By Robert Dvorchak, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/?m=1
Rebecca Droke/Post-Gazette
Devon Moore, left, and Eric Kerr, of Indiana, Pa., react to the Canadiens scoring during the first period.
In what was supposed to be hockey at the highest level, a far-fetched opera plot broke out.
The defending Stanley Cup champions were dumped from their lofty throne because of a tragic flaw -- namely allowing the Montreal Canadiens to surge to a four-goal lead and to chase goalie Marc-Andre Fleury before 26 minutes had been played.
If this had been an operatic tragedy -- and remember that the Civic Light Opera led the drive to build the multi-use facility now called Mellon Arena -- the portly soprano would have had plenty of time to warm up the vocal chords for a farewell song.
The Penguins and a full house of their fans refused to go down without a fight. But just like that, the playoff run ended with a 5-2 loss last night in what was the final hockey game played at Mellon Arena.
"It was not what we anticipated and not how we thought the game would play itself out," said coach Dan Bylsma, on the losing end of a series for the first time.
"We are extremely disappointed, but win, lose or draw, you look at the character of your team, and I'd rather have the Pittsburgh Penguins than any other group."
In a remarkable bit of history, the Penguins exit The Igloo the same way they entered the NHL in 1967 -- on the wrong side of the score against Montreal.
The Canadiens, who had ripped the hearts out of the top-seeded Capitals by winning their first-round series on Washington ice, performed the same surgery on the Penguins.
It was the first time in 14 years that the Penguins had played the seventh game of a series on home ice. That one also ended badly with a 3-1 loss to the Florida Panthers.
The ideal story line would have had the Penguins continuing the defense of their Stanley Cup championship as they move into the new Consol Energy Center. But what was hoped to be a fairy tale on ice morphed into the ice follies.
The start couldn't have been more calamitous. Sidney Crosby, who had won a Cup and Olympic gold in the last 11 months, was whistled for a penalty 10 seconds into the game. The Canadiens had a 1-0 lead 22 seconds later.
It was a bad omen. The team scoring first in a seventh game had won 71 percent of the time.
The Penguins play was so ragged early that they looked worse at times than the expansion team that lost to Montreal in its inaugural game on Oct. 11, 1967.
Second-period goals by Chris Kunitz and Jordan Staal made a game of it and stirred the sellout crowd. But like the elevators in Mellon Arena, they couldn't reach the top.
In this series, neither team had won two games in a row until the Cinderella Canadiens won the final two contests.
There was the traditional handshake on arena ice for the first time since the Penguins lined up to congratulate the Detroit Red Wings for winning the Stanley Cup in 2008.
Despite the outcome, die-hard fans -- remembering better times -- stayed to cheer the dethroned Penguins. As the lovefest continued, the players lingered on the ice and raised their sticks in a salute to their fans.
"This was probably the best Mellon Arena crowd I can remember," Mr. Bylsma said. "For class and energy, they were awesome. I thought we were going to give them a great story."
"We showed a lot of character," said Montreal coach Jacques Martin. "Our players feel good about what they've done, but at the same time, there will be a bigger challenge the next series."
This is the first time the Canadiens have advanced to the Eastern Conference finals since they won their 24th Stanley Cup in 1993.
The Penguins clinched all four series away from home last year, including two in seventh games, and eliminated the Senators in Ottawa prior to meeting Montreal.
Penguins management had called for a Whiteout, in which their fans wear white T-shirts and wave white towels. They could have used Wite-Out, the stuff used to correct type-written errors, to blot out the bad start.
If it had been opera, it would have been something like The Barber of Seville on Ice, in which the losing team has to shave off its playoff beards.
Only once before in their history had the Penguins faced the Canadiens in the playoffs. That was in 1998, with Montreal winning in six games.
The Penguins fell to 2-5 when playing a seventh game on home ice. They beat Washington twice but lost twice to the Islanders and have been beaten by the Panthers, Flyers and now the Canadiens.
The final act was rife with forgettable plays, but there are four decades of fonder memories to put in the memory banks.
Au revoir, Mellon Arena.
Robert Dvorchak: bdvorchak@post-gazette.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment