Stars Aligning for Pens
Something about Crosby and Malkin
By Bob Grove

As the 2008-09 regular season draws to a close in this Era of Parity in the National Hockey League, there is no such thing as one Eastern Conference playoff favorite.

Of the three teams that had separated themselves a bit, Boston and Washington both slogged through March, taking on a few more losses than expected, while New Jersey found another gear and got Martin Brodeur back from injury - a potentially lethal combination. None of them could point to the Flyers and Penguins as teams they'd really like to meet in the first round, where it appeared quite possible last spring's conference finalists might play each other.

But if New Jersey owns a goaltending edge, the Penguins are a close second given Marc-Andre Fleury's play last spring and the level he reached down the stretch this season. Tim Thomas in Boston? He's got to prove it in the playoffs. And in a conference where teams can roll out Zach Parise and Patrick Elias, Alexander Ovechkin and Mike Green, Marc Savard and Zdeno Chara or Mike Richards and Jeff Carter, no team in the East can approximate what Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin give the Penguins.

It's April, which turns out to be an especially good time to have Crosby and Malkin on your roster. And not just because Malkin entered the final week of March with a healthy lead in the scoring race, while Crosby was battling Ovechkin, Parise and Pavel Datsyuk for second place. When these two are rolling on different lines with the playoffs dead ahead, it's a bigger problem than usual for everyone else because both can kill you from the perimeter or run you over in the goal crease.

Remember this: gritty plays, not pretty plays, rule the day in the playoffs.

"We're fortunate with these two great players, because they do like to get their nose dirty," says GM Ray Shero. "It's hard to win if you're getting the points but you're not competing physically, because you have to do that to win the big games. In stretches like this, they have to play in those areas, and they're willing to do it - which makes them more dangerous."

Malkin has had nothing less than an MVP season, although it remains to be seen whether Hart Trophy voters can pull their eyes away from Ovechkin, the self-styled rock star of the NHL, to see it. Putting his nagging injuries behind him and plopped between Chris Kunitz and Bill Guerin, Crosby was flying in late March.

"Gino plays all three zones, and right now it's a great combination with Sid because I think Sid is playing the best hockey of his career," Shero said. "Geno has been on fire almost all year and has carried us for a long time. He's risen to the challenge. These guys are so special. You've seen this before with Jagr and Lemieux. It's something when they're on. Right now, they are."

In early February, before the Penguins' season was turned on its head, it was popular to note that no team since the 1949 Hawks had sported the top two scorers in the NHL and failed to reach the playoffs. Now let's point out another interesting note: of the last 10 teams to feature the league's two top scorers, seven went on to reach the Finals and six won the Cup.

A promise? Not in this highly-competitive NHL environment. Something to worry about for the rest of the East? I'm betting yes.