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Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma, right, talks with captain Sidney Crosby during practice on Sunday. It was the first official team practice of the 2013 NHL season for the Penguins. (AP photo / January 13, 2013) |
CANONSBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pittsburgh Penguins coach Dan Bylsma was in the midst of a little speech during his first day at his normal job in eight months when his players stopped suddenly and raised their sticks in the air.
The gesture served as a salute to the hundreds of fans who packed a suburban Pittsburgh hockey complex to watch the Penguins in their first official practice since the end of the NHL lockout.
The response — a chant of “Let’s Go Penguins” by the folks who crammed elbow to elbow on concrete bleachers — erased any lingering concern about animosity over the four-month work stoppage that cut the league’s season nearly in half.
Finally, it’s back to hockey.
“It’s pretty special to have a packed building,” Bylsma said.
And it marked a stark contrast to the lockout, when a handful of players — captain Sidney Crosby included — would get together at the same facility for semi-formal drills in front of a handful of curious on-lookers.
The crowded ice and Bylsma’s whistle gave things a sense of order following weeks of anxiety that the season might be lost completely.
Instead, it’s game on for a team considered a Stanley Cup favorite now that Crosby appears to be fully recovered from concussion-like symptoms that dogged him for the better part of two seasons.
Not that Crosby wanted to get into the stakes on Sunday. His team can get to that down the road.
For once, it was nice to just have things feel like normal. Or at least as normal as preparing for a 48-game season in a week can feel anyway.
