Penguins perfectly poised to shoot for three-peat

PITTSBURGH - The NHL's salary cap was something Mario Lemieux, the owner, passionately supported during the 2004-05 lockout season.

But Mario Lemieux, the superstar player, would have fought it to the bitter end.

"We couldn't compete with the (New York) Rangers and LA and Chicago and Detroit," the Pittsburgh Penguins Hall of Famer-turned-chairman said after the Penguins won their second straight Stanley Cup by blanking the Nashville Predators 2-0 in Game 6 of the final last Sunday.

So Lemieux pushed for the cap during the NHL's lost winter, well aware the ripple effects would include a rise in league parity at the potential expense of the dynasties that have been a part of the league since it started awarding Lord Stanley's grail more than a century ago.

The math was easy for Lemieux. Better to have 30ish solvent and competitive clubs than just a handful.

"The salary cap gave us a chance to spend to the cap and be on level playing fields with the other teams," he said.

The cap has proven to be more of a speed bump than a road block for the Penguins.

The proof was all around Lemieux as he spoke on the ice at Bridgestone Arena after watching his team become the first in 19 years and the first in the salary-cap era to win back-to-back titles.

"It's hard to win the Cup, as we've found over the last 10-12 years," Lemieux said.

Just not impossible.

The Penguins flew home to Pittsburgh on Monday with the oldest trophy in professional sports in their possession for the third time in nine years.

A downtown parade was scheduled for Wednesday, a party that's on the verge of becoming a rite of late spring.

Pittsburgh has done it by investing heavily in a core group and finding the right complement of players and staff around Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang to make it work.

"I always say we have the best organization and an amazing team," Malkin said. "We have a great chance to win every year."

That's not how it's supposed to work nowadays.

Championship windows are supposed to be narrower with the cap in place, not wider. Sure, Chicago has won it three times in six seasons in the cap era, but the Blackhawks were forced to blow it up after 2010.

The LA Kings won it all in 2012 and 2014, and are now in the process of starting over.

Not Pittsburgh. The Penguins have more Cup appearances (four), playoff wins (90) and regular-season victories (467) over the past decade than any team in the NHL. And it's not really that close.

While Crosby is loath to talk about his "legacy" - he won't turn 30 until August - the way he describes the only franchise he's ever known sounds an awful lot like a dynasty.

"Your goal is to win every year and our team just has a collection of guys that know how to win, know how to find ways," Crosby said after picking up his second straight Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.

Having a coach with an ability to challenge his stars without alienating them and a general manager with a knack for finding the right pieces helps.

When GM Jim Rutherford replaced Ray Shero in the summer of 2014, he raised eyebrows when he said he only planned to be in the job a couple of years.

Now nobody's asking how much longer the 68-year-old will stick around. He gave coach Mike Sullivan a blunt directive to cut through the noise when he hired him to replace Mike Johnston in December 2015.

Sullivan, a former grinder who scored 54 goals in 709 career NHL games, turned out to be the perfect conduit to get the Penguins to play fast and "play the right way".

The Penguins are right up against the salary cap annually but they also don't overpay their stars.

Considering their value to the team, both Crosby ($8.7 million) and Malkin ($9.5 million) are bargains.

But they're not the only ones.

Rookie Jake Guentzel (NHL rookie playoff record-tying 21 points), Bryan Rust, Conor Sheary and Scott Wilson all found themselves playing vital roles alongside Pittsburgh's cornerstones at some point during the postseason. None of them had a cap hit of more than $675,000.

No wonder Malkin is hardly in the mood to put his career into perspective. He'll turn 31 next month.

Malkin, Phil Kessel and Letang are all under contract through 2022. Crosby until 2025.

"I think when we retire we might think about it," Malkin said. "We're still young, still hungry... and we want more."

If Malkin and Crosby can stay healthy, Pittsburgh will certainly be right there - but there will be some turnover.

Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury's handing-off of the Cup to Matt Murray was a symbolic passing of the torch.

Fleury will almost certainly play elsewhere next season and defenseman Justin Schultz is a restricted free agent but might have played himself into a contract too rich for the Penguins to match.

Rutherford and Sullivan will get back to work almost immediately, trying to fit the pieces together again.

Crosby, the franchise cornerstone, will take a brief breather this summer, maybe go fishing back home in Nova Scotia and then start pointing toward next season.

"You have a small window to play and to have a career, and I feel fortunate," Crosby said.

"I also understand how difficult it is. So you just want to try to make the best of every opportunity, over and over and over again if you can."

Associated Press

Pittsburgh Penguins owner Mario Lemieux raises the Stanley Cup after watching his team defeat the Nashville Predators 2-0 in Game 6 of the NHL's championship final at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville last Sunday. Patrick Smith / Getty Images / Afp