A piece of NHL history belonging to the Detroit Red Wings is at risk.
The Pittsburgh Penguins are back in the Stanley Cup Final, giving them a chance to be repeat champions. No team has pulled that off since the Wings did it in 1997 and 1998; few champions have even had the chance over the past 15 years, that's how hard it is to win in the playoffs.
The Dallas Stars won the Cup in 1999 and then lost in the Final the following year, to New Jersey. New Jersey lost the 2001 Stanley Cup Final to Colorado. But since the early part of this century, the only team that had a chance to repeat was the Wings.
In 2008, the Wings beat the Penguins in a six-game Final, culminating with a close-out victory in Pittsburgh. The teams met again in 2009, in what ended up as a painful saga for the Wings.
The Wings won Game 1 by a score of 3-1, and repeated the feat in Game 2. Predictably the Penguins claimed Game 3, winning 4-2. Ditto Game 4. The Wings then took another series lead with a convincing 5-0 victory in Game 5.
But after scoring 15 goals over five games, the Wings dried up. Kris Draper had the only goal of Game 6, a 2-1 loss in Pittsburgh. Jonathan Ericsson had the sole goal in Game 7, which saw the Wings lose, 2-1, at Joe Louis Arena.
So to recap: The Wings had 2-0 and 3-2 leads in the series. And they squandered them, in what will stand as the last Stanley Cup Final played at the Joe.
The 2017 Final begins Monday, when the Penguins host the Nashville Predators. Can the Predators keep the Wings' back-to-back champion status intact? They've impressed so far this spring: First they swept the Chicago Blackhawks, who were the top-seeded team in the Western Conference, and who know a thing or two about what it takes to win this time of year (Chicago won the Cup in 2010, 2013 and 2015). Then the Predators took out the St. Louis Blues in six games. The Western Conference finals saw the Predators upset the Anaheim Ducks, another playoff-savvy opponent. That's three rounds of impressive slaying.
The Penguins arguably had a less challenging path: First they booted the Columbus Blue Jackets, a team that has never had any playoff success. Then the Penguins faced the Washington Capitals, who predictably lost even as they'd finished the regular season atop the NHL standings (the Caps haven't made it out of the second round since losing in the Final to Detroit in 1998, and are 0-5 against the Penguins in the playoffs since 2000). The Penguins did need double overtime in Game 7 to best the Ottawa Senators in the Eastern Conference finals.
