Being down three games to none in a first round series to your most hated rivals in the First Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs brings out the worst in all of us from the players, to the management, and to the fans. It's expected, and to a point is perfectly reasonable. Meltdowns happen in sports, and it's a part of life. However, the way some of us fans have acted getting to this point has been a complete and utter disgrace to the game of hockey.
Some of us started watching this team when a kid named Mario Lemieux raised the cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins back in 1991, and 1992. We were there when our hearts were broken in 1993, when the Penguins were ousted by the Islanders in a huge upset, and again when the Penguins lost to the Florida Panthers in 1996.
We were there for Mario's retirements, and comebacks, and him saving the the team on multiple occasions. During all of this, hockey had its core of fans in Pittsburgh, that lived an died by the bounces, much like we do today. However, during these times we did it with class, we did it with humility and we did it with respect to one another, because we were on the same team.
After Mario's comeback in 2000-2001and the improbable run to the Eastern Conference Finals and Jagr's departure, this team went on a downward spiral.
The team was beyond terrible, but at least they were still playing hockey to play hockey. They didn't have the talent to contend, but they were still playing hockey.
You could still walk up to Mellon Arena every other night and watch hockey. You could still have that feeling of walking into that old barn, with the cramped spaces and familiar smell. It was home for a lot of us no matter how bad that hockey team was.
In high school, I'd walk up to the student rush line with my student ID ten minutes before the puck dropped and get tickets rows from the glass. It didn't matter that I was watching Rico Fata or Dick Tarnstrom, because I still had hockey. I still had the feel of the cold coming from the ice, the sound of the skates and the puck. It's some of the most calming sounds in sports.
Throughout this time, the team was facing bankruptcy, was being threatened to be moved, needed a miracle and we got it. We hit the lottery and had the rights to Sidney Crosby. Finally that sickening feeling that we were going to lose hockey subsided and we had a future to look forward to.
There was finally an energy back into our old barn that felt like a new opportunity. We suddenly had a core to build on, a foundation to build something great, and something great was built.
It started slow, and in Sid's first season the team had a losing season, but it was ok. It was the season we saw Mario hand the reins to our next superstar. We saw the passing of the guard right before our eyes. Many of us held Mario as our childhood hero, and we saw him pass the torch to a kid who would not only be the face of the team, but the face of the new NHL.
In his second season we finally got back that taste for the Stanley Cup Playoffs and when the Pens clinched a spot, the feeling of the dark ages having been lifted. We may have lost in the first round, but we were back, playing relevant hockey
The next year, we nearly reached the top after Ray Shero made the deal for Marian Hossa. We reached the Cup Finals, and were humbled by the Detroit Red Wings. It hurt pretty bad, but wasn't devastating. You were a fool to think that this team wouldn't be back.
The year after we got our revenge, hoisted the cup, and suddenly begin a Pens fan had come full circle for some of us. We saw the Pens go from raising back to back cups, to being at the bottom of the league, to being back on top. It was a long journey, but as a hockey fan it's a right of passage. Going through all of this was a necessary evil in order to truly appreciate what the game of hockey means. It's so unlike any other sport in the world, because it tortures its fans. There is no room in hockey for a sense of privilege, and if some exists in fan bases around the league, its a rarity. You've got to be humble to truly love this sport. You've got to be able take the lumps along the way. This isn't the NFL where your team may have a bye in the playoffs and just has to win three games to win a championship.
You need to have the sanity to watch your team play 82 games a season through winning streaks, injuries and the losing streaks that are often associated with those injuries. That's life as a hockey fan, you don't get the Cup because some experts have said you are the favorite to win it. The Cup isn't lifted in April, your team has to battle until mid-June to earn that right. You don't get to hang a banner in your barn because some news paper says you should win it. You've got to earn it as a player, and you've got to earn it as a fan, and some of us have forgotten that.
Once the Penguins built that shiny new barn across the street from the most iconic sports facility in the world, the players and fans seem to have lost sense in the game of hockey, and it's almost like we've gained a feeling of privilege, and that we don't need to earn anything.
All of a sudden after a new state of the art arena was built, the Pens have had this aurora around them of begin very corporate like. Ticket prices went up, and new fan base invaded the arena.
I fully understand that an NHL team is a business just like any other sports team, and you really can't blame them for running it successfully as they have.
Now what I'm going to say next is going to sound ridiculous to some of you, and to those who it does sound ridiculous are likely part of the problem. You can't single out a particular reason for it, because it's a totality of the circumstances that has taken its toll, but this franchise has become very arrogant over the past three seasons.
The Pittsburgh Penguins just didn't out of the blue get from where they were in 2002 to where they are today by some stroke of luck, other than winning the Crosby Lottery. This team didn't raise that banner from their 2009 Stanley Cup out of nowhere. It was a cumulation of the events taking place in the past decade and the hard work by our owner that built this foundation of success.
However, over the past season, it seems as if our team and our fans forgot about what got us here today. We've become very overprivileged and arrogant, whether we like it our not.
Seriously, some of the nonsense that has gone on over the past year has been out of control and has no place in hockey. Rewind back to the free agency deadline when there was an internet rumor that Jaromir Jagr may return to the Penguins. Many of you sat there on twitter and believed that Jagr should return to Pittsburgh simply because we were the Pittsburgh Penguins and that is how it should be. Then you revolted when he chose our most hated rivals from across the state.
Guess what? That's hockey in its purest form. When something you want doesn't go your way, that's part of the game. That is part of the torture that the hockey gods put you through as a fan. You move on and hope for the best, not cry and whine like a five year old who doesn't get a toy at the store. You support the team that almost left multiple times.
Just when you think that was an instance of pure hate and irrationality stemming from that hate, we see what happened over the past few weeks. Sidney Crosby gets crosschecked after a play, Peter Laviolette calls out Dan Bylsma, Mike Milbury calls out Crosby, and John Tortorella calls our franchise arrogant.
What did some of us do? We took to the internet and looked like children instead of embracing it as hockey fans should do. We chastised NBC for what Milbury said and literally trolled them on twitter calling for his head. It's seriously a joke for a fan base to get that upset over what some idiot said. Some of us have forgotten that we aren't owed anything and people are going to hate the Penguins. But you know, we are the Penguins so nothing bad can be said about our players or coaches. Yeah, and nothing bad has ever been said about any team, coach, or player in this history of this league.
Guess what? That's hockey.
The arrogance doesn't stop at the fans either, it goes right to our coaching staff. Dan Bylsma came into the league midway through the season in 2008-09 when the Penguins were in jeopardy of not making the playoffs. A few tweaks later, the Penguins went on some unreal tear, made the playoffs and lifted the cup. A year later the Pens were bounced from the playoffs by the Montreal Canadians. He gets a pass for that year, because he led the Penguins to a Cup. A year later the Pens were bounced by the Lightning in game seven at home, but they were incredibly injured.
Now the Pens sit down 3-0 in their first round series against the Flyers, and Dan Bylsma has said himself that nothing needs changed. Really? Sorry Dan, you don't get a pass for this one. It's clear your system is failing in the postseason. It all relates to the lack of defensive structure. We've seen it for three years. Saying no change is needed is highly arrogant, and maybe Torts was spot on.
I know there is one person who did not envision this franchise and its fans becoming a bunch of over-privleged and arrogant divas, and that is Mario. The man who fought against being enshrined in bronze, and the reasons why he didn't want a statute, is how he want's this organization to be portrayed.
Mario of all people knows what it takes to be a successful hockey franchise. They guy beat cancer, a bad back and a career full of hacks trying to injure him because they couldn't play with him. He fought to keep this team in Pittsburgh and make them a successful business. He knows that nothing is given to you in hockey.
Quite frankly Mario has to be pissed and embarrassed at how this team has played as if they've already won the cup, and at the fans who've acted like it should be a waltz to hang another banner in the rafters of his new barn.
We are here on the internet fighting amongst each other, when we should have had each other's backs weeks ago. We have fans who are blinded behind the black and gold of this city, who refuse to criticize this team's faults calling those who do, bandwagoners. We have the fans who are criticizing the team calling out those fans who may have become fans when Sid entered the league. The level we've stooped to as fans over the past month is utterly ridiculous. It's shameful and a disgrace to the game of hockey. However, I'm siding with the fans who chose to criticize this team and this franchise.
With the way they've been playing they deserve every bit of it. They deserve to be held accountable. This level of arrogance that has spread across the entire fan base has gone too far. It may have a place in another league but not the NHL.
Take a look at those teams who haven't been as fortunate as the Penguins. The Nashville Predators have been fighting to keep their team and they have embraced hockey for what it is. They didn't go into their series against the Detroit Red Wings as the fourth seed thinking they should win that series. They realize that they need to be behind their team because a series win needs to be earned.
Look at Winnipeg. They didn't even make the playoffs but they were in that arena acting like every game was a game 7, and it was chilling because that is what hockey is about.
Look at Phoenix. They have been included in talks about moving from their city for the past few seasons, and yet their players played the game and they won their division. These are a group of guys who's own city has thrown them under the bus. They might have to pick up and move their entire lives to another country, yet they've played the game and have been successful.
Hockey is not about being able to buy overpriced tickets and boasting on Facebook that you went to a hockey game. It's not about being important enough to be a part of hockey. Hockey is about playing 82 games to get ready to work towards lifting the most prominent trophy in all of sports. Hockey is still a fringe sport, but we are treating it like its the "it" thing to be a part of. We are transcending into becoming the New York Yankees of the NHL. And that is disgusting in and of itself.
Everything in hockey is earned. Nothing should be taken for granted. I'm thankful for every new season, every playoff birth and every playoff win. We were at a point where our hockey team was going to be taken away. Literally they were out the door, bags packed and ready to go, leaving us with the Pirates until the fall. We've taken that for granted big time, and its despicable. I don't stand for it, and I know for a fact Mario doesn't stand for it either.
We've got to pull out a miracle to win this series. It looks unlikely, and if we do it's not going to be because we deserve it. It will be because the team earned it, but to a lot of people out there they will miss that fact like they have the past few years.
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