Pittsburgh Proving Penguins Can Fly
By Mike Drakulich, Pittsburgh SportsNation
Somewhere in the final moments of their 1-0 loss to the Washington Capitals back on January 11, the Pittsburgh Penguins decided that they'd had enough. As the last few seconds ticked off the clock to what would be their sixth consecutive loss, a scrum broke out and the Pens showed something that they had lacked for the majority of the season.
Emotion.
The journey into mediocre hockey began on December 5, in a 3-1 beating at the hands of the Boston Bruins. Now 3-1 may not seem like a thrashing, but anyone who watched that game witnessed the Bruins manhandling the Penguins like a Junior A team.
Not coincidentally, that was also the game in which Sidney Crosby was re-injured following a smoking hot eight game return from Crosby's eleven in a half month absence.
In past seasons, the Penguins played with a wolf pack mentality. Mess with one of them, and all of them were going to come after you. Up until that 1-0 loss to the Capitals, the Penguins more resembled the Ice Capades that that of a rough and tumble, in your face team whose mantra had been "Whatever It Takes".
When the end of game scrum with Washington was broken up and the Pens were skating to their locker room, the camera centered in on Brooks Orpik. And in his eyes, you could see the anger. They had fought hard without the likes of Crosby, Kris Letang, and Jordan Staal, but in the end, the result was the same. Defeat.
It was that lasting image of Orpik that gave me a glimmer of hope that the Penguins were ready to get back to playing their brand of hockey. This was a proud organization, one that had already had three Stanley Cup banners raised to the rafters and was solely focused on winning many more in the coming years of the Crosby-Malkin Era. This was a team that without Crosby and Malkin for over half the season last year, managed to finish with the 3rd most points in the entire league. The little scrap at the end might not have caught the eyes of many who witnessed that game, but to me it showed one thing.
Defiance.
Emotion and Defiance. It all came out of the bag the very next game as the Penguins smoked the Florida Panthers 4-1, in which the hockey world witnessed the return of tough, fast paced, physical Penguins hockey and the start of an eight game winning streak and the eventual return of Kris Letang to the line-up that catapulted the Pens back into the thick of the playoff race.
Following the eight game win streak, the Pens dropped three out of four, but salvation came in the form of Jordan Staal, as he was inserted back into the fold vs the Winnipeg Jets in an 8-5 rout. The Pens went 2-2 after Staal's return before embarking on the team's current nine game winning streak, despite Kris Letang being knocked out of the past five with concussion symptoms.
The latest victory, a 5-2 beat down delivered to those very same Boston Bruins, and the second time in a row, might I add, during the return to the Penguin's winning ways, that Pittsburgh handed Boston their lunch.
Next up is a colossal match-up with the New York Rangers on Thursday at Madison Square Garden. Not only have the Penguins erased a double digit point deficit to the Rangers to pull within four points of the Atlantic Division lead and the number one spot in the Eastern Conference, but they have done so without a fully healthy roster. And on Thursday night, it is expected that Sidney Crosby will return to the team in what will certainly give Pittsburgh every bit of motivation to raise the winning streak to ten games and beyond. Whispers from within the organization point to Kris Letang being close to returning, too.
As of right now, Pittsburgh is firing on all cylanders, and the thought of both Crosby and Letang returning to the mix must surely give all NHL teams a case of the chills.
This is a team that has found itself, righted the ship, and fought through the toughest of times. They are young, motivated, and peaking at the right time of the year.
In a nutshell, they are fun to watch. Barring a rash of injuries in the final games of the season or playoffs, it is certain the Penguins are not only a Stanley Cup contender, but in fact thee team to beat.
And come mid-June if the Penguins do indeed raise Lord Stanley for a fourth time, you can point back to the eyes of Orpik at the end of that 1-0 loss to Washington to where it all started.
Beware the Penguins. They're coming for Lord Stanley.
Somewhere in the final moments of their 1-0 loss to the Washington Capitals back on January 11, the Pittsburgh Penguins decided that they'd had enough. As the last few seconds ticked off the clock to what would be their sixth consecutive loss, a scrum broke out and the Pens showed something that they had lacked for the majority of the season.
Emotion.
The journey into mediocre hockey began on December 5, in a 3-1 beating at the hands of the Boston Bruins. Now 3-1 may not seem like a thrashing, but anyone who watched that game witnessed the Bruins manhandling the Penguins like a Junior A team.
Not coincidentally, that was also the game in which Sidney Crosby was re-injured following a smoking hot eight game return from Crosby's eleven in a half month absence.
In past seasons, the Penguins played with a wolf pack mentality. Mess with one of them, and all of them were going to come after you. Up until that 1-0 loss to the Capitals, the Penguins more resembled the Ice Capades that that of a rough and tumble, in your face team whose mantra had been "Whatever It Takes".
When the end of game scrum with Washington was broken up and the Pens were skating to their locker room, the camera centered in on Brooks Orpik. And in his eyes, you could see the anger. They had fought hard without the likes of Crosby, Kris Letang, and Jordan Staal, but in the end, the result was the same. Defeat.
It was that lasting image of Orpik that gave me a glimmer of hope that the Penguins were ready to get back to playing their brand of hockey. This was a proud organization, one that had already had three Stanley Cup banners raised to the rafters and was solely focused on winning many more in the coming years of the Crosby-Malkin Era. This was a team that without Crosby and Malkin for over half the season last year, managed to finish with the 3rd most points in the entire league. The little scrap at the end might not have caught the eyes of many who witnessed that game, but to me it showed one thing.
Defiance.
Emotion and Defiance. It all came out of the bag the very next game as the Penguins smoked the Florida Panthers 4-1, in which the hockey world witnessed the return of tough, fast paced, physical Penguins hockey and the start of an eight game winning streak and the eventual return of Kris Letang to the line-up that catapulted the Pens back into the thick of the playoff race.
Following the eight game win streak, the Pens dropped three out of four, but salvation came in the form of Jordan Staal, as he was inserted back into the fold vs the Winnipeg Jets in an 8-5 rout. The Pens went 2-2 after Staal's return before embarking on the team's current nine game winning streak, despite Kris Letang being knocked out of the past five with concussion symptoms.
The latest victory, a 5-2 beat down delivered to those very same Boston Bruins, and the second time in a row, might I add, during the return to the Penguin's winning ways, that Pittsburgh handed Boston their lunch.
Next up is a colossal match-up with the New York Rangers on Thursday at Madison Square Garden. Not only have the Penguins erased a double digit point deficit to the Rangers to pull within four points of the Atlantic Division lead and the number one spot in the Eastern Conference, but they have done so without a fully healthy roster. And on Thursday night, it is expected that Sidney Crosby will return to the team in what will certainly give Pittsburgh every bit of motivation to raise the winning streak to ten games and beyond. Whispers from within the organization point to Kris Letang being close to returning, too.
As of right now, Pittsburgh is firing on all cylanders, and the thought of both Crosby and Letang returning to the mix must surely give all NHL teams a case of the chills.
This is a team that has found itself, righted the ship, and fought through the toughest of times. They are young, motivated, and peaking at the right time of the year.
In a nutshell, they are fun to watch. Barring a rash of injuries in the final games of the season or playoffs, it is certain the Penguins are not only a Stanley Cup contender, but in fact thee team to beat.
And come mid-June if the Penguins do indeed raise Lord Stanley for a fourth time, you can point back to the eyes of Orpik at the end of that 1-0 loss to Washington to where it all started.
Beware the Penguins. They're coming for Lord Stanley.
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