TAMPA, Fla. -- Yeah, yeah, I know, there are a half-dozen hard miles still ahead.
But if these Penguins do, indeed, proceed to raise Lord Stanley's Cup for the fourth time in franchise history, I can already promise with reasonable conviction that no single moment in these playoffs will stand out for me as more powerfully symbolic than this:
It's got it all, doesn't it?
"Just a great play by everyone involved," Matt Cullen would say later. "And huge for us."
Yeah, it's got that.
It's also got the dogged defense, with Phil Kessel backchecking -- three words once considered grammatically incorrect in that sequence -- even though he was on a long shift.
It's got the attack approach, even though play begins 150 feet from the target, even though the obstacles were one of the planet's premier defenseman and a white-hot goaltender.
To continue reading, log into your account:
