Pens To Cup Final

The Pittsburgh Penguins are the first team to the Stanley Cup Final. The Pens soundly defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 6-0 Sunday night leaving no doubt that the Pens loss in game four was a wake-up call.

Having swept the Ottawa Senators in four games then taking care of the New York Rangers in five games, it was only fitting that the Pens took care of the Flyers in five games as well. So far in the 2008 play-offs the Pens record is 12-2. Pretty good if you consider the fact that the Pens were not a great defensive team in the regular season.

Pittsburgh’s defence in the post season is, well, great. Pittsburgh with players like Evgeni Malkin, Marian Hossa, Sidney Crosby, Ryan Malone, Jordan Stall, Petr Sykora, and Sergei Gonchar have the offence to compete with any team in the NHL. The elite scoring players of the Pens are not only scoring goals, coach Michel Therrien also has them playing defense.

Pittsburgh goalie Marc Andre Fleury who was sent down to the minors this season for some conditioning has played outstanding this post season. Ty Conklin who took over for Fleury when he was sent to the minors has yet to see a post season game for the Pens. For the past couple of seasons Fleury had not been consistent in his play. Fleury has chosen the right time to play well it would seem.

This new Pens team seems like the old team in 1991-92 when they had such players as Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Ron Francis, Alex Kovalev, Mark Recchi, and  Alexei Morosov. WIll this current team have what it take to bring home Lord Stanley’s Cup?

Pittsburgh now awaits the winner of the Detroit Red Wings and the Dallas Stars. The WIngs lead the series 3-2. The Stars will try to tie the series at three games a piece tonight.

Whichever team joins the Pens in the final will meet a rested team ready to prove to the NHL that youth is a good thing.

The NHL is most probably excited that one of the teams that they wanted in the final has already made it. The NHL will never admit that it favors one team or the other, but it must be happy that their t.v. revenues will be high as the Pens are a high t.v. rated team with all their stars. Stars or Wings, doesn’t really matter to the NHL as all three of the remaining teams have marketable players.

Pittsburgh has been waiting for a long time to reach the finals again, question is will they profit from the situation?