*Closed* 16 years of Champions Bracket [R1] - 2. COLORADO 2022 vs 15. PITTSBURGH 2009

[Tufted Titmouse]

Pick which team you think would win in a 7 game series:

Playoff stats

COLORADO 2022

Rk	Player	Age	Pos	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-	PIM	EV	PP	SH	GW	EV	PP	SH	S	S%	TOI	ATOI
1	Cale Makar	23	D	20	8	21	29	7	10	5	2	1	1	11	10	0	71	11.3	541	27:04
2	Mikko Rantanen	25	RW	20	5	20	25	3	4	4	1	0	0	9	11	0	53	9.4	404	20:11
3	Nathan MacKinnon	26	C	20	13	11	24	11	8	7	6	0	0	8	3	0	117	11.1	428	21:25
4	Gabriel Landeskog	29	LW	20	11	11	22	15	6	6	5	0	1	7	4	0	56	19.6	419	20:58
5	Valeri Nichushkin	26	RW	20	9	6	15	6	8	8	1	0	2	6	0	0	72	12.5	405	20:16
6	Nazem Kadri	31	C	16	7	8	15	7	8	5	2	0	2	8	0	0	58	12.1	278	17:22
7	Devon Toews	27	D	20	5	10	15	5	8	5	0	0	0	8	2	0	44	11.4	518	25:53
8	Artturi Lehkonen	26	LW	20	8	6	14	2	20	6	2	0	4	5	1	0	43	18.6	342	17:07
9	Bowen Byram	20	D	20	0	9	9	15	10	0	0	0	0	8	1	0	44	0.0	387	19:22
10	J.T. Compher	26	LW	20	5	3	8	-1	10	4	1	0	1	3	0	0	26	19.2	274	13:41
11	Andre Burakovsky	26	LW	12	3	5	8	3	2	3	0	0	1	4	1	0	13	23.1	149	12:25
12	Josh Manson	30	D	20	3	5	8	6	12	3	0	0	1	5	0	0	39	7.7	344	17:11
13	Andrew Cogliano	34	LW	16	3	3	6	5	16	2	0	1	2	2	0	1	16	18.8	155	9:42
14	Darren Helm	35	C	20	2	3	5	3	12	2	0	0	1	3	0	0	28	7.1	232	11:35
15	Erik Johnson	33	D	20	1	4	5	10	4	1	0	0	0	4	0	0	30	3.3	340	17:01
16	Logan O'Connor	25	RW	17	1	3	4	2	9	1	0	0	0	3	0	0	22	4.5	190	11:12
17	Alex Newhook	21	C	12	0	4	4	0	4	0	0	0	0	3	1	0	7	0.0	129	10:43
18	Samuel Girard	23	D	7	1	2	3	-1	0	1	0	0	0	1	1	0	14	7.1	126	17:59
19	Nico Sturm	26	C	13	0	2	2	2	2	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	9	0.0	110	8:27
20	Darcy Kuemper	31	G	16	0	1	1	0	2	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0		887	55:26
21	Nicolas Aube-Kubel	25	RW	14	0	0	0	2	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	16	0.0	145	10:22
22	Pavel Francouz	31	G	7	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		341	48:44
23	Jack Johnson	35	D	13	0	0	0	1	10	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0.0	144	11:06

Rk	Player	Age	GP	GS	W	L	T/O	GA	SA	SV	SV%	GAA	SO	MIN	QS	QS%	RBS	Ga_pct_minus_po	Gs_above_avg_po
1	Darcy Kuemper	31	16	16	10	4	0	38	386	348	.902	2.57	1	887	9	.563	3	113	-4.3
2	Pavel Francouz	31	7	4	6	0	0	16	171	155	.906	2.81	1	341	2	.500	0	107	-1.1

vs.

PITTSBURGH 2009

Rk	Player	Age	Pos	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-	PIM	EV	PP	SH	GW	EV	PP	SH	S	S%	TOI	ATOI
1	Evgeni Malkin	22	C	24	14	22	36	3	51	7	7	0	3				104	13.5	503	20:57
2	Sidney Crosby	21	C	24	15	16	31	9	14	10	5	0	2				79	19.0	499	20:49
3	Bill Guerin	38	RW	24	7	8	15	8	15	5	2	0	2				70	10.0	408	17:01
4	Ruslan Fedotenko	30	LW	24	7	7	14	9	4	7	0	0	0				58	12.1	348	14:31
5	Sergei Gonchar	34	D	22	3	11	14	3	12	1	2	0	2				41	7.3	507	23:03
6	Chris Kunitz	29	LW	24	1	13	14	3	19	1	0	0	0				46	2.2	406	16:55
7	Maxime Talbot	24	C	24	8	5	13	8	19	8	0	0	2				37	21.6	365	15:14
8	Kris Letang	21	D	23	4	9	13	1	26	2	2	0	1				54	7.4	444	19:18
9	Tyler Kennedy	22	C	24	5	4	9	-1	4	5	0	0	3				68	7.4	328	13:40
10	Jordan Staal	20	C	24	4	5	9	-5	8	3	0	1	0				58	6.9	461	19:13
11	Mark Eaton	31	D	24	4	3	7	4	10	3	1	0	0				16	25.0	435	18:07
12	Matt Cooke	30	LW	24	1	6	7	-2	22	1	0	0	0				31	3.2	364	15:09
13	Miroslav Satan	34	RW	17	1	5	6	1	11	1	0	0	0				21	4.8	168	9:55
14	Craig Adams	31	RW	24	3	2	5	-1	16	3	0	0	0				26	11.5	234	9:45
15	Rob Scuderi	30	D	24	1	4	5	5	6	1	0	0	0				8	12.5	492	20:30
16	Philippe Boucher	35	D	9	1	3	4	-2	4	0	1	0	1				10	10.0	103	11:23
17	Brooks Orpik	28	D	24	0	4	4	-1	22	0	0	0	0				12	0.0	482	20:04
18	Hal Gill	33	D	24	0	2	2	8	6	0	0	0	0				17	0.0	466	19:26
19	Alex Goligoski	23	D	2	0	1	1	-1	0	0	0	0	0				1	0.0	21	10:22
20	Petr Sykora	32	RW	7	0	1	1	-3	0	0	0	0	0				7	0.0	83	11:55
21	Pascal Dupuis	29	LW	16	0	0	0	-5	8	0	0	0	0				17	0.0	134	8:23
22	Marc-Andre Fleury	24	G	24	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0					0		1447	60:18
23	Mathieu Garon	31	G	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0					0		24	24:20

Rk	Player	Age	GP	GS	W	L	T/O	GA	SA	SV	SV%	GAA	SO	MIN	QS	QS%	RBS	Ga_pct_minus_po	Gs_above_avg_po
1	Marc-Andre Fleury	24	24	23	16	8	0	63	686	623	.908	2.61	0	1447	10	.435	3	108	-4.7
2	Mathieu Garon	31	1	0	0	0		0	8	8	1.000	0.00	0	24	0		0

Full bracket - Teams are seeded by Regular Season win%

Click to read more...

 

[JaegerDice]

2022 COL beats 2009 PIT rather easily.

2016 PIT by comparison, would be a very entertaining, close matchup.

 

[Tufted Titmouse]

2022 COL beats 2009 PIT rather easily.

2016 PIT by comparison, would be a very entertaining, close matchup.

Looks like they could face each other in the next round, if Pitt can get past 2021 Tampa:

 

[nbwingsfan]

IMO the Pens 2008 team was one of the worst to win and still can’t believe they beat the Wings. They were a two man wrecking crew with solid team defense, but no star D.

Their 2016 team was much better.

 

[LightningStorm]

2022 COL beats 2009 PIT rather easily.

2016 PIT by comparison, would be a very entertaining, close matchup.

Agree, the Pens had way better winger depth in 2016. It's a testament to the greatness of Crosby and Malkin that they were able to win a cup in 2009 and have some great individual regular seasons around that time when their wingers were often nothing to write home about.

 

[banks]

Sid and Geno were insane that year. They made Guerin and Fedotenko look like top line players. And the goalie battle belongs to PIT here, too. I don't think Kuemper would survive against Crosby/Malkin.

I know I'm in the minority, though.

 

[Voight]

Sid and Geno were insane that year. They made Guerin and Fedotenko look like top line players. And the goalie battle belongs to PIT here, too. I don't think Kuemper would survive against Crosby/Malkin.

I know I'm in the minority, though.

Meh, Fleury really wasn't that great in 2009.

 

[Lays]

How the hell did Pascal Dupuis have 0 points in 16 games?

 

[Tufted Titmouse]

Sid and Geno were insane that year. They made Guerin and Fedotenko look like top line players. And the goalie battle belongs to PIT here, too. I don't think Kuemper would survive against Crosby/Malkin.

I know I'm in the minority, though.

It would have been a real joy to watch prime Sid and Malkin up against Makar, Byram and Toews. That is a lot of skating and hockey IQ going head to head.

Similar to McDavid and Drai, but better, and with more support.

 

[ijuka]

Meh, Fleury really wasn't that great in 2009.

He wasn't great, but you don't need to be great to be better than Kuemper in 2022.

 

[Vakarte]

He wasn't great, but you don't need to be great to be better than Kuemper in 2022.

I mean if we're talking Kuemper with an eye injury then year

 

[Tufted Titmouse]

I definitely thought this one would be closer, but maybe I am just running on nostalgia for that 2009 team.

The year they won, I remember watching the finals up at a cabin while on a fishing trip with some lads from the family. We had an old tube TV and bunny ears, talk about a throwback. Sid and Malkin at their peak just felt like we were watching Lebron James during his rise....it felt different from watching McDavid now. Or maybe that's just bias, who knows.

 

[Beau Knows]

It's true that the 09 Penguins were largely a two man team, but they did still manage to beat a stacked Red Wings team. I'd give the Avalanche the advantage, but I wouldn't completely count out the Penguins, they had unreal depth down the middle with Staal out there on line 3.

It might also depend on which year the teams play each other. The 2009 Penguins were good at winning board battles and maintaining possession, wearing the opposition down. If the refs allow as much interference as they did back then it could play into the Penguins hands. But if the games end up being like todays faster paced track meets, the Penguins blueline and bottom 6 would get blown away.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

One thing people are overlooking (or not giving that 2009 team enough credit for) is they beat a powerhouse Detroit team that was the defending Cup champs and added prime Hossa. If Detroit had managed to win Game 7 and they were the champs in this poll versus Colorado, would Colorado be able to beat them?

 

[TruePowerSlave]

Avs are a wagon. Probably the fastest team the league has seen yet. 16-4 and outplayed their opponent in almost every game often by significant margins.

The goaltending sucked though which made games way closer than they should have been.

 

[LarKing]

One thing people are overlooking (or not giving that 2009 team enough credit for) is they beat a powerhouse Detroit team that was the defending Cup champs and added prime Hossa. If Detroit had managed to win Game 7 and they were the champs in this poll versus Colorado, would Colorado be able to beat them?

They beat an injury riddled Detroit team honestly. Not taking anything away from Pittsburgh. They deserved that cup. But the 09 team was far worse due to Datsyuk and Lidstrom playing on one leg between them basically.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

They beat an injury riddled Detroit team honestly. Not taking anything away from Pittsburgh. They deserved that cup. But the 09 team was far worse due to Datsyuk and Lidstrom playing on one leg between them basically.

And Pittsburgh was playing with their best defenseman on one leg as well thanks to Ovechkin being a dirty punk. And Colorado beat a Tampa team that was missing their #1C for pretty much the entire series and severely hampered even when he dressed.

The point is it's not like the 2009 Pens played some crappy Cinderella team in the final and would have lost if they played a "real" contender. They beat the defending Cup champs who everyone predicted would steamroll them before the series began.

 

[Vakarte]

This isn't that complicated, it's the Avs and don't pull up mental gymnastics.

 

[McJedi]

Series would have been an uncompetitive gentleman’s sweep.