On February 15, the then-out of the playoffs Penguins fired head coach Michel Therrien and replaced him with Dan Bylsma. On the night of June 12 in Detroit, Pittsburgh won Lord Stanely’s cup- giving us a thrilling climax to the title run that was seemingly predestined when the organization drafted Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.

The Crosby-Malkin Penguins have long been compared to the dynasty Oilers of the 1980s. Both had an overabundance of young talent maturing together at the same time. However, it is fair to wonder if the Penguins have the secondary stars that the Oilers had (Jarri Kurri, Glenn Anderson, Charlie Huddy, Kevin Lowe, Adam Graves and Martin Gelinas among others) during their run. Also, unlike during the Oilers’ run, the Penguins have to operate under salary-cap constraints. Crosby also has a few goals to score in his career before he can be mentioned in the same breath as the Great One, but we digress.

Still, when the season begins on October 2 against the Rangers, the Penguins have a better than puncher’s chance to be the first champion to repeat since the 1996-97 and 1997-98 Detroit Red Wings.

Goaltender: Whenever the best goaltenders in the league are discussed, the name of 24-year-old Marc-Andre Fleury is not among those mentioned. There have been public and pointed questions about his focus. Those questions intensified during and after the Penguins’ 5-0 Game 5 loss to Detroit in the Stanley Cup Final. Fleury rebounded by limiting the high-powered Red Wings to two goals on 50 shots and Pittsburgh won Games 6 and 7 by 2-1 scores to win the Cup.

Going into his sixth season, Fleury has never in played more than 67 games. In 62 games last year, Fleury compiled a 35-18-7 record with a 2.67 GAA and .912 save percentage. Unless he suffers an injury, those numbers should change positively this season. Brent Johnson (12-6-2 in 21 games), signed from Washington as a free agent in July, is the clear No. 2.

Defensemen: Perhaps the most underrated rearguard in the league. The Penguins have a mixture of size, shot, mobility and snarl with their top six of Sergei Gonchar, Brooks Orpik, Kris Letang, Mark Eaton, Alex Goligoski and free-agent signee Jay McKee. Gonchar, Letang and Goligoski should see a lot of ice in all situations. Orpik, re-signed last summer, is among the league’s biggest hitters. Eaton is not a physical force, but he is responsible in his own end and makes solid breakout passes. Coming from St. Louis where he averaged 3:18 of penalty kill time a game, McKee should expect the same sort of prominent role with the Pens.

Forwards: The Penguins’ strength is up front. No team in the league can match the Pens’ collection of centers: Crosby and Malkin are two of the top five players in the league, and Jordan Staal would be a No. 1 on almost any other team. Pittsburgh is so deep that he skates between Matt Cooke and Tyler Kennedy on the third line. For a guy who finished with 103 points, Crosby struggled until GM Ray Shero made sharp deadline deals for Chris Kunitz (from Anaheim) and Bill Guerin (from the Islanders). Kunitz has the hands and skill to play Crosby’s skill game, while Guerin ties up defensemen down low. Centering the duo, Crosby exploded for 30 points (12 goals, 18 assists) in Pittsburgh’s final 20 games. He was even better in the playoffs, finishing with 15 goals and 16 assists in 24 playoff games.

The secret is that while Crosby is The Franchise, Malkin is the better player. Even skating between Ruslan Fedotenko and Max Talbot, Malkin was still able to lead the league in scoring with 113 points. While not as outwardly gregarious away from the rink as his countryman Alex Ovechkin, Malkin is just as emotional on the ice and has a pronounced mean streak. Just ask Detroit’s Henrik Zetterberg.

The remaining forwards (Talbot, Fedotenko, Cooke, Kennedy, Pascal Dupuis, Craig Adams, Chris Conner, Michael Rupp and Eric Godard) are role players. Talbot scored both of Pittsburgh’s goals in Game 7 of the Cup Final. Just as important was his fight in Game 6 of the first-round series with Philadelphia. The Flyers were leading 3-0 lead when Talbot squared off with Riley Cote. The fight sparked the Penguins, who scored the next five goals to eliminate their intrastate rival.

Prediction: It’s not exactly breaking news that the Penguins are among the league’s elite franchises. In the Igloo’s final season, it is fitting that Mario Lemieux and Sidney Crosby — the Pens’ past, present and future — will raise at least one more banner. Yet the Penguins will be in uncharted waters. In previous campaigns, they were the hunters. Now that they have the Cup, they are the hunted. How they respond will ultimately determine whether the Penguins repeat.

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