However, winning a third straight Stanley Cup is too much to expect.
NASHVILLE - It was a half hour after the Pittsburgh Penguins had won their second consecutive Stanley Cup and the general manager of the team - the man who hired the head coach, who last year brought in Phil Kessel and this year traded for Ron Hainsey, while refusing to trade Marc-Andre Fleury - couldn't stop smiling.
Goaltender Pekka Rinne was one of the big reasons behind Nashville's postseason success, although he struggled badly on the road against the Penguins.
Patric Hornqvist's goal with just over a minute and half left in regulation proved to be the game-winner, with Carl Hagelin's empty-netter sealing the deal. Murray also blanked Nashville in the Penguins' 6-0 rout in Game 5.
With that being said, he did not deserve to win his second-consecutive Conn Smythe Trophy.
The Penguins captain has earned three Stanley Cups, two Olympic gold medals, a World Cup title, a world championship and world junior title.
As a result, it's the Penguins who raise the Stanley Cup for the second straight season, becoming the league's first repeat champions since the 1997-1998 Detroit Red Wings.
"Last night was quite an impressive win in my books", said Paul Mason, who coached Crosby between the ages of 10 and 13. The former grinder with 54 goals in 709 career National Hockey League games turned out to be the flawless conduit to get the Penguins to play fast and, to borrow Sullivan's pet phrase, "play the right way".
Marc-Andre Fleury waives no movement clause for Vegas Golden Knights
Trade rumors have circled Fleury ever since Matt Murray took over the starting job in Pittsburgh during last year's playoffs. Fleury has been a member of the Penguins ever since the team made him the top overall pick back in the 2003 draft.
Penguins captain Sidney Crosby was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the playoffs.
Penguins' owner Mario Lemieux to McGuire: "It never gets old to win the Cup, but this one was a tough one".
"We know what we have to do and I think what we're going to take from this that we're going to have to be even better if we want to become champions". And the only rookies to ever post a shutout in the final series were Patrick Roy, in 1986, and Cam Ward, in 2006, with one apiece. "It doesn't get any better".
This year's viewership gains come despite five Canadian teams qualifying for the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs, including two Canadian teams in the Second Round and one in the Conference Finals - as compared to zero in 2016 - plus the absence of a Top 20 TV home market in the Stanley Cup Final.
"It's a tough feeling to watch their dream come true when you were so close to it yourself", Nashville forward Filip Forsberg said. Nashville D Ryan Ellis, who sustained an undisclosed injury in the second period of Game 5, was back in uniform and in the starting lineup for Game 6. Mere hours after Sidney Crosby won his third Cup, the hometown museum that touts itself as Home of the Sidney Crosby Exhibit was already coveting new keepsakes.
Despite several chances and a fast-paced style, the Predators and Penguins played the first scoreless first period of this year's Stanley Cup Final.
I'll just say it. He is not the most talented Penguins player of all time, but he proved this year that he is the greatest.
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