The Toronto Star
http://www.thestar.com/sports
April 19, 2010
OTTAWA— It’s too early to say whether the Pittsburgh Penguins have what it takes to repeat as Stanley Cup champions, although the graduation of Sidney Crosby from merely superb player to out-and-out hockey legend suggests that as long as he’s around, wonderful things are going to happen.
But the commodity that the Penguins have in more copious amounts than the other 15 clubs in the NHL post-season parade is, quite clearly, poise.
Kris Letang of the Penguins sends Ottawa's Anton Volchenkov flying in the first period Sunday night.
BLAIR GABLE/REUTERS
Sure, they have goaltending and quality skill players and grit and experience, but what they don’t get enough credit for is their collective ability to confront difficult situations and emerge victorious.
It happened in Game 7 last spring against the Capitals in Washington, and then in the seventh and deciding game of the Stanley Cup final in Detroit against the Red Wings. They showed it a few weeks ago when, in the tense atmosphere of a game in Boston just days after Matt Cooke’s dirty but unpunished hit on Bruins star Marc Savard, they methodically ground out a workmanlike victory.
Sunday night in the nation’s capital, they showed that remarkable poise again in an impressive 4-2 triumph, regaining home-ice advantage in their series against the Ottawa Senators and quite probably positioning themselves to advance to the next round somewhat more quickly than it first appeared would be the case.
The Senators have already done an outstanding job of competing in this series, particularly when you consider Alexei Kovalev and Filip Kuba were gone before the competition started and Milan Michalek lasted just briefly before his knee balked. It’s been that kind of year for Cory Clouston’s club, what with the Dany Heatley trade looking not so hot — Sens got Michalek, the demoted Jonathan Cheechoo and a second rounder they turned into journeyman defenceman Andy Sutton —and with Pascal Leclaire failing to assert himself as a No. 1 goaltender.
Despite all of that, the Sens ran off 11 wins in a row at one point and then stole the first game of this series in Pittsburgh. But with star centre Jason Spezza being booed with every careless turnover in Game 3, the last puffs of air in the balloon that has lifted the Sens to surprising heights in the Eastern Conference this season seemed to dissipate.
Maybe the Sens have a little more fight left. But the Pens, it’s clear, won’t beat themselves. They’re not Washington, creating lots of chances at both ends, or even Detroit, a quality veteran team that doesn’t seem to have the energy or goaltending to handle the upstart Coyotes.
This Pittsburgh squad is a young team that has grown together and learned how to lock it down when necessary to win a championship, and it hasn’t forgotten how.
The Pens were threatened early in the second of Game 3 when, after the Sens tied the game 1-1 on Mike Fisher’s goal, the home team produced an intense push, surrounding Marc-Andre Fleury in the Pittsburgh net and nearly scoring on two or three occasions.
But as soon as they got the chance, the champs pushed back, with Evgeny Malkin tapping home an easy open-netter after Ottawa goalie Brian Elliott was beaten to a loose puck by Max Talbot. That ended the Senator flurry, and then Crosby took over, first drilling Sens captain Daniel Alfredsson with an open-ice hit that knocked Alfredsson from the game briefly, and then scoring a gorgeous goal that left Sutton grasping at air in the corner and Elliott down on his belly and helpless as the puck soared high into his net.
Up by two goals, the Pens then defended most of the final two minutes of the third with only four skaters against Ottawa’s six with Elliott pulled, and did so calmly and efficiently.
Crosby’s mere presence seems larger than ever before thanks to the biggest goal scored by a Canadian in at least 23 years at the Vancouver Olympics, and he seems faster and more keenly aware of the moment than ever before. Few bother to make the argument any longer that Malkin is even close to Crosby’s equal.
But the Penguins are more than Crosby, more than a talented team built on the foundation of being horrible and bankrupt for years.
They never panic, don’t flinch and rarely seem flustered for very long. It will take a very good team to change that this spring.
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