NHL Countdown: No. 1 Pittsburgh Penguins

By Chuck Gormley, Sporting News Yearbooks Leading into the Oct. 1 season openers, Sporting News will preview one NHL team per day, counting backward from our preseason No. 30 ranked team to No. 1.   In a salary-cap world, there really is only one way to keep a championship team intact: Convince potential free agents to play for less in pursuit of another title and the chance to be part of a dynasty.   For the most part, Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Ray Shero did some serious convincing over the summer.   Although the reigning champions lost a third of their starting defense corps with the departures of Rob Scuderi (who signed with the Los Angeles Kings) and Hal Gill (Montreal Canadiens), they'll begin their championship defense with key contributors Bill Guerin, Ruslan Fedotenko and Craig Adams.   All three forwards took pay cuts to stay in Pittsburgh and, with the free-agent additions of shot-blocking defenseman Jay McKee and mammot...