To make sure he was fashionably up to date for black and gold day today at work, Aaron Weis of U.S. Bank shopped for a new Penguins jersey at Hometowne Sports in Station Square. He wanted a Jarkko Ruutu model but had to settle for a Ryan Malone.

"You can't get anything Ruutu," said assistant manager Lori Beth Jones as she rang up the sale. "Obviously, Sidney Crosby's stuff is a top seller, but a lot of fans have a secondary favorite, and Jarkko Ruutu is as popular as anyone."

For those not immersed in the hockey scene, Mr. Ruutu is known not so much for his scoring touch or skating ability but for getting under an opponent's skin with a crushing hit and making a pest of himself -- just the kind of gritty agitation that is invaluable during the playoffs, which start for the Penguins tonight against the Ottawa Senators.

There's a two-way admiration between Mr. Ruutu and the team's supporters.

"The fans are the greatest thing about this game," Mr. Ruutu said following the team's final home game. "They support the whole team, and it feels especially good when they support you personally. It's not only the goals and the nice assists, but it's also the body checks and stuff that the crowd seems to enjoy."

When a native of Finland whose name is pronounced Yark-oh Roo-too finds a niche with fans, it's a fair indication that something contagious has broken out around the region. The symptoms are a palpitating heart, nervous tension, giddy expectations and the propensity to cheer loudly at the drop of a puck. The only cure is to secure a piece of silver hardware named after a Lord Stanley, and the quest begins tonight when the Ottawa Senators visit Mellon Area to take on the Penguins in the first round of the National Hockey League playoffs.

"Everybody has Stanley Cup fever," said Shawna Kocik, manager of Hometowne Sports.

She'll be at the game with her son, Nathan, all decked out in Penguins gear.

"This is the year we could go deeper. That's not saying we will because you have to take it one game at a time," she said. "But when you win that many games when Crosby was hurt, we know we can win it."

The best-of-seven series against the Senators is a rematch of last year's first round, when the Penguins were spanked in five games and given a lesson in playoff intensity. But the Penguins have home ice advantage this time around, courtesy of winning their division and finishing second overall in the Eastern Conference.

Home ice doesn't guarantee an edge, but the Penguins were unbeaten in the last eight home games and were 19-2-3 in their final 24 home dates.

All 41 regular home dates this season were sold out, a new franchise record. Given that the final 13 games of last season were sellouts, the streak will hit 55 games tonight when the standing room only crowd files in.

And in an arena originally built as an opera hall, the throaty roar from the home crowd makes a big difference in what happens on the ice.

"There is definitely that sense of having a boost, especially when you need it if you're down a goal or if you're in a big game. When you're in that atmosphere and environment, I think that motivates everyone," said Mr. Crosby, also known as El Sid.

Or as defenseman Brooks Orpik put it: "The adrenaline the crowd gives you at home definitely gets you up to the energy level you need to have. The crowd has always played a big part. This has always been a fun building to play in. It gets really loud."

Barely 13 months ago, the Penguins didn't know for sure where they would be playing this season. The arena deal of March 2007 secured a new building and a long-term lease for a franchise that began playing in 1967-68, and the bond between team and town has never been stronger.

After a five-year dry spell, the Penguins have not only reached the playoffs for the second straight season, they amassed more than 100 points in consecutive seasons for just the second time in franchise history despite suffering a slew of injuries that shelved some of their top players.

The story off the ice has been as incredible in its own way as the success on the ice, and the bandwagon is filling up fast.

The team sold a record 13,500 season tickets and could have sold even more, but it wanted to have seats available for the student rush, a discount offered to college students. The team even has a waiting list of 1,300 fans who put down a non-refundable deposit of $200 to secure a place in line. Also, all 53 private suites were sold out this season, another franchise first.

The appeal of the Penguins extends beyond regional limits, however. The joke in the offices of TSN, the Canadian sports network, is that Pittsburgh is actually the seventh Canadian team because the Penguins have such an avid following. The merchandising arm of the NHL jokes that Mr. Crosby is the seventh Canadian franchise. Since he came into the league in 2005, his No. 87 jersey has been the top seller every month with the exception of March of this year.

TV executives love them and their core of young talent. They made the maximum number of appearances on national TV -- four on NBC and eight on Versus -- while being a league leader in their home market. For the second straight year, the Penguins led all Fox Sports Net affiliates in ratings. The March 27 game with the New York Islanders had the second highest local rating ever for a regular season game, trailing only the comeback of Mario Lemieux in 2000.

They're a big draw on RDS, the French language network. Coach Michel Therrien, goalie Marc-Andrew Fleury and forward Maxime Talbot are from the French-speaking province of Quebec, and Mr. Crosby learned to speak French while playing in Rimouski in the junior league.

When NBC televised the outdoor Ice Bowl in Buffalo on Jan. 1, the Penguins were in it, wearing their throwback blue jerseys. Those blue jerseys, and a similarly hued hooded sweatshirt, have been so popular with fans that they're almost impossible to find on store shelves.

And when the team made a swing through western Canada this season, Crosby-mania raged unabated. In a five-day span, he held eight meetings with the media in a news conference setting because the locker rooms were too small to accommodate all the cameras and reporters.

On the other hand, to cater to their considerable contingent of female fans, the Penguins held three "Hockey In Heels" luncheons this season. All three were sold out. And the topics of discussion went beyond knowing the difference between the blue line and a clothes line. The women peppered General Manager Ray Shero with questions about why he traded Colby Armstrong, a fan favorite.

Actually, that trade was made to support the playoff run. The Penguins acquired Marion Hossa in that deal to play on Mr. Crosby's wing, although because of injuries, fans will get their long-awaited look at the pairing in the playoffs. Acquired in a separate deal was rugged defenseman Hal Gill, a 6-foot-7, 250-pound enforcer.

"This city is such a great hockey town. It seems like everyone is behind us 110 percent," said center Jordan Staal.

"There's no better feeling as a player to have that fan base and support. We just hope we can bring the Stanley Cup here for them."

For one last indication of interest in the Penguins, the local band PUB Crawlers had a gig at a local night spot Monday following the Pirates home opener. Within minutes of the final out of a Pirates loss, drummer Ron Beitle tapped out a beat and shouted; "Let's Go Pens."

"I remember going to games when the blue jersey was the official color," Mr. Beitle said.

"The town is really behind this team. I'll be disappointed if they don't get beyond the first round."