This is the Golden Age of the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Sid and Geno era has tied the Mario and Jagr era in Cups. The 50th Anniversary logo at center ice has symmetrical beauty. There is no more ‘what might have been’ with this generation, it happened.
Evgeni Malkin – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Everything now is gravy.
The Penguins have the best player in the world, Sidney Crosby. It’s not even close. Sid plays 200 feet of brilliance. Crosby is not only scoring at a ridiculous pace and in every fashion but he’s scoring at clutch moments.
Evgeni Malkin is not the second-best player in the world anymore.
The future Hall of Famer is in the top fifteen and still has incredible moments. Besides the two-headed monster the Penguins have a lineup with four lines that can score. When Phil Kessel is a role player your team is loaded. Kris Letang maybe the best two-way defensemen in the NHL. The Penguin carry two goalies who have both won the franchise a Stanley Cup.
So why is this the Golden Age and not the 90’s Penguins?
The 90’s Penguins have their own wing in the Hall of Fame but they were a beautiful structure built on a fault line. Mario Lemieux was super human but he had a debilitating back problem and then Hodgkin’s disease. The NHL in the 90’s had no salary cap so you knew at some point Jaromir Jagr, Ron Francis and other Penguin legends would be playing in other teams’ sweaters. The Penguins were owned by a guy who thought Sudden Death was a good movie and whose investments led the franchise to bankruptcy and possible relocation.
This generation’s Penguins are different. The foundation is secure. The NHL has a salary cap And the team is owned by the franchise’s patron saint Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle.
Sidney Crosby skates with the Stanley Cup – Photo by Jack Lima
Burkle, being a man who can give God a loan. The Penguins GM, Jim Rutherford, has made history by winning the Stanley Cup with two different franchises. Head Coach, Mike Sullivan, is the best coach the Penguins have had in a decade.
Last year at this time I thought the Sid and Geno era was ending unfulfilled. I was wrong. It is still going and it is fulfilled. This is the best time I’ve ever known as a Penguin fan. In over forty years I’ve experienced bankruptcies, not making the playoffs, threats of moving and fifteen years of never winning in Philadelphia. Right now the Penguins have tons of young talent who are already Cup winners. Every game the Penguins play, everyone who dons the black and gold can score, that was not always the case. Remember the Kelly Buchberger era (post Jagr pre Sid era) when no one could score. When you thought no one in Kansas City will watch these guys if they move there.
As great as the future looks, who knows what lies ahead. Who saw David Volek’s goal or Kevin Stevens shattering his face. Lotteries aren’t won twice, unless you’re Hollywood Henderson. So, enjoy Sid and Geno, there probably won’t be another era this golden in the next fifty years.
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