Penguins win Stanley Cup: 5 reasons Pittsburgh will three-peat

The Penguins won their second straight title in the 2017 Stanley Cup, and they have a pretty good case for why they could pull off a rare three-peat.

The Pittsburgh Penguins won the 2017 Stanley Cup against the Nashville Predators in a six-game series and managed to pull off an impressive repeat in the process that hasn’t been seen since the Detroit Red Wings in the 1990s.

The defending champs had an impressive run to the Stanley Cup, and are quickly becoming the hockey equivalent to the New England Patriots or the Golden State Warriors: a team so dominant year in and year out, they can legitimately and consistently compete for a championship.

A repeat is already a rare feat, which makes it even crazier to think there’s actually a solid possibility for the Penguins to add another title to their resume in 2018. They are already listed as the odds-on favorite to win the 2018 Stanley Cup and proved this year why they are one of the league’s most solid teams.

While everyone thinks about teams that could take down the back-to-back champs, or even just reasons why they can’t possibly repeat once more, here are five reasons that the Penguins could do the impossible and win three straight Stanley Cups.

5. The Penguins are well-rounded with plenty of overall talent

One of the biggest reasons for the Penguins’ immense success this season and through the playoffs was how they kept their key pieces together from the last Stanley Cup run.

Many teams experience serious fallout after a Stanley Cup, with players wanting to leave to make more money elsewhere with a title now on their resume. For the Penguins, they didn’t have to worry about anyone leaving or wanting out of Pittsburgh, which instantly made them a postseason favorite.

While they kept everyone together, the players obviously still needed to produce on the ice, and they did. Sidney Crosby kept up his play in his captain role and even scored his first goal in the Stanley Cup Final since 2009 to help push his team to the title. Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel remained as solid offensive performers, and Matt Murray and Marc-Andre Fleury provided stellar play in net throughout the team’s run.

Now, the team just has to make sure their band doesn’t break up before next season, which shouldn’t be hard considering Crosby, Malkin, Kessel and plenty of their other stars all locked up for a considerable amount of time in Pittsburgh. If they can hold all of their players together before October rolls around, and get right back into the swing of things, they shouldn’t miss a beat from this year’s postseason success.

Another key part of their talented roster is the new combining itself with the old, which leads to the next reason for a possible three-peat in 2018.