Here we are, a little over 24 hours before the puck drops to start the post season journey we hockey nuts love so much. All you need is a ticket to the dance, and who knows what can happen. Just ask last year's number one seeded Capitals who dominated during the year, then promptly lost in the opening round of the playoffs. That was so sad! Or how about asking the Flyers who seemed dead in the water, needing a last game shootout to even qualify for the postseason before making an exciting run to the finals then bowing to the Blackhawks. In between those moments, they managed to come back from a 3-1 deficit to the Bruins, then overcame a 0-3 deficit in Game Seven of that series to advance! That is what I love about the post season, you never know what to expect! As a Pens fan, I have seen a lot of ups and downs in the post season, and each year is a different beast. Did anyone who had witnessed the history of this team really expect the Penguins to win their first Cup in the 1991 playoffs? How about Pietrangelos's miraculous save known simply as "The Save" in the opening series against the Devils? Or in 1992, coming back from a 3-1 deficit to the Capitals in round one to eventually claim the second Cup in a row? Or the second series, when the Penguins overcame the nasty slash on Lemieux to beat the Rangers? I was in the stands with my wife for the Game One gem in the Stanley Cup Finals against the Blackhawks, and I know I will never forget the game tying goal where Jagr left four Hawks prone on the ice as he scored the game tying goal in a dizzying aray of skill and desire. The eruption of the fans in the Mellon Arena as Mario Lemieux drilled home a Larry Murphy rebound to cap an improbable come back will be forever etched in my brain! Lord Stanley, Lord Stanley, bring me the brandy!! How about the 1993 playoffs? That was the best Penguins team ever, and they rolled through the regular season, and I really thought the only thing left to decide was how many series they would sweep enroute to the third cup in a row! I remember sitting in stunned silence as David Volek shattered that dream with a long shot he blew by Tom Barrasso to end that run! How about Kaspar's series winning OT goal v the Sabres? Or the Conference Finals loss to the Florida Panthers of Scott Mellanby, Dave Lowery and those god damn rats in 1996. That loss cost the hockey world a Stanley Cup Finals matchup of Colorado v Pittsburgh and Forsberg/Sakic v Jagr/Lemieux. The mulitple over time game against the Flyers? How about Ron Hextall chasing Robbie Brown while he did his windmill in the 1988-89 playoffs? A series the Penguins lost in 7 games, despite having a 3-2 series lead. Or the glory of the 2007-08 playoff run? The Penguins were a team to be reckoned with, no doubt, but did anyone really see them blowing through the first three series opponents, Ottawa, New York and Philadelphia hardly breaking a sweat?? They set the tone by beating and beating up the Senators in Game one of the quarterfinals, blew through the Rangers, clinching with a dramatic OT goal by Hossa on home ice, and then the same with Philadelphia, embarrassing them on Mellon Arena ice to go back to the Finals for the first time since 1991-92!! Who will ever forget the Game 5 Finals drama, as the Penguins clung to their slim hopes before Talbot scored to tie the game late, and multiple overtimes later, Petr Sykora as promised ended it to force a Game 6. What a night! How about the pain of watching the hated Dead Things hoist the Cup on home ice after another gut wrenching one goal game, with the potential game tying goal rolling through the crease as time was winding down? Man, did that hurt!! Flash forward to 2008-09. After looking dead in the water, the Pens get red hot under Dan Bylsma, and roar back into the playoffs, but meet the vaunted Capitals in the first series. After the Pens fell behind in the series 2-0, another gem of a series unfolded. First, Kris Letang scores in OT in Game 3, or the Penguins go down 3-0 in the series, and add Sidney Crosby playing OUT OF HIS MIND to will the Penguins to a seven game victory against the DETESTED Capitals. How about Fleury's save to stone the Caveman early in Game 7, before the Pens opened the flood gates and took out the trash? How sweet was that? OR in the Flyers series, Game 6, after falling behind 3-0 to the Flyers in their building, and looking like a limping animal that was going to have to go another Game 7 to survive, Talbot incites Carcillo, blocks a lot of punches with his face, then shooooshes the insane throng at the Wachovia Center! The next thing you know the Pens roar back to tie it, they take the lead on a sweet Gonchar blast from the point, and clinch the series with a Crosby empty netter to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. Did anyone else love the sight of Crosby's celebration in front of a suddenly stunned quiet mob who had taunted him unmercifully for years? You know you did!! How about the next series against Carolina. Simply put the Canes were the ones who hit a storm that they could not survive, and it was Hurricane Geno! Like Crosby's stamp on the series against the Capitals, Geno just ate the Canes alive with highlight reel goal after highlight reel goal as the Pens swept the Canes to put themselves in a position to cap off a season of unfinished business by avenging their Finals loss against the Wings. What a series this was? Despite falling behind to the Wings AGAIN 2-0 in the series, somehow there was a feeling that this year would be different, and man were we right. The Penguins promptly tied the series 2-2 on home ice, and there was talk of taking the next two games and celebrating a Cup on home ice for the first time in Penguins history! The Penguins lost both games in Detroit 3-1 before winning both games 3 and 4 in Pittsburgh. How about Staal's shorthanded goal to tie the game in game 4? Kennedy, Kunitz and Guerin teaming up for Kennedy's tic tac toe goal to end scoring at 4-2 in Game 4? Then the Wings came out and ate our lunch in a pivotal Game 5, winning 5-0, and suddenly all of the statistics about the team who wins that 5th game came out. The Wings looked like they had taken control of the series. The Penguins responded by winning a one goal game on home ice in Game six 2-1, punctuated by Rob Scuderi's goal mouth save that earned him the nickname, the Piece! And we were about to meet the Wings in the schoolyard for all the marbles on Friday night in Detroit according to Mike Lange. We marked the occasion by renting a room at Dave and Busters for staff, clients, and friends while we watched another gem unfold. Talbot's two goals staked the Pens to a 2-0 lead, until true to form, midway through the third the Wings closed to within one goal at 2-1. The feeling of my breath leaving my lungs as the big rebound was launched by Lidstrom into what appeared to be an open cage will forever haunt me, as much as the sight of Fleury diving to stop it will forever make me giddy!!! Watching that team celebrate that Cup victory after all of their hard work was a thing of beauty, and I had forgotten how much winning this silver chalice to me beats even the Super Bowl wins by a mile. Then, last year, we watched the Penguins have a nice season, enter the playoffs on a good note, but just a little off to most observers. They defeated Ottawa in the first series on a Game 6 OT goal by Pascal Dupuis to face the unlikely winners of a round one series against the Capitals, the Montreal Canadiens. When the series started with a route by the Penguins, I think we all thought that the Habs had left it on the ice to beat the Caps, and that we would punch our tickets to our third straight conference finals............poor defense and poor goaltending led to a seven game series loss culminating in a blowout on home ice in Game 7. I sat with a friend Jon Reynolds amongst the giddy Habs fans wondering what might have been had the Pens played a little defense or had gotten any kind of goaltending. Again, you never know what are going to get in the NHL post season.
Now to this year's post season party! What can you expect? The Penguins finished with 106 points despite the well chronicled losses of star power all year. They did it because of guys like Letestu, Kunitz and Kennedy stepping up and scoring some goals. They did it because Ray Shero went out and addressed their defensive deficiencies by adding shutdown pairing Zybenek Michalek and Paul Martin, giving the Penguins arguably the best top 4 in the league if you add in Brooks Orpik and Kris Letang. Most of all they did it because Marc Andre Fleury has posted Vezina and Hart worthy numbers since he found his game again on November 12th 2010, posting 35 wins during the span from that date to the end of the season. Not to mention Disco Dan keeping this team focused and hungry despite all of their adversity in an effort worthy of serious Jack Adams consideration. So this team finished third overall in the league in points and got the match up many said it wanted in the first round, in the Tampa Lightning. The feeling by many here is that WHEN the Penguins win the first round, they will be set up nicely for success deep into the playoffs as Sidney Crosby COULD be back for round two and Matt Cooke will be. NOT so FAST people. Tampa Bay is a very worthy opponent, who tied the season series 2-2 with Pittsburgh. Each team took both of its home games, which could make home ice advantage a factor in the series. The Bolts finished with 103 points, only 3 behind Pittsburgh, albeit they are in the weakest division in the conference. They have plenty of goal scoring with Martin St. Louis having 31 goals and 99 points, Steven Stamkos with 45 goals and 91 points to go along with snipers like Vinny LeCavalier, Simon Gagne, Ryan Malone, and Dominic Moore who finsished with 18 goals. This team had a power play in the top 6, clicking at 20.5%, and the Penguins take a lot of penalties, to the tune of 16.9 PIM/G v 11.0 PIM/G for the Bolts. Add to that the fact that the two players the Penguins brought in to address their offensive woes, James Neal and Alex Kovalev have not been very productive other than in the shootouts. So, despite the 106 points, is this team a playoff contender. Will they beat the Lightning in round one? I think that it is and that they will. First off the Penguins improved their goals against to 196 this year, down 39 goals from last season. They scored 228 goals which is down 21 from the prior year, but their differential improved from +14 to +32 year over year. A significant improvement. Tampa's goals against was 234 or 38 more than the Penguins, as they give up 2.85 goals per game to the Pens 2.39 or nearly half a goal per game more. With all of Tampa's firepower they only scored 13 more goals on the season than the Penguins and their differential was +7 v the Penguins +32. Despite the Penguins missing the firepower of Crosby and Malkin, they have four active players with 40 plus points, and solid secondary scoring. The Lightning's PK was 8th, killing penalties at a 83.8% rate, while the Penguins PK was first at 86.1%. Of note here, is that Pittsburgh scored 13 short handed goals while killing penalties and Tampa only scored one. Tampa also gave up 16 short handed goals against, while the Penguins gave up only 6. The Lightning appear vulnerable to momentum changing shorties, and the Penguins are good at getting them. That could have an impact. The Penguins achilles heal has been its power play, entering the playoffs at 25th in the league, and clicking at only 15.8%. Now, the number one PK unit of Pittsburgh has been a little off lately as it is missing Matt Cooke, and the power play has been a bit better with Michalek getting rubber on the net from the point. I just threw a lot of word vomit at you, but there is a point to this. Though I dont think it will be easy, I like the Penguins in six for this series. I think that to win the Penguins have to cut down on their penalties, and when they do take one, I think their PK unit will make enough plays to make a difference. On that same note, I think that the PP will do just enough to get us a handful of one goal wins against Tampa. The Pens top 4 defense and Fleury are the key to the series. They have to shut down the Bolts firepower and an occasional point from Letang and Michalek on the power play will be huge. Special teams in general will dictate a lot in this series. I like the grinders like Rupp, Talbot, Asham, Dupuis and Letestu to make a difference in this series for Pittsburgh. Kunitz, Staal, and Kennedy will have to continue to thrive and now would be good time for Neal and Kovalev to do their thing. The pride, poise, and work ethic of the Penguins will steal this series in a group of very close games(6), and then who knows...is this another year of spring time magic, or the second in a row of springtime heartbreak?.......GO PENS!!
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