Pens' battle with Caps a series to savor

By Mike Prisuta, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/
Friday, May 15, 2009

When the Penguins won the Eastern Conference a season ago, they wouldn't even touch the trophy.

They ought to buy themselves one this time just for making it that far again, maybe even hang a banner to acknowledge the achievement.

Yeah, it was just a conference semifinal.

But because of the participants and the raised stakes of their postseason confrontation -- the just-completed Sidney Crosby-Alex Ovechkin showdown is being accurately framed as something the likes of which the NHL hadn't seen since Gordie Howe vs. Maurice Richard -- this was a series that almost defied description and comparison.

The Cup wasn't at stake.

Still, this was a series from which the loser will be remembered as well as the winner.

"I don't know if I've been involved in a series with as many ups and downs as this one," Penguins veteran Bill Guerin said. "The emotions were just going through the roof.

"I know I'll never forget it."

That's a guy who has won a Stanley Cup for one of his former teams (the New Jersey Devils) and a World Cup for the United States.

Pens-Caps 2009, likewise, deserves some sort of commemorative hardware.

As for celebrating it, that'll have to be put on hold.

The Pens have no choice but to ready themselves for the next round.

They'll do so a more hardened bunch because of the experience.

That's the way this postseason stuff works.

"I think it's experience," Crosby said, when asked how his team could seemingly embrace the pressure of a Game 7 on the road and thrive in spite of it. "We're not old veterans by any means, but at the same time, we've been through a lot for a young group."

That would include a current season in which coaches had to be removed and significant trades had to be made before the Pens could rally well enough to secure a spot in the playoffs, and a trip to the Stanley Cup final last season highlighted by an unforgettable victory in Game 5.

"We played triple overtime in Detroit, on the road, 30 seconds away from being eliminated, and we find a way to keep ourselves in it," Crosby said. "All those scenarios that you go through as a team, you build that trust and that belief.

"You don't expect anything but the best from the guy next to you. I think everyone holds true to that responsibility."

The Pens' next opponent will have to deal with a team that trusts that much more and believes that much more after overcoming Ovechkin and the Caps.

That next opponent will also have to deal with a goaltender who keeps score.

Said Marc-Andre Fleury of his denial of Ovechkin on a breakaway minutes into Game 7: "I owed him a couple."

That he did.

Ovechkin wound up with eight goals in the series.

That's what Ovechkin does, and he would have had even more had Fleury not been as sharp as he was (other than the gift-goals surrendered by Fleury in Game 3 and after Game 7 had gotten out of hand).

But there comes a time when sharp isn't enough and spectacular is required.

The Pens' franchise goaltender understands the responsibilities of his position.