It took some drama, but Drouin has arrived as a dynamic offensive presence.Īnd Vasilevskiy has to make Bishop wonder how much longer his tenure in Tampa Bay will last. And then he tallied four goals in the Eastern Conference Final. In the first two rounds, he proved his playmaking abilities with eight assists. Stamkos' lengthy absence and Ben Bishop's injury opened the door for Jonathan Drouin and Andrei Vasilevskiy to earn their keep. The Lightning's future is sound with Drouin and Vasilevskiy Good for him to rehab to the point he could return in time for that moment, but it simply didn't have much impact.Ģ. For him to play so soon after vascular surgery is remarkable, and I'm not sure anyone expected Stamkos to give much more than he did. Other than that, Stamkos' nearly 12 minutes of ice time was essentially nondescript. OK, to be fair, one of those shots was a great chance that Matt Murray simply turned aside. Stamkos' final line for the night: two shots on goal, no points and a goal scored while he was on the ice. * * * Get the biggest NHL news, rumors and analysis in your inbox every morning! Penguins 2, Lightning 1 (PIT wins series, 4-3) And now Pittsburgh is one step away from another Stanley Cup. Pittsburgh needed someone else to step up. The Lightning were going to pressure Malkin and Crosby all night. Champions don't get this far on the backs of superstars alone. His contributions bring to mind Max Talbot's series of clutch goals when the Penguins won the Stanley Cup in 2009. I'm not kidding, I just tried to look up his NCAA stats there and the site is down. This is how big an impression he made to an audience so unfamiliar with him:īryan Rust crashed HockeyDb. Two of them were the only ones Pittsburgh scored in their 2-1 win in Game 7 on Thursday. He's now played in 17 playoff games this year. Rust, 24 years old, has played in 55 regular season games. It was Rust, the most inexperienced of the bunch, who pushed Pittsburgh through to a date with the San Jose Sharks in the Stanley Cup Final. Andrei Vasilevskiy.Īs they have so often throughout the 2016 NHL playoffs, young, inexperienced players shined brightest in a monumental moment. Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals had all the big names you could've asked for.
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