The Bottom Line

I mention the struggles of two of hockey’s best veteran players to make the point that our talented young kids are going to struggle, too. The bottom line when it comes to us, though, is that when all of our kids produce, we win games, and when all of our kids don’t produce, we lose.*

A tough burden for the kids to bear? Sure. But definitely a lesson they need to learn when the time comes to be in the top 5 of the league standings and a perennial contender for the Cup. Some nights, Crosby might have to pick up for Malkin; some nights, Malkin might have to pick up for Crosby. (I don't refer to effort, which should be assumed, but to escaping the checking or defensive pair of an opponent.) But to go anywhere, really, Crosby, Malkin, Staal, Whitney, Fleury, players like Armstrong and Moore, they all have to produce.

*(Caveat: Of course sometimes our kids will produce wonders and still another team might produce more depth, or even better stars, to beat our kids—but those are going to be the league’s elite teams, the ones that are considered Cup contenders. As for the rest of the league, perhaps 20 other teams, when every single one of our kids produces, this team wins far more frequently than it loses.)
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Scanning Around the League

It continues to amaze and astound me how evenly the Penguins and Rangers are matched. Their scorers against our scorers; their depth against our depth. Generally speaking, too, the teams both like to, um, how shall I put this kindly, play the style of hockey that I so enjoy (time spent in the offensive zone). In any case, the Pens and Rangers are fairly evenly matched, and our kids have to learn how to win games against a team that boasts experienced future Hall of Fame players Brendan Shanahan and Jaromir Jagr. When the Pens are evenly matched with a team, they have to win those games if they want to make the playoffs.

Jaromir Jagr is not good in shootouts, or hasn’t been good (something like 2 for 12). At last glance, he was still leading the league in scoring. Sometimes things don’t make logical sense.

Chris Pronger was minus 2 in a game against Tampa Bay. Talk about a crazy unusual night—crazier things have happened, but really? Chris Pronger, a minus 2? (Again, no direct comparison should be inferred, but Ryan Whitney "haters," "bashers," etc, please note--no one would have raised their eyebrows at a minus 2 game from Pronger his first three seasons in the NHL.)

Shoot-Outs
A confession. During the regular season, I like four-on-four overtime. I’m not a huge fan of the shootout, but I’ll deal with it (if it’s good enough for the Olympics, I’ll cope in the NHL regular season). As a fan who grew up watching an offensive juggernaut, I like to watch teams play to win (instead of not to lose), and when teams go all out for the win in overtime, well, I appreciate that aspect of the game.

However, looking at the Pens’ record right now, I might venture to say that it might be shootout losses that cause the team to miss the playoffs this year (granted, there would be a myriad of other reasons why the team might miss the playoffs as well). Seriously, how many more points would the Pens have if they had won those games (particularly against division rivals) that ended in a shootout?

My brother said last year that he didn’t understand how the Pens were so bad in shootouts—Fleury was a goaltender who could stop the puck, and well, we had players who should be able to put the puck in the net.

Anyhow, I’m not sure that I know of any quick fix. Shootouts may continue to be a problem for the Pens, a problem that doesn’t appear to make logical sense. (The nerves of young players might make some sense, but not enough to me.) What really needs to happen is that the Pens don’t get to the point where they have to go to shootouts; they learn how to win games in regulation and overtime so they don’t have to bemoan those missed points from shootout losses.

But, of course, for the team to get that point, well, what’s that saying I’m going to have to keep repeating?

Oh, yes. Patience is a virtue.


5

Staal

Shero decided not to let Staal play in the World Juniors. I haven’t seen the kid play enough to make real judgments. I think the things I worry and wonder about are possibly the same things that might give Shero nightmares.

If Staal is twenty years old, and it’s two years later and he’s had more development time, is he shining the way Malkin is now (although he is a very different player than is Malkin)?

What is best for the kid’s development to be a phenomenal two-way NHL center, in the mode, perhaps, dare I dream, of a Ron Francis?

In any case, Shero is the Pens’ GM. From not letting Staal play in the World Junior, I’m concluding he’s made the decision that 1). The NHL will help Staal to develop far more than the World Juniors ever could. 2). Staal is too important a piece to the Pens to lose in the middle of the season.

If Shero and Therrien, along with others, have correctly decided that the NHL is where Staal’s development can best occur, bravo.

As a fan, believe me, I understand the secondary consideration. Yet, as much it sucks, that consideration has to remain secondary. The Pens aren’t winning the Cup this year. How is Jordan Staal best going to be prepared to help them win the Cup when the Pens’ time does come? That’s the question that has to be answered, and it has to continue to be answered throughout the year.

Malkin

While I referenced Malkin previously, I did have to agree with Therrien’s assessment that Malkin’s thing had been to let Sid do his thing lately. I don’t really think Malkin intended any harm by what he was doing—after all, Crosby is already the undisputed leader and heart of this Pens’ team.

However, Therrien was right when he challenged Malkin (I don’t want to use the term "call out") to do the same thing Crosby does. Because, frankly, though Crosby and Malkin are different players, they’re both obscenely talented. Both kids who can’t yet legally drink (in the US, anyhow), are already capable of dominating NHL games.

For the first years of his career, as he was still adapting to the NHL, Jaromir Jagr wasn’t yet a superstar as was Mario Lemieux. The Pens were Mario’s team, and Jagr was a supporting cast member. When Mario returned for the 1995-96 season, the Pens’ team suddenly had the two best players in the world on it—two superstars, two players capable of dictating the tempo of the games, of dominating the opponent, of just willing their team to victory.

Crosby’s already shown the capability to take over games as did Mario and Jags, and so, too (when Crosby was out injured) has Malkin. I still believe that we’re going to witness more growing pains with Malkin—the kid has to adjust to the North American game and ice surface, learn to keep his head up, and of course, learn to speak English—but like Jagr was as a youngster who couldn’t speak or understand English, Malkin GETS hockey.

Malkin can dominate games, and Therrien is right. Malkin needs to dominate games. Malkin and Crosby need to be "on" at the same time.

One of my favorite memories as a child was the night Mario and Jagr made a bet as to who would reach fifty goals first. By that point, Jagr could speak English, and there was good-natured competition as to who would win the scoring title that Lemieux ultimately won.

Right now, Malkin’s still the kid who doesn’t speak English and who doesn’t yet have the ability to crack jokes with the media (a trick Jagr’s long since developed). Malkin, probably partially due to his lack of familiarity with the language and culture, isn’t yet ready for a leadership role off the ice.

But on the ice, well, Malkin’s talent has to be on, and it has to be on at the same level as Crosby’s. Because when it is, wow; I’ll be able to add adult memories to my childhood memories of watching two of the best players in the world play for my team and both show themselves to be the best in the sport.

More on the Right Approach

Glancing at the way the Pens have handled a couple of young players this year, well, at least on the surface it seems like there is better communication than used to exist in recent years.

Example A: Jordan Staal was made a healthy scratch and the coach explained to the press why—and told the kid why, too. You’d think a one-on-one meeting with a young player where honest communication occurs should be par for the course, but I don’t think it always has been in recent years. Open communication bodes well for the development of the kids.

Example B: Despite the fact that English is neither Therrien nor Malkin’s first language, the coach and a player had their first meeting. If Malkin’s performance in last night’s game against the Thrashers is examined, well, it appeared the message got through, despite any language problems. According to reports, Therrien told Malkin that he could be a dominant player every game and he wanted him to be that player every game. Malkin played like a dominant player last night.

Such open communication with the kids has to help. Telling the kids what’s expected of them has to help. Also, telling the kids these things in such a way that isn’t demeaning but that points to the fact that what is happening is for their benefit, to help to accelerate their development and to help their team win games—that has to help, too.

Further examples of this apparently open communication abound. The Pens told Noah Welch why they were returning him to the minor leagues and told him exactly what they wanted him to do in the minor leagues. And while the last example involves a veteran nearly old enough to have fathered some of the kids, open communication still exists.

When it’s come to handling veteran forward John Leclair, Ray Shero opened lines of communication with Leclair to ask what he wanted. By the general manager, anyhow, Leclair’s situation, at least to this point, has been handled with professionalism, class, and tact.

In the past, people worried about Therrien’s approach with players (rough on them, etc, not necessarily communicating with them). While the Pens’ sending Fleury to and from the minors probably had far more to do with money and salary than with what was best for the team or the kid, communication lines haven’t seemed this open in awhile.

And one thing about young players, and really any organization—communication needs to be open, at least within the organization itself. And young players, especially, who are just learning how to navigate the highest level of professional hockey, need to know clearly exactly what is expected of them.

Clear and open communication can only help development. As a fan, I appreciate Therrien’s candor when it comes to sharing a little of what he’s told the players. But even if Therrien didn’t necessarily share all of that with the media, I’m still glad he and Shero are having these one-on-one meetings with the players. I’m glad the kids know what’s expected and what they’re being asked to do. Seriously—until the kids know that—they can’t really do it purposefully, can they?

Keep the lines of communication open, even when things get rough, perhaps rougher than they have been—and seriously, I really do believe good things will happen.
In most cases, open, honest, and frank communication that’s intended to make a player better benefits and accelerates the development of young players.

(Aside: I realize some players respond to screaming tirades like those of "Iron" Mike Keenan. However, I will still state firmly that even for those players who respond best to screaming tirades, the coach still has to be clear about exactly what he expects from a player in the midst of that screaming tirade in order for the verbal beat down to make any real, tangible difference in the play of a particular player.)

(Another aside: I am of the same generation as most of the Pens’ young players. Most of the players and I share generational values. Honestly speaking, being screamed at and yelled at—the old-school way of doing things—might work with a few of us, but the majority of my generation just doesn’t respond. The world in which we were raised—and I’m not just talking about the U.S. but the globe—wasn’t one in which we learned to respond to those kind of methods. We were raised in a different era, and in dealing with today’s young players, you have to acknowledge that young players today often rightfully anticipate open, honest, and direct lines of communication.)

Remembering That Patience is a Virtue
And
The Right Approach

Prior to the start of the 2006-07 season, I stated that patience would be a necessary virtue for Penguins fans. While the Pens started the year quite well (well above .500) and raised expectations, reality has hit home lately. As reality has sunk in, as the team has experienced stretches of losing far more frequently than winning, I find myself repeating the refrain that patience is a virtue.

The past week and a half was not really been a great time for me as a Pens fan. The kids I love to watch are experiencing growing pains. Eighteen-year-old Jordan Staal was a healthy scratch for the first time this season, and twenty-year-old rookie sensation Malkin wasn’t exactly performing up to his usual level. Additionally, the Pens returned young, promising defenseman Noah Welch to the minors, and well, there have been games where Marc-Andre Fleury hasn’t been perfect. Even though it’s already been made very clear that I like and appreciate Ryan Whitney as a player, he, too, has experienced the growing pains that come with every young defenseman.

In any case, as the kids have experienced some trials, the Pens have lost games. Frankly speaking, I far prefer to see my team win than lose. I want to see the kids do their thing—be really, really good and win games.

Except, as you knew it would, here comes the caveat. Honestly speaking, coach Therrien and GM Shero are taking the right approach with their young, talented team. Shero will not be trading away young talent (who haven’t yet shown what they’re worth) for immediate help. Therrien’s lines about coaching this young, talented team are hysterical. When it comes to taking too many penalties, Therrien’s referred to his youngsters as "like telling a baby not to touch a hot stove, but you know, sometimes they have to learn by touching the stove." In today’s Post-Gazette, Therrien is quoted as saying that a team doesn’t go from 29th in the standings to the top 5 the next season. Therrien is also quoted as saying that you have to learn how to walk before you can run—there’s a process, and even if you want to skip learning how to walk, well, guess what, you really can’t skip learning how to walk before you learn to run.

Here’s the thing that sucks for Penguins fans and yes, also, for the players who I’m sure want to win every game they play. Therrien’s right. He has a young, talented team that (from his quotes) I can infer that he loves to coach a great deal and that will also, occasionally, drive him batty or at least add more gray hairs to his head. And while Therrien loves his team, he also knows that his core players are still kids learning what it takes to win in the NHL. And sometimes, well, that means his young team, as it has done recently, is going to lose close games, not going to know how to hold onto leads against more experienced opponents, etc. And the thing is, experience is really the best teacher. Therrien can talk until the cows come home to roost (a favorite, absurd phrase of mine that deliberately makes no logical sense)—forever—but it’s not going to make a difference until the young Penguins see. Oh, that’s what I have to do on the PK. Oh, that’s how we have to play to maintain our 2-goal lead. Oh, I have to make that save, or that clear, or take that shot there. And really, the only way the kids are going to learn is by playing.

And for fans, and for the coach and GM who are still in the midst of evaluating talent to see what they have and what they might eventually trade away for what they need, it’s what we as Pens fans have to accept. We have to accept that trading away for immediate help isn’t going to happen if we’re trading away an unknown commodity (e.g. a young player) who could someday be a key component of a perennial contender. Likewise, we have to accept—seriously—that all our young players are not yet who they are going to be. Even our young stars aren’t who they’re going to be (and for those who’d forget, Jaromir Jagr, year 1, Jaromir Jagr, 6 years later, not the same player; ditto for Chris Pronger and so many other current elite NHL players).

So what’s it mean for Pens fans and for Pens players and for the organization? For the organization, it means to keep doing what they’re doing. Because the organization’s approach, despite the fact that I’d love for the kids to make the playoffs this year, is the right one, even if the team does miss the playoffs this year. The organization needs to find out who players are, how players gel together, etc.

As for the players, well, they just have to play. Some of them might still need more (hopefully temporary) minor league seasoning. Others, like Malkin, like Whitney, like Fleury, guess what? They have to learn what it takes to be elite NHL players, and they only way they’re going to learn how to play at a consistently (consistent: every game) elite level in the NHL is to play in the NHL and learn what it takes. The kids have to put in the effort and learn from their mistakes, and the coaching staff has to work with the kids to accelerate their development.

And what about me, the Pens fan who grew up watching a perennial contender as a child throughout most of the nineties? As the Pens fan who yearns for her team again to be a perennial contender and sees so much hope and promise for the future in her team’s current roster? What about fans like me, who really, really want to see playoff games this year?

Much as it sucks, patience is a virtue. And the reason patience is a virtue is because patience later bears fruit, sometimes and often abundant fruit that never would have resulted without patient endurance.

So I’m going to cheer for the kids to win—and also cheer for them to learn from their mistakes. I’m going to be patient and know that the lessons learned this year—even if it means, in Therrien’s words, that the kids have to learn by touching that hot stove—will bear fruit in future seasons.

M

The Simple Play and the Kids Showing Off

Frequently speaking, the Pens’ young players do not make the simple play. Perhaps this syndrome is nowhere more evident than on the Pens’ power play. The Pens seem to try to set up the perfect play on the power play, and on the night I visited the arena, several fans frequently screamed, "Shoot!"

Usually I ignore the fans who scream "Shoot!" the puck. I remember Pens’ teams, eons ago (a decade ago and a decade and a half ago) who screamed "Shoot!" at one of the best producing power plays in the NHL. I really did believe that future HHOF players knew better than fans when to shoot the puck, and I still firmly believe that players know far better than fans when it’s appropriate to shoot the puck.

That being said, the Pens’ youngsters do have a problem, and it’s not what my mother termed their problem. Mom basically said, "They’re a bunch of kids showing off." If you’ve watched Crosby and Malkin try and fail to split the D this year, or if you’ve seen a Ryan Whitney pinch gone bad (c’mon, Whitney bashers!), you might be tempted to agree with my mother. You and Mom would also be wrong.

Granted, Crosby and Malkin have all-world skills. They’re trying to figure out how their all-world skills will manifest themselves at the NHL level. And sometimes it looks like they’re kids showing off—although Malkin’s goal against New Jersey gave Mario Lemieux pause when he saw it on TV, so it’s not like the coaching staff needs to start reigning in the kids’ all-world talents.

Still, the Pens’ coaching staff does need to make sure their youngsters—even the most gifted ones—learn how to make the simple play. There are times, for example, when splitting the D is not going to work, and there are times when that risky pinch-in is just a free 4 on 2 give away to the other team. And there are times on the power play, when, for example, the defenseman needs to shoot the puck at the open lane and Crosby or Malkin will need to score a goal that won’t be aesthetically pleasing.

Right now, I’d venture to say that one of the Pens’ biggest issues—when it comes to their power play—is learning when to take the risk to set up the play that only the best players can make and when to avoid the risk and go for the simple play that can also produce surefire rewards. Frankly, I don’t believe putting a lasso on Crosby and Malkin and telling them not to pass to set up a surefire scoring chance is a good idea. Crosby and Malkin might be kids, but they’re already elite players. Oftentimes their passes are going to result in an awesome scoring chance that very few other players could produce. Yet even as I say that the coaching staff has to be careful not to lasso Crosby and Malkin, every youngster on the Pens still needs to learn about simple plays.

What do I mean when I talk about simple plays? Watch a tape of Jaromir Jagr his first season in the NHL. Seriously, look at the goals he scored. They’re great goals. Also notice how often Jagr makes things more difficult for himself—he’ll try to beat the same player three times. Sometimes he was so good that young that he was successful anyway; other times he didn’t succeed.

Watch a tape of Jagr now; watch a tape of Jagr in the years when he was winning scoring championships. You’ll still see a player who can produce some of those gorgeous, aesthetically pleasing highlight reel goals. You’ll also see a player who learned to make the simple play. Who learned when to take a simple shot, who learned how to dish the puck off to a teammate and get it back—you’ll see a player who dominates not just because he can do things no one else can do but because he learned how to apply his talents to making the plays that helped him to pile up more goals and assists than anyone else in the NHL for the past sixteen years.

Interestingly enough, Rangers’ fans still scream at players like Jagr and Straka to shoot the puck and get frustrated when they don’t. And still, Jagr and Straka know far better than do Rangers’ partisans as to when the puck should be shot. And when Jagr and other players on the New York power play use their skills to do two things—things only the best players can do, and the simple play executed by all-world players—the Rangers power play works. (An aside: The Rangers power play was scary at a moment when Shanahan and Jagr were controlling play from the points. While that might be scary if anyone got an odd-man break the other way, the way Jagr and Shanahan were controlling things, for a few seconds, from the points, was scary—scary good even if I wondered if that had been planned.)

The Pens’ superstars and superstars-to-be are still kids learning what the simple play even is. Sometimes, I seriously feel like the players—who’ve always been able to do things their opponents couldn’t do—still have to learn what the simple play is and how to make it. They also need to have the freedom not to make the simple play. Sure, it’s a fine line to walk—make the simple play or take the risk and try to do something only a player like you can do.

And yeah, we might want to scream, "Shoot!" But I recommend the coaching staff, rather than following the lead of fans, teach the players what the simple play is and tell them when to make it—while also giving future and current superstars the option and freedom to try for something greater, learn from their miscues, and learn how to make that great play—or opt for a simpler one—the next time.

Sure, it might drive us crazy. Yet I still remember Jagr as a rookie, the way he "doesn’t finish all the chances he creates for himself," as Mike Lange said. And now—well—look at the result.

Teach the kids the simple play, have patience while they learn how and when to use their skills to complete the simpler play or to, well, you know, start piling up the goals that might someday land them, too, in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Looking Forward

Sidney Crosby didn’t play the game I got to see last weekend. Fans booed when it was announced he wasn’t playing; the only boos I understood the whole evening. I wanted Crosby to play, too.

Watching Malkin was special and fun. I’m grown now, but watching Malkin skate all over the ice and make magic, it takes me back to how I felt when Jagr was a kid.

Watching these kids for the rest of the year—even if losses do eventually pile up and inexperience/fatigue wield ugly heads—promises a fun future, one I’m eagerly awaiting.

Oh, the Booing and the Cheering


Before the game, I’d said that I was going to cheer for Jagr instead of boo him. Well, Jagr scoring the game-winning goal didn’t make me feel like cheering for him, but I didn’t boo him—and neither did any of the people sitting around me (though I still heard boo’s from places throughout the arena). Not that the boos mattered. Jagr was "on" when he needed to be on, and what I’ve learned from watching Jagr over the years it that Jagr is only the one who can stop himself. (Seriously, Rangers fans. If Jagr thinks he’s hurt and can’t do something, he’s not going to do it. If he’s just feeling like he can’t do something, not necessarily due to injury, he’s not going to perform as you feel he should. The best thing to do for Jagr is to keep him as sane as possible and as mentally healthy as possible. Ron Francis’ skill at keeping Jagr’s head in check was probably among his most underrated skill. For Rangers’ fans, here’s hoping a player like Brendan Shanahan can do, at least a little, for Jags, what Francis did so successfully for many years.)

In any case, the fans surrounding me were polite and respectful of Jagr. The Jumbotron splashed a display congratulating Jagr on his six hundredth goal, and while he didn’t get tons of applause, people clapped politely (a few idiots booed, but there’s a reason I don’t mince words when I call them idiots). The fans around me, all of whom appeared to know hockey, cheered and stood for Gonchar’s 500th point in the NHL. Because, see, as much as we fuss about Gonchar, he’s ours now. And as much as we cheered for Jagr, he’s not ours anymore.

But really—I guess I have so many good memories, mostly from childhood, of Jagr that the idea of booing him just totally repulses me.

Yet I was among the many who stood and cheered for Gonchar (much as I winced every time he was on the ice against Jagr). I wasn’t standing and cheering for Jagr because, well, he’s not on my team anymore. (Granted, if the Rangers had been playing the Flyers in Madison Square Garden, you can bet I would have been cheering for Jagr—but just not against my team.)

In any case, the boos and cheers were what they were. And I was relieved not to be near any idiots who thought it appropriate to boo the achievement of 600 NHL career goals. (Sure, Pittsburgh fans know hockey, but there are always a few…..)

The Atmosphere

Yeah, I know, Mellon Arena is old. The lights have gone out this season. The building needs to be replaced.

And yet, last Saturday, can I tell you how much I just didn’t care? Can I tell you how much fun it was to be in that old building? How much fun it was to be around fans who knew hockey? Who clapped and cheered loudly when penalties were killed? Who knew how to applaud simple, good plays? Who cheered for saves and initiated cheers on their own?

Pittsburgh fans know hockey. Fans of my generation learned hockey from watching Mario Lemieux, Paul Coffey, Larry Murphy, Ron Francis, and Jaromir Jagr, and what those players will one day share is HHOF membership. We know hockey, and we love lockey.

So, to the politicians and everyone else—please, get a new arena built. Because hockey is too much fun not to have around, because the banners that now hang from the Mellon Arena ceiling mean that our team has a history—a history that I really don’t want to see transported to any other city.

Oh, them Rangers

Watching the Rangers game was pure fun. However, I really think Glen Sather should be aware of the limitations his team has. As presently constructed, the Rangers are not ready for a Cup run. The Rangers, on the surface, appear to have similar problems to the Penguins in terms of the fact that it is only a few players who can be counted on to produce the majority of New York’s goals.

While Jagr, Straka, Shanahan have the experience of wily NHL veterans (and thus inexperience isn’t an issue for them as it is for the Pens’ kids), the Rangers’ overall lack of scoring depth is going to pose a problem, as is their lack of consistently solid NHL defensemen. When it comes to watching Rangers and Pens games, I know I’m going to enjoy watching the games because the teams are going to play offensive games, and the superstars are going to have the chance to do their thing. Yet I also know I’m going to enjoy watching the games because right now, the Pens and Rangers are fairly evenly matched, and that makes for a good test.

However, knowing that his Rangers match up well with Shero’s young Penguins should scare Glen Sather if his ultimate goal is a Cup run this year or in the near future. Straka and Jagr are in their mid-thirties, and while Jagr, at least at the moment, doesn’t appear any worse for wear, the fact is the Rangers have a more finite amount of time in which they can legitimately contend for a Cup. In four or five years’ time, Shanahan, Jagr, and Straka are probably out of their prime playing days. In four or five years’ time, hassles of the NHL’s new CBA momentarily disregarded for the moment, Malkin, Crosby, Fleury, Whitney, Staal—are young men in the prime of their careers.

Which is to say that right now, it’s okay for the Pens not to have defensive depth or scoring depth. (Which is not to say that the lack of depth is any easy thing for the current team to overcome.) The Pens, at the current moment, aren’t yet on the verge of making a run at the Cup. Their core players haven’t yet reached the point where they’re ready to be the cogs that take the team on a run to the Cup. And for Pittsburgh, now isn’t the time to be trading a young player who could potentially net far more in two to three years time, when the team isn’t poised to make a Cup run.

For the Rangers, however—if they’re really trying to go for it with Jagr, Straka, and Shanahan—well, they need defenseman, at least one elite defenseman, and they need more scoring depth. An overall system to employ against certain teams probably wouldn’t hurt, either (though I haven’t seen enough of the Rangers to know if they lack the system or just the willinginess/ability to apply the system consistently). And the Rangers need that now, and need it soon.

The Pens, honestly, have time to wait. That’s what happens when your core players are all under 20 and your supporting core players are under 25. There’s time, not as much as we think, but there’s time.

And as someone who loved Straka and Jagr as a kid, as someone who’s always liked Shanahan, well—while I’m waiting for my kids to be ready to contend—it would be very nice if King Sather would position his Rangers, and those kids I watched who are now seasoned vets—to make a run at the Cup. Seriously.

Thoughts on Players—The Ex-Pens who are now Rangers


As has already been stated on this blog, Jaromir Jagr is my all-time favorite hockey player. I grew up watching Jags play, watch him become the best player in the world, and—save for Pens versus Rangers games—I still root for Jags.

Watching Jagr, Straka, and Rozsival, it occurred to me that what I read somewhere (online) is probably right. When it comes to the way Pens fans boo players, really, Rozsival deserves to be booed more than Jagr. Jagr, when a Penguin, won two Stanley Cups, 5 league scoring titles, the Pearson Trophy and Hart Trophy. I mean, seriously, Jagr, in Pittsburgh, for the most part, was a phenomenal player. While Rozsival is hardly a phenomenon, he does appear to have blossomed into a legitimate NHL defenseman (on some nights, that is) in New York. Rozy didn’t typically look the part of legitimate NHL defenseman when a Penguin, so really, if we’re actually booing about performance, well, it makes more sense to boo Rozy.

Rozy aside, however, what struck me about Straka and Jagr was how they were still Straka and Jagr. As a teenager, I rooted for Straka and Jagr quite a bit. I know their schemes, know how they feed off each other, and know how they set up on the power play. I know how well they know each other, know they know each other’s timing—and well, despite the fact they’re both in their mid-thirties, they’re still really, really, really good. And Jagr’s still among the top players in the league and certainly looked the part Saturday night.

Anyhow, dare I say that I knew something bad was going to happen to the Pens when Straka and Jagr were deep in the Pens zone and Gonchar and Melichar were on the ice. Staal had just missed a penalty shot, and it was Jagr and Straka on the ice against two defenseman who, let’s face facts, are not exactly defensive stalwarts. And presto, bam, bam, Jagr scores the game-winning goal. How often had I rooted for that to happen for so many years? How weird was it to be unhappy when one of the game’s best players performed the way you expect one of the game’s best players to perform?

And the thing was, in all honesty, I couldn’t be that unhappy. Sure, would I have preferred that Staal end the game by converting his penalty shot? Or that Malkin would not have hit the post? Of course. And yet, having loved Straka and Jagr for so many years, the end result of losing the game upset me, of course, but somehow the fact that it was two former first round draft picks of the Pens, still playing productively in the NHL more than a decade after they’d been drafted, well—

The Penguins’ day—Staal, Malkin, Crosby—is coming. For one night, I said after the game, "their superstars were better than ours." Granted, with Crosby out, Malkin was the only superstar on the ice for us (Staal’s not close yet), and our guy had the misfortune of hitting the post.

I wanted to say that inexperience lost us the game, but it wasn’t inexperience that made the Pens lose. If Crosby had played, I venture to say the Pens could probably have won that game. The Pens lost because the Rangers had a superstar who played like a superstar when it mattered the most.

The Pens have several of those superstars in waiting, and I’m looking forward to watching them. And even as I left the arena, not happy because the Pens lost, I still felt grateful to Straka and Jagr—not for beating my team now—but for the fact that they had played that same way for my team for so many years.

Thoughts On Players—Jordan Staal

At the beginning of the year, I was in the camp that thought it was fine to give Staal a taste of the Show, but that he needed to learn how to dominate in junior. Staal’s work on the penalty kill, among other things, early in the year convinced me that the child needed to stay—at least for awhile.

In any case, Staal understandably played limited minutes (Coach Therrien, likewise understandably, is cautious with his 18-year-old). Yet some of the things the child did, seriously—wow—and wow in a good way. In particular, there was the play, on the penalty kill, probably a 5 on 3, if I recall correctly, where Staal just cleared the puck with the poise of a veteran. I applauded along with the rest of the crowd—it was a play that exemplified why the Pens made the choice to keep Staal in the NHL this season.

Yet there were other moments during the game when I saw Staal’s age. He could create something along the boards, and the mere fact that he could create something was great. Yet the ability to see the play through wasn’t yet there—it was close to being there, but not fully present.

And then, of course, there was the overtime penalty shot. Pens fans know how to root for our team. The arena was standing and loud, and dare I say, there was tension. Not quite like playoff tension, but still tension. I knew Staal had the experience of playing games in similar settings in juniors, but still, at the NHL level, it can be a little different, and definitely new. What ran through my sympathetic mind was that he was eighteen—eighteen! And yet, wow, I was really rooting for the kid to score.

Staal ultimately didn’t score, and the Pens ultimately lost the game. I figured I could trust Staal not to pull an Aleksey Morozov (years ago, in a playoff series against Montreal, Morozov missed a penalty shot, and his play in the series—and dare I say, thereafter—was never the same). Missing one penalty shot wasn’t going to kill the kid’s confidence or make him distraught for too terribly long, I figured, and at least it would be a learning experience.

Overall, watching Staal played made me feel like I understood what Coach Therrien had said earlier to assembled New York media, "Eventually he’ll be a better play, but he’s eighteen years old." Therrien had explained the team didn’t want to give Staal more than he could handle.

There are two ways to look at how the Pens are handling Staal. One is that it’s fine for them to ease him into playing in the NHL. He can do what he already intuitively knows (penalty killing, which is obscene for an 18-year-old to be able to master), learn NHL systems, and learn what doesn’t work at things that—for this moment—aren’t quite as easy (finishing the plays he’s able to create).

There’s another way to look at things, too. As an old copy of The Hockey News mentioned, Staal hadn’t dominated at the junior level yet—perhaps, the thought goes, could it hurt to let the kid learn to dominate in every facet of his game at the junior level?

I understand both perspectives. Right now I’m curious to see if the Pens will release Staal and let him play in the World Juniors or not. I’m likewise curious to see what will happen as game number forty approaches. Whatever GM Shero and the organization decide to do, I’m glad I don’t have to make the kind of decisions they have to make. I understand the perspectives of those who would support more time in juniors and playing in the World Juniors; I understand those who would support the World Juniors but not a return to juniors, and I understand those who’d say "No" to anything with the word "junior" in it.

The question concerning the 18-year-old isn’t that different from the one that had to be answered at the start of the season. Does keeping him help or hinder his long-term development (and does anyone really know for sure)? All the other questions—how much does he help the team this year, and does it matter how much he helps the team this year—have to be secondary to that question as to what is in the best interests of the kid’s development.

And at this point, I know that I love watching him play in the NHL. I loved rooting for him to score that penalty shot. And yet I wonder, will he, in two years' time, be able to do what Malkin is doing this year in terms of scoring? Will playing in juniors help him do that, or will keeping him here help him do that?

But I want what’s best for the kid to have a long-term, distinguished NHL career. And if that means time at the World Juniors or time back in juniors, much as I’d miss him this year, I’d welcome him back gladly when the time comes.

@

Observations of Players—Ryan Whitney

Ryan Whitney has been criticized (and that’s putting it mildly) on various message boards I’ve scanned this year. Some insane fans have taken to turning Whitney’s name into a girl’s name. And watching the game I watched I against the Rangers, and watching the games I’ve seen this year—I do not get it.

Against the Rangers, Whitney never made me nearly as nervous as did Joe Melichar and Sergei Gonchar. (Seriously, the fact that Joe Melichar matched up well against Jagr one night had far more to do with Jagr having one of those "off" nights. When Jagr has an off night, as he admitted in his autobiography, even the worst defenseman can stop him.) Now granted, Melichar and Gonchar were on the ice against Jaromir Jagr, and Jagr still makes me nervous when he’s playing my team. (Every other night I still root for Jags, but more on that a little later.) All I noticed about Whitney, seriously, is that the boy could make long outlet passes easily, that he pinched in, usually at appropriate times, and that he certainly had the skating speed and size to compensate for those occasions when he did pinch.

At the current moment, Whitney is not an All-Star defenseman (despite the OLN guy who mentioned that he felt that Whitney, perhaps, should be). But Whitney is already a solid NHL defenseman—yes, Pens fans, I’m talking to you. He can already skate as well or better than most defenders, and he knows how to make outlet passes that I haven’t seen Pens blueliners makes in years. Is there room for improvement? Sure, from what I could observe in my limited viewing experience and from what I’ve read, Whitney definitely needs to unleash his shot far more frequently. And yes, he probably needs more experience just to get used to when he’s playing offense and when he’s playing defense.

Sometimes I wonder if one of the reasons people dislike Whitney is because he’s six foot four, huge, and not at all physical. The attitude seems to be that Whitney needs to crunch people. To be honest and to be fair, let’s look at the top three defensemen in the league right now. How often do you see Lidstrom and Niedermayer making bone rattling checks? Instead, don’t you usually sees the respective captains of the Red Wings and Ducks making smooth outlet passes, unleashing their cannons of shots, and playing solid positional defense? Even taking Chris Pronger, who can still dish out checks, well, Pronger’s game has adapted to the new NHL. Just like Lidstrom and Niedermayer, Pronger plays solid positional defense, rushes the puck or makes an outlet pass, and wields his cannon of a shot appropriately while playing with an edge.

Right now, let me be very clear that I am not comparing a YOUNG defenseman—let me repeat, a YOUNG defenseman—to perennial Norris Trophy contenders and defensive stalwarts. At the moment, Whitney is not at, or even close to, the elite level of Pronger, Lidstrom, and Niedermayer—who can control the tempo of an entire game when they’re at their best. Yet do you know what I see in Ryan Whitney? I see a defenseman who, with proper development and coaching, actually has the chance to become a defenseman like Niedermayer or Lidstrom. A defenseman who has the skill to be able to control the tempo of a game, a defenseman who has the size and stamina to play long minutes, and a defenseman whose skating ability alone means that he might match up well against league superstars.

In a few years’ time, though Jagr may be retired, Whitney, a defenseman who by that point has hopefully learned positional defense, with his speed and skill, might be the defenseman who not only mans the number one unit on your power play but kills penalties and matches up well against the opponent’s best skating stars.

I know Pens fans who would scoff at that, and frankly, Whitney may turn out to be more one-dimensional that I would prefer. (Again, no direct comparison should be made here, but I loved Paul Coffey dearly, and Coff did break up that 2 on 1 in the 87 Canada Cup, lest you accuse Coffey of constant defensive deficiency.) Yet when I watch the YOUNG, YOUNG defenseman—I see a kid who’s a good player who still has a lot to learn. (Watch tapes of Pronger when he first played in the league; he had a lot to learn, too. Watch him today and learn the ultimate reward of time, patience, and effective coaching and development.)

And yet, Whitney is already a good player who has much to learn. He has the skill set already; it’s such a matter of learning how to apply the skill set, and that comes with experience, coaching, and development—and it doesn’t happen overnight. But in Whitney, I see potential, and not just potential to be good, but potential to be great—so how about laying off the kid for not yet being what he’s going to be and instead eagerly expecting him to become what it’s clear he can be—hopefully, eventually, some form of an elite, or at least, an All-Star, defenseman?
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Last Weekend, Pens versus Rangers

Last weekend, I had the chance to watch the Pens play the Rangers in person. What follow are several thoughts about the game.

It Was Just Plain Fun

Before the game, I had joked about what a regular season tilt between the Pens and Rangers might resemble. Given the offensive superstars on each team, I was hoping for something like a score of 6-5, with a shootout. I wanted the chance to see stars shine as stars, and I wanted to be entertained.

While I didn’t get the 6-5 score or shootout, I got to see an awesome regular season hockey game that reminded me of hockey the way hockey is supposed to be. (Remember that I grew up watching HHOF players play on the same power play unit.) Very little of the game was played in the neutral zone. The Pens were either in front of "Henrik the Great," or the Rangers were in front of Marc-Andre Fleury. Both teams were on the attack frequently. The goaltending from both young goaltenders was phenomenal. The superstars on the ice—Malkin and Jagr—did their thing with skill.

Oh, and on the whole special teams battle? First, I have to note that I’m biased in favor of the new NHL rules, even when it seems like a power play parade. And thus, when Mark Recchi was upset at the beginning of the game about a hook that he clearly felt shouldn’t have been called, I didn’t disagree with the call. Recchi had been hooking the guy—I’d seen him do it twice. (Now Recchi complaining about inconsistency of officiating, and what is a penalty one night not being a penalty the next night, that’s a complaint I can understand and that NHL headquarters needs to rectify ASAP.) Anyhow, the Pens spent much of the first period on the penalty kill—and they were successful. Later in the game, as I figured they would, the Pens got their own chances on the power play. Special teams, at least in terms of opportunities, got pretty much evenly distributed over the course of the game.

The bottom line of the entire game—superstars on the ice, no playing not to lose with clutching and grabbing in the neutral zone, special teams play—was that the game was fun. I mean that, the game—even though my team lost in OT—was just plain fun. It was hockey as hockey is supposed to be, and I could only imagine how much more fun it might have been had Sidney Crosby’s groin healed by that Saturday.
J

Recent Losses

Fortunately or unfortunately, I didn’t have the chance to see the two recent losses of my hockey team. Friday night’s loss I chalked up to the goalie imploding—seriously, every goalie, even those of All-Star caliber, have those so-called "off" nights throughout a season. Unfortunately, the Penguins aren’t yet a team that can afford—when it comes to the standings and the playoff picture—for their goaltender to have one of those nights where it seems like he couldn’t stop a beach ball. (Harsh, I know.) However, just like Pens’ players, I was very aware of the games that Marc-Andre Fleury has won for the team thus far this year. And one game, really, where things are off, by the end of November? If someone had told me that at the start of the season, I would have taken it.

Now, of course, Fleury can’t continue to have games like that—meaning those games cannot come with frequency. The Pens need their starting netminder to find a groove and to find a groove fast and to shake off the loss and go back to doing what he had been doing for most of the rest of the season. Once again, as the team is presently constructed, the Pens simply don’t have room for error when it comes to goaltending. In order to be in contention for a playoff spot, Pittsburgh is going to need consistent and high-quality goaltending throughout the season.

While my team losing of course irritates me (I speak of mild irritation that comes because I don’t have the temporary emotional boost that sometimes come with a string of victories—because, yes, I probably smile slightly more easily the morning after a win), I think these are the losses that—honestly—are the ones that make the Pens a borderline playoff team. Because, when it comes right down to it, the Pens can play pretty even with teams in their division. And while others would beg to differ with me, I’m not yet convinced with the Rangers, Devils, or Islanders, as presently constructed, are as TEAMS vastly—or even just a little—superior to the Pens. (Caveat: Partisans of each team could debate their team’s superiority until the cows come home—but take a look at each team’s current record. What do you see? Teams with similar number of points. Now, if still so inclined, debate away about the quality of each Atlantic team.) However, the Pens can play evenly with these teams, and these teams can play evenly with them. And on some nights, one team prevails, and on some nights, the other team prevails. That’s usually what happens with parity.

As much as I enjoyed the Pens’ best-in-the-league division winning record through their first 10 division games, there probably was too much parity in the Atlantic Division for the young Pittsburgh team to maintain that division record. Nonetheless, if the Pens want to be a playoff team, they’re going to have to find a way to win those close games that come against their Atlantic Division rivals. Yes, games against the Devils, Rangers, and Islanders fall into those category of games that aren’t necessarily against "clearly superior" or "clearly inferior" opponents. But the Pens have to start winning those games once again if they want to make the playoffs.

And as for the two recent losses? Well, here’s hoping what one always hopes when cheering for a young team. Hopefully mistakes were learned from and will not be repeated—and hopefully losing leaves a bad enough taste in the mouths of the youngsters so that they’re determined not to repeat the same mistakes in their next bout with a divisional rival. (Of course, being young players, there’s always a possibility of still more, yet uncommitted errors—but for now, I hold to the side of hope. After all, it is the holiday season.)

Shots Against

I don’t have the ability (or the time, to be perfectly honest) to watch every Penguins game. And yet scanning the box scores, something stands out that has to change for the team to win.

To put it mildly—the Pens give up way, way, way, too many shots. Seriously—you expect to get outshot by a 2-1 margin or 3-2 margin and still win games? The mere fact that the Penguins have stayed in so many games is a testament to the great goaltending they’ve received thus far at this early juncture in the season.

Now I understand some of the reasons why the Pens give up so many shots. Really, one doesn’t want to lasso the creativity of players like Crosby or Malkin. Seriously, years ago, I cared mostly that Jaromir Jagr was scoring goals and not so much about whether or not he was strictly adhering to the defensive system that then-coach Kevin Constantine had installed. Likewise, I also get that the Pens are a young team, with a young defense, and that they get caught—far too often—in their own zone.

I also know that these Penguins have done some good things. They’ve been able to kill penalties (lots of penalties) with aggressive penalty killing and sharp goaltending. They’ve been able and willing to block shots. Theoretically—if not yet practically—they appear to understand that it’s important to prevent the opposition from scoring more goals than you do.

However, the Pens cannot keep giving up the number of shots they are giving up and expect to maintain an above .500 record. Sure, their young players—even their young stars—have to learn to sustain pressure even against the best opponents the league has to offer. Sure, their young defensemen have to learn how to get the puck out of the zone and how to prevent opposing players from taking shots. And it would certainly help the whole team a great deal if they would stop what seemed like a constant parade to the penalty box at various times this past week.

I still think this is both a coaching and execution thing, and it’s also not something that I expect to get fixed magically and overnight. But, honestly—if the Pens truly want to sneak into the playoffs this year, and I still think the team has the talent to do that—they have to stop giving up so many shots to their opponents every night.


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On the Youngsters

Lest anyone think my previous post was too harsh on Crosby, Malkin, et.al, I want to make absolutely clear that despite the current winless streak, I still love watching these Penguins. Sure—did I see (okay, hear about) our best young players, our young stars, not consistently performing as stars this week?

Was there really a game when Malkin failed to score on a breakaway?

Did Marc-Andre Fleury actually fail to "stand on his head" for a game and the game wasn’t nearly as close as Fleury’s been keeping many games?

Was Sidney Crosby really kept without shots and points?

Since I didn’t see the games, I am not even going to start commenting on Jordan Staal, Ryan Whitney, or Noah Welch (I’m sure a quick scanning of various message boards could clue me in, but I’ll abstain for the moment).

Here’s the thing. The Penguins' young players are talented, some more talented than others, some already stars, and I love to watch them play. I love to hear about how they played, and I love to read about how they played. And yet—they’re young. They’re not yet in their primes. They’re not yet as good as they’re going to be, and for as good as some of them are, they’re not yet all they will be.

So, lest one think I’m being too hard on the kids—I still love that they’re on my team. I still look forward to watching them become all that they one day will be. And sure, yes, I get mad when they fail to convert on a power play or they make a rookie mistake or whatever—

And yet I know. Someday, and someday not that far away, they’re going to bury that opportunity.

Now, of course, I want them to do it now—I’m like any fan in that. Yet I also have to take a long-term perspective and realize—they’re just kids. Seriously, they’re kids. And really, to have a chance to get that upset about what a teenager or young twentysomething failed to do—in all actuality, it’s a privilege.

Of course, this is all easy to say when the winless streak is only at five games and the team is still above .500. Even the patient, long-term perspective I’ve tried to adopt is going to be tried by a winless streak that lasts much longer and an overall record that dips under .500.

But for now—beat the Flyers and the Rangers this week, that would be nice and appreciated.

#

Spreading Around the Scoring

As I scanned the box scores this week, it was nice to see some names that hadn’t made frequent appearances on the score sheet. Seriously, when Moore and Ekman start scoring goals, well, that can only be a good thing for the Pens, right?

Except—except—yes, the Penguins need scoring depth. They need contributions from their role players. They need contributions from their third and fourth lines, and sure, it would be great if the wingers on the top two lines would make their mark on the score sheet with far greater frequency. Yet dare I say—even with scoring depth—that more scoring depth isn’t going to help if the Pens’ stars don’t play like stars.

Yes, every star has games where they get shut down. It happened to Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr, and it’s going to happen to Crosby and Malkin, too. Yet here’s the thing—right now—honestly—the Penguins do not have enough scoring depth to compensate for when an opposing defense figures out how to smother Crosby and Malkin just has an off day. (Yes, stars have off days, too, and in particular, rookies who are playing their first season in a foreign country might occasionally have a day when they look more like a rookie than a star.) When Crosby and Malkin don’t find their names on the scoresheet, I’m going to venture a wild guess (sarcasm should be duly noted) that the Penguins lose far more frequently than they win.

The Penguins need their stars to be stars. And yes, they absolutely need scoring depth to compensate for those times when opponents figure out how to prevent stars from performing as stars. Yet the Pens—and Crosby and Malkin—need to reach the point where, perhaps, a superior opponent limits their opportunities but can’t fully contain them. Even if it’s a harsh night, somehow, whether that’s on the power play or a productive shift—Crosby and Malkin have to find the openings and perform as stars when given an opening. Because, at least as the team is currently constructed, if Crosby and Malkin fail to produce, the Penguins—a very, very high majority of the time—fail to win.

Eaton

I’ve previously noted that the Penguins are not a deep team. If and when injuries to key players occur, this team, as currently comprised, simply does not have the depth to cope with such injuries.

Since Chris Pronger was on the trade market this summer (yes, yes, I understand all the very legitimate, logical, and good reasons why my Pens didn’t trade for him), I wasn’t necessarily jumping up and down in joy when the Pens got defenseman Eaton this summer. Okay, he was reputed to be a veteran, legitimate NHL defenseman (but Sergei Gonchar had come with more of a pedigree last season and didn’t play up to that pedigree for much of the 2005-06 season). In any case, watching (okay, hearing and reading about) Pittsburgh losing games this week, it occurred to me that Eaton has made an impact on the defense.

Frankly, Eaton can help to stabilize the defense. It is way better to pair one of the Pens’ young defensemen with a veteran, steady player like Eaton. And when Eaton is missing—as he was after he was injured in the game against San Jose—the entire Pens team suffers. The Pens might have been closer than they were (closer than close) to sneaking away 2 points from a couple of games this week if Eaton had played.

In any case, here’s hoping Eaton gets better soon. And here’s hoping that the young Penguins defensemen don’t just learn from mistakes—but learn enough from mistakes not to repeat the same mistakes.

Sigh….
(But Not a Long Sigh)

The past week was one of those weeks I’d anticipated the Pens would have prior to the start of the 2006-07 season. However, with the team’s fast start, and the whole winning more than losing thing seeming to become habitual, this week stung more than it probably should have.

Over the course of the past week, the Penguins played several teams that I would classify as "superior" opponents. Frankly, these are games that the Penguins should lose, at least if you’re talking to the coach of the opposing team. Why? Because from top to bottom, the Penguins played teams that were—take a deep breath now—better than they currently are. Whether we’re talking special teams units, or scoring depth, or experienced and savvy NHL defensemen, or superstars in their primes instead of the infancy of their careers, the Penguins got beat by better teams this week.

Fortunately for Pittsburgh fans, the Penguins players—despite their curiously lackadaisical effort against Ottawa Friday night—do not like losing. Even better for the future of Pittsburgh’s franchise, the players on the Penguins appear to expect to win now. The players’ collective distaste for losing, in addition to their play this week, is the reason why I titled this post "Sigh" instead of "A Long Sigh."

Here’s the thing that was so frustrating this week if you were a Penguins fan. Despite the fact that the Pens were clearly outplayed in several of the games—none of the games were blowouts. The Penguins had a chance to win a game against the team with one of the best records in the NHL. And even when the Penguins found ways to shoot themselves in the foot (taking penalties repeatedly, for example), they still stayed close in several of the games they played. And, yes, in comparison to last season—staying close to some of the league’s best teams has to be considered an encouraging sign.

Yet, of course, the frustration that prompted my sigh, is, of course, that frustration that comes when a team is on a 5 game winless streak. Losing makes me sigh; losing leaves a bad taste in my mouth. And losing is particularly frustrating because these Penguins, really, were close to being able to win a couple of those games. Sure, a couple of those games, aside from sharp goaltending, could easily have turned into blowouts. Yet a few less penalties, a couple of different bounces—and the young Pens might have won a couple of games this week.

Young. That’s the thing. These Penguins, on the whole, are a young team, which is why I expected weeks like this prior to the start of the season. I expected and anticipated winless streaks, particularly when my young team faced off against deeper, more experienced, and frankly, teams that are currently more talented than is Pittsburgh. And while this winless streak is no fun (and I want it to end Monday when the Pens play the Flyers), it’s not a wholly bad thing.

Why isn’t this winless streak bad? Because the players are going to learn from the mistakes they made this week. Because losing is going to leave a bad taste in the mouths of the youngsters and make them want to improve their play and not repeat the same mistakes. Because, even if it doesn’t happen next year, perhaps in two years, these mistakes—and yes, these losses and winless streaks—will bear fruit. Because the players will have learned the hard lessons of what it takes to play with the best teams in the NHL. Because the players will have developed their skills, hopefully, to the point, that they play on one of the best teams in the NHL and know how to use the experience they gained this year to beat more inexperienced teams.

None of the assurances of future fruit, of course, which I firmly believe to be absolutely the case, will ever make a five game winless streak enjoyable for players or fans. Which is to say—please beat the Flyers.

Oh, But….

While I say that Crosby and Malkin will probably be impossible to shut down one day, I recall that the Florida Panthers managed to do just that to Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr in 1996—the year (aside from 1993) that leaves the worst taste in my mouth from all the Pens’ playoff losses in the nineties.

Yet the new NHL, the way the rulebook is actually enforced, the way Jaromir Jagr now thinks teams will seek to emulate the speed and skill of the Buffalo Sabres rather than the 10-year-old trap of the New Jersey Devils, I think the new NHL will make it that much harder to shut down Malkin and Crosby.

Kind of makes the nostalgic part of me wonder what might have been if this NHL has existed back when Jagr and Mario were still in their primes and playing for the Pens? But at least the future of the Penguins looks incredibly promising.

Speaking of What Will Be

In two years’ time, the Penguins will win the game they lost to the Sharks last night. Why? Because Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, I expect and anticipate, will have figured out what to do when other teams adjust to them. I also expect and anticipate that perhaps the Penguins will have more of a core around Crosby and Malkin at that time, that Staal will be able to contribute more than he already is, and that the Penguins will be able to beat the Sharks in a close game instead of losing to the Sharks in a close game.

Frankly speaking, Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau are in their mid-twenties. Whenever Crosby and Malkin hit their early twenties—let alone the mid-twenties—the Penguins will be scary good, and shutting down Crosby and Malkin will be near impossible. The kinds of "adjustments" that work against the Penguins now will not work in a couple of years’ time.

Of course, all that is said with the caveat of the salary cap, assuming the Penguins can keep their young star players and develop an even better core around those players. Yet in that close loss to San Jose (I have yet to see the game, so I speak from what I heard), the Penguins were able to play with San Jose. Last season, the team would have been blown out, no question. This year, the Penguins can skate and compete with a team that was one of the best in the West last year. In all honesty, even though the Penguins lost the game, I take the loss as an encouraging, hopeful sign—and I’m even more encouraged and hopeful because I believe the Pens’ young players have begun to develop a disdain for losing. And I believe that disdain for losing will only prompt those young players to work harder to figure out what they have to adjust so they can beat a team like San Jose the next time around.

Still, for all I talk about "encouraging losses," losses are still losses, and I don’t want the Penguins to lose. I’m really curious to see what happens—for good or bad—when Crosby and Malkin have to face Pronger and Niedermayer. The best youngsters against the game’s most elite and experienced defensemen. It should be interesting. Yet I don’t really want another "encouraging loss." Because close games, sure, they’re encouraging signs—but the team is still losing.

And frankly, I’ve really enjoyed watching these Penguins win thus far this season. Yet as the part of the schedule unfolds where the Penguins face some of those I deemed "superior" opponents—well, I’ll just have to watch and see what happens.

But can we please see if we can continue the whole winning more than we lose and make it a habit? I like that habit. I think it’s a good habit, and it’s a habit I want to see continue for a long, long time.

Whitney, Welch, Letang

While I admitted to liking Letang’s style of play, young defensemen need to be playing a regular shift in all circumstances. Since Letang wasn’t going to do that in Pittsburgh this season, it was better to send him back to Val D’or. Fine. I’m okay with that, and I actually think Welch is more NHL ready at the moment anyway.

But here’s the thing when it comes to Whitney, Welch, and Letang. Letang is back in juniors now, but what I said of him still applies to Welch and Whitney. Sure, Welch and Whitney played 4 years of college hockey. Sure, they’re older than Letang. It doesn’t matter. They’re still young defensemen. Young defensemen are going to drive you crazy throughout a season and even throughout a game. They are learning how to play a position in a league that’s been transformed.

I am not saying that idiotic and juvenile mistakes should be continually tolerated. I am saying, however, that one should ask Mike Keenan how Chris Pronger looked that first season in St. Louis. (Caveat: If Welch or Whitney ever turn out to be 2/3 or 3/4 the player Pronger is, I will be floating on cloud nine, so I am not making a direct comparison.) Pronger didn’t look like Pronger does today, and while he didn’t look like a lost, clueless kid all the time, he resembled an average defenseman more than a Norris Trophy winner.

Thus, when it comes to Welch and Whitney this season, have some patience—as the coaching staff works with them in practice, as they get more experience—just have some patience. They are not yet who they will be, and really, we don’t know who they will be yet. Give them a chance. And when Letang returns next season or after a season of seasoning in Wilkes Barre in 2 years time (how I wish he could get that seasoning in Wilkes Barre now), he’ll be only 20 or 21 years old—still a kid. Have some patience with him, too.

And appreciate what you’ve got. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are already superstars. Defensemen, even the greatest, are not usually superstars or stars their first 2 seasons. Please, patience—and the way the coaches handle the young defensemen will tell you a lot about how long you should keep your patience.

Ä

Effective Coaching

Dare I utter the phrase "good coaching"? Since one never knows how quickly a team can dive into a tailspin, I’m going to go with "effective coaching" right now. But know that no matter my word choice, effective coaching/good coaching, all I’m really saying is that Michel Therrien has done a good job thus far this season.

Sure, the players have to execute the game plan. Sure, the players have to be prepared to execute the game plan. Yet the coach has to be able to come up with a game plan, and he has to know how to prepare the players to execute the game plan. Of course it helps Therrien that his number 1 goalie has thus far played the way a number 1 goalie should play. The addition of Malkin has automatically made Therrien a much smarter coach (amazing how adding great players can make coaches smarter).

Yet what Therrien has done—allowing stars to be stars, working to find the right fits for players on the third and fourth lines, and even just having the penalty killing and power play units functioning at an above-average level—has helped the Penguins to make huge improvements( at least as compared to last year’s wretched start).

Granted, Therrien is not a genius by any means. The Penguins still give up way too many shots on goal on a nightly basis. And while I grew up adoring and cheering for players who "passed and passed and passed" the puck, at times, the Penguins’ gifted youngsters are going to need to shoot the puck. (I’m not a "shoot the puck" freak by any means, but occasionally, the players are going to need to take shots they haven’t yet been taking.) There remains room for improvement across-the-board, perhaps no more evidenced by the average number of shots against the Pens concede.

Yet look at the team’s record at the moment. I’m pleasantly surprised, and I want to continue to be pleasantly surprised. As long as Therrien keeps "making adjustments" to find what works and then doing what works, as long as the players keep buying into it, well, the new NHL hasn’t changed that much.

Effective coaching still can make an average team a good team and a good team a very good team. For obvious reasons, I’d like to see effective coaching throughout the remainder of the 2006-07 hockey season.
∏

Staal Stays


I spent most of Monday hoping the Penguins would keep Jordan Staal, and when word came that Pittsburgh had indeed decided to keep the NHL’s lone eighteen-year-old, I was glad.

At the start of the season, I really expected to be advocating for Staal to dominate at the junior level—you know, let the kid learn every aspect of the game playing against boys, etc. Save for the fact that Jordan Staal showed me—and more importantly, showed the powers-that-be in the Penguins organization—that he was more than capable of being an effective NHL player this season.

While Staal remains 18 years old, he doesn’t have the body of an eighteen-year-old kid, and the size and strength he already has will benefit him tremendously at the NHL level. Even more importantly, I now believe playing in the NHL this season accelerates Staal’s development. The kid is already a crucial member of the Pens’ penalty-killing unit, and I was pleased with the games he played in a second line role. Staal gets to learn the NHL game, but he isn’t going to be pressured to play top line minutes right away, and meanwhile, the Penguins already have an incredibly effective penalty killer who, right now, I am dreaming may one day become what Ron Francis was to Mario Lemieux.

Staal has shown the ability to put the puck in the net and to play effective defense and to work to improve his game, and frankly, if the Penguins had chosen to send him back to juniors on Monday, I would have been disappointed. Disappointed not just because the Penguins would have immediately become a weaker team (they certainly would have) but disappointed because I wouldn’t have the chance to watch a young star learn how to play at such a level in the NHL.

In any case, Staal is here to stick for the moment, and I, for one, am really glad Staal is staying.

Random Thoughts

∑ I like the way Letang plays, but most defensemen need seasoning time. While Letang may not be ready for the NHL, I wish he could be in the AHL this season. I think he’s learn more playing against men than boys in junior. Anyhow, that’s just a complaint about NHL rules. I know the reasons for the rules, the need to keep Canadian major junior hockey content, but sometimes—I just wish individual options were available so what is in the best interests of the player could be done.

∑ Keeping Letang around because he is the only right-handed shooting defenseman seems rather silly. I am not saying we just go about randomly making trades, but if we truly need a right shooting defenseman, can we go about exchanging a fifth and sixth defenseman, perhaps, so we can acquire a right handed shot if we deem that necessary?

∑ Granted, the Penguins have a younger core now than they did to start last season. But just looking at Fleury’s statistics this year, I really wonder if Fleury had started last season here, what a difference that might have made in the wretched start to the 2005-06 Pens’ season. When goaltending is good, teams usually win more than they lose, particularly when you have the talent up front that the Pens do.

∑ Eric Staal thinks the Penguins would be crazy to send his little brother back to juniors. Yet I know the Penguins have been known to do crazy things (witness what they did last year with Fleury). Somehow I want the Pens to make the best decision for Staal’s development and for the team, and I really want money to stay out of it. Because if you’re just sending the kid down to avoid a big time pay-out later on, it’s not a good enough reason. It’s just not a good enough reason. If the kid can play in the NHL this season, and if he’ll learn more playing here than by playing against boys in juniors, keep him where he belongs, money be darned. (Caveat: Obviously I’m a fan and not the general manager tasked with building a future Stanley Cup champion. So keep my caveat in mind.)

∑ The housecleaning in Philadelphia was similar to what happened in Pittsburgh last year (to some degree), and it happened for a similar reason. Philadelphia, Forsberg and Gagne aside, wasn’t built for the new NHL. And, just like the Pens last year, it doesn’t help when your goaltending is way less than mediocre.

∑ Have the Rangers found an identity yet? The team hasn’t seemed to make up its mind who it is, and I don’t know what to make of the Rangers yet, save to know that Jagr and Shanahan need to perform consistently, the whole team needs to find discipline, and the gold-medal winning sensation whose last name I really should learn how to spell needs to find his game for the Rangers to have any chance for contending for the Atlantic Division lead.

∑ There is still something patently unfair about Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger playing on the same defense, and I say this even after Sergei Gonchar has gotten off to a "fast" start is Malkin's landlord. I’m really curious to see what happens when the Penguins face the Ducks.

It’s a Show Again

I had the chance to see Malkin’s fantastic goal against the Devils on Tuesday night. The play was obscene; that’s how beautiful it was, it was obscene. In any case, when the Penguins’ young stars put on a show, as they did Tuesday night when they took advantage of the Devils’ mistakes, and as they most certainly did when they pummeled the Flyers yesterday, I draw in a deep breath of "Wow!"

Because, as I heard the Pittsburgh announcers reminisce, "There used to be at a time, when Mario and Jagr and Francis were playing here, that you just looked forward to the next game because you knew it was going to be a show." The announcers went on to note that the Penguins had become something of a "traveling road show" and to note that young fans in Pittsburgh were lining up to watch the youthful stars of the Pens star on Mellon Arena ice.

In any case, I got hooked on hockey, as a kid, watching that show in Pittsburgh. I didn’t know, at the time, how incredibly spoiled I was compared to fans in other cities. I mean, Mario Lemieux and then Jaromir Jagr—who had another Hall of Fame player in Ron Francis alongside them for much of their Pittsburgh careers? I loved watching hockey, and I loved watching the show the Penguins stars used to put on whenever there was a game.

And watching Crosby, Malkin, Staal, and Fleury do their thing at the start of this season, it’s just been a sigh of, Wow! Wow, I remember what that felt like as a kid. And watching and re-watching Malkin’s goal, it’s been awhile since I’ve watched a Penguin score a goal that fantastic. Sure, I saw the obscenely fantastic goals of Jagr and Mario, and I’ll always have their playoff goals etched in my memory. But Malkin’s goal Tuesday night—the fourth of many more to come, I hope—made me feel a way I hadn’t remembered feeling since I was a kid. Because when I was a kid, Jaromir Jagr was still a kid, and I remember watching him with the puck, and marveling at his skill and wondering about how much more was still to come.

Malkin’s goal gave me a glimpse, provided, of course, health stays intact, of what is to come. And to be honest, I like what I’m seeing. I haven’t been this excited about hockey, I don’t think, since the days when my Penguins were winning Cups in the early nineties. Because right now, I think I’m beginning to see, as I saw with Malkin’s goal Tuesday night, the genesis of an emergence of the core of a team that could claim the Cup—not just once, but repeatedly.

At the moment, though, I’m just enjoying the breath of "Wow" that comes when I watch the young stars do their thing, and you bet I’m going to enjoy the show whenever the Penguins play.

Oh, and guys? I’m expecting a show now. Thank you for your play, and for that expectation you’ve set so high already—because, really, I really, really love hockey whenever I see stars put on a show.

The Upcoming Road Trip

Apparently the locals in the Pittsburgh media are convinced that the Penguins upcoming road trip will tell us if the team is "for real" or not. As much as it pains me to agree with some members of the Pittsburgh media, I agree. However, I feel I must qualify my agreement with some statements about what we might expect to learn as the Penguins embark on their first real road trip of the season.

∑ How are Crosby, Malkin, and Staal (if he’s still here) going to match up against Norris Trophy winners Pronger and Niedermayer? Are they going to be completely smothered, or is one of our young stars going to make an elite defenseman look silly? (Don’t you remember how much fun it was when Mario Lemieux turned Ray Bourque inside out at various moments in his career?)

∑ How are the Penguins going to react to their first tough loss, or to being plain beat by a superior opponent? If such an event should occur, for example, when the Penguins face off against the Ducks, how are the players going to react?

∑ Do the Penguins, team-wide, have the speed to match up with the quickness of the teams they’ll be playing? Does Coach Therrien have a plan to compensate for his team’s lack of speed throughout the roster?

∑ How are the Penguins, as a team, going to handle the guys who won the league scoring title and goal scoring title last season? Can the team’s defense step up to the challenge, or will they just be plain overmatched?

∑ How is a young player—whether it be Fleury, Crosby, Malkin, or a defenseman—going to react the first time they have a game that doesn’t go as well as recent games have been going? The player’s reaction and response, in how they work to adjust their games, will say a lot about where the team can go for the rest of the season.

Honestly, both the Sharks and the Ducks were playoff teams last season, and the Penguins’ porous play last year legitimately earned them the right to draft Jordan Staal second overall. Even if the Penguins lose both games to the Sharks and the Ducks, I’m talking games that are close, and by close I mean 2 goal losses, as moral victories. (Not that players want to hear that, and for that, I commend them, and it’s why I’m convinced the young players are ready to contend right now.) Because, honestly, the Ducks were the preseason favorite of many prognosticators to win the Stanley Cup, and because the Ducks have two players in Niedermayer and Pronger who are obscenely talented and also have the NHL experience that our obscenely talented stars are still in the midst of acquiring.

Even harsh losses—being pummeled by a team or two—could end up working to the Penguins’ ultimate advantage. Because, through games that are hard and tough, our players will learn what it takes to compete against players like Niedermayer and Pronger and Thornton—and they’ll be getting the experience they need. So that, at perhaps some later point this season or even in the next couple of seasons, those lessons will pay dividends for the Penguins.

How do we know if this Penguins team is "for real?" Honestly, even if they lose games on the road trip, say all the games, we don’t know if they’re "for real" until we see how the team reacts to those losses. Do they come back roaring and ready and make sure they beat the teams they’re already clearly superior to? Do they react by improving their games and adjusting their strategies? How does the team react?

I’d be thrilled if the Penguins could sneak a point or two off either the Sharks or the Ducks. I’d be happy. I’d also be tempted to say the team is "for real." But I already know the young talent is "for real." And even if the young talent shows off its inexperience more than its skill set on this road trip, the young talent is still real—it just may not mean contending for the division title this season real.

In any case, a really successful road trip to me means sneaking a victory or a tie. Yet a somewhat successful road trip could include close losses that show the Pens aren’t far from competing with the league’s elite teams. Or even a temporarily disappointing road trip—returning home with a 3 game losing streak—could still provide fertile ground for future growth.

Yes, of course, I’m curious to see what happens on the road. I’m curious to see, especially, what the kids can do. I think the Pens will be limited by the rest of their roster when it comes to team speed and depth when facing off against some of the best teams in the Western Conference, and I wonder how the Penguins’ team limitations will affect the young stars of the team—perhaps making them easier to neutralize than they would be if surrounded by a true contending team. But no matter what—I’m excited to see—okay, read about (the games are on late)—what transpires over the next week of this Western road trip.

J

Wow! So soon?

After watching (okay, mostly hearing and reading about) the Penguins getting off to a 6-3 start, one thought keeps repeatedly rolling through my mind. The team wasn’t supposed to be this good. Not yet. Not right now. They weren’t supposed to be competing for the Atlantic Division lead. They were supposed to be lucky to earn a playoff berth. They weren’t supposed to, on some nights, be the better team than teams that are considered contenders. None of that was supposed to happen this year.

Granted, everything comes with the huge caveat that the Penguins are all of 9 games into the season and have yet to complete a major road trip. Still, let’s look at everything that’s gone right at the start of the season:

∑ Sidney Crosby is still Sidney Crosby.

∑ Evgeni Malkin takes my breath away—literally. He’s already a star.

∑ The only time Jordan Staal looks anywhere near eighteen years of age is when he’s off the ice.

∑ Marc Andre Fleury has lived up to his pedigree and is stopping the puck like top-tier NHL goalies should.

∑ The team’s defense, while still nowhere near the level of elite, has been more than adequate enough when the young players mentioned above do their thing.

Given everything that’s going right so far, it behooves to go back and look at the expectations I held prior to the start of the season. I expect this season to be a season of "growing pains"—I expected to see potential fulfilled on some nights, but I also expected to endure some games where I’d have to remind myself the team’s core players are young.

I’m in the midst of revising my preseason expectations (I’m sure constantly altering my expectations will become a consistent theme of this blog throughout the season), and I’m revising my expectations precisely because of the play of the "kids" so far. I’m stating it flat-out: The reason I still don’t consider the Penguins a Stanley Cup contender has nothing to do with the kids. Right now—yes, hear me, right now—the kids are more than capable of being the core players on a for-real Cup contender. Yes, of course, I hope and expect the kids will get better with age. Never mind that. Jaromir Jagr got better with age and he was still a crucial piece to the puzzle in the Pens’ championship years. I’m sure Eric Staal is only going to improve, but Carolina doesn’t win the Cup last year without him. Besides, the new NHL gives skilled players—such as the Pens kids—a real showcase for their all-world talent. In any case, I’m convinced that right now—yes, right now—the Pens’ core players are the real core of a legitimate Cup contender.

Granted, of course, my previous statement does still come with the caveat that the kids are kids. While I don’t want Jordan Staal returned to his junior team at the present moment, he still could be. And even the greatest players in hockey history have games where they don’t score a goal (it will happen to Malkin eventually) and even the game’s best goalies have off nights (I hope it doesn’t happen to Fleury any time soon). The kids are kids, and yes, they’re going to have off nights and mini-slumps and perhaps even slumps. And they’re going to face off against teams with better depth and with all-world defensemen (see the Anaheim Ducks) with gobs of experience. But through nine games of the season, I’ve seen the talent these "kids" have, and the talent is real, special, and explosive—and enough to dominate opponents. Domination isn’t going to come every night, but at the present moment, the kids have shown me enough to convince me that they’re for real as the core of a Cup contender—right now.

However, there is no way the Pens can yet be considered a legitimate Cup contender. Sure, I can make that statement for the usual reason that we’re only nine games into the season, blah blah, blah, which is true. I can also make the statement because the kids are kids and at some point, even if only for a few games, their youth and inexperience will lead to the so-called "rookie" mistakes. But honestly, my issue with the Pens is not with their core players but with the players surrounding their core players. Until the wingers figure out how to score with consistent regularity, until the Penguins wingers and the rest of the roster convince me they have the depth to overcome multiple injuries (I don’t expect me to be convinced), and until the defensemen truly gel as a unit—I can’t say the Pens are anywhere near being a Cup contender. Because to be a contender for the Cup, you need more than just a core of stars. You need players who support those stars. Yeah, sure, you need to know that the stars are going to perform come crunch time (and we haven’t had the chance to see that at the NHL level yet), but you need a team. The Penguins, as a team, still appear to lack the team-wide speed and depth necessary to be truly considered a for-real Cup contender. And frankly, I’m really not yet ready for general manager Shero to start bargaining with one of his core players to bring in depth because I don’t think the team is at the point where they’re ready to make a move like that. Yet I also think the team is closer to being ready for a move such as that than I would have dared to think prior to the start of the season.

Many questions remain about the 2006-07 Penguins. Can the stars remain healthy for a whole season? Does Staal even stay for a whole season? Can Fleury play this way all year? What happens if—dare I even mention this—one of the stars gets hurt at some point in the season? Can the stars keep playing the way they’ve been playing all season long? And even if everything good happens in answer to those above questions—the stars stay stars, the young players keep getting better, and Fleury stays great all year—what about the rest of the team? Does the team have the depth and speed to match up well with above-average and contending teams? Can the team win the close 1-goal games they lost so frequently last season?

At the present moment, I don’t know the answers to those questions, and I still feel one reasonable answer to why the Pens aren’t a for-real contender yet is because an injury to one of their stars would kill them, and by kill them, I mean they would lose games they would win with the star in the line-up. (The Pens won the Cup playing games without their starting goaltender, Mario Lemieux, and Joey Mullen, at various points.) But one thing I do know, especially after reading the box scores of games like those against the Flyers last night—this team is going to be fun to watch—and hopefully, it’s going to be fun to watch this team win a lot more than I expected at the start of the season.

Random NHL Notes

∑ Dare I speak too soon, but I don’t think the Buffalo Sabres are as good as were my NHL record setting 17 game winning streak 1992-93 Pittsburgh Penguins. I would appreciate it if some NHL team would at least tie the Sabres. A tie with a red-hot Ryan Miller should be within the realm of possibility. And if my Pens play the Sabres any time soon, I very much desire for my young team to have one of those nights where they play "out of their minds" and as though they’re a few years older than they are, and you know, beat Buffalo.

∑ Peter Forsberg is a great player. The edge with Sidney Crosby plays the game reminds me of Forsberg’s edgy style. Forsberg, for all he might complain about Crosby, is borderline dirty and nasty. Yet Forsberg’s greatness made me wonder—what the heck is the problem in Philadelphia? And what is the irony of Forsberg captaining the Flyers, given the Eric Lindros trade?

∑ The Rangers appear to have some issues with defense and goaltending and perhaps depth. I still like the Rangers, of course, and still love Jags and Marty, so I hope the team can find some consistency. But finding some defensive consistency might help out the Rangers sophomore Swedish goaltender quite a bit. So how about it, New York? Defensive consistency? Everybody doing their part? Can you manage that 2 years in a row? Oh, and interesting questions to watch—how’s the team going to react when the Garden crowd—as it’s already done—starts hissing and booing instead of cheering? Is Jagr’s head in the right place, and will his head stay in the right place all season? (I really, really hope so—but it’s something that bears watching.)

∑ I really see so little of the Western Conference what with needing to get at least some sleep, so these statements come with a huge caveat. Eric Lindros, at least if SI is to believed, has found a home in Dallas. Good for him; the Stars need help. Apparently, if message boards are to be believed, some Anaheim fans don’t yet fully "get" Chris Pronger. Here’s the thing—you don’t "get" Pronger the way you get Scott Niedermayer. But when you watch most NHL defensemen play and then you watch Pronger, you "get" him, and you’ll get him way more as the season continues. Just my 2 cents.

Random NHL Notes

∑ Dare I speak too soon, but I don’t think the Buffalo Sabres are as good as were my NHL record setting 17 game winning streak 1992-93 Pittsburgh Penguins. I would appreciate it if some NHL team would at least tie the Sabres. A tie with a red-hot Ryan Miller should be within the realm of possibility. And if my Pens play the Sabres any time soon, I very much desire for my young team to have one of those nights where they play "out of their minds" and as though they’re a few years older than they are, and you know, beat Buffalo.

∑ Peter Forsberg is a great player. The edge with Sidney Crosby plays the game reminds me of Forsberg’s edgy style. Forsberg, for all he might complain about Crosby, is borderline dirty and nasty. Yet Forsberg’s greatness made me wonder—what the heck is the problem in Philadelphia? And what is the irony of Forsberg captaining the Flyers, given the Eric Lindros trade?

∑ The Rangers appear to have some issues with defense and goaltending and perhaps depth. I still like the Rangers, of course, and still love Jags and Marty, so I hope the team can find some consistency. But finding some defensive consistency might help out the Rangers sophomore Swedish goaltender quite a bit. So how about it, New York? Defensive consistency? Everybody doing their part? Can you manage that 2 years in a row? Oh, and interesting questions to watch—how’s the team going to react when the Garden crowd—as it’s already done—starts hissing and booing instead of cheering? Is Jagr’s head in the right place, and will his head stay in the right place all season? (I really, really hope so—but it’s something that bears watching.)

∑ I really see so little of the Western Conference what with needing to get at least some sleep, so these statements come with a huge caveat. Eric Lindros, at least if SI is to believed, has found a home in Dallas. Good for him; the Stars need help. Apparently, if message boards are to be believed, some Anaheim fans don’t yet fully "get" Chris Pronger. Here’s the thing—you don’t "get" Pronger the way you get Scott Niedermayer. But when you watch most NHL defensemen play and then you watch Pronger, you "get" him, and you’ll get him way more as the season continues. Just my 2 cents.

The Flyers

I heard on Sporting News radio today that Ken Hitchcock had been fired as the Flyers’ coach and that Bobby Clarke was stepping down as general manager. As a Pens fan, I just hate the Flyers. I was so excited when we beat them, but I didn’t realize Philly was in a serious free-for-all. I haven’t paid enough attention, really, (e.g. I haven’t seen the Flyers’ play) to know why what’s happening in Philly is happening there.

Though, of course, I’d probably blame goaltending before anything else. But apparently the Flyers were into waiving Petr Nedved. Seriously, does anyone know what Nedved’s deal is? Can the boy—at 34 now, just like Jagr, not a boy anymore—still skate? If he can still skate, what’s his contract like? Seriously, could he be a productive winger (more productive than what the Pens have) alongside one of our two stud centers? I speak with no knowledge, just memories of Nedved from almost a decade ago (he was one of my faves, as you may have guessed).

And, of course, Aleksey Morozov, currently tearing up the RSL, isn’t worth a huge NHL contract, and I’m assuming he’s quite content to be a star and make millions in his native land. He never did put it altogether on this continent, anyway.

Yet somehow I wonder, as I mentioned the wingers previously, if Nedved or Morozov—who both once knew how to score and had very soft hands—would be able to convert those dandy set-ups of Malkin and Crosby’s—into goals with more regularity than our current wingers.

In any case, players like that would be a short-term fix, the same way Mark Recchi and John Leclair are at present. The Pens ultimately need younger—not as young as their centermen—wingers when the time comes for the team to contend.

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Wings

We also lack depth on the wings, and to be honest, none of our wingers impress me. Fine, Jaromir Jagr, (I could be wrong on this) once netted a NHL scoring title skating alongside Jan Hrdina and Kip Miller. It’s not always necessary for great players like Malkin and Crosby to play alongside other obscenely talented players.

Yet how much more successful was Jagr when he played with Ron Francis and Petr Nedved? Seriously? How many points did Mario start scoring when he finally had All-Star wingers and a Norris-Trophy winning defenseman to play with?
At some point—whether it means converting a center to a winger—the Penguins have to get more depth on the wings, and they have to get players who can complement Malkin and Crosby. I don’t mind putting them together—E.J. won a playoff series by putting Jagr and Mario on the same line one year—but when you do put them together, eventually, the teams with depth are going to reveal your lack of depth, and you’re going to lose games.

I don’t know where the Pens go to find wings who can compete in the new NHL. I don’t know where they find them at a reasonable price. But I know they need players who can put the puck in the net, skate, and be defensively responsible. Fine, we don’t have them this season, and it’s a weakness. But we need to find them if we really want to contend. So let’s start looking, searching, and perhaps, eventually, beckoning them to the Pens?

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