Defense wins championships.

That adage proved true again with the Pittsburgh Penguins, who on Sunday captured their second-straight Stanley Cup, doing so on the backs of a mishmash of a blue line.

The group logging time for the Penguins in Game 6 included Olli Maatta, Justin Schultz, Trevor Daley, Ian Cole, Ron Hainsey, and Brian Dumoulin, who led the way with more than 26 minutes.

While there is no top-notch defender among them, collectively they pushed the Penguins to a second consecutive championship.

"We call them the Motley Crue," said Penguins coach Mike Sullivan, according to Sportsnet's John Shannon. "They are our unsung heroes ... We couldn't be more proud of them back there."

Among them is the 36-year-old Hainsey, who arrived in Pittsburgh at the deadline following a trade from the Carolina Hurricanes having never skated in the postseason. In the eight weeks that followed, he went from playoff rookie to Stanley Cup champion.

The Penguins' defensive core is reminiscent of the rearguards who guided the Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup in 2006, a group of wily veterans and strong defenders, but one that wouldn't be confused for a collection of Norris Trophy nominees.

That Hurricanes team was the most recent outfit to win it all without a No. 1 defenseman, and was a squad assembled by Jim Rutherford, now the general manager of the Penguins who has laid a similar blueprint in Pittsburgh.

"You can do it without a No. 1 guy," Rutherford told Sam Werner of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "You've got to manage their minutes, those guys have got to play within themselves and that's what our six defensemen did. They played at the highest level they could and got it done."

With the injured Kris Letang on the sidelines, the Penguins' blue-liners who hoisted the Stanley Cup on Sunday were the first group to do so without a Norris vote among the pact.

Winning back-to-back Stanley Cups is one thing, especially in the salary cap era, but doing so without Letang, the team's top defenseman, spoke volumes about Pittsburgh's accomplishment.

Letang, of course, has been out of the lineup since February, but that didn't stop him from being a part of the team's playoff run, sticking around the locker room to share his insights with his fellow defensemen.

But with Letang only left to watch, many had written off the Penguins. It was that perception led the rest of the defensive core to step up, and their play was not lost on captain Sidney Crosby.

"They know the pressure that comes with losing a guy who plays 25 to 30 minutes. They weren't intimidated by it and they took it on. They proved what they're capable of," Crosby told reporters following the victory. "I can't say enough about that group. It was pretty difficult what they were able to do night in and night out."

That feeling across the Penguins' blue line stirred the belief the team could once again claim the Stanley Cup.

"Not too shabby for a 'D' corps that wasn't very good," Cole quipped to Werner. "I think everyone kind of wrote us off when (Letang got hurt). He was such a big part of our run last year, but everyone stuck together, everyone probably assumed a little larger role and elevated their game."

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.