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.