PITTSBURGH -- SIDNEY CROSBY DOESN'T scare easily. But the future of the Pittsburgh Penguins had him unnerved.
Center Evgeni Malkin and defenseman Kris Letang, Crosby's teammates on all three of his Stanley Cup victories, were at the end of their contracts last season. Free agency loomed. Rare was the team, in hockey or any other sport, that would keep an aging core together that hadn't advanced past the playoffs' opening round in four straight seasons -- let alone find a way to do so under a flat salary cap.