This Is The End

So close...and yet so far. So young...and so grown up. A 3-0 loss at Ottawa Thursday night was a bitter end for an amazing Penguins season, one that started with so much uncertainty and ended with the 2nd-highest point total in team history.

As far ahead of expectations as this team is, it was still difficult to look so powerless in the five-game defeat. The Pens were outscored 18-10 by the Sens in the series. I'm still trying to grasp how a team loaded with as many scoring threats as the Penguins have notched so few goals, but that just speaks to the level of opponent they were beaten by.

It was clear very early on that the Pens were a beaten team in not only this series, but this game. They frittered away two early five-on-three power plays and never rebounded, putting a total of just 20 shots on Ray Emery. A second period goal by Dany Heatley would be all the offense the Senators needed on this night.

The Penguins finished 4-for-28 on the power play in the series, including a mind-boggling 0-for-15 in the last three games.

Maybe it was the 27 overtime games they played this season catching up with them. Maybe it was inexperience in the playoffs. Maybe it was the lack of one more big scorer. For whatever reason, the Pens just couldn't make it happen in this postseason. But give them a few months to recharge their batteries, shake off the Ottawa series, and tweak the roster, and I promise you that the 2007-08 script will have an ending more appropriate for the league's most talented young team.