Penguins ready to begin their chase for the Stanley Cup

'You get judged ... by what you do in the playoffs'

Wednesday, April 11, 2007



Evgeni Malkin, right, autographs a jersey for Greg Welsh, a construction worker whose job site happened to be next to the charter flight the Penguins took from Pittsburgh International Airport to Ottawa yesterday.



By Robert Dvorchak, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

One year after finishing last in the National Hockey League's Eastern Conference, and barely one month removed from the announcement of funding for a new arena that will keep them in Pittsburgh, the Penguins are back in the chase for the Stanley Cup.

"You get judged as a man and as an athlete by what you do in the playoffs," said winger Georges Laraque. "We're going to have to play harder than we've ever done before."

In their first playoff appearance since 2001, the Penguins share some novelty with their fans. Fifteen of the 25 roster players will be in their first playoffs, and so will a new generation of fans.

The new season starts at 7 o'clock tonight in Ottawa with a different brand of hockey -- more emphasis on defense and goaltending, more hitting, more intensity, the unforgiving spotlight of professional hockey's biggest stage and less open ice for skating. The players understand the significance of being in the postseason, but they're not shy about seizing the moment, either.

"We're young. We don't know any better," said Erik Christensen, one of the newcomers to the NHL playoff experience. "I don't think there will be any adjustment period. We just have to take the intensity up a couple of notches and make sure we play our game."

The quest for the Stanley Cup is a campaign of attrition, a test of heart and will, of endurance and toughness. The shootout that settles tie games during the regular season goes into storage. This is a time of quadruple overtimes.

They may be young, but the Penguins aren't going to sneak up on anybody, not when they have the NHL's leading scorer in Sidney Crosby, the youngest player ever to win the scoring title.

Ottawa isn't in much of a position to take them lightly, either. Both teams finished with 105 points, but the Senators got home-ice advantage in the best-of-seven opening series by having more victories. In four meetings this season, the Penguins won three, including both games played in Ottawa. The two teams have already been in postseason mode, with their coaches exchanging verbal barbs and the players exchanging snarls and hits in their last game.

The Penguins collection of young talent rates some historical consideration.

Although Mr. Crosby and rookies Evgeni (Geno) Malkin and Jordan Staal haven't reached legal drinking age, they produced more than 25 goals apiece. The last time three members of the same team scored so prodigiously before their 21st birthdays came in 1981-82. Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier and Paul Coffey -- three Hall of Famers -- did it with the Edmonton Oilers.

The lack of experience doesn't worry 40-year-old Gary Roberts, who had a year of NHL experience under his belt before Crosby was born.

"They're young and loose with lots of energy. This team is a very mature group. They're committed. They're disciplined," he said. "That's nice for an old guy like me, to see these young guys come to the rink and have so much fun every day. It keeps me young."

The Penguins point out that they have played some big games in the second half of the season when they battled teams fighting for their playoff lives or elbowing their way up to a better seeding.

"Experience is important. You can't take away from that. For us, we have to get it sometime. There's no better time than now," Mr. Crosby said. "We're just going to use our energy. We're going to be excited. Maybe we don't have experience in the NHL playoffs, but we have guys who have won world juniors, Memorial Cups, played in the minor league playoffs, been in pressure situations before."

For Colby Armstrong, the playoffs represent an opportunity.

"It's a dream come true. I've been watching the Stanley Cup playoffs since I was little. To be part of it now is unbelievable. It's what you play for. Everyone's ready to go," he said.

The only way to find out what the playoffs are all about is to go through them.

"You have to be baptized," said Eddie Johnston, the team's special adviser for hockey operations.

The hockey, he noted, is different in tone and style from the games played during the regular season.

"Games are going to be won in the corners. In front of the net. On special teams," he said. "No clean-cut goals. They're all dirty goals."

Mr. Laraque, who was on the Edmonton team that came within a game of winning the Cup last season, also notes that the difference in winning and losing in the playoffs can be as fine as the edge of a skate blade.

"No more high-scoring games. Everything's played so tight," he said. "Everything is more physical. Everything is more intense."

Mark Recchi won the Cup with the Penguins in 1990-91 when he appeared in his first postseason, and his name is etched into the silver trophy as a member of the Carolina Hurricanes last season.

"You have to be focused for 60 minutes. It comes down to who's going to be willing to do the most things," he said.

The Penguins left Pittsburgh yesterday after their morning practice. A rally is scheduled today at noon at the City-County Building, Downtown, and Mayor Luke Ravenstahl has issued a proclamation urging fans to wear black and gold in honor of the Penguins.


(Robert Dvorchak can be reached at bdvorchak@post-gazette.com or at 412-263-1959.)