The way I remember the 2009 series is that Pittsburgh earned their penalties. We couldn't clear the zone at all. Which is no surprise as we had Morrisonnn, Jurcina, Green, Pothier, Poti and Erskine at the time. Go back and re-watch a game. It was nerve-wracking watching Crosby and Malkin skate around our horrible D like pylons. The only reason that series was close was because of Ovechkin and Varlamov. Which again brings up the point that it's hard to call the Ovechkin Caps cursed when they were horribly built teams with too many major holes to be considered contenders.
It wasn't so much that our penalties (for the most part) weren't deserved. But that we could have gotten several more PPs but didn't. It was very one sided overall.
bottom line is that with all of that the penguins only survived on the strength of two overtime power play bank shots off Caps skates.
the Erskine penalty in ot in game 3 was pretty cheap.
oh...and this is the same series where the pens earn their calls and kunitz crosschecks varly in the neck and goes free.
Oh...you missed the WORST one.
Game 6...1 minute left in the 3rd period of a tie game.
Schultz gets called for a slash.
On replay the Pens player had his stick snap just by trying to play the puck. Schultz was 5 feet away from him and didn't even make a motion towards the guy.
To call THAT penatly in an elimination game with 1 minute left to go in the 3rd in a tie game...WOW...
I remember Doc saying something to the effect of "if the hockey gods are watching the Penguins will not score on this PP"
It was the most brutal phantom call I've ever seen in that situation.
EDIT: How about Malkin's winner in game 5....
Pens got a PP late in OT in game 5. It carried over to the 2nd OT.
Caps kill PP (or just about to) and dump puck in. Boyd Gordon gets cleaned out when his NOWHERE near the puck!!