myerstownherald.com

By ERIC FISHER
The Pittsburgh Penguins have already made history. By sweeping the Carolina Hurricanes, the Penguins became the first Stanley Cup runners-up to return to the Stanley Cup finals the following season since the Edmonton Oilers returned to the finals in 1984.
You might remember that Oilers team. They were led by a couple of young guys named Gretzky and Messier. They also went on to win four Stanley Cups during the ensuing five years.
Nobody is comparing Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin to Gretzky and Messier. At least they shouldn’t be making that comparison. Not yet.
The Penguins’ centers form arguably the best young one-two punch at center ice since Gretzky and Messier. But to earn a place in a conversation with these two Hall of Famers, Crosby and Malkin will have to win a few Stanley Cups.
Crosby and Malkin will get another opportunity at their first Stanley Cup when the finals begin Saturday (NBC, 8 p.m.). Standing in their way will be the Detroit Red Wings, the team that defeated Pittsburgh in last year’s finals.
This marks the first time that the same teams have battled for the Cup in consecutive years since the aforementioned Oilers and New York Islanders clashed in the 1983 and ’84 finals.
In another historic note, the Penguins and Red Wings are the only teams since those storied 1980s Oilers squads to win consecutive Stanley Cups. The Penguins won in 1991 and ’92; the Red Wings won in 1997 and ’98. The Red Wings, of course, would like to repeat as champions again this season.
Looking at the talent on these two teams, it isn’t a shock to see them both back in the finals. The Penguins, however, took the long road back to the finals.
As late as early March, there were doubts about whether the Penguins would even return to the playoffs. In addition to missing Marion Hossa, the high-scoring winger who left via free agency and signed with – who else? – Detroit, Pittsburgh seemed to be lacking the grit supplied by players such as wingers Ryan Malone and Georges Laraque.
General manager Ray Shero made his first big move to change the team’s attitude on Feb. 15, when he replaced head coach Michel Therrien with Dan Bylsma. Later that month, Shero traded for left wing Chris Kunitz, who had been a key player for Anaheim’s Cup-winning team in 2007.
By the way, when Kunitz split time between Anaheim and the AHL’s Cincinnati Mighty Ducks in 2003-04, one of his teammates was a veteran named Dan Bylsma, who was in the final year of his nine-year NHL playing career. It’s a small world.
The world gets even smaller when one realizes that Anaheim’s head coach that season was Mike Babcock. Yes, the same Mike Babcock who is the Red Wings head coach.
In early March, Shero made another important acquisition: Bill Guerin. This veteran right wing brings toughness, talent and playoff experience to the Penguins. Guerin broke into the NHL with the New Jersey Devils and won the Cup in 1995. The team the Devils beat in 1995? The Red Wings, who were making their first finals appearance in 29 years.
The notion that the Red Wings hadn’t been in the finals for 29 years sounds crazy to younger fans. The Red Wings have become a perennial power, gunning for their fifth Stanley Cup in the past 13 seasons. In fact, the Red Wings are arguably the most successful franchise – in any sport – during the past 15 years.
The Red Wings are overflowing with talent. Nicklas Lidstrom, Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Johan Franzen, Valtteri Filppula … the list goes on and on. The Red Wings definitely have a European flavor, but nobody should be fooled into thinking that Detroit can be pushed around.
A ray of hope for Penguins fans are the injuries to Lidstrom, the NHL’s best defenseman, and Datsyuk. Both players missed Games 4 and 5 of the Western Conference finals with undisclosed injuries. (For those unfamiliar with secretive NHL injury reports, injuries are listed vaguely as “upper body” or “lower body” injuries, and team personnel would withstand waterboarding before giving away the true nature of an injury.)
Another reason for Penguins fans to believe the outcome in this year’s finals will be different is goaltending. Marc-Andre Fleury has been terrific during the postseason. Without a few huge saves by Fleury at crucial moments, the Penguins may have been knocked off in the first round by their cross-state rivals, the Flyers.
Detroit goalie Chris Osgood doesn’t receive enough credit, but it’s not a knock on Osgood to state that the Penguins have the edge in goal.
Another key for the Penguins is defenseman Sergei Gonchar. It’s not a coincidence that the Penguins’ improved play – often attributed to the hiring of Bylsma and the trades for Kunitz and Guerin – coincided with Gonchar’s return from injury.
But the bottom line is that Crosby and Malkin must play like superstars. Otherwise, the Penguins will be history. And not the type of history they’re trying to make.