The 2008–09 Pittsburgh Penguins season was the 42nd season of Pittsburgh Penguins in the National Hockey League (NHL). The regular season began with two games against the Ottawa Senators in Stockholm, Sweden on October 4 and October 5, 2008.
On February 15, the team had a record of 27–25–5 and was five points out of playoff position. The organization fired head coach Michel Therrien and replaced him with Dan Bylsma, head coach of the organization's American Hockey League affiliate in Wilkes-Barre. On February 26, the team traded defenseman Ryan Whitney to the Anaheim Ducks in return for Chris Kunitz. Before the trade deadline on March 4, they acquired Bill Guerin from the New York Islanders. Under Bylsma, the team went 18–3–4, including 10–1–2 in March, and lost only one home game.
The Penguins qualified for the playoffs for the third consecutive season. They did not repeat as champions of the Atlantic Division, but earned the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference with 99 points. They began the 2009 Stanley Cup playoffs on April 15 against the Philadelphia Flyers. They beat the Flyers, Washington Capitals, and Carolina Hurricanes to earn a second-straight berth in the Stanley Cup Final. In the Finals, the Penguins defeated the Detroit Red Wings in seven games in a rematch of the previous season's Stanley Cup Final to win the franchise's third league title. To date, this is the only Stanley Cup the Penguins have won without having home-ice advantage. They became the first team since the 1983-84 Edmonton Oilers to win the Stanley Cup after losing it the previous year.
Pre-season Due to their appearance in the 2008 Stanley Cup Final, the Penguins had less than three weeks before free agency began to settle numerous contract decisions. The Penguins added nine free agents and lost ten to other teams. Head Coach Michel Therrien also signed a new three-year contract that replaced the last year of his existing contract, with an increase in salary. The new contract was projected to keep him with the Penguins through the 2010–11 season.
The Penguins renewed 99% of their season ticket sales from the 2007–08 season; having sold out 67 consecutive games at Mellon Arena dating back to the 2006–07 season. In July, ESPN named Pittsburgh the top team in the Eastern Conference, and Sporting News predicted the team would finish in the league's fifth overall position.
The team commenced training camp on September 16, 2008, in Pittsburgh. They played five pre-season games in preparation for the season, finishing with a 4–0–1 record. The team concluded its preparation for the season with practices in Stockholm. Defensemen Sergei Gonchar was injured in the pre-season opener and originally anticipated to miss "four to six months." He appeared for the first time on February 14, 2009. With Gonchar out of the lineup and previous season's two other alternate captains Ryan Malone and Gary Roberts departed, the Penguins began the season with no returning alternate captains in the lineup. Therrien selected two alternate captains each month; Evgeni Malkin and Brooks Orpik served the role throughout the opening month.
|- style="background:#ffc;" | 1 || September 20 || Tampa Bay ||5–4||Pittsburgh||SO||Fleury||16,287||0–0–1|| |- style="background:#cfc;" | 2 || September 22 || Pittsburgh ||3–2||Tampa Bay||||Curry||14,707||1–0–1|| |- style="background:#cfc;" | 3 || September 24 || Toronto||2–3||Pittsburgh||||Sabourin||15,731||2–0–1|| |- style="background:#cfc;" | 4 || September 26 || Pittsburgh ||5–4||Toronto||||Fleury||18,884||3–0–1|| |- style="background:#cfc;" | 5 || October 2 || Pittsburgh ||4–1||Jokerit (SML)||||Fleury||13,464||4–0–1||
| Legend: = Win = Loss = OT/SO Loss
Regular season
October
On September 27, the Penguins embarked on a trip for Sweden where they opened the season against the Ottawa Senators, at the Stockholm Globe Arena. The Penguins were one of four teams to participate in NHL Premiere which began the season with games in Prague, Czech Republic and Stockholm, Sweden. Pittsburgh won the opening game of the season in overtime, getting two goals from Tyler Kennedy, including the game-winner. The game was broadcast on Mellon Arena's JumboTron where 2,300 spectators watched the game. The team returned to Pittsburgh after ten days in Europe and a 1–1–0 record. The Penguins hosted the Trib Total Media Faceoff Festival 2008 prior to their first four home games, allowing fans to watch the games on 9-by-12 foot LED screen outside of Mellon Arena. On October 18, Sidney Crosby scored one goal in addition to three assists to surpass benchmarks of 100 goals, 200 assists, and 300 total points for his career. In the same game, Evgeni Malkin assisted on four goals, giving him 200 total career points.
The Penguins received continued fan support from their previous season. In addition to extending a home sellout streak to 72 games on October 23, the Penguins ranked 113% above the national average for male television viewers aged 18 to 34. The franchise ranked as the 18th most valuable in the league at US$195 million, marking a 26% increase from the past season. According to Forbes, the franchise's revenue would likely put the Penguins into the top ten after their new arena, Consol Energy Center, opened in 2010. The Penguins finished October with a 3–1–1 record in Pittsburgh and concluded the month with three consecutive road losses.
November
The Penguins won their first six games in November before losing in a shootout on November 18. Rob Scuderi and Hal Gill were selected by Therrien to be November's alternate captains, taking over for Brooks Orpik and Malkin who served in October. On November 11, the Penguins returned to Detroit for the first time since the 2008 Stanley Cup Final. The third goal of Jordan Staal's second career hat-trick came with 22.8 seconds remaining in regulation, sending the game into overtime where the Penguins achieved a 7–6 victory. Malkin's 13-game point streak ended on November 18, during the streak he scored 27 points. Through November 19, the Penguins led the league in overtime games with nine of 18 games taking extra time to decide. Through the first 20 games of the season, Mike Zigomanis led the league in faceoff percentage and Alex Goligoski led rookie defensemen in points. After an injury to Marc-Andre Fleury, Dany Sabourin and rookie John Curry split goaltending duties in his multi-game absence in which the team was 5–6–2. On November 26, Malkin scored three goals for his third career hat-trick, three days later Sidney Crosby also achieved a hat trick—the second of his career. After the team's final game of the month, Malkin and Crosby ranked first and second in league scoring with 39 and 34 points respectively. Malkin also ranked first in the league with 29 assists, and was named the NHL's second Star of the Month.
December
Therrien named Jordan Staal and Matt Cooke December's alternate captains. "I think it's important for our young group to try to extend the leadership group," the coach said of the decision. A survey by Turnkey Sports & Entertainment released on December 2 that surveyed fans of all 122 NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB teams ranked the Penguins eighth. The survey consisted of 21 categories such as entertainment value, commitment to winning, ticket value and likeability of the players and owners. Ranked 20th in the same poll in 2007, the Penguins were the second-ranked NHL team, behind the Detroit Red Wings. The Penguins began the month with seven games in eleven days in which they were 2–4–1. As of December 10, Crosby and Malkin continued to lead the league in points as well as leading voting for the All-Star Game in Montreal. On December 11, after losing three consecutive games, Petr Sykora and Pascal Dupuis each scored their first career hat-tricks in a 9–2 victory over the New York Islanders in Pittsburgh. It was the seventh time in the Penguins' history that two players scored a hat-trick in the same game, the first since 1993.
On December 21, Sidney Crosby surpassed the record for most All-Star Game votes at 1,020,736, set by Jaromir Jagr, then with the Penguins, in 2000. Crosby broke the record with 13 days remaining in voting. Defenceman Ryan Whitney made his first appearance of the season on December 23, after missing 33 games with a foot injury. On December 26, Marc-Andre Fleury made 37 saves in Pittsburgh's first shutout of the season, defeating the New Jersey Devils, 1–0. After concluding the month with a 5–8–1 record, the team held a players-only meeting on December 30. "The attitude is a little off right now," said Brooks Orpik, "It's easy to be a good team when you're winning games. When you're going through rough batches like this, it's what tests guys' character."
January The Penguins began 2009 with three consecutive losses, extending their losing streak to five games—the most consecutive since 2006. During the streak, the Penguins fell from second to ninth place in the Eastern Conference and failed to score on 32 consecutive power plays.
Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin led all players in voting for the 2009 All-Star Game. However, Crosby did not play due to a knee injury. The top vote-getter for the second year in a row, Crosby also missed the 2008 All-Star Game. On January 8, the team announced that they had agreed to a four-year contract extension with Jordan Staal worth $16 million. Staal's rookie contract was set to expire at the end of the season. He was the Penguins first round pick, second overall in 2006.
The team suffered from injuries, culminating in January where at one point they had eight starters injured. Mike Zigomanis had been inactive since December 3 and Ruslan Fedotenko was ruled out for four to six weeks after breaking his hand on January 6. Sergei Gonchar practiced with the team for the first time on January 16 after suffering a separated shoulder during the pre-season. By that time, the Penguins had lost 173 man-games due to injury, after losing 239 in the entire 2007–08 season. With a 3–0 victory over the New York Rangers on January 18, the Penguins won a second consecutive game for the first time since November 15. However, the team was unable to capitalize and lost their last game before the All-Star break to the Carolina Hurricanes. The Penguins entered the break with a 23–21–4 record. The team's 50 points put them in tenth place in the Eastern Conference, two spots out of the playoffs.
February
On February 14, Sergei Gonchar made his season debut and Ruslan Fedotenko returned to the line-up after missing over a month due to a hand injury. On February 15—with the Penguins five points out of the playoffs—Therrien was replaced by Dan Bylsma, the coach of the Penguins' AHL affiliate Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, on an interim basis. Tom Fitzgerald was promoted from Director of Player Development to assistant coach for forwards, while Mike Yeo, already with the team, became assistant for the defensemen. Assistant Andre Savard was reassigned within the organization.
On February 21, Crosby recorded his 250th career assist in a 2-goal, 2-assist victory over the Philadelphia Flyers. On February 25, Fleury recorded his third shutout of the season, as the Penguins defeated the Islanders 1–0; the team remained two points out of the playoffs after the win. The day after the shutout, Ryan Whitney was traded to the Anaheim Ducks for Chris Kunitz and signing rights to prospect Eric Tangradi. In his first game after being traded to Pittsburgh, Kunitz recorded a goal and an assist as the Penguins defeated the Chicago Blackhawks in overtime.
March