These are the times that delight Pens-hating hockey souls. Like, especially us.
The
Penguins yesterday couldn’t have had a much easier matinee matchup for the
debut of their new head coach, Dan Bylsma, who replaced the fired
Michel Therrien on Sunday. So naturally the reigning Eastern
conference champions lost on the Isle, 3-2, in a shootout. In a virtual must-win game Messrs. Malkin and Crosby failed in their respective shootout attempts, against
that on-everyone’s-Vezina-list, Joey MacDonald.
Perched
rather conspicuously in 10th place in the East, the Pens have 24 games
left to right their very wrongly chartered ship, but the schedule is no help. As
Monday afternoon proved, there is no “easy” game left for this club. In
fact, 18 of Pittsburgh’s final 24 games are against playoff-caliber
clubs. This week they have Montreal, Philly, and Washington. Come
Sunday, the Caps with a victory could make Sidney & co. sellers in February’s
final week before the March 4 trade deadline.
What a fall from grace, in just one year’s time, for a team that recently looked a lock to be the team to beat in the East for the next decade.
How
did it happen? From my vantage, it’s terribly instructive to take a
look at how Pens’ GM Ray Shero handled last February to begin to
understand his plight in this. In a trade deadline overview for the Caps
that I authored for the Illegal Curve blog, my most basic advice for
George McPhee was to resist the temptation Shero fell prey to near last
season’s roster wheeling-dealing day. Which is to say: deal away a healthy portion of the young (cheap) core in pursuit of the expensive glamor and glitz, in a desperate grab for glory.
The Penguins last season, like the Caps this one, I wrote, were enjoying a remarkably strong season, but Shero
“didn’t trust enough in their internal development . . . ” Instead, I noted, Pittsburgh got
greedy, and in order to acquire Marian Hossa “they shipped out no small
part of their character core (Colby Armstrong, Erik Christensen) as
well as important future assets (a future no. 1 pick, no. 1 pick Angelo
Esposito) for the rental Hossa.”
On the one hand, you can say that Hossa had a terrific postseason for
Pittsburgh and was a lead catalyst for the team’s waddle to the Cup
finals. Conversely, you can make the point that dealing no small part
of the present and future for short-term, impact immediacy is hockey’s
ultimate Russian Roulette. And what happens if it backfires?
Now ponder this: What does a postseason-less Pens mean for Reebok and the Commish? Even better: What if last spring was as good as it gets for the skating black and gold in the era of Sidney? Wouldn’t Reebok and Bettman be in a bit of a pickle?
Wouldn’t we consider allowing one Alexander Semin to update the Wiki page for Sir Sidney? (The bet here is that it wouldn’t be lost in translation.)
Ask
any Penguins’ supporter about the implosion of this season and the word
“toughness” will immediately come up. The Penguins last season weren’t
just high scoring, they were damned tough to play against. But gone via
trades and free agency are Gary Roberts, Jarkko Ruutu, Adam Hall, Colby
Armstrong, and Ryan Malone (remember the nauseating sight of Malone
diving to block shots in last spring’s Stanley Cup finals, with most of
his face already broken in about a dozen places? I wrote about Malone having his face rebuilt between games 5 and 6 of the finals.).
Another interesting question to ask these days: Penguins’ management made Crosby the team captain at age 19 — the youngest player to serve as captain in NHL history. That decision, too, was Ray Shero’s. What sort of leadership are the Penguins receiving this season, does it appear?
This Sunday at Verizon Center it may prove instructive to count the number of mullets visiting from out of town. Their numbers may not be what they’ve long been here. When their captain touches the puck, I think there’s a word we’d do well to welcome him with, in loud unison. It’s one that in English Alexander Semin speaks perfectly well. It rhymes with “overrated.”
9 Comments
I like the first option(s) for whose available… I hope the Caps keep Neuvirth, but if they must give him up, hopefully a team will overpay for him after watching his performance against the Bolts.
Thank you, as always, for a spot-on posting and interesting read! I’ll chime in and add that the waddling waterfowl also took a major hit when Ty Conklin left for Detroit; a reliable back-up goalie is a must-have in the NHL today.
Via NHL Center Ice, I watch a lot of non-Caps games, and gleefully cheer against the Penguins at every opportunity. It seems to me that there is very little chemistry on this year’s Penguin’s team and wonder just how well “liked” their “Face of the NHL” team captain actually is within their dressing room. To me, it speaks volumes when players like Roberts and Malone elect to sign in Tampa(!) and Hossa bolts after a few weeks of the regular season and a playoff run to the Cup Finals.
It was with great satisfaction that I saw Crosby’d true colors in the “junk punching” incident against Atlanta and the face-off mugging against Florida. Here’s hoping that Caps fans will be loud and proud this coming Sunday; it’s a NBC (Nothing But Crosby) network game of the week and our opportunity to let the hockey-watching Nation know who truly is the best player in the League.
You know…I was thinking about leading that chant if I get to the March 8th game at Verizon.
“It seems to me that there is very little chemistry on this year’s Penguin’s team and wonder just how well “liked” their “Face of the NHL” team captain actually is within their dressing room.”
An interesting observation. Watching “NHL on the Fly” the consensus of opinion seemed to be that Therrien and his rather abrasive personality was one of the factors in Hossa heading off to Detroit as well as why Roberts and Malone packed their bags and left Steeltown.
I watched the game yesterday on the Pittsburgh feed (NHL Center Ice subscriber) and I was cheering the Isles on every step of the way.
Great insight as usual, pucksandbooks. I do have a request, though. Is it possible for us to refer to Alexander Semin here on out as a question mark? You know, we’ll call him ‘?’ from now on. I propose doing this because we simply have no idea what to expect to him game to game. Will he be mysteriously injured? Will he have a hat trick? Will he stick-handle right through an opposing defense? Will he speak english? (No.)
Seriously, though. Prince was once known as that squiggly thing. He had his own character. Why not do same with the enigmatic sniper from Krasnoyarsk?
“To me, it speaks volumes when players like Roberts and Malone elect to sign in Tampa(!) and Hossa bolts after a few weeks of the regular season and a playoff run to the Cup Finals.”
Well, wouldn’t an outside observer say the same about the Caps and Huet? Nou sure that’s enough anecdotal evidence to declare causality.
I’d argue that the difference there is that Huet left purely because the Caps weren’t willing to engage in a bidding war for his services. He went to Chicago because he wanted more money.
I’m not sure about Roberts and Malone, but in Hossa’s case, he took less money (by a good million and a half if I remember right) and significantly less years (1 vs. 6 or 7) to play in Detroit rather than Pitt.
In the case of Hossa, leaving money and years on the table certainly strengthens the original argument.
I don’t think Ray Shero is to blame for the current situation the Penguins face. Negotiating with Hossa during the summer meant that Shero had to let people like Malone and Roberts go in order to free up some cash. When Hossa decided to head to Detroit it left Shero with very few options.
The Penguins may not be as great as they were last year, but they still have enough talent that they should be making the playoffs.
If this poor season is anyone’s fault it’s the players themselves. Unlike last year, no one is stepping up their game. Only Crosby, Malkin, Sykora and Fleury are playing as well as they should be, and even Crosby isn’t having a great season.
The rest of the team (Staal, Talbot, Satan, etc.) is simply lacking any sort of competitive spirit.
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