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Young Penguins hope to fufill lofty expectations

Oct 5, 2007 - 1:40 PM Pittsburgh (0-0-0) at Carolina (0-0-1) 7:00 pm EDT

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Ticker) -- With one of the youngest and most talented scoring tandems returning, the Pittsburgh Penguins look to fulfill some lofty expectations as they open their season against the Carolina Hurricanes Friday.

Last season, the Penguins more than doubled their win total from 2005, going 47-24-11 after recording just 22 wins the season before - the fourth-biggest ascension from one season to the next in NHL history. Pittsburgh advanced to the playoffs before being ousted in the first round in five games to the Ottawa Senators - the eventual Eastern Conference champion.

Despite the early playoff exit, optimism abounds in large part because Sidney Crosby is just getting his career started.

In just his second season in 2006, the 20-year-old center walked away with the Hart Trophy, Art Ross Trophy and Lester B. Pearson Award, becoming just the seventh player in NHL history to pull off that hat trick of individual honors.

Two other reasons for optimism are 21-year-old rookie of the year Evgeni Malkin - who had 33 goals and 85 points last season - and 19-year-old Jordan Staal, who scored 29 goals as a rookie in 2006.

With all of this young talent in tow, Pittsburgh went out and added 35-year-old defenseman Darryl Sydor and 30-year-old center Petr Sykora, who had 22 goals and 31 assists with Edmonton. The former Oiler will be expected to play on the first line along with Crosby and Staal.

The Hurricanes dropped their home season opener, 3-2, to the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday. Carolina's undoing in that game was their inability to stop Montreal on the power play as all three of the the Canadiens' tallies came in that fashion.

The success of Montreal's power play - 37.5 percent - in the season opener was in stark contrast to last year's unit that ranked sixth in the NHL in killing penalties at 84.6 percent.