulin. As Cullen headed the other way, Dumoulin gave him a pass right back, which resulted in Pittsburgh's first scoring chance of the game
This was just a sign of things to come, as the Penguins went on to completely swarm the Sharks in this period. I don't think the broadcast quite does justice to just how fast the Penguins looked in this opening frame.
14:43:Here is another perfect example of the Penguins' counterattack. From the halfwall, Sidney Crosby looked across the ice and saw Justin Schultz in the slot. He pushed the puck over to the defenseman, who streaked up through the neutral zone and dropped a pass over to Patric Hornqvist before driving to the net. Hornqvist's initial shot was blocked, but the puck eventually popped back to Schultz, who had since drifted into the corner. He threw it into the crease and Crosby ended up with a good scoring chance.
13:26:The Sharks got their lone quality scoring chance from former Penguin Nick Spaling off of a quick transition of their own. Fans chanted Matt Murray's name.
11:06:Crosby absolutely set the tone for his team in this game. He was so dominant every time he had the puck and made some incredible plays with it, one of them coming during the Penguins' first power play. Evgeni Malkin gave Crosby a pass to send him into the Sharks' zone. Crosby's skates went into that 10-2 positioning, allowing him to maneuver between Brent Burns and Nick Spaling.
And while Crosby's attempted pass went off Paul Martin's skates, Sharks goalie Martin Jones still had to come up with a save. That wasn't the only scoring chance the Penguins would get on this power play, as Phil Kessel also made a great feed to Hornqvist for a re-direct attempt.

7:14: GOAL! RUST! The play started in the Penguins' zone, where Schultz retrieved a dump-in attempt by the Sharks and reversed it to Ian Cole under some pressure. He pushed it up to Chris Kunitz, who quickly chipped to Rust, who was looping toward him through the neutral zone. Schultz had jumped into the play to be a pass option, so Rust dropped it off to him.
Schultz's shot was blocked by Marc-Edouard Vlasic, but Rust was right there for the rebound for his sixth goal of playoffs. Rust picked up right where he left off in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final against Tampa Bay where he scored twice.
(Sidenote: This was one of Schultz's best playoff games as a Penguin. He was playing with confidence and playing smart, making good decisions about when to join the rush and when to stay back. As Schultz likes to say, when he's at his best he's playing strong defensively and that turns into opportunities offensively. This play is a perfect example of that).
6:12:GOAL! SHEARY! I can't emphasize this enough - Crosby was FLYING this game. He won a footrace to a loose puck in the corner of the Sharks zone, and used one hand to cut back with the puck the other way to shake his coverage. He sent a backhand pass to Sheary, who collected it and roofed it into the top far corner for his first goal since the First Round with Hornqvist providing the screen.
That gave the Penguins two goals on two shots in a 1:02 span to take a 2-0 lead. They had been knocking on the door from the drop of the puck and finally blew it open on this sequence.
3:34:A point shot from Dainius Zubrus got blocked and took a fortuitous bounce up and over Burns and Martin. To their dismay, speedster Carl Hagelin was in the right place at the right time to grab the loose puck and go in on a breakaway.
Burns was able to get back and thwart Hagelin with a last-second stick check. The Sharks recovered and started heading the other way - or so they thought. Nick Bonino made a great play to break up an attempted breakout pass, force a turnover and end up with a shot on goal that Jones just barely held onto to keep it a 2-0 game.
0:00:The horn had to be music to the Sharks' ears, as they were completely outplayed by the Penguins in the opening 20 minutes. Pittsburgh outshot the Sharks 15-4 (!) and didn't give up any quality scoring chances.
SECOND PERIOD
20:00: In an effort to get his top line of Tomas Hertl, Joe Thornton and Pavelski away from Crosby's line with Sheary and Hornqvist, Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer went with Patrick Marleau, Logan Couture and Joonas Donskoi to start the period.
16:58:Getting an early power play, their first of the game, helped the Sharks get back on track. San Jose finished the regular season with the NHL's third-ranked unit, and they quickly showed why they were so dangerous on the man-advantage.
Joel Ward made a tremendous keep at the blue line under pressure from Cullen and was able to get the puck to Burns. He moved it to Donskoi, who gave it to Hertl below the goal line. Despite the tough angle, Hertl took a few steps forward and surprised Murray with a turning shot to cut Pittsburgh's lead to 2-1.
15:26: Murray didn't see a lot of action in the first, but this period was a different story. Not long after the Sharks got on the board, Burns entered the zone and got a pass from Thornton. Murray came up with a big save on his shot and the subsequent rebound attempt from Pavelski.

13:30:This made me laugh - Bonino was about to step on the ice for a change when the Sharks sent a clearing attempt towards the Penguins bench. You can hear the guys yelling frantically at Bonino to get back. Fortunately, he was able to leap back and the Penguins didn't get caught with too many men.
9:38:What a play from HBK! Watching this reminds me of just how truly remarkable their chemistry was. Bonino made a cross-ice pass to Kessel cutting across the slot. Hagelin was heading in the other direction looking for open space, and he got a feed from Kessel. Hagelin got a point-blank shot on Jones that he barely turned aside with the right pad. This was one of many good shifts for the HBK Line in this game.
1:48:The line of Marleau, Couture and Donskoi built on the momentum created from a strong offensive-zone shift from their fourth line. Burns carried in deep and from there, the Sharks did a tremendous job of cycling the puck. Burns made his way back to the point, where Couture found him after winning a battle in the corner.
Murray made the initial stop and Marleau got the rebound. Instead of going to the front of the net into traffic, he smartly decided to go the otherway around the net. Murray did his best to get over, but he wasn't able to stop Marleau's wraparound attempt. Marleau had appeared in 165 playoff games before playing in his first-ever Cup Final game on this night, and he was going to do everything he could to take advantage.
0:00: The Sharks did bite back in this period - outshooting Pittsburgh 8-1 to start - but it wasn't like the Penguins didn't have good stretches of their own. They had a number of decent scoring chances and had nothing to hang their heads about going into the second intermission.
THIRD PERIOD

15:13:Marleau got Rust with a shoulder up high, sending Pittsburgh to the power play. Up until this point, play had been pretty tight, so it was a good opportunity for the Penguins to break out.
(Sidenote: that hit knocked Rust out of the game, and he was listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Fortunately, Rust recovered in time for Game 2. "I got a bone to pick with Patty Marleau," Rust joked in
2016 Stanley Cup Memories: Part 1
. "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.")
The Penguins created a couple of strong scoring chances right after the penalty expired, with Sheary getting one off of a rebound from a shot by Dumoulin and Kunitz earning one as well. The Penguins didn't score a power-play goal in this game, but created momentum every time they were on the man-advantage.
10:26: What a sequence of saves by Murray! The Penguins were struggling to get the puck out on this shift, but their goaltender bailed them out. Pavelski intercepted a clearing attempt and send a turning backhander to the net with Hertl right now. Murray stopped Pavelski's shot, but then had to deal with Hertl battling for the rebound. Murray aggressively forced him into the corner, but Hertl recovered for one last crack. Murray, scrambling back, stopped that too. The Penguins responded by going the other way and getting two good chances from Ben Lovejoy and Kessel off of Jones' right pad (that right pad sure got a lot of work this game).
6:47: The Crosby line had a number of good shifts, this being one of them. The captain counterattacked quickly after jumping on a loose puck. He carried into the offensive zone, saw Hornqvist driving to the net and gave him a perfect pass through traffic for the re-direct attempt.
While a lot of the period was relatively even, this is where the Penguins really start to take over.
5:01: My goodness, Martin Jones had himself a game. Just watch this save he makes on Kessel. Kessel had drifted into a soft spot on the ice as both teams were battling for the puck on the blue line. Letang saw him and banked a pass off of the back boards to Kessel at the side of the net. Kessel went down on one knee to get the shot off quickly, but somehow Jones was able to slide over, do the splits and make the save.
2:33: GOAL! BONINO BONINO BONINO! This started with another smart, heads-up play by Letang - who was, without question, the Penguins' best defenseman during this run. Letang was in the corner of the Sharks' end battling for the puck with Burns, who had lost his stick. Bonino had entered the zone late and sneaked to the front of the net, unbeknownst to Martin - who was caught watching his defense partner. Letang got a pass through to the wide-open Bonino, who had plenty of time and space to snipe a perfectly placed shot as Martin realized there was nothing he could do.
2:09:Lovejoy is called for hooking Marleau, which meant the Penguins had to come up with a huge penalty kill on the Sharks power play to preserve their 3-2 lead.
:44.2:Bonino was making plays at both ends of the ice. Not only did he come up with a HUGE block on Burns, he then won the race to the loose puck and shaved some precious seconds off the clock by eating it in the corner. You could see the hunger and will to win from every player who went over the boards on this penalty kill.
(Sidenote: What makes Bonino's performance even more impressive is that he was dealing with an infection in his elbow that had him on "a ton of antibiotics and getting IVs every day at the hospital," and forced him to be quarantined at a hotel away from his baby daughter).
0:00:Cue Andrew W.K.'s Party Hard! The Penguins started the series off on the right note with a big win over the Sharks. They played fast and fearless and dictated the pace for most of the night, just like their head coach Mike Sullivan instructed them to. They hoped to build on that momentum in front of their home crowd in Game 2.