Ron Cook: Playoff experience eventually will lead to success

Friday, April 20, 2007

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

OTTAWA -- This goes back to the start of the series, back to when the young Penguins actually believed they were going to be something more than road kill under the wheels of the Ottawa Senators.

"We're here to win and we're going to give everything we have to win," coach Michel Therrien said. "Sixteen teams hope to win the Stanley Cup. We hope, too. But ... "

Yes, there was a but.

A very telling but, as it turned out.

"But we understand it's a process," Therrien said.

If the Penguins didn't realize it then, they surely do now that their season is done, the mercy killing coming in a 3-0 Senators win last night in Game 5 at Scotiabank Place.

Don't underestimate the importance of that when the Penguins do a better job competing in the playoffs next April, when they maybe win a Cup or two in the seasons ahead during the Sidney Crosby era.

"Going through this," winger Mark Recchi said, "will make every player in here better."

There's no doubt the Penguins -- 16 of whom were playing in their first NHL playoff series -- learned a lot during the eight days the Senators spent schooling them. The painful lesson started at the beginning of Game 1 when the Senators stormed them for two goals in the first seven minutes on their way to a ridiculously easy 6-3 win.

Welcome to the playoffs, fellas!

"Everybody put their finger on the experience factor coming in, but we shrugged it off," Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik said. "We had so much energy and so much resiliency. We were thinking that would maybe put the experience factor under the carpet, but ... "

There's another of those blasted buts.

"But that's not the way it works in playoff hockey," Orpik said.

Or, as goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury put it:

"I think we learned that it takes a lot to win. It's not going to happen with just one or two guys. Everybody's got to show up every night."

Still, it hurt, hurt very badly. The Penguins didn't just make the playoffs for the first time in six years, they came in flying after a totally unexpected 105-point season. They never imagined the Senators would be so much better. Better five on five. Infinitely better on defense. And, in the only real surprise in the series, better on the power play.

Somehow, it seemed appropriate that the Penguins wasted not one, but two, five-on-three advantages in the first period last night and finished 0 for 6 on the power play. That unit had gone 0 for 9 on home ice in the losses in Games 3 and 4, hadn't it? That's why when Senators defenseman Anton Volchenkov went to the penalty box early in the second period, you couldn't help but think his team had the Penguins right where it wanted them.

The Penguins managed just one measly shot on that power play and probably were feeling a bit sorry for themselves as it ended when defenseman Sergei Gonchar gave away the puck in the neutral zone. That led to a breakaway and goal by Senators winger Antoine Vermette and an overwhelming 2-0 lead. All that was left was the celebration that went long into the morning.

Penguins management knew coming in the team was going to have experience issues even if the players didn't want to face it. It knew the team was woefully short on defense after its top two pairings. And it knew the lack of a big-time scoring winger to play on Crosby's line could be a huge problem. Those final two problems must be addressed by general manager Ray Shero in the offseason.

But neither Shero nor Therrien could have guessed the power play would be so lame. There's just too much top-end talent for it to be so ineffective.

"It really let us down," Recchi said.

If anything good came from the series, it was the play of Fleury. He came in with the reputation of coming up short in big games, thanks to some tough performances in minor-league and international competition. But he was brilliant against the Senators even though his final numbers won't reflect it. He might not have been the best player in the series, but he was the Penguins' best player.

"By far," Orpik said. "Without him, the scores of these games would have been a lot more lopsided."

You want something to feel good about on this rotten morning?

Fleury will be better for this experience.

So will Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal ...

"This team is going to compete for the Stanley Cup for a long time and Sid is going to lead the way," Recchi said.

Crosby will realize that one day. So will Fleury and the others.

But not last night.

The wounds still were too deep, too fresh.

Part of the process, you know?


(Ron Cook can be reached at rcook@post-gazette.com.)