It is down to the Pittsburgh Penguins and the San Jose Sharks in the 2016 Stanley Cup Finals. They aren’t teams that many will have pegged to be duking out in the seven match series to claim the rights to the Stanley Cup, but that is where we are at. San Jose have managed to rise out of some doom and gloom to put together an unexpected run, while the Penguins have managed to snap a five year post-season streak of having failed to get to the Finals. So who will take the prize?
The 2016 Stanley Cup Finals was the championship series of the National Hockey League's (NHL) 2015–16 season, and the culmination of the 2016 Stanley Cup playoffs.The Eastern Conference champion Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Western Conference champion San Jose Sharks four games to two to win their fourth championship in franchise history. Penguins captain Sidney Crosby was. Canadiens listed at 14-1 odds to win Stanley Cup in 2016. The Chicago Blackhawks, who just won their third Stanley Cup in six years, were listed as the favourites to do it again at 7-1 odds.
The San Jose Sharks were in the Stanley Cup Finals two years ago and raced out to a 3-0 lead, but then it all fell apart for them. The LA Kings came back at them and came back at them hard to sweep the final four matches of the series to take the Stanley Cup. It was a remarkable comeback and equally a remarkable collapse from the Sharks who had looked so much in control. So that prompted a shake-up at the franchise, changing captains and alternate camps and they got rid of long standing coach Todd McLellan.
But despite all of that, the Sharks have pulled together. They have solid goaltending at the base of everything and have simply stuck together and battled through instead of falling apart after that 2014 Stanley Cup Final embarrassment. It hasn’t been smooth running by GM Doug Wilson has managed to corral everything together and an important factor was pulling in goaltender Martin Jones, who was drafted in as a backup but has become the starter for the and he has been superb since being handed the responsibility.
As for Pittsburgh, every season since their 2009 title winning run, they have been in the post season, but they have kept falling over before getting the Stanley Cup Finals. They lost their starting goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury in March, but then came in young Matt Murray and he has been outstanding. Without that backup, you don’t get to the Finals and when they brought in defenceman Trevor Daley, that raised many an eyebrow, but it was a move which gelled everything together in the defensive corp for them. However, there is a doubt over the veteran because of his broken ankle. He is going to need a miracle to turn out in the series.
So who is likely to have the edge in the Stanley Cup Finals 2016?
They haven’t been in contact much with each other this season, having faced off just twice. Both earned a win but there was perhaps a notable difference in the amount of attacking power laid down. The Sharks had 25 more shot attempts over the two meetings than the Penguins did. Will their star forwards be able to hone in their accuracy across the Stanley Cup Final series? Can the defence of the Penguins stand up to the star players that the Sharks have in Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau?
Stanley Cup Wins List
Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, of course, will star for the Pens and it will likely be to their advantage to put them on separate lines to keep the Sharks’ defence split up. The Pens like to play the game at speed and they can be lethal transitioning on the counter-attack. Can the 2009 Stanley Cup Champions pull out the heroics as they did back in Game 6 and 7 of that epic title win to take down the Sharks? This is a series which could well go all of the way and you can take a price of 2/1 on the series going to seven games.
Stanley Cup Finals 2016 Outright Odds
Stanley Cup 2016 Results
Pittsburgh Penguins 8/11, San Jose Sharks 5/4
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Stanley Cup Finals Draw
If the Series does go to a deciding game then it is the Pittsburgh Penguins who will have home ice for it. They start the series with two home games, followed by two home games for the Sharks, before trading off to Pittsburgh for game five and then San Jose for game six. Then if needed, on June 15th the final game will come from Pittsburgh.
Game One: May 30, Pittsburgh
Game Two: June 1, Pittsburgh
Game Three: June 4, San Jose
Game Four: June 6, San Jose
Game Five: June 9, Pittsburgh
Game Six: June 12, San Jose
Game Seven: June 15, Pittsburgh
The road to the Stanley Cup Finals 2016
The Penguins came home second in the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference behind the Washington Capitals. Across all the six automatically qualified teams for the Play Off Finals from the Eastern Conference, only the Caps put more points on the board in the regular season than the Pens did.
They went up against the New York Rangers in the First round of the Stanley Cup Play offs and pretty much breezed through with a 4-1 series win. That sent them into a massive second round showdown against the Washington Capitals, who were favourites to take the series. But the Pens really dug in there, got their tactics spot on to nullify the Caps offence and won through 4-2. It means that they went into the Conference Final against Tampa Bay and in a tight series, squeaked it out 4-3 to make it back to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since their 2009 success.
The Sharks claimed the last automatic play off place from the Pacific Division in the Western Conference, not breaking 100 points for the season. They joined the Western Conference regular season champions the Dallas Stars, St Louis Blues, Chicago Blackhawks, Pacific Division champions Anaheim Ducks and the LA Kings in the play offs from the automatic spot in the Western Conference. They weren’t deemed to be a tremendous threat in the quest for the Stanley Cup at the start of the play offs at all.
The seeding put them into a first round tie against the Kings and they responded brilliantly to put a 4-1 series win on the board. The path go a little tougher in having to face wildcard Nashville who had just ditched Anaheim out of the Play Offs. The Sharks won a tight duel in the deciding match to put them through to the Western Conference Finals against the St Louis Blues. San Jose took the series in six.
The Penguins have won the Stanley Cup three times in their history, winning it back to back in 1991 and 1992 and then having to wait until 2009 to get their hands on it again in a brilliant series against the Detroit Red Wings. As for the San Jose Sharks, they are waiting to land the Stanley Cup for the first time in the history of the Franchise.
Stanley Cup Finals 2016 Betting Markets
You have the outright winner market to decide who will take the Series in whatever manner but there are other Stanley Cup Finals 2016 betting markets that you can look at such at the Total Number Of Games. Over the last five seasons, three of the Stanley Cup Final series have go to six games, one to seven games and one to five games. So the trend is that it will be a tight series again for this season’s Final between the Pittsburgh Penguins and San Jose Sharks.
You can back a six game series for a price of 2/1, which is the same price as is running on a 7 game series as well. The series getting wrapped up in five games is a 5/2 quote, while a team to make a clean sweep in four is a 6/1 unlikely shot. There is also the option to go with a Series Correct Score punt as well where you can back either one of them to land a 4-2 win at a price of 9/2. A 4-3 swing in favour of the Pens is a 15/4 punt because they have home advantage in the decider, with the Sharks at 11/2 to pull out a 4-3 series win.
Stanley Cup Finals 2016 Prediction
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Roll with the Sharks. It’s been a long time coming for Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau to make it to the Stanley Cup Final and those two could make all the difference over the series. As they know, chances like this in the game are few and far between and aren’t going to want to let this slide without a massive fight. The Sharks have the better power play of the two units as well, so they can afford to get physical and draw penalties from the Pens. They can also edge things in defence as well and even if the games turn out to be defensive battles, the Sharks should have the edge. They have more about them to take the series. Sharks 4-2 at 9/2 looks value.