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Adding one more to the trophy case

When one thinks of Pittsburgh, it’s easy to think of it as a football town as Steeler Nation dominates for about half of the year.

It’s easy to think of baseball and the Pirates and the storied history of the franchise that dates back for more than a century.

But Pittsburgh also is a hockey town, and it loves its Penguins, the 2016 Stanley Cup champions.

The biggest gathering estimated for any Pittsburgh parade – more than the population within the city limits itself – witnessed the procession of the team and the Stanley Cup through the streets on Wednesday with more than 400,000 estimated to have lined sidewalks, hung from the ledges of parking garages and seemingly any other possible location that had a line of sight to the festivities.

It was sad that the Pens couldn’t win the trophy at home – the distinction of bringing home the most recent major sport championship with a home win still goes to the 1960 Pirates and the Ohio Valley’s Bill Mazeroski’s amazing walk-off home run – but all was forgiven with the 4-2 victory eight days ago in San Jose.

The Penguins, once the slouches of the National Hockey League, have become themselves a celebrated franchise, first under the on-ice leadership of Mario Lemeiux and now with him in the front office and captain Sidney Crosby leading on the ice.

The team overcame a slow start – the words don’t really do the negative enough justice – that was bad enough for the coach to be replaced, with Mike Sullivan replacing Mike Johnston after a 15-10-3 start that did not reflect the capabilities of the talent on the ice.

Sullivan righted the ship in an eerie similarity to the way the Pens’ last Stanley Cup-winning coach, Dan Bylsma, had replaced Michel Therrien, taking the league’s top prize.

There was the transfer of in-net power that occurred with the late-season concussion of stalwart goalie Marc-Andre Fleury and his replacement by incredible young NHL rookie Matt Murray, standing up to the pace and pressure of a playoff run.

The Cup was hoisted by Fleury, and by ill Penguins Trevor Daley (sidelined by an ankle injury and needing to tend to his ill mother who wanted to see her son win the Cup) and Pascual Dupuis, whose career may have come to an end with a battle with blood clots last fall. The crowds were emotionally behind both men.

Credit must be given to San Jose, which played tough and hard, and to its fans, whose “boos” seemed more aimed at league commissioner Gary Bettman than at the Penguins, who received what can be termed a respectful greeting as they passed the Stanley Cup around.

So it’s another summer for the Cup in Pittsburgh, its fourth, and surely the legend of Lord Stanley’s trophy will grow beyond spending time at the bottom of Mario Lemeiux’s swimming pool.

And shortly after all that celebrating, it will be time to return to the ice, to begin practice for another long grind.

Such is the mantle of winning the Stanley Cup after a deep and long playoff run into June.

It makes a repeat season difficult, and it makes any time claiming the Cup very special.

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