Since the Penguins began their franchise in 1967, they have
entered the postseason 24 times out of a possible 41 seasons (including this year). That is 58% of the time. Taking into consideration that every team rebuilds, restructures, and renews, this is quite an impressive number. We have been to the Stanley Cup Finals three times, winning two of them, as you probably already know. That makes a nice 66%. Here is a funny number, out of all the times we have been to the playoffs, we win the cup 9% of the time. I have some insight to who we should want to play in the playoffs this season and who we shouldn't, simply according to history.
Now, I said that we have made the playoffs 23 other times in our history. I know we complained when we went into our 4 year hiatus before Crosby was drafted, but remember there was a lockout in that time frame as well. In the dark years before we drafted Lemieux, we went a total of 6 years without a playoff appearance. I am just saying we need to stop whining about us not succeeding. We are very blessed to have such great teams through the years.
Out of the seven other playoff teams in the East this year, we have faced everyone except the Carolina Hurricanes. This includes when they were the
Hartford Whalers. Now, if you do not look at how teams are playing this year and simply look at history, we want the Rangers. I know we can't have them, but we are an undefeated 4-0 in the Stanley Cup playoffs. I like the Capitals as well, due to the fact that we are 7-1 against them in Stanley Cup playoffs. The Bruins wouldn't be bad even though we are 2-2 against them. We haven't lost a series to Boston since 1980. We also defeated them the last two times in a row in the Conference Finals to win the Stanley Cups. Now we have a losing record against the Flyers, but we had the last laugh last year when we eliminated them 4-1. We only faced the Canadians once in 1998 only to lose in seven games. The most likely team for us to play this off season is the Devils. We are up in total 3 series to 2. We are 1-1 against New Jersey in the Brodeur era. I know they have been playing badly as of late, but who knows anything once the playoffs start.
Since it is more likely we will play the Devils than the Flyers, I will start with New Jersey. We have faced them five times in history, the first time en route to our first Stanley Cup, in 1990-91, where we beat them in seven games. In that series, we went down three games to two before winning game six on the road 4-3. We went on to win the series 4-0 at home in the Civic Arena. The second time we played the Devils was the two years later in the 1992-93 season, where we won four games to two. That year we won the Presidents Trophy for best overall record in the NHL and were expected to get our third in a row. The other remarkable
thing about this particular year was the fact that we set a record for the most consecutive wins at 17. Ok, back to the Devils. In 1994-95, we lost four games to one, the one being the first game of that series, then four straight losses. This year was Sergei Gonchar's first year in the league with the Washington Capitals. Anywho...we beat New Jersey in seven games with some amazing heroics by Jaromir Jagr. The final time, before this season...maybe, we played the Devils was in 2000-01, where we were defeated four games to one. We lost in the Conference Finals. This was the final time we were in the playoffs before the Crosby era.
The Philadelphia Flyers, our most heated rivalry other than the Washington Capitals. I don't know who we love to hate more sometimes. We have faced Philadelphia four time in the playoffs, losing the first three. Last year, we won our revenge. We lost in 1988-89 in the second round in seven games. We were destroyed in the last two games of that series with a combined record of 10-3. We wouldn't have to face them again until the 1996-97 season
where we lost four games to one. In that series, we went down three games to none right away, only to win a 4-1 decision at home. We then lost the series in game five 6-3. We would then face the Flyers three years later in 1999-00, where we lost again four games to two. This was a key series that fueled the fire between us and them. We went up two games to none before coming back home only to lose in overtime. The very next game turned out to be historic, lasting five overtimes only to end badly for the Pens when Keith Primeau scored to win it. We never recovered from that and lost the series. We finally solved this playoff debacle last year with an easy four games to one. This was the most recent run at the Stanley Cup.
Our other "favorite" team, the Washington Capitals, has had their problems with the Penguins. As I said, they have lost seven out of eight to us. It is a wonderful feeling
to have their number, especially the present time. I won't go into every series like I did with the Devils and the Flyers because I am not as sure about us meeting them anytime soon. I mean, at least in the first round. The only loss came in the 1994 playoffs, where the Rangers went on to win the Stanley Cup.
The Boston Bruins lost the last two times they faced us in the playoffs, both happened in the same way, as I mentioned before. They are playing tough now, but like the Capitals, we won't see them till a later round and that is if they make it that far. A first round upset isn't unheard of.
The Rangers and Canadians will not be playing us in the first and probably the second round either, if they make it that far, so I will save their history for then.
We currently have no playoff history with the Hurricanes, but since we have a probability of
playing them in the first round, I will give you some number. We have two cups to their one. We have three finals appearances to their two. We both lost to the Red Wings in the finals. We are both on a hot streak and will probably win the first round, unless we play each other, where the Pens will come out on top. I can easily see a Pens-Canes Conference final, that is if we end up 5-6 in the standings like it looks like we will.
I am very excited for all tho possibilities for this postseason run. We are showing the same signs we did back in the cup years. We will see. Despite what everyone thinks or sees on paper, we are a better "team" than last year. We may have had more scorers, but this year we have more scoring lines.
Well, we did it.
