Through the abject agony that was watching the Pittsburgh Penguins' Stanley Cup triumph in June, I found a silver lining: moreso than from a young stud goalie standing on his head, moreso than from a bevy of bluechip blueliners, the Penguins raised Lord Stanley high above their heads due disproportionately to the heroic efforts of their Big Two. I was forced to reconsider -- and revamp -- two long-held principles I believed underpinned virtually every Cup champion: getting consistently great postseason netminding, and having an imposing set of blueliners. Marc Andre Fleury often was erratic in net last spring, and I'm not sure you could make much of a case that he outplayed Chris Osgood in the finals. Brooks Orpik is a star performer on the Penguins' blueline, but Hall Gill, Mark Eaton, and Rob Scuderi were not. Sergei Gonchar skated on one leg. Youngsters like Alex Goligoski and Kris Letang performed at times with precocious poise, but as a whole, the 200...
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