Legend has it that it is the Phoenix, not the Penguin, that rises from its own ashes. Perhaps it is time to rewrite that legend since teams that advance to the Stanley Cup Finals and lose do not often return any time soon.

That is not so unbelievable after all. Say all you want about the NFL, MLB and the NBA, there is no more grueling playoff than the quest for Lord Stanley’s Cup. Sure football is a physical game – but in the NFL you only play once a week and your body has time to heal between match up. Baseball? Pish posh. Sure they play best seven game series but the most physicality you get on the diamond is a bean ball or a crash into the outfield fence maybe once every couple games or a collision at first base once in a blue moon. The NBA? Again, sure they have a seven game series format but you are not constantly getting checked into the boards on every trip down the ice nor are you really even allowed to hit other players.

Nope, the NHL is hands down the toughest championship to win. You can hit the opponent; in fact it is encouraged. There are boards to contend with. And let’s not forget that everyone on the ice carries a formidable weapon in their hands which can and does get used inappropriately at times. Couple that with the inevitable free agents that flee teams each year in search of big bucks after great seasons (usually more due to who a player played with than the actual player himself) and it is amazing that anyone can repeat as division champs or even Stanley Cup Champions.

Last year, the Penguins raced through the playoffs only to crash and burn early in games one and two of the finals against Detroit. They turned things around after that but splitting the next four games still meant that they lost the series 4-2. Their ashes were on the ice after they flared out.

Early this season they looked ready to at least make a good showing in the playoffs. Hossa left for Detroit claiming that he had the best chance for a championship there and other players were let go including Malone, Laraque and Roberts. In came Satan, Fedotenko and Zigomanis. Somehow the Penguins actually looked stronger than last year top to bottom all of a sudden. But then the wheels started falling off during the winter. In February the team looked down and out. They started to turn things around but a, what I will contend was a fluke, loss to Toronto cost Therrien his job and in comes Dan Bylsma. The team responds to this and there is a smoldering among the ashes perhaps as the team sensed that they had cost one coach his job because of their own poor performance on the ice and were not about to let it happen to another.

Then out goes Whitney, a cornerstone of last year’s success, and in comes Chris Kunitz with a gritty, hard hitting persona. Then the Penguins get the New York Islanders to give up Bill Guerin for a song; a conditional draft pick. And let’s not forget Craig Adams. Then the sparks began to intensify and above the ashes a Penguin once again skated.

Into the playoffs the team stormed after climbing from 10th place to 4th in the East. They crushed the orange of Philadelphia, rocked the red of Washington and now have just completed downgrading the Hurricanes of Carolina. Now it is on to the Stanley Cup Finals – again.

Do the Penguins have something to prove? Yep. Will they prove it? Yes. Either they will prove they are Stanley Cup Champion caliber or they will prove that they are just second best again. Which it will be will be up to men named Sidney, Geno, Marc-Andre, Billy, Jordan, Tyler, Max, Craig, Ruslan, Miroslav, Chris, Rob, Brooks, Sergei, Philippe, Kris, Hal, and Mark.

Hopefully the Penguins will prove that they are champions this time around. Because getting back to the finals a third year in a row is not something that I would put money on – ever. But the Penguins should make a better show of it this time around. As the old saying goes, and which is familiar to all true Pittsburgh hockey fans, if you think Penguins can’t fly then you’ve never been in Pittsburgh during the playoffs.

Fly high Pens. Make us proud!

“Tradition” states that the only trophy one dares touch once the Stanley Cup playoffs begin is Lord Stanley’s Cup itself. To do anything else is said to anger the hockey gods by embracing a lesser achievement and that said gods will be more than happy to allow you to settle for less than the grand prize of hockey if that is the way you want to be.

Last night after the Penguins scored an empty net goal to ice the Eastern Conference Championship, I stood up and declared to my buddy who I was watching the game with that Sidney should skate over to the Prince of Wales Trophy after the game and skate around the ice proudly with it in defiance of “tradition”. Of course I also jokingly suggested that he spike it on the ice and proclaim aloud, “WHO’S NEXT?” Imagine my pleasure when somehow my thoughts were magically read by His Sidness and he defied the gods themselves to try and smite him. He and the team also sent a clear challenge to whomever may win the Western Conference Finals (which will probably be Detroit); do you have the balls to touch the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl?

Essentially the Penguins have challenged the manhood of the Western Conference Champs who are still to be determined. Perhaps they have even spotted them a few goals by granting the favor of the hockey gods upon either Detroit or Chicago should they stick with the “tradition.” We will have to wait and see.

Last night, the Penguins defeated the Carolina Hurricanes in a clean sweep of the Eastern Conference Finals and the record is intact – no team has ever come back from a 4-0 deficit in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The game started like many this spring with the Penguins opposition scoring early on a soft goal. At 1:26 of the first, Staal (10) scored on a wrap around that squeezed under Marc-Andre Fleury’s pad. It gave Carolina fans hope but that was all they had to cheer about as the Penguins rolled the rest of the way with only minor speed bumps put up by a feisty, yet tired, Carolina team.

Fedotenko (6) scored at 8:21 off a Boucher shot pass to the far post that caught Ward way out of the net, a theme for the entire game. Then with 1:29 left in the period, Max Tablot (4) scored off a fluttering pass that Ward half swiped at, bounced off the top of his glove, over his head and landed softly in the net. BLAMO – 2-1 Pens.

Then in the second, Crosby and Guerin stuck. In a reversal of a previous goal where Guerin fed Crosby at the far post in front of ward, it was Guerin’s turn. Guerin popped a puck out of the Pens zone which Crosby picked up. Crosby skated down the wall and had a 1-1 in font of Ward with Guerin following behind him and Kunitz trailing the play in the middle of the ice. Guerin turned on the jets and swept to the far post as Crosby pulled up at the circle to Ward’s right. Crosby flowed the puck over and Ward was not able to move post to post fast enough to stop the dagger from being placed in their hopes for a comeback. Guerin’s goal was his seventh of these playoffs.

Adams (3) added an empty net goal in the final two minutes and it was over and the brooms came out.

Pittsburgh only managed 24 shots on net against Ward which is a far cry from the 40+ they have been putting up. Fleury faced a total of 31 shots including 16 in the second period constantly flashing leather and kicking out a pad to stop pucks fired by the Hurricanes.

Now with the question of who will represent the East settled, the question of who will represent the West remains. And if Detroit has the wherewithal to end the hopes of the Blackhawks tonight will the NHL courageously move the Finals up to this weekend as my sources in the NHL tell me they are considering?

Here we are, just a short time faceoff in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals and the Hurricanes are Dead Men Skating. They hope to get a reprieve from the governor at the 11th hour on an appeal for a little more life.

Whether or not such will be the case remains to be seen.

As a Penguins fan I have mixed feelings about this series so far. On one hand I love the fact that the Penguins are up 3-0 and have turned Cam Ward into Swiss cheese and made Carolina fans really and honestly consider if the empty net is not a better option considering that it has only allowed 2 goals so far compared to Ward’s 14. On the other hand the series, while each game has had bouts of excitement beyond seeing how many goals Evgeni and His Sidness can score, they have been pretty lopsided and boring. Then there is the problem that I really don’t want to spend another $200 on tickets to watch another shooting gallery win if the Penguins slump tonight and send this game into a Friday night showdown in Pittsburgh. I would rather save that money for the Stanley Cup Final tickets sitting in my little binder on the kitchen counter. But I can always sell my Game 5 tickets I suppose.

So here are tonight’s BIG questions to be answered:

1) Will Cam Ward plug all those holes the Penguins have been finding in his pads?
2) Will Sidney Crosby be the victim of a tragic hit and run by some crazed Carolina fan screaming, “Go Canes!”?
3) Will it finally be revealed that under Malkin’s apparent human looking exterior really lies a cybernetic exoskeleton?
4) Will Jordan get to give his older brother Erik a noogie while in the hand shake line?
5) Is anyone foolish enough to take the “under” for tonight’s game on goals scored?
6) On that same subject, what exactly is the over/under for tonight’s game? 15?
7) How many Carolina fans have sold their tickets to Penguins fans and how many black or baby blue jerseys will be in the stands?
Will Bill Cower show up with his horn again?
9) Will we really have to wait over a week for the Finals to start pending the outcome of this series and the Detroit series? (note: the league has already hinted that it is moving up the start date of the finals to this weekend if both Pittsburgh and Detroit end it in their next games)
10) Exactly how many times will the Staal’s sod farm be referenced during the game?

Yesterday Chicago not only looked defeated, but played like a defeated hockey club racking up senseless penalties and allowing Detroit to pretty much have their way with them up and down the ice. All in all the Hawks took 16 penalties including three game misconducts as they self-destructed in front of the home crowd.

Now with the Redwings up 3-1 in the series and Pittsburgh up 3-0 over Carolina, both teams look to be on the verge of a rematch. When was the last time that happened? I think it was 76-77 and 77-78 when the Canadiens beat the Bruins in consecutive years.

However comebacks do happen. Although from what I saw out of Chicago, it would be more than a miracle for them to rise up and win the series which would spoil a rematch. More likely, yet still improbable, is for Carolina to find itself and beat the Penguins. But the odds favor another show down between Detriot and Pittsburgh.

Chicago saw Detroit erase a 3-0 deficit at the end of the second period with three goals in the final six minutes of the period. But it was Patrick Sharp (7) that won the game for the Blackhawks just 1:52 into overtime after both teams managed only six shots each in the third period and failed to score.

The win makes the series 2-1 Detroit instead of 3-0 which would have been a tall order for Chicago to overcome and it was an outcome that looked in doubt after that second period explosion by Detroit. Chicago pretty much looked like the better team for most of the game except for that late second period lapse but what it proved once again is that you cannot let up when you have Detroit down. However, after Detroit tore down the (Khabi)Bulin Wall again, it was Cristobal Huet that came in and rescued the Hawks.

Both teams go at it again at 3:00 PM on Sunday.

Sharp’s post game interview: