Some quick thoughts from Pittsburgh on Wednesday night:
It's hard to explain the first 25 minutes the Pittsburgh Penguins played in what was the final game at Mellon Arena.
Jaroslav Halak was good for the Montreal Canadiens, their defence was up to par, and their offence was there, but if you analyze the first 25 minutes for the Penguins they had nothing going.
Marc-Andre Fleury wasn't good on three of the first four Montreal goals. The Pittsburgh power play was as disconnected a power play unit as we've seen from the Penguins this season. Sidney Crosby at one point was minus-3, and finished minus-2 in the most important game of his season.
The Penguins going into Game 7 appeared to be nervous and they played that way in the first half.
Credit Where Credit Is Due
Wednesday night's game saw yet another game winner from Canadiens' forward Mike Cammalleri. I'll explain it the way Jacques Martin explained it earlier in the day.
Martin talked up the anticipation of Cammalleri and fellow forward Brian Gionta. He said Cammalleri in this post-season has an unbelievable knack for knowing where the seam is, knowing where the whole is, and anticipating what he needs to do to get there.
Montreal's defence deserves the credit one more time. They found a way to neutralize the likes of Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal.
Bottom line - goaltending, defence, and timely goals from the Canadiens were the difference.