Game One Recap (Penguins 4, Senators 0)

It's just one game. It's just one game. That's the mantra Penguin fans are repeating this morning after last night's perfectly-scripted 4-0 win over Ottawa. And that's the beauty of sports that don't decide things with single games; you never know whether a single game result-- even a lopsided one-- is an anomaly or a microcosm of how the teams stack up. As Bob Johnson used to say, you gotta win four, and you can lose three. But the Game One 6-2 beating the Senators laid on the Penguins last year was representative of the disparity between the teams last year, and we'll know in a week whether the same is true this year.

My favorite character in westerns is the grizzled, thought-to-be-past-his-prime hermit who doubles as a gun-for-hire. Think Brian Keith in Young Guns. The NHL equivalent is Gary Roberts, the soon-to-be 43 workout machine who missed 43 games after snapping his leg and badly spraining his ankle. Most guys would pack it in for the year, but Roberts vowed he'd return for the playoffs and targeted the last five regular-season games for a tune-up. He only made it back for the last one, the season-ender in Philly on Sunday, so last night he played before the home crowd for the first time since December, scored a minute and change into the game and scored again with a couple minutes left in the game. The Roberts-Laraque-Talbot line did some amazing things last night to possess and cycle the puck and wear down the Ottawa defense last night. The usual saw in hockey is that fighters become insignificant in the playoffs because teams can't afford the penalties. Laraque, though, totaled over eight minutes of ice time last night, because while he's the league's heavyweight champ, he's also a guy who is ridiculously strong on the puck down low. I'd venture to say that if Laraque can play eight minutes a night and play even +/- hockey, the team will go really far. And here I'm just talking about the fourth line, whose play last night allowed Crosby to play less than eighteen minutes and Malkin to play less than twenty. The Penguins will need those guys to stay fresh.

On the evidence of one playoff game and the last eighty-two regular season games, there are two significant differences between this year's team and last year's. After the five-game beating the Penguins suffered last year, lots of observers looked longingly at the puck-moving abilities of the Ottawa defense and hoped the Penguins would acquire some of that skill. They have-- both from without and within. Kris Letang was promoted from the minors and moves the puck extremely fast and accurately. The team traded for Hal Gill at the deadline and while those easy jokes about his lack of mobility will always be with us, he's also very good at making breakout passes. Brooks Orpik has gotten much better at it, too. The second noticeable difference is that Michel Therrien's puck-possession system is really ingrained into every guy in the lineup card. I've been watching the Penguins for the last twenty years, and I can't ever recall another season where the forwards back-checked with the ferocity of this year's squad. Crosby, Malkin and Staal were all known to be ferocious back-checkers before, but Petr Sykora? I had no clue. And Marian Hossa will apparently have to answer for his past playoff scoring droughts from here until eternity, but would someone keep stats for how many times he breaks up an opponent's rush by some inspired back-checking? Or would that take too much work when one could just look at the scoresheet and draw a conclusion?

And what better start for the oft-maligned Marc-Andre Fleury than to record a shutout? He didn't get the best the Senators have to offer last night, but he made all the saves he was called on to make. We'll certainly hear more about his previous disappointments in various playoffs and tournaments before the year's done, but he's got the chance to put that all to rest. Plus, he's 1-0 in the playoffs while playing with his new white pads. I love the fact that he discarded the awesome yellow pads after the team received a letter from an Ottawa optometrist. Given how high-tech and overspecialized the business of professional sports has become, it seems like a quaint story from the days of yore that a layman could write an old-fashioned letter-- on paper and everything-- and a million-dollar goalie changes the color of his equipment.

Still, it's just one game. It's just one game.