Gretzky, Messier and Kurri. Crosby, Malkin and Staal.
Twenty-five years apart, so much in common.
The 1983 Edmonton Oilers, led by a player barely out of his teens who already was an NHL scoring champion and MVP, breezed into the Stanley Cup Finals by losing only one game in three preliminary rounds. They were the NHL's team of the future, and everybody knew they were good.
Then, the not-yet-champion Oilers of Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier and Jari Kurri ran into the three-time defending champion New York Islanders. Edmonton's initial Finals appearance lasted only four games, all losses.
Now the Pittsburgh Penguins, led by a player barely out of his teens who already is an NHL scoring champion and MVP, are sailing into the Finals after losing only twice in the opening three rounds.
Oh, yes, these Penguins were the first team to win 11 of their first 12 playoff games since those '83 Oilers.
Up next for Pittsburgh are the Detroit Red Wings, an established team that has won three Cups since 1997 and, with a mostly veteran team, is similar to those early '80s Islanders. Their 46-year-old defenseman, Chris Chelios, was a Stanley Cup champion before the Penguins' Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal were born.
Right about now is where the Penguins say enough already with the comparisons to the Oilers. Just because it took a failed trial run for Edmonton to win a Cup a quarter-century ago doesn't mean the same must happen to them, the Pens say.
“I don't think about comparisons,” coach Michel Therrien said yesterday. “There's no doubt we've got a good, young group. They're learning quickly, they're a mature group, they're talented, they're focused right now and working very hard. . . . And, with all due respect, those (Oilers) are teams that won Stanley Cups. We haven't won anything yet.”
In '83, the Oilers hadn't won a Cup yet, either. After losing to the Islanders, they would win four of the next five Cups.
Crosby, in the Finals in only his third NHL season, has been compared with Gretzky since he was a toddler. So hearing about Gretzky again is nothing new.
What Crosby dislikes is the talk that these Penguins, like the '83 Oilers, don't know enough yet about what it takes to beat a team as experienced as the Wings.
“We've earned the right to be here and give ourselves this opportunity,” Crosby said.
