CRANBERRY, Pa. -- Sidney Crosby didn't need to go through the Penguins' four-game loss to the Islanders in Round 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs to appreciate how miserable it is to have your season end in April.
After all, he's exited the postseason after one round five times during his 14 years in the NHL, and didn't even qualify when he was a rookie.
But for some younger teammates -- players who were to be forgiven for believing that hockey season starts with training camp physicals and ends with a parade down the Boulevard of the Allies -- being swept by the Islanders had to be jolting.
"There are a lot of guys here who haven't experienced anything like that, haven't had a first-round disappointment," Crosby said today. "Sometimes you need that sting a little bit to realize how hard it is."
Well, now they know. But even as the Penguins' window of opportunity to seriously challenge for Stanley Cups creaks closer to closing, Crosby and his coworkers insist that great things still should be expected of them, because they remain fully capable of achieving them.
"The expectations are always high, and that's the way they should be," Crosby said. "We expect a lot of ourselves. I think we understand that it's not going to happen (in) Game 1 of the preseason, but if we're all working toward the right thing and getting better and making the most of our opportunities -- and when there are challenges, getting through them together -- we'll be good."
Patric Hornqvist agreed -- "We just have to play for each other and play the right way," he said. "If we do that, I like our chances." Mike Sullivan didn't argue the point, assuming the Penguins are willing to sweat and sacrifice the way teams must to stake out a place among the league's finest clubs.
"As long as we push the bar every day to try to bring out the best in all of us, I think this team is capable of doing some real good things," Sullivan said. "But we have to earn it. We have to go out and earn it every day. It's not inevitable."
The Penguins were hustled out of the playoffs for any number of reasons, but Crosby contends that insufficient drive -- at least relative to the fire they showed while winning Cups in 2016 and 2017 -- wasn't necessarily one of them.
"I think we battled a lot of injuries that might have caught up to us," he said. "We had to play through a lot, just to get to the playoffs. Once you get there, you don't have any time to exhale and kind of regroup. You have to keep going and carry that momentum. I felt like we probably limped into the playoffs a little bit with how banged-up we were, and we just weren't able to find our rhythm."
Still, he volunteered that "Certainly, there's something to be said about hunger, and I think it wasn't quite where it needed to be, especially from the start (of the playoff series). Once we got into it, we started to find it a bit, but we were already down, 2- or 3-0 by then."
While he said that, "I don't think we were complacent," Crosby believes Penguins should benefit from an infusion of new blood, in the form of Dominik Kahun, Alex Galchenyuk and Brandon Tanev.
"I think there's always something to be said about new energy and a fresh start for some guys," he said. "Whether that comes in the form of someone who's younger, with youth, or someone who's got a fresh start from a different team, there's something to be said about that. That, combined with some guys who've had experience and have a chip on their shoulder a bit, maybe, from last year that are certainly motivated from that experience. It's a good combination to have."
Crosby suggested that how far those intangibles, when fused with the players' talents, can carry the Penguins won't truly be evident until next spring.
"You won't know that until you get to the playoffs," he said. "We have to find our way there first. That's the biggest thing, getting in there. Once you're in there, anyone can win.
"As we go along throughout the season, there will be challenges and things we have to go through. If we get through those and earn it, we'll give ourselves a chance."
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
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Penguins training camp, Cranberry, Pa., Sept. 13, 2019 -- MATT SUNDAY / DKPS[/caption]
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