This group may top '08 model

Friday, May 15, 2009
By Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/

WASHINGTON - MAY 13: The Pittsburgh Penguins celebrate a first period goal by Sidney Crosby(notes) #87 of the Penguins against the Washington Capitals during Game Seven of the Eastern Conference Semifinal Round of the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Verizon Center May 13, 2009 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)


It's still hard to say this Penguins team is better than the very popular 2008 model. That bunch made it all the way to the Stanley Cup final and came within two games of winning the whole darn thing because of its marvelous talent and wonderful chemistry. It had Marian Hossa and Ryan Malone, plus all of the big stars on this year's team. In a lot of other seasons, against an even slightly less powerful final opponent than the mighty Detroit Red Wings, it would have been the NHL champion.

But know this about these Penguins: What they did in the past fortnight against a very good Washington Capitals hockey club is better than anything the '08 team accomplished.

Climbing out of a deep, steep 0-2 hole in the series. Winning four of the final five games. Coming back from a 2-1 deficit in the third period to win Game 5 on the road in overtime without top defenseman Sergei Gonchar. Regrouping after a crushing Game 6 overtime loss at home and getting a huge lift by the unexpected return of the gallant Gonchar to win Game 7 in a blowout.
It's beyond remarkable.

Amazing, maybe?

I'm kicking myself for not liking the Penguins' chances so much in Game 7. I should have known better with this team. It's a special group with its own marvelous talent and wonderful chemistry. There's also an extraordinary leader: Sidney Crosby. There's not much doubt anymore about the best player in the world, is there? Crosby? The Penguins' Evgeni Malkin? The Capitals' Alex Ovechkin?

Clearly, it's the great Crosby who practically willed his team to the series win.

"He's our captain," Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury said, as if no further explanation was needed.

None is, you know?

"All series, he was just so determined that we were going to win," defenseman Brooks Orpik said.

But this team is more than just Crosby and, for that matter, Malkin and Fleury, who probably made the biggest impact on the 6-2 win in Game 7 when he stole a goal from Ovechkin on a breakaway just three minutes in when it was 0-0. Crosby said as much the other night when he marveled at how the boys came together after Gonchar was injured early in Game 4 in a knee-on-knee collision with Ovechkin.

"Our D did a great job stepping up," he said.

The Penguins won Game 4 in large part because Orpik, Mark Eaton, Rob Scuderi, Hal Gill and Kris Letang picked up Gonchar's minutes and responsibilities admirably. They also won Game 5 in Washington -- their most impressive win of the series, it says here -- when Philippe Boucher and Alex Goligoski joined the other five in taking up the slack for Gonchar, whose value to the team can't be overestimated. To win that game on the road ...

"Not to take anything away from last year's team, we've faced probably more obstacles and a little more adversity," Crosby said. "It's been a battle from day one, for sure."
Not day one of the playoffs.

Day one of the season.

The Penguins played without the injured Gonchar -- this time because of a shoulder problem -- for the first 4Â 1/2 months and paid an expensive price, falling out of the playoff chase and getting coach Michel Therrien fired. They needed to go 18-3-4 down the stretch under new coach Dan Bylsma just to make the postseason, then had a difficult first-round series with the hated Philadelphia Flyers, coming from behind by 3-0 on the road in Game 6 to put an end to the in-state hostilities with a surreal 5-3 win. After that came the Capitals, who, in a lot of other seasons, against an even slightly less powerful opponent than the mighty Penguins, would be moving on to the Eastern Conference final.

That's why these Penguins already have achieved more than the '08 team.

That team overcame serious injuries to Crosby and Fleury during the season but was relatively healthy in the playoffs. All it had to do to reach the Cup final was beat a bad Ottawa Senators team in four games, a weak New York Rangers team that was little more than Jaromir Jagr and Henrik Lundqvist in five and a battered and bruised Flyers team in five.

Not that those experiences and the losses in the Cup final to the Red Wings didn't help this year's team. "We've been through a lot for a young group," Crosby said. He mentioned the three-overtime win in Detroit in Game 5 when "we were 30 seconds from being eliminated and we found a way to keep ourselves in it ...

"You go through those situations, you build that trust and a belief. You don't expect anything less than the best from the guy next to you."

Crosby keeps delivering it.

His teammates keep following.

That's why the Penguins are in the Eastern Conference final, getting ready for another tough series.

It's also why the wonderful ride they're on has no end in sight.

Ron Cook can be reached at rcook@post-gazette.com. More articles by this author
First published on May 15, 2009 at 12:00 am