Bob Duff

PITTSBURGH - An interested observer at the 2008 Stanley Cup finals, Mark Messier believes he was in the process of seeing history repeat itself.

As a lad of 22, he accompanied his Edmonton Oilers teammates to their first Stanley Cup finals appearance against the mighty New York Islanders. The Oilers were a young team who carried themselves with a swagger — some might even say a cockiness — but they headed home with their tails between their legs after the Islanders put a whipping on them, sweeping Edmonton in four games.

The result was an eye-opener for the young Oilers.

"It was disappointing because we got to the Stanley Cup and didn’t win, but for us, it was all a journey and a learning experience," Messier recalled. "We were learning as we were losing and we were learning as we were winning.

"The initial reaction was that we were disappointed because we lost in the final of the Stanley Cup, but as we looked at the bigger picture and the learning process and how much we had learned in that series, even though we got beat 4-0, you take that into next season and right from training camp, you start building more and more and more, so that when we got back there again, we had a better idea of what to expect that next year."

That next year, the Oilers returned and spanked those same Islanders in a five-game finals, the launch of a dynasty that saw Edmonton capture five of the next seven Stanley Cups.

Next year, look for the Pittsburgh Penguins to utilize the harsh lessons of the 2008 Stanley Cup finals as a catapult to their own success story.

Even the reigning champion Detroit Red Wings, who handled the Penguins in a six-game finals to win their fourth title since 1997, are wise enough to still fear the flightless waterfowl.

"I’m just impressed by the team as a whole," Detroit goaltender Chris Osgood said. "They have (Sidney) Crosby and (Evgeni) Malkin, who are great players, but they also have great secondary guys, like (Petr) Sykora, (Ryan) Malone and (Jordan) Staal.

"They’ve got a lot of guys who are darned good players that nobody talks about. Their "D" is good and their goalie (Marc-Andre Fleury) is solid."

Completely outclassed by the Red Wings in the first two games of the series, the Penguins fought back, displaying they are definitely quick learners.

The Penguins aren’t getting much older, but clearly, they will get much better. Not that they aren’t already quite a handful.

Pittsburgh captain Crosby, the 2007-08 Hart and Art Ross Trophy winner, will be 21 next spring, so at least he’ll be old enough to drink champagne from the bowl of Lord Stanley’s mug after he accepts it from National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman and holds it aloft. Malkin will be 22, Staal, 20 and Fleury, 24.

"They’re good," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. "I see talent, I see commitment on both sides of the puck. I see a back end that can move the puck. I see good goaltending. In order to be as good and as competitive as they are this early in their career, they’re obviously special, special athletes. They’re going to be running that franchise for a very long time."

Pittsburgh’s greatest challenge may be in keeping this young, talented team together in a salary cap world. "In this day and age, you never know how quickly things might change," admitted Penguins veteran forward Gary Roberts.

Things certainly changed quickly for this Pittsburgh squad.

Two years ago, none of the young Penguins had experienced a Stanley Cup playoff game, let alone a playoff run. In 2007, they fell quickly to the Ottawa Senators in their first taste of post-season play, before the march of the Penguins to the 2008 finals.

"Basically, they’re having to weave their way through this process without much experience," Messier said. "At times, that can be tough. Experience is never a bad thing. I’d rather have some experience than no experience. Although it doesn’t make the difference between winning and losing, it definitely can help, especially under times of adversity."

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Basically, they are following the same arduous, often heartbreaking path that all teams must endure before greatness is afforded them.

Including the Red Wings.

Detroit lost first-round series to Toronto (1993) and San Jose (1994), then fell in a final-round sweep at the hands of the New Jersey Devils in 1995. The Wings took a step backward the next spring, dropping the Western Conference finals to Colorado. Just when the hockey world was ready to write them off as pretenders, they captured back-to-back Cups in 1996-97 and 1997-98.

"We lost to San Jose, then to New Jersey and Colorado before we won the Stanley Cup," Detroit center Kris Draper said. "A lot of people were kind of giving up on the nucleus of the hockey club, but ownership and management thought we had the things in place to win and obviously, we went on to win some Stanley Cups."

Four of them in 11 years, to be precise.

He sees the same qualities building with the Penguins.

"They’ve got a great team over there, a great young team," Draper said. "There’s no doubt you’ll see them here again. You look at the roster, you look at the age of their top players, they’re certainly a team that’s going to be a force for some time."