- As I’ve noted on my Foxsports.com column, this year’s NHL playoffs was perhaps the most exciting we hockey fans have seen in years. In my humble estimation you have to go back fifteen years, to the 1994 playoffs, to find a good comparable.

Here’s hoping this year’s post-season was a sign of good things to come for the NHL.

-I realize some hockey fans hate Sidney Crosby, some often offering up the same tired cliches (over-rated, prima donna, spoiled, "not as good as...") that used to be hurled at Bobby Orr, Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux before him.  

The fact remains that Crosby hoisting the Stanley Cup will be money in the bank, not just for him personally but for the league in general, as that image will likely be part of an aggressive ad campaign by the league in the United States in hopes of building up more interest in hockey.

I realize also that Crosby’s critics will dump on him for not performing as well in the Final as he did earlier in the playoffs, conveniently overlooking the fact it took one of the league’s two best two-way forwards in Henrik Zetterberg to actually slow him down.

Perhaps no better tribute has been paid to Crosby as that of The Buffalo News’ Bucky Gleason following Game 7:

“The Penguins were coming out of bankruptcy and in danger of moving when they won the draft lottery in 2005 and selected Crosby first overall. Sid the Kid carried them into a new age and led them to the final in consecutive seasons. And when he was no longer available in the biggest game of his career, the Penguins were there to carry him.

Years from now, that's what people will remember more than him being held to a goal and two assists in the series. Pens fans will celebrate the glorious night when they came together and beat odds that seemed insurmountable. Somehow, they found a way to properly end a series for the ages.

"He is our team," said winger Max Talbot, who scored both goals for Pittsburgh. "He's the heart and soul of the Pittsburgh Penguins. He's our leader, and what he brings to the rink every day is special. He respects the game and he loves the game. Tonight is so special to win this for him. He was the one who brought this Cup to Pittsburgh."

That might not be enough to satisfy the Crosby critics, so perhaps a line from pro wrestler immortal Ric Flair would be more appropriate (hat tip to “geduffer”):

“Whether ya like it or ya don’t like it, learn to love it because it’s the best thing going today!”

 - We’re probably going to hear suggestions the Pittsburgh Penguins defeating the Detroit Red Wings in the 2009 Stanley Cup Final means the Wings are now a team in decline.

Don’t believe that for a minute.

Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg - the two best two-way forwards in the game - are 29 and 27 respectively. Energetic forward Dan Cleary is 29. Emerging scorer Johan Franzen is 28. Blueline stalwarts Brad Stuart and Niklas Kronwall are 28 and 27. Valtteri Filpulla is 24.

All are signed well beyond next season.

Up-and-comers Jonathan Ericsson, Darren Helm, Justin Abdelkader and Ville Leino are in their early twenties and either on affordable contracts or will be starting next season.

Greybeards Nicklas Lidstrom (38), Brian Rafalski (34) and Chris Osgood (35) still have plenty of quality hockey left in them for the foreseeable future.

Given how well this team drafts and develops talent, rest assured there will be more future Red Wings stars whose names we aren’t yet aware of coming up through their system in the coming years.

The Red Wings haven’t been among the NHL’s best teams for over 15 years merely via fluke or luck, folks, and it would be foolhardy to suggest they’re heading into the twilight because they lost this year’s Cup Final.

This is a team that remains a Cup contender and will be for a long, long time.

- It could be suggested the Penguins could be poised to become a hockey dynasty because of their core of young stars.

Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Marc-Andre Fleury and Jordan Staal are all 23 or younger, while physical blueliner Brooks Orpik is just coming into his own at the age of 27. All are signed through the 2012-13 season.

That’s a solid core to build around but it’ll be up to GM Ray Shero to maintain a strong supporting cast for this club.

Just like last season the Penguins face losing several valuable players to free agency as this salary cap world makes championship teams difficult to keep together.

Shero has shown however he’s capable of making the right deals and finding the right players to keep this club a Cup contender, but he must also take a page from the Red Wings handbook on drafting and development of talent, for that could be the key to keeping the Penguins a Cup contender for a long time.

- How bad does Marian Hossa feel?

Last spring as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins he had the best post-season performance of his career but wound up watching the Detroit Red Wings parade the Stanley Cup around Pittsburgh’s Mellon Arena following a tough six-game loss.

He then incurs the wrath of Penguins fans by rejecting a lucrative multi-year offer to sign a one-year deal with the Red Wings, believing he had a better chance of winning a Cup in Hockeytown than in Pittsburgh.

In this year’s post-season however he would have one of his worst post-season performances, going scoreless throughout the 2009 Cup Final, and then watch his former team beat his new team to win the big mug.

Hossa said he didn’t regret his decision and I believe him but he has to be wondering if the hockey gods have it out for him.