http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Marc-Andre Fleury (left) and Sidney Crosby open the NHL playoffs tonight at home against the Philadelphia Flyers.Getty Images
In their BB — Before Bylsma — dark period, when the Penguins went 12-19-1 to fall into 10th place in the Eastern Conference, defenseman Rob Scuderi occasionally thought of his final collegiate season at Boston College.
"There were times when we weren't playing very good, but nobody got down because of our experience — so, there's something to be said for having it, absolutely," Scuderi said of that 2000-01 campaign, which Boston College capped with an NCAA title after losing championship games the previous two seasons.
"That experience was the biggest difference when we finally won. We had more guys that had been there, knew how to handle it and do the right things at crunch time."
Crunch time for the Penguins starts tonight at Mellon Arena, when they open a best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal playoff series against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Center Max Talbot described the Penguins' third consecutive Stanley Cup playoffs appearance as "a chance to prove a lot of people wrong."
See, before they played their first regular-season game in October — beforeearning 34 of 50 points to start the season, the two-month freefall that cost former coach Michel Therrien his job, and an 18-3-4 finish under interim coach Dan Bylsma — the Penguins already had been told they could not return to the Stanley Cup final, let alone win the franchise's third title.
Of the past 11 losing Cup finalists, only one won a playoff series the next season. No team has lost the final and followed with a Cup win since the 1984 Edmonton Oilers. After losing last year to the Detroit Red Wings, the Penguins will try to break that streak.
"Those are just facts people talk about a lot," Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury said. "Maybe we'll be the team that gets people talking about something else, something better.
"I think we're going to be better in the playoffs this year because we lost last year in the final. We saw what it takes to finish the job."
If realizing what it takes to morph from contender to champion is the final step a hockey team can take, the experience of losing with the Cup in clear view is a great advantage, New Jersey Devils goalie and three-time Cup winner Martin Brodeur said.
Brodeur's Devils wasted a 3-2 series lead in the 1994 East final, which the New York Rangers won with a double-overtime Game 7 goal. The Devils won the Stanley Cup the next season.
"I'm not saying it's important to lose to learn how to win, but you have to take some positives out of it," Brodeur said earlier this month. "Sometimes, you know, a team is just better than yours, and you have to learn how come they are.
"We were right there in 1994, and we couldn't get it done. When we came back the next year, we just knew what it would take to win the Cup. After you lose late in the playoffs, you just know how to win."
Penguins left wing Chris Kunitz believes a 2006 Western Conference final loss by his former club, the Anaheim Ducks, in which they lost three home games to eighth-seeded Edmonton, played a significant role in their 2007 Cup victory.
"We lost fairly handedly," Kunitz said. "It was humbling, and everybody on that team that came back thought a lot about it that offseason. There was this feeling and guys talked about it, 'God, we let one slip away from us.'
"After a while, the disappointment and heartache became full-blown hatred. I think that was the missing piece for us. You don't want to say we had to lose, but, really, we had to learn to hate losing in order to win it all."
Hate losing — yeah, Penguins center Jordan Staal knows exactly what Kunitz means.
"I still think about that Cup final, and it bugs me more every time that I do - it's almost impossible to describe," Staal said. "The part I can't shake is how quickly it just ended in Game 6. Just like that, our season was over, everybody's dream was done. That was when I realized why it's called sudden death, not sudden victory.
"In a way, though, I wonder if we needed to experience that kind of disappointment for us to be truly great. I guess we'll find out."
Heartbreak healing
Tales of clubs overcoming deflating playoff defeats to win the Stanley Cup are plentiful in recent NHL history:
2008 Red Wings
Previous season: Lost to Anaheim in a six-game Western final; dropped Games 2 and 5 at Detroit in OT
2007 Ducks
Previous season: Lost to Edmonton in five-game Western final; dropped Games 1, 3 and 5 at Anaheim
1999 Stars
Previous season: Lost to Detroit in six-game Western final; Stars had won President's Trophy
1997 Red Wings
Previous season: Lost to Colorado in six-game Western final; Red Wings had set league record with 131 points
1995 Devils
Previous season: Lost to Rangers in seven-game Eastern final; up, 3-2, Devils lost Game 6 at home
Source: 2009 Total Stanley Cup guide
No comments:
Post a Comment