Even if he does not return to the Penguins next season, veteran defenseman Darryl Sydor believes they turned a significant corner with an elimination-preventing, triple-overtime victory in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final.
"You could totally see in that game how these young guys have grown," said Sydor, a two-time Cup winner who played in his fifth final series. "You could totally see they've become leaders before our eyes.
"(Game 5) was a big step for them."
That dramatic victory, which temporarily allowed the Penguins to stave off elimination in the Cup final, showed they possess grit to match their enviable skill.
The next big step, Sydor said, is for the Penguins to avoid believing Cup final appearances are their birthrights.
"Getting back is not a given," Sydor said. "I was (21) when Los Angeles went to the Cup final (1993). I thought we'd be back. We didn't make the playoffs again for five years."
The Penguins, who stormed through the playoffs with a 12-2 record before falling in six games to the machine-like Detroit Red Wings, are full of promise with young stars such as captain Sidney Crosby, 20, centers Evgeni Malkin, 21, and Jordan Staal, 19, and goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, 23.
As Cup champion Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said, "They just keep getting better and better."
But after a short summer recess to reflect on how far they've come - they are only two years removed from a 58-point regular season - the Penguins will open training camp in September with enormous expectations.
The Penguins have played before 67 consecutive sellouts at Mellon Arena. Game 6 of the Cup final was on 54 percent of locally turned-on televisions and rated the most watched NHL game in the United States since 1995, according to Neilsen Media Research. Their merchandise is top-selling, according to the league.
They are the NHL's selling point, their region's fresh-faced hockey heroes - and everybody, including franchise legend and current majority co-owner Mario Lemieux, believes better days are ahead.
"We really built this team to give us a chance to win (the Cup)," Lemieux said. "They've gained some experience. I'm sure they'll be better next time."
Lemieux's sentiment is shared by team director of player development Tom Fitzgerald, a veteran of 17 NHL seasons and member of the 1996 Eastern Conference champion Florida Panthers.
Fitzgerald said this playoff run provided numerous signals the Penguins learned on-the-fly and improved over their two-month postseason journey.
"The longer you play into June accelerates the learning," Fitzgerald said. "I saw the signs first-hand."
Fitzgerald said those signs included:
• Defenseman Ryan Whitney, who struggled in his first season after signing a six-year, $24 million contract last summer, playing his finest hockey in the Cup final. Several team officials cited Whitney's performance in Game 5 - he played more than 50 minutes due to Sergei Gonchar's back spasms - as a potential career-defining display.
• Staal winning 51.3 percent of faceoffs in the playoffs after posting a 42.2 percent rate during the regular season.
• Fleury finishing second among playoff goaltenders in wins (14), goals-against average (1.97) and save percentage (.933). He also recorded three shutouts.
• Malkin playing a part in the Penguins' final three goals in the Cup final after failing to record a point in the series' initial four games. He scored 10 goals and recorded 22 points in 20 games after registering only four assists in five playoff games last season.
• Crosby finishing tied for the individual lead in playoff scoring with 27 points. His two-goal effort in Game 3 of the Cup final provided the Penguins with their first victory and legitimized his status as a worthy heir to Lemieux's captaincy.
"Those are some of the obvious examples," Fitzgerald said. "You can talk about (rookie forward) Tyler Kennedy not scoring in the playoffs. But also talk about how he dropped the gloves with (forward) Scottie Upshall in Game 2 (of the Eastern Conference final) against the Flyers. That's not really his game, but it set a tone for the rest of that game and the series that nobody was going to push us around.
"Experiences like that make you a better player."
Like Sydor, whose one year remaining on his two-year, $5 million contract may be bought out, Fitzgerald said the Penguins will need to actually have learned valuable lessons and apply them immediately.
"It is a tough thing to lose in the final - trust me, I know," said Fitzgerald, whose Panthers lost to Colorado in the 1996 Cup final and were bounced from the playoffs in the first round the next season. "But you draw off your experiences. These kids will have to do that, just like they drew off what they learned from losing to Ottawa in the first round last year.
"You can't take for granted anything. Getting back to the Stanley Cup final, or even the conference final, is hard. But the belief you know how to get back, what to do to get back - you draw off that.
"Everybody talked about Detroit's experience. They had experience to draw off. Now we do, too."
