By Dave Molinari, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/
There are plenty of reasons to believe the Stanley Cup the Penguins won Friday won't be the only one this group earns.
They have unmatched quality down the middle.
They play an up-tempo, aggressive style that plays to the strengths of their personnel.
Their intangibles are excellent, and their skill level is at least that good.
Michael Henninger / Post-Gazette
Members of the Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins pose for photographs before baseball game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Detroit Tigers at PNC Park on Sunday afternoon.
But the most encouraging thing of all might be that if the average age of their key players was any lower, the Cup would have had to be fitted with a nipple before any of them drank from it after Game 7 of the Cup final at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.
"This team is set up for a great future," right winger Bill Guerin said yesterday. "These guys are all in their early 20s."
Well, not quite all of them. Guerin, for example, is 38. Sergei Gonchar is 35; Mark Eaton 32; Matt Cooke and Pascal Dupuis have hit 30.
But core players such as Sidney Crosby (21), Evgeni Malkin (22), Jordan Staal (20) and Marc-Andre Fleury (24) are years from reaching their potential, which means that if salary-cap stresses don't tear the team apart, this championship could be the first of several for the group that upset the Red Wings.
"We could have clubs for the next eight, nine years like this," said Ed Johnston, the Penguins' senior advisor for hockey operations.
Malkin, who earned the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP, said he saw the potential for the Penguins to be a perennial contender when he came to North America from Russia in 2006.
"I know every year we would play better and better," Malkin said. "I know we would win the Stanley Cup because we have lots of good players -- Jordan, Sidney, Fleury.
"I knew we would win. Three seasons is a short time, but we have a good team. We have 20 guys, and every guy played so hard and so very well."
Anything less, and the Penguins probably wouldn't have gotten past the Red Wings, who were the defending champions and possess depth and balance with few, if any, equals in today's NHL.
The Penguins played about as well as they could in several of their victories against Detroit, and in a couple of the losses. Not necessarily as well, however, as they will be able to in the future.
"We did great, obviously," defenseman Kris Letang, 22, said yesterday. "But I think we can be even better."
There's solid logic, not just hollow rhetoric, there. Letang pointed out that Detroit, a legitimate Cup contender almost every year, long ago settled into a rhythm that makes it possible for the Red Wings to be at their best more often than not.
The Penguins, conversely, are just getting used to the way coach Dan Bylsma wants things done. It was, after all, just four months ago today that he replaced Michel Therrien.
"Detroit has been working in their system for years and years," Letang said. "We've had ours for three months. We're going to get more comfortable in our system."
The Penguins have played in the Cup final for two years in a row and are not facing any devastating losses via free agency, even though some valuable contributors could move on. Even so, there is no guarantee they will be playing for the Cup again in 2010, or in any other year.
There are too many good teams, and too many things that can go wrong, for even the best-positioned club to assume that it's assured a place in the final.
"You never know when things like injuries are going to happen," left winger Chris Kunitz said. "With the salary cap, you don't know how long you can keep things together. You have to take advantage when you get the opportunity."
The Penguins did this time, and that's why there will be a parade this afternoon. Why guys such as Hal Gill and Craig Adams and Miroslav Satan might never have to pay for another beverage in this town, no matter where they work in the future.
And why it's conceivable that other players -- guys who aren't even on the Penguins' depth chart today -- might find themselves in line for similar perks in coming years.
"We have a lot of good young guys, great young players," Gonchar said. "If we're going to be together, we're going to have a chance."
Dave Molinari can be reached at dmolinari@post-gazette.com.
First published on June 15, 2009 at 12:00 am
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