It was the year of the "Nashville Smashing." Remember that? If you lived in Tennessee in April 2017, your entire world revolved around a yellow jersey and a plastic catfish hitting the ice. The 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs weren't just another postseason; they were the moment the NHL's parity era finally broke a lot of people's hearts while cementing a dynasty that we’re still arguing about today.
Pittsburgh won. Again.
But saying the Penguins just "won" is a bit of a disservice to the sheer chaos that happened over those two months. We saw a sub-100 point team from the Music City make a run that defied every spreadsheet in Vegas. We saw Erik Karlsson play on one foot—basically a bionic man with a hockey stick—and nearly drag the Ottawa Senators to the promised land. Honestly, the 2017 postseason was peak "hockey is weird."
The Predators and the Power of the 8-Seed
Nobody expected Nashville to do anything. Seriously. They entered the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs as the second wild card in the Western Conference. Their reward? A first-round date with the Chicago Blackhawks, a team that had three rings in the previous seven years.
Then Pekka Rinne turned into a brick wall.
It wasn't just that Nashville won; they humiliated Chicago. A sweep. The Blackhawks scored three goals. In four games. Total. It was the loudest statement a bottom seed has ever made. Suddenly, Lower Broadway in Nashville became the center of the hockey universe. You had Carrie Underwood’s husband, Mike Fisher, captaining a squad of relentless forecheckers like Viktor Arvidsson and Filip Forsberg. The "Smashville" atmosphere was so rowdy that it genuinely seemed to rattle opposing goaltenders.
The Western Conference was a gauntlet. Nashville had to go through St. Louis and then a gritty Anaheim Ducks team. By the time they reached the Final, they had lost their number-one center, Ryan Johansen, to a gruesome thigh injury that required emergency surgery. Most teams would’ve folded. Instead, they leaned on a defensive core—P.K. Subban, Roman Josi, Mattias Ekholm, and Ryan Ellis—that might be the most mobile top-four we’ve seen in the modern era.
Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and the Repeat
Back-to-back.
It hadn't been done in the salary cap era until the Pittsburgh Penguins pulled it off. Coming into the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Pens were banged up. Kris Letang, their workhorse defenseman, was out for the year with a neck injury. Everyone thought they were vulnerable. You can’t win a Cup without your #1 blueliner, right?
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Well, it turns out you can if you have Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin playing like they’re possessed. Crosby was on a mission to solidify his "Top 5 All-Time" status. He ended up winning his second consecutive Conn Smythe Trophy, but it wasn't easy. They had to survive a seven-game war against the Washington Capitals—a series that felt like the real Stanley Cup Final.
Then came the Eastern Conference Finals against Ottawa.
The System vs. The Stars
If you want to talk about the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs without mentioning Guy Boucher’s 1-3-1 trap system, you’re missing the most controversial part of the year. The Ottawa Senators played a brand of hockey that was, frankly, boring to watch if you weren't a Sens fan. They clogged the neutral zone. They waited for you to make a mistake.
And it almost worked.
Erik Karlsson was the best player on the planet that spring. He had two hairline fractures in his heel. He was limping through the locker room, then going out and playing 30 minutes a night, throwing saucer passes that landed on a dime from 80 feet away. The Sens pushed Pittsburgh to double overtime in Game 7.
One goal. That’s how close we were to an Ottawa vs. Nashville Final. Imagine that timeline. Chris Kunitz ended up scoring the winner—a fluttering puck that eluded Craig Anderson—and the dream of a "boring" champion died right there. Kunitz hadn't scored in months. Of course he got the biggest goal of the decade for Pittsburgh. That’s just hockey.
The Controversy in the Final
The Final itself was a rollercoaster. Pittsburgh took a 2-0 lead, Nashville tied it at 2-2, and then things got weird in Game 6.
We have to talk about the whistle.
Early in the second period of Game 6, with the score 0-0, Nashville’s Filip Forsberg fired a shot that squeaked through Matt Murray. Colton Sissons was right there to poke it into the open net. The goal should have counted. But referee Kevin Pollock had lost sight of the puck and blown the whistle early.
No goal.
Nashville fans still haven't forgiven the league for that. Pittsburgh eventually scored late in the third (Patric Hornqvist off the back of Pekka Rinne’s jersey) to clinch the Cup. Was it a "tainted" win? Not really. Pittsburgh was a machine. But for the Predators, that "what if" hangs over the franchise like a dark cloud. They were the better team for large stretches of that series, yet they went home empty-handed.
Why 2017 Matters for Today's NHL
Looking back at the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs, we see the seeds of the modern game. We saw the transition from heavy, bruising hockey to the "speed and skill" era.
- The Defenseman as a Fourth Forward: Karlsson and Josi proved that a puck-moving defenseman is more valuable than a "stay-at-home" giant.
- The Goalie Carousel: Pittsburgh won because they had two starters. Marc-Andre Fleury saved them in the first two rounds; Matt Murray finished the job. It started the "tandem" trend we see now.
- The Expansion Factor: Shortly after this, the Vegas Golden Knights entered the league. The success of Nashville—a non-traditional market—paved the way for the explosive growth of hockey in the American South and West.
The reality of the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs is that it gave us a definitive answer on the Crosby vs. Ovechkin debate for that era. By knocking out the Caps and winning a second straight title, Sid "The Kid" moved into the stratosphere of Gretzky and Lemieux.
How to Apply These Lessons to Modern Fandom
If you’re looking to get more out of watching hockey today, or even if you’re betting on future series, the 2017 run offers a few concrete takeaways.
First, ignore the regular season standings once the puck drops in April. A team like Nashville, which barely made it in, can find a tactical matchup that breaks a giant. Second, watch the "ice time" stats. When a player like Erik Karlsson is playing 30+ minutes, pay attention to how the opposing coach tries to tire him out. It’s a chess match.
Finally, don't underestimate the "backup" goalie. In 2017, Marc-Andre Fleury’s performance against Washington was the only reason Pittsburgh survived. If your favorite team doesn't have a reliable second option in net, they aren't winning a Cup.
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Go back and watch the highlights of Game 7 between the Pens and Sens. Watch the way the crowd in Nashville reacted to P.K. Subban’s first home goal in the Final. It was a peak era for the sport—unpredictable, controversial, and incredibly fast.
To truly understand the current landscape of the NHL, you have to look at the teams that tried to replicate that 2017 Pittsburgh blueprint. They focused on depth scoring and mobile defense. Most failed because they didn't have a Sidney Crosby. It turns out, having one of the best players to ever lace them up is a pretty good strategy.
Next Steps for the Die-Hard Fan:
- Review the Advanced Stats (Corsi/Fenwick) for the 2017 Nashville Predators to see how they actually dominated possession despite being an 8-seed.
- Compare the roster construction of the 2017 Penguins to the current Cup favorites; you'll notice the shift toward cheaper, faster wingers to support expensive centers.
- Watch the "In the Room" documentary series from that year to see the physical toll the repeat took on the Pittsburgh locker room.