Dunlap: Plan The Parade, Pens Have This Won
PITTSBURGH (93-7 The Fan) - Tell Mayor Bill Peduto to get the Grant Street plans ready.
Have the county cops get those horses on stand-by.
Get the news helicopters in the air.
Yeah, there's going to be a parade. A big one. This city will come to a halt for good reason.
This series is over. Done. Kaput. Finished.
The Penguins will be back-to-back Stanley Cup champions. It isn't a matter of if, it's a matter of when --- and you can take any talk of some jinx and stick it in Pekka Rinne's gloveside, because both of those things are nonexistent.
After the Penguins went on that goal scoring explosion to start the third period of Game 2 on Wednesday night in what would become a 4-1 victory at the Uptown arena, it became incredibly obvious Nashville was done.
They just don't have the depth the Penguins have.
Again, it's all over.
If you don't believe me, I'm all ears as to how this Predators team will ever go out and win four of the next five games in this series considering they essentially played exactly the type of style they wanted over the first five periods of this series and have a 2-0 deficit to show for it.
So, yeah, go ahead and explain to me how they are going to beat the Penguins and crawl out of this series hole.
Instead, I'll tell you how the Penguins are going to even get better as they close this one out on their way to riding through Downtown with tickertape streaming down.
First, looking at Game 2, we didn't see anywhere near the best of Sidney Crosby. Heck, in the first two games we haven't seen anywhere near the best of Sidney Crosby. He's been good, but not vintage Crosby ... yet. What would you bet on during this series -- that he will continue to be held down a bit or that, during the NHL's prime series, he will have that explosion? I know I would put money on the latter.
On top of that, as documented in other places in the run-up to Game 2, Phil Kessel hasn't put the puck in the net. He was much, much better in Game 2 with an assist and four shots, but still hasn't solved Rinne. You think Rinne will continue to stonewall Kessel? I sure don't. It's only a matter of time before Kessel gets one --- and as you know with him, they generally come in bunches.
And to cap it off, in Game 2 the Penguins' power play went a dismal 0 for 7.
You think that continues? No way in the world will a team with as much firepower as Pittsburgh continue to play this poorly on the man advantage. It just will not happen.
So you can go ahead and tell me all about how Nashville will get a boost from going home, or some intricate way how they are going to fix things to get back in the series.
I will tell you this --- this series is over.
A parade is happening soon with a big, silver, shiny piece of hardware.
Plan accordingly.
Colin Dunlap is a featured columnist at CBSPittsburgh.com. He can also be heard weekdays from 5:40 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Sports Radio 93-7 "The Fan." You can e-mail him at colin.dunlap@cbsradio.com. Check out his bio here.