About a month ago, people in the NHL offices were worried — rightfully so — about the broad appeal and marketability of the upcoming Stanley Cup Final.
Once the Rangers lost to the bone-dry Senators in the second round, hope in the Eastern Conference rested solely on Sidney Crosby and the Penguins. Once Connor McDavid and the Oilers lost to the aging Ducks in the second round, the Western Conference became an utter unknown.
With the NBA Finals seemingly set a year ago for an epic rematch between the huge superstars of the Warriors and Cavaliers, the NHL was on the verge of complete irrelevance.
But now, there can’t be anything but smiles on the faces in the offices high on Sixth Avenue.
It has not only been that the Penguins and Predators have delivered with high-paced, end-to-end action and a competitive series, or that Nashville has been revealed to the rest of the country as the terrific hockey town it has been since the expansion team entered the league in 1998. But at the center of it all are the two biggest names: Crosby and P.K. Subban, the Predators defenseman who is one of the true characters of the game and who has been in Crosby’s face — and seemingly getting under his skin — at every stride.
First, there was the whole Listerine incident in Game 3. Subban said on national television that he was in Crosby’s face so much that Crosby was complaining about his bad breath. (Subban then not-so-subtly showed up to Game 4 with a bag full of Listerine.) That was while the Predators dug out of a 2-0 hole by winning both games at Bridgestone Arena, now 9-1 at home during this postseason with the odd new “tradition” of catfish raining down on the ice.
Then during Game 5 in Pittsburgh on Thursday night, Crosby and the Penguins reminded everyone why they are defending champions, jumping on the Predators right out of the gate and cruising to a 6-0 win to take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series. Not only that, Crosby and Subban continued their personal rivalry, highlighted by Crosby repeatedly burying Subban’s head into the ice behind the play.
Crosby told reporters after the game that Subban “lost his stick and he was doing some UFC move on my foot there. I don’t know what he was trying to do.”
When Subban was asked if it was getting personal, he just said, “It’s hockey, man.” And he wouldn’t bite on the idea that the referees, who were right there for what happened and inexplicably called coinciding “holding” penalties, were letting Crosby get away with anything.
“I’m not an official, so I’m not going to judge what’s over the line and what’s not,” Subban said. “At the end of the day, I just gotta play the game. If those opportunities come when someone does something that warrants a penalty, then it’s up to the officials to call it. If they don’t, then we just gotta move forward.”
Moving forward would be back to Tennessee for Game 6 on Sunday night. Not sure which local celebrity is going to sing the national anthem — our hope is Carrie Underwood — but with the Predators’ season the line, the environment is going to be beyond raucous. The game once again will center around Crosby and Subban — and the NHL couldn’t have asked for this to work out any better.
Sid and water bottles, continued
In a bizarre moment during Game 5, Crosby stood up on the bench to protest a missed penalty call — and he ended up throwing a water bottle onto the ice. Crosby later said it slipped out of his hand, and, “I know you’re not allowed to do that, so I’m not going to start doing it in the Stanley Cup Final.”
In the Eastern Conference final, Crosby was sprayed from the bench by the Senators’ Mike Hoffman. If you remember, Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist also soaked Crosby back in the 2014 playoffs (and was fined $5,000).
Wrath of the Predators’ CEO
Turns out the feud between these two teams has gone deeper. Nashville CEO and President Sean Henry went on local radio and called a Pittsburgh reporter a “schmuck” for saying Bridgestone Arena pumps in noise to make it seem louder.
The reporter, Dan Kingerski of 93.7 FM and the website Pittsburgh Hockey Now, measured the sound level on his iPhone, which doesn’t seem too scientific, then wrote, “I’m convinced the Bridgestone Arena is using the PA to amp crowd noise. . . . At the height of the crowd mania in Game 4, I believe my radio-trained ears heard the pops and cracks of over-modulation.”
Henry responded by saying, “He is a schmuck. He really is. I can’t wait for him to call me out for calling him a schmuck, but that’s what he is. I don’t even know his name. I’m sure he’s a great guy. But just enjoy how great it is in Pittsburgh. There’s no reason to knock someone else.”
Stay tuned …
… to the rest of Auston Matthews’ arm. The Maple Leafs wunderkind and the likely Calder Trophy winner as rookie of the year got a huge tattoo on his right bicep of a lion wearing a crown. I can dig a good tattoo, but not sure this is one — unless he fills it out with a whole jungle scene or something. Then we’re talking.
Parting shot
There were big questions about Predators goalie Pekka Rinne after he struggled in the first two games of the Stanley Cup final. But he settled down at home, and made arguably the best save of the playoffs in a Game 4 win on Monday.