After the Penguins paraded the Stanley Cup through the streets of Pittsburgh, Sidney Crosby took it to his hometown of Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, Evgeni Malkin to Moscow and Phil Kessel to a childrens hospital in Toronto as part of the summer-long celebration.If theres one thing champions in the NHL have learned, it is to savor those moments because history says they wont happen back-to-back. No team has repeated as Cup champion since the salary-cap era began in 2005, and the last back-to-back winners were the Detroit Red Wings in 1997 and 1998.Sorry, Penguins. And sorry to the San Jose Sharks, as no team in the past eight seasons has lost in the final and gotten back the next year.The Chicago Blackhawks and Los Angeles Kings are rested from an unusually short spring, the Tampa Bay Lightning boast the deepest team in the league and the Washington Capitals are virtually unchanged after dominating the regular season. All those things, plus playing into June, stack the odds against the Penguins raising the Cup again in 2017.Youre coming off such a high, its going to be tough to get to that (level) right away, Pittsburgh defenseman Trevor Daley said. How you become a great team in this league is you have the hunger every night. Teams that are proven winners are usually the great teams, the L.A.s and Chicagos. Pittsburgh is right up there now in that conversation. Were hungry to do it again.Because they have two top goalies in Matt Murray and Marc-Andre Fleury, the Penguins are perhaps the best positioned team to repeat in recent history. That doesnt mean itll be easy.Online sportsbook Bovada set the Penguins and Blackhawks as co-Cup favorites with the Capitals, Lightning, Dallas Stars, St. Louis Blues and Sharks not far behind. It wouldnt be a surprise if any of those teams make it through a World Cup of Hockey-condensed regular season and a grueling division playoff format and get to celebrate in June.The parity in the league allows for a lot of teams to have the same goal and actually legitimately have a chance at it, said Washington winger Justin Williams, who won the Cup with Carolina in 2006 and Los Angeles in 2012 and 2014. Theres a handful of teams that have those aspirations and theyre real.Rather than parity, Commissioner Gary Bettman prefers the term competitive balance, which speaks not only to the lack of repeat champions and the death of NHL dynasties but the variance in playoff teams. Of the 30 teams, 24 have made the playoffs at least once over the past three seasons.Unless youre (cheering for) the team in the dynasty market, you could care less, Bettman said. All you care about is that your team is competitive.Competition isnt the problem. Its so high that playoff teams cant miss a beat or fear theyll drop out. The Florida Panthers look like a team just beginning a run of playoff appearances with young stars like Aaron Ekblad and Aleksander Barkov, but president of hockey operations Dale Tallon knows itll come down to breaks and injuries because its going to be a battle to return to the playoffs.Its a battle because the top teams havent lost much.The Penguins made a few tweaks and will be without Cup-winner Murray to start the season, but they can turn to 2009 winner Fleury and still lean heavily on Crosby, Malkin and defenseman Kris Letang. Elsewhere in the East, the Lightning re-signed Steven Stamkos, the Capitals are primed for another run with Alex Ovechkin and Vezina Trophy winner Braden Holtby, and the Montreal Canadiens should be back in contention with all-world goalie Carey Price healthy after missing most of last season with a knee injury.Chicago has cycled pieces in and out while winning the Cup in 2010, 2013 and 2015, but the core of Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith is as strong as ever. The Blackhawks would have liked to go deeper in last years playoffs, but not doing so could pay dividends this season as it has in the past.It might be good for the guys to have a longer offseason and come back hungry for the start of the season, defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson said.Trading off years with the Boston Bruins 2011 championship mixed in, the Blackhawks and Kings know all too well about the Cup hangover that the Penguins will try to avoid. Peaking at playoff time and maintaining that level amid injuries and bounces takes a lot, plus the system is skewed against back-to-back champions.Its more hard than before when teams were really dominating and could spend so much on salaries and they can buy different players, said Blackhawks winger Marian Hossa, who lost in the final in 2008 with Pittsburgh and 2009 with Detroit before winning three times with Chicago. In this modern day, its extremely hard. ... Its really, really hard to repeat.---AP Sports Writer Will Graves in Pittsburgh and AP Hockey Writer Larry Lage in Toronto contributed to this report.---Follow Stephen Whyno on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/SWhyno Cheap Air Max 95 For Sale . Once again, DeLaet finished tied for second at a PGA Tour stop on the weekend, this time at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. The pride of Weyburn, Sask. Cheap Air Max 90 China . Jason Zucker and Matt Cooke also scored for Minnesota, which has won five of six. Kuemper made five saves in the first, nine in the second, and nine in the third. The rookies best save came with 2:17 left in the third period when he denied former Wild forward Matt Cullen from just outside of the crease on the right side. http://www.airmaxwholesaleforsale.com/discount-air-max-tn-wholesale.html . -- Matt Rupert scored once in regulation and again in the shootout as the London Knights extended their win streak to nine games by defeating the Owen Sound Attack 4-3 on Friday in Ontario Hockey League action. Air Max 95 Wholesale . The (11-11-4) Jets are seventh in the Central Division with 26 points. Fifth place Dallas and sixth-seeded Nashville also have 26 points, but the Stars have three games in hand on Winnipeg while Nashville has two. Buy Air Max 720 . Ouellette, from Montreal, already has three Olympic gold medals since joining the team in 1999. NEW YORK -- A year after she was stunned in a US Open semifinal, it happened again to Serena Williams.This time the upset was crafted by No. 10 seed?Karolina Pliskova, a hard-hitting 24-year-old from the Czech Republic, who ended Williams most recent run at history 6-2, 7-6 (5).Williams, who double-faulted on match point, said her left knee, which she thought was injured during a second-round match, was a factor Thursday night at Arthur Ashe Stadium.Im not going to sit here and make an excuse, the 34-year-old Williams said.Williams coach wasnt so diplomatic.Since the start, it was terrible, Patrick Mouratoglou said. She was slow, very, very slow. Much slower than usual.Mouratoglou said the injury obviously affected Williams on the court, and she tried to compensate by playing a riskier style than usual.At the end she tried to go for the winner on every shot, Mouratoglou said. This with an injury. Even if she wins the second [set], its not the point; shes not going to win the third. She cannot move. There is no match.While Williams is acknowledged to have the greatest serve ever in the womens game, it was second best against Pliskova, who had seven aces and won 84 percent of her first-serve points.America probably hates me because I beat Venus and Serena, Pliskova said after the match.Pliskova became only the fourth singles player to beat Serena and Venus Williams in the same Grand Slam event. The others --?Martina Hingis, Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin -- all retired as multimajor champions.Serena Williams vigorously disputed the idea she was tired after playing her quarterfinal match Wednesday.My mind was just a little bit everywhere, but it was what it was, Williams said. Yeah, serious left knee problems. But fatigue had nothing to do with it. If I was tired, I need to finnd a new career.ddddddddddddI definitely was not beat up after my quarterfinal match.Pliskovas performance belied her experience. She was playing in her first Grand Slam semifinal, while it was Williams?33rd.I had a goal today: to beat Serena, Pliskova said in her on-court interview. And thats what I did.I dont believe it. Actually, I do believe it. I knew I could beat anyone if Im playing my game.The tantalizing laundry list of lifetime achievements Williams had within her reach -- an Open-era record 23 Grand Slam titles and an unprecedented seventh US Open championship -- will have to wait until next year.The No. 1 ranking, which she has held for 186 consecutive weeks, will now go to Angelique Kerber when the new rankings are released Monday.According to the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook, Pliskova entered the match as a more than 4-to-1 underdog.Pliskova will meet the No. 2-seeded Kerber, who defeated?Caroline Wozniacki?6-4, 6-3?in the second semifinal, in the Saturday afternoon championship final.Williams looked flat and uninspired throughout the match, possibly due to the fact she was playing for a second consecutive night. Ultimately, that was her responsibility. She asked the USTA to schedule her first match for last Tuesday, which meant playing the quarterfinals and semifinals on successive nights.Coming off a difficult match with No. 5 seed Simona Halep that she won in three sets, Williams?hit only 20 winners, as opposed to 31 unforced errors, on Thursday. She also had a difficult time reading Pliskovas serve.If Im a professional and I cant recover, well thats that, Williams said.Information from ESPNs Jane McManus was used in this report. ' ' '