Just a few things that caught my eye:

• Sidney Crosby's legacy continues. He put the Pens on his back in Game 5 and his performance in big-money games is unsurpassed. And now he's just the third NHLer to win the Conn Smythe in consecutive years. The last? Yup, team owner Mario Lemieux.
• 19. The number of years the Preds have been in the league just happens to be the number of years since the last back-to-back Cup winner (Detroit in 1997 and 1998). Ironic coincidence.

• Matt Murray has back-to-back shutouts, two Stanley Cups and he's still a rookie. Is he the next Ken Dryden? Then again, that already puts him ahead of Dryden.
• Ron Hainsey played more than 900 games without a playoff game. He has Ron Francis to thank for this Cup. And he knows it.
• Best tweet of the night? @Bruce_Arthur of the Toronto Star: "Colton Sissons will have to choose which thing to be haunted by in his dreams." Clear goal disallowed. Stoned on a breakaway. Rings the post. Gulp.
• Were the Pens supreme penalty killers or did the Preds grip their sticks too tight, especially on that five-on-three? I think it's a little bit of both.
• Marc-Andre Fleury went 9-6 and gave the Pens this chance. Enjoy Calgary or Vegas, Flower. Class act handing off the Cup and the team to Matt Murray.
•  Nashville fans are something else. Easily 100,000 of them on Broadway outside the arena. Yes, 100,000. Wow.
• Justin Schultz couldn't play his way out of a wet paper bag in Edmonton. Now, he has a Cup. Cha-ching.
• The Preds were just 1:35 from forcing overtime and perhaps a Game 7. The score might have been 2-0, but you really couldn't have gotten a closer game.
• Somewhere, Jim Balsillie is reflecting on what could have been. He almost had the Pens in 2006 and the Preds in 2007. Both deals fell apart. Then again, so did his company, Research in Motion. Just saying.
• Post-series injury update. Nick Bonino played two periods of hockey in Game 2 on a complete fracture of the tibia before it swelled up. For those of you who don't know anatomy, that's the biggest of the two bones in the lower leg. The one that carries most of the weight. #ouch.
• Nashville lost for just the first time on home ice this postseason. The eight-place wild card swept the top-ranked Blackhawks and then pushed over the Blues and the Ducks. They captured the hearts and minds of southern US hockey fans. And sorry, Rangers -- they 're on the way to becoming America's team.