PITTSBURGH,None — The biggest surprise of all for the Pittsburgh Penguins was that their season ended so soon.
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Sure, they spent 43 years in Mellon Arena and played more than 300 games the past three seasons. They made successive trips to the Stanley Cup finals and had a seemingly clear path to a return trip to the finals again this season, with Washington and New Jersey already out of the way.
That's why their 5-2 loss to the surprising Montreal Canadiens in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals on Wednesday jolted them as much as a Hal Gill hit.
It's all over. The season. Their chances of becoming the first team since Detroit in 1997-98 to repeat as Stanley Cup champions. Their time in Mellon Arena, which opened six years before the Penguinsfranchise existed and still has most of its original burnt-orange seats.
Before some fans in the last of 165 consecutive sellout crowds settled into those seats, the season was effectively over.
"It's definitely disappointing," Sidney Crosby said. "Game 7, anything can happen and, unfortunately, we weren't at our best."
For the Penguins, there won't be a fourth Stanley Cup banner to transport from Mellon Arena to the nearly completed Consol Energy Center, no June parade, no Stanley Cup championship ring to go with Crosby's Olympic gold medal.
"I don't think we ever believed that it got away from us," Crosby said. "I think it just came down to execution and came down to one game."
Following the traditional post-game handshakes, many fans in the crowd of 17,132 remained to watch a video tribute to the nation's first and only retractable roof indoor arena. Mario Lemieux, a former Penguin and team co-owner, and Crosby, of course, were featured.
The first game at the building, originally known as the Civic Arena, had Montreal beating Pittsburgh 2-1 on Oct. 11, 1967.
Of course, the building played host to more than just Penguins games.
The circus and ice shows played at the arena, as did the Harlem Globetrotters. Also, some of the greatest names in entertainment played at the arena: Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson and The Beatles.
On Thursday morning, arena workers started cleaning the debris from a playoff push that ended too soon.
Penguins vice president of communications Tom McMillan said some fans tried to take some memorabilia from the arena Wednesday night, but not as many as expected.
McMillan said people got away with a couple signs, but nothing major. Arena staff took down a plaque commemorating Elvis Presley's show on New Year's Eve 1977. It was the last New Year's Eve that Presley was alive, as he died eight months later.
"Elvis has just left the building" was a term coined by announcer Mike Lange following a Penguins' victory. Arena officials were worried that someone would steal the Elvis plaque as a piece of Lange memorabilia, so they removed it.
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