Pens don’t like comparisons to ’83 Oilers

Pittsburgh is a young team going against a veteran Red Wings team in the finals.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — 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 Stanley Cup finals appearance lasted only four games, and four losses.

Now these 2008 Pittsburgh Penguins, led by a player barely out of his teens who already is an NHL scoring champion and MVP, are sailing into the Stanley Cup 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 in the Stanley Cup finals 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.

That was then and this is now, the Penguins say, and 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.

“I don’t think about comparisons,” coach Michel Therrien said Wednesday. “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 1983, the Oilers hadn’t won a Cup yet, either. After losing to the Islanders, they won four of the next five.

“I read Wayne Gretzky’s book and we’ll approach it with our players,” Therrien said. “I remember a quote of Wayne’s that they thought they had given everything. But when they [Oilers] crossed in front of the [Islanders’] dressing room, there was not much celebration because they had ice packs on their bodies. That’s the price you’ve got to pay to win the Stanley Cup.”

Don’t tell Therrien these Penguins, many of whom were drafted within the last four years, aren’t ready to pay such a price against a Red Wings team that won the Cup in 1997, 1998 and 2002 and is coming off its eighth consecutive 100-point season.

“Right now, we’ve got a young group that’s paying the price, and there’s a lot of bumps and bruises,” Therrien said.

What Crosby dislikes is the talk that these Penguins don’t know enough yet about what it takes to beat a team as experienced as the Red Wings.

Now, Staal is 19, Crosby is 20, Malkin and Kris Letang are 21, Marc-Andre Fleury is 23.

“We’ve earned the right to be here. We beat three solid teams, we had a tough regular season. We earned our right,” Crosby said. “I think we can say that with complete confidence. We’ve really earned our right to be here and give ourselves this opportunity, and we want to do the most with it.”