By Gene Collier, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/?m=1
Matt Freed/Post-Gazette
Canadians defenseman PK Subban and forward Mike Cammalleri smother teammate Brian Gionta after he scored his team's fifth goal in Wednesday's game at Mellon Arena.
Sidney Crosby, who for the first time in his career talked a better postseason series than he played, spoke a monstrous, clairvoyant, eloquent truth the day before Game 7, the day before the last day in the life of the Mellon Arena.
"You see what your team is made of [in this situation]; it's a big challenge," the captain said.
True enough, but a soft truth at that.
Here's the hard truth.
"The team that finds a way," Crosby said, "is going to deserve it."
Amen kids. Amen.
Look hard at these Montreal Canadiens, the 2009-10 edition perhaps not as elegant, not as quasi-mythic as the legacy of great hockey craftsmen who sculpted the singularly successful crest of the bleu, blanc et rouge.
Missing their best defenseman and perhaps three of their top five, scrambling to earn the last playoff berth in the Eastern Conference, lumbering through those final 12 regular-season games without a single goal from Michael Cammalleri, and matched first against a scoring machine called the Washington Capitals with a goaltender taken about 999th in the 2004 entry draft, one Jaroslav Halak, the Savin' Slovak.
What should they have figured, out in four? Five tops.
So who was that flying all over the ice in the first half of Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semis Wednesday night? That was one inspired, talented, relentless hockey team, led again by Halak and Cammalleri, roaring to a four-goal lead before a stunned Pittsburgh white-out that felt its heart dropping through its bladder.
"That's a tough team to play against, especially when you get out to a lead," Canadiens defenseman Hal Gill said of his former teammates, "because you know they're comin'. They're comin' with speed and they're comin' with skill. We came out hard and maybe we got a couple of lucky goals, but we found a way to get 'em, and that's what counts."
They found a way; there's Sid's quote ringing in your ears.
When Travis Moen scored the first short-handed goal against the Penguins in these playoffs at 5:14 of the second period and Montreal led, 4-0, the not-so-silent minority of Marc-Andre Fleury baiters throughout the Tri-State were likely conspicuous by their I-told-ya-so smirks. Fleury floated in a daze to the locker room, beaten on four of the first 13 Montreal shots, necessitating an appearance by backup Brent Johnson.
That's how desperate the Penguins' predicament had become.
Not that it was terribly comfortable before that. Montreal was 6-2 in the postseason when it scored first, which Brian Gionta made sure it did by flicking P.K. Subban's backhander over Fleury's stick while Crosby served a curious boarding penalty just 32 seconds after Jeff Jimerson finished the last Star Spangled Banner in his personal concert hall. More ominous for the Penguins, the Canadiens were 5-1 when leading after the first period, which they did, 2-0, after Dominic Moore's slapper at 14:23.
"It's a catch-22 really," said Cammalleri, who got the third goal early in the second, his seventh of the series and 12 of the playoffs. "You're so excited that you have a lead, but you're thinking, 'Geez, we've got to hold this for 50 minutes or something.' "
By that time, of course, the Penguins had to know what they were up against. There was no longer any use wondering as to the exact nature of this Canadien accomplishment; the question had long since become what to make of the defending Stanley Cup champions.
"I think it's just a credit to the league," said Bill Guerin in the imminent tomb that was the home club's dressing room. "Any team can beat anybody on any night. In the playoffs in this league, [the No.] 1 [seed] is no better than [the] 8."
But there's a lot more at work here than just the any-given-Wednesday provision.
Did you think, for example, that Dan Bylsma was going to win every playoff series of his coaching career, right up until they moved the Hockey Hall of Fame into his back yard?
Did you think, for another, that Crosby was going to rise to every single extra large occasion of his entire life? Turns out he's human. Can we let the man be human?
Did you notice, for still another, that teams that win the Stanley Cup don't usually repeat it the very next spring. It's exceedingly rare, in point of fact.
Did for expect Fleury, rightly celebrated as a big-game, money goalie, to be exactly that in every big game of his life?
Doesn't that seem like a lot to expect?
"Well, that's the idea," said Gill, who deserves the last word in this chapter. "Every night you have to prove it. It doesn't matter unless you win it all. I don't think you get a trophy for second."
Gene Collier: gcollier@post-gazette.com. More articles by this author
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