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