Believe

Alas, the curtain has fallen for the Penguins' 2007-2008 season tonight. The Detroit Red Wings have come away with their 11th Stanley Cup victory after a hard-fought 3-2 victory over the Penguins. My disappointment is obvious, but I'm also proud and excited. The Wings had been the best team in the league all year, and after dropping the first two games disappointingly, the young and inexperienced Penguins put their backs to the wall and gave Detroit a fight over the next four, including a triple-overtime victory in Game 5. The two early losses gave both the team and their fans a chance to show their character; neither gave up at any point. Even as the final seconds of Game 6 expired, the Penguins crashed Osgood at the net and came within inches of scoring a tying goal with literally tenths of a second remaining.

Why am I excited? Potential. The Penguins rampaged their way through the Senators, Rangers, and Flyers before going down fighting to the Red Wings. Marc-Andre Fleury played heroically throughout, including an absurd 55-save performance (24 of those coming in overtime) in that aforementioned Game 5. Sidney Crosby, Jordan Staal, Marian Hossa, Ryan Malone, Sergei Gonchar, and the rest of the team had fantastic performances at one point or another throughout the course of the playoffs, and even Evgeni Malkin, who had virtually vanished after the regular season, made his presence known with a Stanley Cup goal. The team is generally young, unbelievably skilled, and WE WILL BE BACK.

Thanks for a great season, boys.
HERE WE GO PENGUINS.
2007-2008 Atlantic Division Champions
2007-2008 Eastern Conference Champions