Hall Of Famers Say Difficult Now To Win Back-to-Back Stanley Cups

The Pittsburgh Penguins started their defense of the 2017 Stanley Cup final in style and won Game 1 against the Nashville Predators to get themselves a 1-0 lead in the 7 game final.

The Penguins will be looking to create history and win back-to-back Stanley Cup championships and become the first team to do so after salary cap restrictions were imposed on teams.

The Penguins played an impressive game and ended up with a 5-3 scoreline taking them a step close to the prestigious Stanley Cup.

However hall of famers such as Scotty Bowman and Mark Messier believe that it has now become very difficult for a team to win back-to-back Stanley Cups and believe that it is mainly due to the salary cap restrictions as that prevents teams from keeping their talent roster together and building a strong unit.

NHL Workshop

Scotty Bowman knows what he is talking about as he is one of the few coaches to have led his team to win multiple back-to-back Stanley Cups over the years. Bowman helped the Montreal Canadiens win four consecutive Stanley Cups during the 70s, then helped the Pittsburgh Penguins under captain Mario Lemieux in the early 90s to win back-to-back Stanley Cups and finally the Red Wings win Stanely Cups in 1997 and 1998.

The Red Wings was the last team that succeeded in winning back-to-back Stanley Cups. The Penguins are looking to create history in 2017 and show that it can be done even with the salary cap in place. Bowman who serves as senior consultant to the Blackhawks says teams are now forced to play 3 or 4 of their top players a large sum of money and as a result, some of the other players have a limited purse which makes it difficult for the teams to keep their core bunch of players together on a long term basis.

Hall of Famer Mark Messier agrees with Bowman and states that it might have been easier in the past as it was a different era, different players and a different tournament structure.

In a statement, Messier said

Once you get to the playoffs, now you’ve got two months of incredibly demanding, physical and emotional hockey. So for a team to not only have the talent and the players to be able to get there and do it, to repeat the whole process again and then stay away from injuries and bad luck, bad bounces, it’s become very difficult

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