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However, contract extension talks with Guerin never entered the serious stage and he eventually accepted a tryout offer from Philadelphia.  The currently injured Jordan Staal is also in the mix to potentially succeed Gonchar as an “A”, but for this writer, one name stands out the most as a potential permanent alternate captain: Brooks Orpik.  The veteran defenceman will be one of several Penguins who will wear the letter in pre-season games, making him a candidate to assume the position permanently when the regular season begins.

The understated, workmanlike Orpik, the longest-serving member of the Penguins, turns 30 tomorrow and when his seventh full regular season begins in less than two weeks, the coaching staff should give him a belated birthday present by naming him as an alternate captain.  Orpik has certainly earned the honour and responsibility associated with the “A”.  The blueliner does not dazzle with goal-generating skills, but gives maximum effort on every shift, in every game, with a focus on pounding the opposition off the puck and blocking shots.  Orpik has finished in the top six in hits among all NHL players in four of the last five seasons and is annually among the team leaders in blocks, a testament to his toughness, anticipation, positioning and ever-increasing minutes on the penalty kill.

During many fallow periods in the 2009-10 season, Orpik was the most outspoken Penguin, criticizing his teammates (and himself) and challenging the team to improve quickly.  After dropping a 3-1 decision at Tampa Bay in early January, the club’s fourth straight loss, Orpik said, “I don’t know how good we are, to be honest.  Early in the season I think we got lucky with a lot of games, a lot of different aspects of it. Maybe it’s catching up to us now,” adding that “everyone has to re-evaluate [their] priorities.”  Then, after a crushing late-season 4-3 shootout loss at Washington, Orpik spoke plainly, once again pointedly pouring out his frustration after the game, unlike his teammates, emphasizing the urgency of the situation.

Maybe I’m in the minority here, (but) I’m getting tired of hearing we worked hard or maybe deserved better. We’re not winning hockey games, and that’s what it comes down to. I don’t feel very good leaving the rink when you lose.  The frustrating part is you make the same mistakes over and over and you don’t learn from them. It’s not like we’re getting behind. We’re blowing leads.

We get a power play in the third period, up by a goal – and even before that Semin goal it was just sloppy there. It looked like we lost our focus for whatever reason. It’s just real frustrating right now.  I’m getting very concerned. Everyone wants to talk about the playoffs. We’ve got eight games to go here and we’re not playing too well. The way we’re playing now, we’ll be out in the first round.

Orpik’s candour is refreshing for fans and media in a world of stock cliches and five-second soundbites.  His measured criticism and inclusion of himself as part of team-wide problems without finger-pointing and his intensity are also qualities which make him well qualified to be an alternate captain.  It comes as no surprise that Orpik, who won an NCAA championship in his final season at Boston College, enrolled as a communications major.  If he becomes the newest alternate captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins, he will need to continue to show exemplary communication skills on and off the ice in his role as a team leader.

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Raising the Stanley Cup represents the honour found in working hard, perseverance and determination.  It is the public reward for countless hours of private, behind-closed-doors practices, training sessions, team meetings and film review.  Toews, the newest Conn Smythe Trophy winner, and his teammate, Patrick Kane, the sixteenth man to end a Stanley Cup Final with an overtime goal, are the twin faces of the resurrected Chicago franchise.  For years, the Blackhawks languished in mediocrity and the citizens of Chicago felt alienated by team ownership.  Via the tried and true formula of patiently creating a core of homegrown talent through the amateur draft and supplementing those players with others acquired from trades and free agency, the Blackhawks quickly bulled their way back into the NHL’s elite.

For this writer, as the 2010 playoffs progressed, and the thoracic stab wound sustained at the hands of the upstart Montreal Canadiens healed and subsided, it was hard not to notice the similarities between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Blackhawks in terms of the way the two clubs were brought back from the depth of the league basement up to the penthouse of their respective championship days.  There were those last year at this time who scoffed at the Pens’ triumph and chalked it up to luck of the draw.  They refused to give the Penguins full credit for winning the Cup due to the drafting of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin at a time when these once in a generation prodigies arrived on the scene coincident with Pittsburgh’s descent to the bottom of the standings and hence, a prime draft slot.

Similarly, the same crowd, ever with hearts hardened and eyes blinded from appreciating greatness, will refuse to compliment Chicago on the basis of Toews and Kane landing in their laps during the draft at mid-decade.  But building a champion and learning from early playoff exits at the hands of more seasoned teams are steps that both Pittsburgh and Chicago had to take before making the final leap to hockey greatness.  Two superstars can occupy a permanent spot on nightly highlight shows, but they only represent 10% of the players dressed for action.  It takes a full team to win the Stanley Cup.

Last season, for every Crosby, Malkin, Staal, Fleury and Gonchar, there was a Craig Adams, quietly picked up off waivers from the Blackhawks ironically, doing the unheralded but important work of penalty killing.  Mark Eaton provided consistent play on defence almost anonymously.  Maxime Talbot, unknown to many before the post-season, scored four goals in the Final, including his memorable exacta in Game 7 at Detroit.

Likewise, Chicago’s headline-grabbers this season were undoubtedly Toews, Kane, Marian Hossa, Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook – all participants in the Olympics and stars of the brightest kind.  But Niklas Hjalmarsson who laid down to block shot after shot and Brent Sopel, playing in his twelfth season, who equally put his body in front of opposing shots, complemented the stars and gave Chicago its balanced, championship edge.  Centre Dave Bolland scored 6 goals in 39 regular season games this year but made his shots count in the post-season, marking 8 goals in Chicago’s 22 playoff contests.  A diversified offence and effort from everyone on a roster is clearly vital to win the Cup.

Finally, the contribution of Dustin Byfuglien cannot be discounted.  The 6’4″ 257 lb. Minneapolis native, built like a running back, used his size and strength to maximum advantage, positioning himself in front of the net and in the slot to set screens, tip shots and pounce on loose pucks.  He scored a playoff-leading 11 goals (tied with teammate Patrick Sharp) and incredibly netted 3 game-winners in the semifinal sweep of San Jose.  He held his ground against massive Philadelphia defenceman Chris Pronger in one of the most entertaining sub-battles of the 2010 Final.

As the off-season begins, it is bittersweet to know that the Cup has now passed officially from the hands of the Penguins into the embrace of the Blackhawks.  However, Chicago is a worthy champion whose skill, speed, grittiness and teamwork were on full display throughout the past two months.  They certainly earned and deserve the title of Stanley Cup Champion.

Suddenly, the formerly moribund ‘Canes who spent parts of the season dead last in the Eastern Conference, find themselves just six points out of the playoffs with eleven games remaining and three teams to jump over in the standings.  The Penguins wasted a chance to establish some breathing room between themselves and Atlantic Division rival New Jersey, who lost later in the evening, 1-0 to St. Louis.  By picking up a point, Pittsburgh continues to hold the second seed in the East with 90 points (42-24-6), two ahead of the Devils (42-25-4), who have played one fewer game.

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Carolina’s winning shift at the end of overtime was a microcosm of their play during the entire afternoon in which they used speed and quick breakouts to create scoring chances.  They held the Penguins to an uncharacteristic four shots in the opening period and took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission.  With under half a minute remaining in the second period, Jordan Staal scored on the power play to tie the game.  It was Staal’s twentieth goal, marking the third time in four career seasons that he has achieved at least twenty goals.

Despite the loss, the Penguins were encouraged by the play of centre Evgeni Malkin who returned to game action after missing the last two contests of the road trip after injuring his foot in last Sunday’s game at Tampa Bay.  Malkin recorded a game-high seven shots and scored the go-ahead goal midway through the third period on a snap shot from the faceoff dot of the far circle, before Carolina tied the game with exactly four minutes left in regulation on a Joni Pitkanen goal, setting the stage for McBain’s last second winner in overtime.

While Staal’s goal improved the Penguins’ home power play percentage to 20.7%, a respectable ninth-best in the NHL, it was the team’s first man advantage goal in ten chances, dating back to the Tampa Bay game.  Pittsburgh’s poor road power play performance has them sitting twenty-first overall in the PP standings.  The penalty kill continues to shine, turning away another five chances this afternoon including twenty-two seconds of 5-on-3 when Mike Rupp and Staal were in the box early in the third.  The Pens have successfully killed off twenty consecutive shorthanded situations and Pittsburgh has moved up to sixth overall in penalty kill percentage. 

Unfortunately, the Penguins were unable to generate the sustained offensive zone pressure and steady, punishing volley of shots on goal that has become the hallmark of Penguins’ hockey.  For the first time in eleven games, the Penguins were outshot (29-25) and head coach Dan Bylsma was terse in his post-game remarks about what the team’s problem was today.  “I think consistency has been an issue that we’ve talked about.  [The] challengs as a team [is] what you’re good at, what you need to improve on and areas that you can get better at and that is an area that you can.”  He emphasized that the Pens need to be “playing our game, regardless of the time, our opponent, home or road.”

The implication is clear.  With ten games to go before the playoffs begin, the players must urgently drive themselves to be more consistent in all facets of the game.  The sting of last Wednesday’s loss at New Jersey, where the Penguins committed numerous defensive mistakes, costly turnovers and errant passes easily picked off by the Devils, coupled with today’s loss, should fuel the motivation to improve very quickly.  Yes, the Penguins have struggled to a 4-3-3 record in afternoon games but the team cannot afford anything short of consistency regardless of the time and specifically, consistent efforts within the game plan – “our game”, as Bylsma noted.  When the Penguins equal or exceed their opponent’s shots on goal in a game this season, they are 29-13-4 but just 13-11-2 when the opponent outshoots Pittsburgh.  They deviated from that formula today, but will get another chance to apply the “consistency” Bylsma demands, and should expect from his squad, against three playoff contending teams next week.