Stanley Cup Final 2016: Sharks vs. Penguins Highlights and Top Reaction

The Pittsburgh Penguins seemed out of the playoffs in December. Despite the presence of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and a slew of other top talents, the Penguins were a listless bunch and appeared to be going nowhere.

Head coach Mike Johnston was just a guy behind the bench, and the Penguins appeared to be a rudderless ship. This was not the way general manager Jim Rutherford envisioned his team, and he fired Johnston in December, replacing him with Mike Sullivan.

Sullivan was a hockey lifer who had been coaching the Penguins' minor league team. He had been a head coach with the Boston Bruins, but that had been 10 years earlier. He served as an assistant with the New York Rangers under John Tortorella and had been a scout for the Chicago Blackhawks when they won the Stanley Cup in 2014-15.

But when he got the call to coach the Penguins, he was ready. He looked around the locker room and saw great individual talent. He laid out a plan to turn those players into a superb team.

Eric Risberg/Associated Press

It didn't happen overnight, but he was successful. The Penguins improved steadily in the second half of the season, and when they closed the regular season by winning 14 of their final 16 games, they were prepared for a memorable postseason run.

They registered significant playoff victories over the New York Rangers and Washington Capitals in the first two rounds and came back from a 3-2 deficit to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference Final.

By the time the Stanley Cup Final started against the San Jose Sharks, the Penguins were on top of their game. They outplayed and outskated the talented Sharks every night, winning the series in six games with a 3-1 road victory at the SAP Center Sunday night that featured two assists from Sidney Crosby and a harsh brand of defense that kept the Sharks from mounting a threatening attack.

Crosby finished the series with four assists but did not score a goal. He had 19 points in 24 playoff games and was the Conn Smythe Trophy winner as the playoff MVP. It was his second Stanley Cup triumph, as he was a part of the 2009 Penguins team that defeated the Detroit Red Wings.

Crosby was reflective after the victory. 

“I have a greater appreciation this time around,” he said, according to Michael Russo of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. “At a young age, going [to] back-to-back [Finals] like we did, you think it’s just going to be an annual thing. You just appreciate how hard it is to win it.”

The Penguins ruled the Stanley Cup Final because they set the tone in five of the six games by scoring the opening goal. They did that again in Game 6 when defenseman Brian Dumoulin scored a power-play goal in the first period.

The determined Sharks tied it on a strike by Logan Couture, but that's when Crosby responded. He skated with speed and power, spotting an open Letang to the left of San Jose goalie Martin Jones. Letang whipped a quick wrister by Jones, and the Penguins would regain the lead. When Patric Hornqvist added an empty-net goal, it was just a matter of counting down the final seconds.

Phil Kessel did not score in Game 6, but he finished as Pittsburgh's leading postseason scorer with 10 goals and 12 assists. His speed and dangerous wrist shot helped give the Penguins an advantage throughout the playoffs. 

"I've never changed my game," Kessel said, per Amalie Benjamin of NHL.com. "Obviously, I'm the same guy that I've always been. I just go out there and I try my best. Obviously, this year worked out pretty well."

Sullivan was a big believer in Kessel and appreciated what the oft-criticized right wing brought to the Penguins. "I couldn't be happier for him,"  Sullivan said, per Benjamin. "Phil's a misunderstood guy. He's a guy that really doesn't love the limelight. He's a reserved guy. Just wants to go to the rink, hang out with his teammates. He's a tremendous hockey player."

Penguins owner Mario Lemieux, who won two Stanley Cups as a superstar player for the Penguins, was thrilled to see his team win. He was particularly happy for Crosby and Malkin, who won their second Stanley Cup with Pittsburgh.

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"I think it's important for great players like Sid and Malkin to have two Cups," Lemieux said, per NHL.com's Nicholas J. Cotsonika. "It's so hard to win it year after year, and for them to be able to come through this year and win their second Cup. ... Hopefully there's a few more for them. They're amazing players."

San Jose head coach Peter DeBoer tried to sum up his team's season, but the disappointment for the coach and his players was palpable. 

"The end is like hitting a wall," DeBoer said, per Shawn P. Roarke of NHL.com. "You've been going since September; 106 games, how many hundreds of thousands of miles in the air. A special group. But only one team can win."

The Stanley Cup Final was a remarkable achievement for the Penguins and Sullivan, a coach who had never given up despite enduring a lot of frustration throughout his career. 

He stuck with it, and so did his players. Now the Penguins have a championship thanks to a group of high-level individuals who learned how to play together as a team.