Bob Duff

DETROIT - The Pittsburgh Penguins are going to win the Stanley Cup.

Relax Detroit Red Wings fans, it won’t be this spring.

Looking at a roster led by superstars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin and littered with young, developing talent, the Pens are on track to take it all and soon.

Just not yet. Before you can graduate, first you must be schooled.

That’s what Detroit is about to do for Pittsburgh.

"It’s going to be a good test," Detroit forward Tomas Holmstrom said of the impending battle with the Penguins.

A test that the Wings have passed before with flying colors.

By comparison, the Pens are still working with crayons.

Think of virtually any great team and each journey started with shattering disappointment. Consider the Edmonton Oilers dynasty of the 1980s, the club of Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Jari Kurri and Grant Fuhr. Much heartbreak was endured before glory was achieved.

This Cup finals series figures to be a lot like Edmonton’s first visit to the stage, a 1983 sweep at the hands of the experienced, playoff-hardened New York Islanders. "We learned that to succeed in the playoffs, you have to be able to play any style of game," remembered Messier, a key cog in those Edmonton teams. "Without strong defensive play, you don’t win the Stanley Cup."

One spring earlier, the high-flying Oilers were derailed in a stunning first-round loss to the Los Angeles Kings. "I think that Los Angeles series taught us the value of sound defensive hockey," Messier said.

A lesson well learned. When Edmonton returned to face the Isles again in the 1984 finals, the Oilers took the opener 1-0 en route to a five-game Cup triumph, their first of five Stanley Cups between 1984-90.

These are exams the Pens are still writing.

Hockey people often draw parallels between the Penguins and those young, brash Oilers, who were as carefree and cocky as they were talented. Crosby understands the reasons behind the comparisons, even if he doesn’t entirely agree with the assessment.

"We're confident in each other," Crosby said. "I don't think we're cocky. Maybe that team wasn't cocky either, maybe that's just how they were portrayed. But we're a confident group of guys who believe in each other and we push each other. But you can't afford to be cocky."

Crosby is also the first to admit that there’s far more dots that require connection before the lines between those Oilers and these Penguins can be suitably drawn.

"We have a lot more to prove, I think, before we can try to put ourselves in that category," Crosby said. "But I can see the comparisons with the youth of our team with the group of exciting players we have and maybe the style of play.

"We have a lot of guys that are fun to watch, starting with (goaltender) Marc (-Andre Fleury), some young players with (Sergei) Gonchar and the (Ryan) Whitneys on D, and up front, obviously, Geno (Malkin), and Bugsy (Ryan Malone) and all these guys. There's a lot of people on our team that are fun to watch.

"I'm sure with that team, that was the case, too. But I think it's more so the youth and the excitement around our team that's probably comparable to that."

Not to mention the further schooling still required.

Crosby and Malkin have unbelievable skill. They also have issues.

The Philadelphia Flyers showed in the Eastern finals that if you feed a steady diet of physical punishment to Malkin, he can be intimidated and will surrender the puck at the most inopportune times. Even Pittsburgh coach Michel Therrien called out Malkin for his occasionally indifferent play during the series.

"It's going to be up to Evgeni Malkin to make sure he's going to be productive offensively," Therrien said. "He's got to keep focused on those things and keep his concentration there."

It’s been known around the NHL for quite some time that this is also the way to get to Crosby, albeit via a different tack. Hit him and he will hit back. Stay in his face and you can frustrate him and he will take retaliatory penalties.

They've also yet to prove that they can bring it every night in any rink. Of their combined total of 40 playoff points, only 13 have been garnered by Malkin (five) and Crosby (eight) away from the friendly confines of Mellon Arena. Neither scored a road goal against the Flyers.

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