The Pittsburgh Penguins are going to have to find some offense soon before their Stanley Cup Final series against the Detroit Red Wings begins to resemble previous Red Wing conquests in the championship round. Some hockey pundits were saying a Detroit-Pittsburgh championship round could end up resembling the 1982-83 Stanley Cup Final between the veteran New York Islanders and the upstart Edmonton Oilers. After two shutout victories by Detroit to open the series, that prediction is beginning to take shape.
In June of 1983 the Islanders swept the young Oilers, on the way to their fourth consecutive Stanley Cup championship. This was the end of the Islander dynasty and the Oilers would rattle off Cup victories in 1983-84 and 1984-85. Might the same scenario play out for the talented but still young and immature Penguins?
There are some similar story lines with the talent level on each the Oilers and Penguins...Wayne Gretzky and Jari Kurri for Edmonton, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin for Pittsburgh. Crosby and Malkin have many miles to travel to reach the heights of a Gretzky or Kurri but there are few teams in the league built for long-term success. One of those few teams happens to be the Penguins, and they should remain competitive for quite some time. Pittsburgh should be challenging for a Stanley Cup championship well into the next decade.
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