PITTSBURGH — Sidney Crosby, once expected to single-handedly push the Pittsburgh Penguins franchise out of financial woes and back into Stanley Cup contention, now gets by with a little help from his friends.
If that wasn't evident in the regular season when the Penguins kept winning even though Sid the Kid missed plenty of time with an ankle injury, his talented teammate Evgeni Malkin made sure of it with all eyes watching the pressure-packed NHL Eastern Conference final opener against the Philadelphia Flyers last night.
Malkin checked in with two brilliant shots to lead the Penguins to an important 4-2 win in the curtain raiser. In both goals, Malkin exhibited his superior skill and why he is one of the three nominees, along with Calgary Flames captain Jarome Iginla and Washington Capitals superstar Alexander Ovechkin, for both the Hart Memorial Trophy and the players-voted Lester B. Pearson Award.
"We knew we had a special group, and a young group that just needed to get experience," said Crosby, who scored in the first period. "We're still learning a lot. We have to keep going. But we definitely have a great group."
The Penguins' Evgeni Malkin celebrates his short-handed, second-period goal against the Flyers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final Friday night at Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh. Malkin scored a pair in a 4-2 win. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
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Earlier this decade, the Penguins were in deep financial trouble and there was a possibility the franchise would be sold and moved. But then they won the draft lottery after the 2004-05 NHL lockout ended and the right to select Crosby first. The next summer, they chose Malkin second overall.
Pittsburgh always will be known as Steeltown, madly passionate about its NFL Steelers. But right now, the local residents are Stanley Cup crazy for their Penguins. Thousands showed up outside the Mellon Arena early to take spots to watch the game on a large television screen. Throughout the day, people were walking around downtown wearing Penguins paraphernalia.
Inside the building, a capacity crowd of 17,132 donned white T-shirts and cheered with every play that turned in favour of the Penguins. Before last year's brief visit in the postseason — it lasted just five games — the Penguins had missed the playoffs in four consecutive seasons and had not advanced to the conference final since 2001.
The Penguins didn't need many scoring chances to prevail last night. They scored four times on 21 shots as the Flyers were sloppy with turnovers in the neutral zone, their end and just inside the Pittsburgh blueline.
Each Penguins goal was the result of swift transition after a Philadelphia giveaway. Malkin's two dandy goals came as the result of pinpoint passes from defencemen Ryan Whitney and Sergei Gonchar from Philadelphia turnovers. The first one from Whitney was close to being offside. On the second, Gonchar threw the puck up the ice while short-handed to Malkin, who streaked in along and blasted a slap shot 10 feet away from Flyers goaltender Martin Biron.
Malkin wasn't good in his shootout attempts this season, so he tried something different on his breakaway goal.
"It was really a last-second decision," Malkin said. "All my penalty shots weren't that great. So in the last second, I just decided to shoot that puck as hard as I can. I didn't think about it, where to shoot, and to make any moves. I just shot as hard as I can."
Crosby agreed it was the right decision.
"Hey, it worked," he said. "If I had his shot, I'd do the same thing."
Malkin was so good last night that he even recovered his lucky cross, which he wears around his neck, after it broke during a late-game scrum after a whistle.
The Flyers, who outshot the Penguins 28-21, certainly took it to their opponents early on and carried the play and built a 2-1 lead on two goals by Mike Richards. But sloppy shifts by the Flyers and the Penguins' deadly finish resulted in a 3-2 lead after the opening 20 minutes. Then Malkin scored his breakaway beauty early in the second period.
"It was kind of weird how that first period went with so many goals," Crosby said. "You know, usually that's uncharacteristic of the playoffs to make mistakes like that early on. But we did a great job of capitalizing."
Petr Sykora scored the Penguins' first goal.
