How the Penguins punched their ticket to the Stanley Cup Final

It’s Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final. The Penguins and Senators traded goals in regulation and after sixty minutes, it’s tied. We play overtime for 20 minutes and it’s still tied. We go to a second overtime and we’re looking for someone to be a hero. It’s almost midnight. Who’s it going to be? Just like we’ve seen for years now, Sidney Crosby and Chris Kunitz link up and it’s Pittsburgh. The Penguins are going back to the Stanley Cup Final for the fourth time in the Crosby and Malkin era. Incredible.

Man oh man, what a moment. Let’s look at this one again.

After an offensive zone cycle just before the clip starts, the puck gets moved to Justin Schultz at the left point.

He moves closer to the face-off dot on the left side and gets the puck to Sidney Crosby, who is moving down low with Chris Wideman.

As Crosby is taking the puck behind the net, Chris Kunitz and Conor Sheary are floating into the slot.

Crosby uses his vintage move where he hits the brakes and loses his opponent. That was all the space Crosby needed.

As Crosby loses Wideman and turns the puck to his backhand, Chris Kunitz slides to his left into a little patch of ice where he can get open.

Just like that, you have all five Senators players below the dots and Kunitz is open for a shot.

Crosby puts a perfect backhand in Kunitz’s wheelhouse and he lines up for a slap shot.

Boom. Little bit of a knuckle puck and a little bit of a screen, but as Billy Guerin said so eloquently after Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final in 2009 was “all I know is it went in the net.”

Now, watch it from this reverse angle. Watch Kunitz jump out to his left to set up for this goal.

See you guys on Monday for Game 1 of the Cup Final. How dope is that?