Overall, though…
For as much as I rant and rave about issues with the team, it is so nice that I can rant and rave about these issues. Hopefully the team can clinch a playoff berth this week (please, the magic number is at three). And then I have to acknowledge that whatever the result of the playoffs, the team has already surpassed any expectation of what I thought this season would be.
However, don’t expect me to quit ranting about Therrien, however, or various other issues, until the Penguins’ season ends.
Monday, March 26, 2007
Adjustments, Tweaking, and Making Me Feel
Like I Want to Tear Out my Hair
My complaints with the coaching staff:
∑ It took too long to get Mark Recchi off the top power play unit. Respect for veterans aside, this is the time of the year where the only criterion that matters is performance on the ice, and wise veterans know that well. Vancouver’s coach took his captain off the power play unit when he wasn’t producing, and Islanders coach Nolan likewise demoted his captain to the fourth line for a terrible play that led to the opponent’s winning goal. When a player, ESPECIALLY a veteran who knows the deal, isn’t performing, Therrien and his staff cannot play games while waiting for chickens to hatch. They need to make adjustments, and if that means pulling a veteran off the power play, they’d best do what helps their team to win.
∑ Sidney Crosby and Mark Recchi on the ice in the last minute of a 1 goal game protecting a 1 goal lead or in a tied game. I saw the misfortune of this twice in the past two weeks. Granted, I can’t blame what happened on the ice solely on Crosby and Recchi when Therrien made the ridiculous decision to put those players on the ice. You do not put your offensive players with suspect speed (in Recchi’s case anymore) or players who can play defense but usually think offense first on the ice in the waning seconds of a tied game or a game you are leading by a goal.
I don’t care if Therrien wants to show confidence in Crosby’s unit; that confidence has to be warranted through actual performance. I was relieved to note that Therrien came to his senses yesterday in the Penguins’ one goal victory over Atlanta. In the waning seconds of the game, the Penguins best defensive players—who can forecheck, too, by the way—were on the ice. Staal, Talbot, and Armstrong, who were on the ice, are the players who should be on the ice at the end of the game protecting a one goal lead or preserving a tie.
Having faith in players is good, but faith is worthless if faith is not warranted. Trust your best offensive players to do what they’re good at, and trust your best defensive players to do what they’re good at—and trust that, someday, just like Lemieux grew up and evolved, so, too, will Crosby. But until that day has arrived—please, just put your best defensive players on the ice. Use common sense!
∑ Adjustments, adjustments, adjustments. Therrien’s line-juggling made me crazy at the start of the season, and later the Pens settled on lines and just started winning. And then the trades came, and well—we’re still line-juggling. It’s not the line-juggling that bothers me so much as the fact that there are in-game adjustments that have to be made. Granted, the Penguins were dead tired on Monday against the Rangers, yet I couldn’t help but think that the right combination of players (never found) to exploit something specific about New York (not that evident that night) could have helped the Penguins to sneak out of that game with at least a point.
Since I’m not a coach, it’s easy for me to talk about adjustments that need to be made. It’s also easy to be an "armchair quarterback" and say do this, do this, and do this. Honestly, however, when it comes to a playoff series, and when it comes to what goes on throughout the actual game, Therrien and his staff have to be able to make adjustments. They have to be willing to have a back up plan if lines aren’t working, or they have to know what their lines need to do to take advantage of something the opponent is doing. Adjustments have to be made in games and between games and, yes, based on your personnel, but also based on the personnel of your opposition
K
Like I Want to Tear Out my Hair
My complaints with the coaching staff:
∑ It took too long to get Mark Recchi off the top power play unit. Respect for veterans aside, this is the time of the year where the only criterion that matters is performance on the ice, and wise veterans know that well. Vancouver’s coach took his captain off the power play unit when he wasn’t producing, and Islanders coach Nolan likewise demoted his captain to the fourth line for a terrible play that led to the opponent’s winning goal. When a player, ESPECIALLY a veteran who knows the deal, isn’t performing, Therrien and his staff cannot play games while waiting for chickens to hatch. They need to make adjustments, and if that means pulling a veteran off the power play, they’d best do what helps their team to win.
∑ Sidney Crosby and Mark Recchi on the ice in the last minute of a 1 goal game protecting a 1 goal lead or in a tied game. I saw the misfortune of this twice in the past two weeks. Granted, I can’t blame what happened on the ice solely on Crosby and Recchi when Therrien made the ridiculous decision to put those players on the ice. You do not put your offensive players with suspect speed (in Recchi’s case anymore) or players who can play defense but usually think offense first on the ice in the waning seconds of a tied game or a game you are leading by a goal.
I don’t care if Therrien wants to show confidence in Crosby’s unit; that confidence has to be warranted through actual performance. I was relieved to note that Therrien came to his senses yesterday in the Penguins’ one goal victory over Atlanta. In the waning seconds of the game, the Penguins best defensive players—who can forecheck, too, by the way—were on the ice. Staal, Talbot, and Armstrong, who were on the ice, are the players who should be on the ice at the end of the game protecting a one goal lead or preserving a tie.
Having faith in players is good, but faith is worthless if faith is not warranted. Trust your best offensive players to do what they’re good at, and trust your best defensive players to do what they’re good at—and trust that, someday, just like Lemieux grew up and evolved, so, too, will Crosby. But until that day has arrived—please, just put your best defensive players on the ice. Use common sense!
∑ Adjustments, adjustments, adjustments. Therrien’s line-juggling made me crazy at the start of the season, and later the Pens settled on lines and just started winning. And then the trades came, and well—we’re still line-juggling. It’s not the line-juggling that bothers me so much as the fact that there are in-game adjustments that have to be made. Granted, the Penguins were dead tired on Monday against the Rangers, yet I couldn’t help but think that the right combination of players (never found) to exploit something specific about New York (not that evident that night) could have helped the Penguins to sneak out of that game with at least a point.
Since I’m not a coach, it’s easy for me to talk about adjustments that need to be made. It’s also easy to be an "armchair quarterback" and say do this, do this, and do this. Honestly, however, when it comes to a playoff series, and when it comes to what goes on throughout the actual game, Therrien and his staff have to be able to make adjustments. They have to be willing to have a back up plan if lines aren’t working, or they have to know what their lines need to do to take advantage of something the opponent is doing. Adjustments have to be made in games and between games and, yes, based on your personnel, but also based on the personnel of your opposition
K
The Veteran Myth
Otherwise Known as
Finally, Mark Recchi was off
the first power play!
Gary Roberts replaced Mark Recchi on the Penguins first team power play today (finally). The Penguins scored on their first two opportunities with the man-advantage. Coincidence? I think not.
While I wasn’t like the message board poster who made a post begging the God of the universe to get Mark Recchi off the first power play unit, I was basically screaming at Michel Therrien that he needed to do this all week. Allow me to be honest. I like Mark Recchi. Ron Cook is right when he calls him a consummate pro’s pro. Yet a consummate pro’s pro, like Recchi, would understand being removed from a power play for lack of performance. In fact, a consummate pro like Recchi might be upset by such a move, but upset with his own play for warranting such a change.
In any case, watching Recchi’s goal-scoring slump has been painful. While definitely nowhere near the level of John Leclair earlier in the season, Recchi has looked tired, old, and slow on far too many recent occasions. While he certainly wasn’t the team’s only problem while in a power play slump, Recchi wasn’t helping matters, either.
What I want to address at the moment is the "veteran myth" that surrounds players like Recchi and, to some degree, Gary Roberts. I like both players. Both Recchi and Roberts have important roles to play on this Penguins team. As leaders and experienced veterans, those roles will be larger off the ice than on the ice. On the ice, however, veterans such as Roberts and Recchi must play supplementary roles.
Supplementary roles? one cries out in astonishment. Roberts is still capable of poking in goals from the slot on the power play, and Recchi is a 500 goal scorer. Both men are still capable of playing NHL hockey at a high level, the protesters object.
I agree with the objections, and yet I must insist that on the ice, anyhow, Roberts and Recchi must be supplementary players. While it’s an easy thing to cite, it’s important to note that Recchi played third line for Carolina while winning the Cup last season. At this stage of their careers—crafty and knowledgeable veterans who are, admittedly, past their primes—Recchi and Roberts have to play supplementary roles.
The "veteran myth" comes in when the coaching staff decides that since Roberts and Recchi have the experience, they must automatically have primary, rather than supplementary, roles. The coaches say, rather than allow a younger forward (e.g. not Recchi) some time on the first power play unit, better to keep sticking Recchi out there since Recchi is a crafty veteran who knows his stuff. I call this a "veteran myth" because that’s precisely what it is. Imagine Scott Bowman deciding that Bryan Trottier, due to his experience, was better to place on the ice at a time when the Pens needed a goal than a 20-year-old Jaromir Jagr. In retrospect of the ’92 playoffs, such a decision would have appeared as sheer silliness. Of course Trottier had his role to play on that team (and it involved key goals, of course), but Trottier’s role was far more supplementary than was that of a then 20-year-old Jaromir Jagr.
If the Penguins make any noise in the playoffs this spring, they are going to do it because their kids—the children, as I call them—are playing starring roles. Crosby, Malkin, Staal, Whitney, and Fleury, are going to have be stars for the Penguins to make postseason noise. Like it or not, that’s where the team is, and that’s where they are. Roberts and Recchi have roles to play on the team—off the ice and on the ice. Off the ice, their job is teach those kids how to play the starring role (as Recchi and Roberts once did). On the ice, however, their job is supplementary. Roberts and Recchi, despite their "savvy veteran" status, should not be relied upon by Michel Therrien and his staff as the first option. Therrien and his staff must always go to the kids as their first option and properly regard Roberts and Recchi as supplementary players (on the ice, anyhow).
Does this mean that Roberts or Recchi, as so-called supplementary players, can’t play a starring role? Of course not. Roberts can and already has changed the complexion of games he’s played in—and sometimes just by throwing a clean check rather than by scoring a goal. Roberts and Recchi, as the situation warrants, can both play starring roles—but when they play those starring roles, they must play those starring roles as supplementary players.
While I’d love to dream about the Pens winning the Cup this spring, in all likelihood, the team is closer than anybody thought, but not quite ready to win it all this year (caveat: I’ll be glad to be proven wrong). Roberts and Recchi may remain with the team after this season, or not. In future seasons, however, some of the kids Therrien may be forcing into supplementary roles may need to be able to play starring roles. I have to ask the question if it isn’t best to let those children—as dictated by the opponent and situation, of course—get that experience right now.
Exhibit A of this, of course, is Jordan Staal, who relinquished his 5 on 3 power play duty to Gary Roberts upon Roberts’ arrival. Roberts has been doing it forever, as a Pens assistant coach noted, and is quite good at it.
To which I say, Okay, fine. Also okay if you’re not sure that’s the skill you want Staal (who has shown the traits of a top shutdown center) to develop. Also okay if you don’t want one of your best penalty killers also working on the power play. Fair enough. But if you should happen to note that, when playing a specific goalie who has to be screened in order for the shot to get across the goal line, you’ve got to make the change and put Staal in front of the net, experience or lack thereof be darned.
Today, finally, Recchi came off the top power play unit, and Roberts looked great in his place. But if Roberts doesn’t look great (there were other changes made, to be noted), then, at some point, you can’t keep relying on the mantra of "He’s a veteran who’s done it time and time again."
At some point, someone had to give Recchi and Roberts, those savvy, world-wise veterans, the opportunity to get the experience that has made them the sage old men of the team. And Michel Therrien would be wise to deploy his sage veterans as supplementary players and to count upon his children as his starring players and to make adjustments, as necessary, to how his particular players, young and old, experienced and inexperienced, match up against an opponent.
Otherwise Known as
Finally, Mark Recchi was off
the first power play!
Gary Roberts replaced Mark Recchi on the Penguins first team power play today (finally). The Penguins scored on their first two opportunities with the man-advantage. Coincidence? I think not.
While I wasn’t like the message board poster who made a post begging the God of the universe to get Mark Recchi off the first power play unit, I was basically screaming at Michel Therrien that he needed to do this all week. Allow me to be honest. I like Mark Recchi. Ron Cook is right when he calls him a consummate pro’s pro. Yet a consummate pro’s pro, like Recchi, would understand being removed from a power play for lack of performance. In fact, a consummate pro like Recchi might be upset by such a move, but upset with his own play for warranting such a change.
In any case, watching Recchi’s goal-scoring slump has been painful. While definitely nowhere near the level of John Leclair earlier in the season, Recchi has looked tired, old, and slow on far too many recent occasions. While he certainly wasn’t the team’s only problem while in a power play slump, Recchi wasn’t helping matters, either.
What I want to address at the moment is the "veteran myth" that surrounds players like Recchi and, to some degree, Gary Roberts. I like both players. Both Recchi and Roberts have important roles to play on this Penguins team. As leaders and experienced veterans, those roles will be larger off the ice than on the ice. On the ice, however, veterans such as Roberts and Recchi must play supplementary roles.
Supplementary roles? one cries out in astonishment. Roberts is still capable of poking in goals from the slot on the power play, and Recchi is a 500 goal scorer. Both men are still capable of playing NHL hockey at a high level, the protesters object.
I agree with the objections, and yet I must insist that on the ice, anyhow, Roberts and Recchi must be supplementary players. While it’s an easy thing to cite, it’s important to note that Recchi played third line for Carolina while winning the Cup last season. At this stage of their careers—crafty and knowledgeable veterans who are, admittedly, past their primes—Recchi and Roberts have to play supplementary roles.
The "veteran myth" comes in when the coaching staff decides that since Roberts and Recchi have the experience, they must automatically have primary, rather than supplementary, roles. The coaches say, rather than allow a younger forward (e.g. not Recchi) some time on the first power play unit, better to keep sticking Recchi out there since Recchi is a crafty veteran who knows his stuff. I call this a "veteran myth" because that’s precisely what it is. Imagine Scott Bowman deciding that Bryan Trottier, due to his experience, was better to place on the ice at a time when the Pens needed a goal than a 20-year-old Jaromir Jagr. In retrospect of the ’92 playoffs, such a decision would have appeared as sheer silliness. Of course Trottier had his role to play on that team (and it involved key goals, of course), but Trottier’s role was far more supplementary than was that of a then 20-year-old Jaromir Jagr.
If the Penguins make any noise in the playoffs this spring, they are going to do it because their kids—the children, as I call them—are playing starring roles. Crosby, Malkin, Staal, Whitney, and Fleury, are going to have be stars for the Penguins to make postseason noise. Like it or not, that’s where the team is, and that’s where they are. Roberts and Recchi have roles to play on the team—off the ice and on the ice. Off the ice, their job is teach those kids how to play the starring role (as Recchi and Roberts once did). On the ice, however, their job is supplementary. Roberts and Recchi, despite their "savvy veteran" status, should not be relied upon by Michel Therrien and his staff as the first option. Therrien and his staff must always go to the kids as their first option and properly regard Roberts and Recchi as supplementary players (on the ice, anyhow).
Does this mean that Roberts or Recchi, as so-called supplementary players, can’t play a starring role? Of course not. Roberts can and already has changed the complexion of games he’s played in—and sometimes just by throwing a clean check rather than by scoring a goal. Roberts and Recchi, as the situation warrants, can both play starring roles—but when they play those starring roles, they must play those starring roles as supplementary players.
While I’d love to dream about the Pens winning the Cup this spring, in all likelihood, the team is closer than anybody thought, but not quite ready to win it all this year (caveat: I’ll be glad to be proven wrong). Roberts and Recchi may remain with the team after this season, or not. In future seasons, however, some of the kids Therrien may be forcing into supplementary roles may need to be able to play starring roles. I have to ask the question if it isn’t best to let those children—as dictated by the opponent and situation, of course—get that experience right now.
Exhibit A of this, of course, is Jordan Staal, who relinquished his 5 on 3 power play duty to Gary Roberts upon Roberts’ arrival. Roberts has been doing it forever, as a Pens assistant coach noted, and is quite good at it.
To which I say, Okay, fine. Also okay if you’re not sure that’s the skill you want Staal (who has shown the traits of a top shutdown center) to develop. Also okay if you don’t want one of your best penalty killers also working on the power play. Fair enough. But if you should happen to note that, when playing a specific goalie who has to be screened in order for the shot to get across the goal line, you’ve got to make the change and put Staal in front of the net, experience or lack thereof be darned.
Today, finally, Recchi came off the top power play unit, and Roberts looked great in his place. But if Roberts doesn’t look great (there were other changes made, to be noted), then, at some point, you can’t keep relying on the mantra of "He’s a veteran who’s done it time and time again."
At some point, someone had to give Recchi and Roberts, those savvy, world-wise veterans, the opportunity to get the experience that has made them the sage old men of the team. And Michel Therrien would be wise to deploy his sage veterans as supplementary players and to count upon his children as his starring players and to make adjustments, as necessary, to how his particular players, young and old, experienced and inexperienced, match up against an opponent.
Expectations, Anyone?
Reading over my ridiculous midweek ranting about the Penguins’ first loss (in consecutive games!) in regulation this week, as well as listening to ex-Pen Coach Eddie O talk today, I had to wonder: What about expectations?
Eddie O, along with the rest of the NHL on NBC crew, before deciding that I needed to watch a "real hockey game" (my terms) rather than a blowout, discussed the belief among several of the Penguins players that they could be like the Edmonton Oilers were last year. An amusing discussion ensued where Eddie O noted that the Pens began the year with a 75-1 line to win the Cup and are now have a line of 15-1 odds. Eddie O was animated and vehement as he insisted that the Penguins were not like the Oilers, because no really expected the Oilers to do what they did. But "people are aware of Pittsburgh," was the general gist of the conversation, with which the NHL on NBC commentators agreed.
Glancing at hysterical reaction from fans to the team’s two consecutive losses this week (including, admittedly, my own), listening to the guys in the press booth who are in awe and fawning over the Pens’ young talent, at some point in time, expectations have got to hit these players. At first, expectations were just to make the playoffs. That’s a goal, three points away from being achieved. After that, now what? What are the expectations? Of the fans? Of the press? Of the players themselves? And will the fans and the media’s expectations ever begin to weigh on the players?
When it comes to the fans, watch highlights of a New York Rangers loss at home this season. Watch as the MSG crowd, who came into the year expecting great things from Henrik the Great and Jagr, is disappointed by a team that didn’t play consistently for much of the season. Watch as the crowd boos the power play and gets aggravated by the team. Granted, call Jags super-sensitive as I surely will (and I still love Jags like crazy), but watch how those unfulfilled expectations of the fans do not help the Rangers. It’s not a good thing.
Read some excerpts of the New York papers this season. Read the disappointment of the writers who follow the Rangers. Read where those media guys lay the blame for the season, and read about the questions they pepper the players with over their season that has not yet met expectations. Again, it’s not been a terribly good thing for the Rangers.
Unlike Rangers fans who came into the year expecting to better last season’s renaissance, Penguins fans figured to be happy with improvement. And, then, suddenly, the team had the best record in the NHL since sometime in January, and reeled off a 16 game points streak and stumbled, albeit not enough to lose two consecutive games in regulation, before reeling off another points streak. Now ask Penguins fans and Pittsburgh media their expectations, and the expectations run the gamut...but some fans, and some members of the media, are daring to dream of the Cup—not next year or the year after that, but this spring.
While I don’t yet know the answer to this question, I have to pose the question. At what point do these expectations of the fans and media, for better or worse, begin to impact the Penguins team? What are the responsibilities of the coaching staff and of the veteran players on the team to deal with the raised expectations? Are the raised expectations significant for the team—and are they significant as a stumbling block or as a propellant to great heights?
I don’t yet know the answer to that question, but I do know that the expectations, continually revised all year, are still changing—and honestly, trending upwards. Still, I have to ponder, what will be the ultimate significance, for the players, of heightened expectations from outside sources?
Reading over my ridiculous midweek ranting about the Penguins’ first loss (in consecutive games!) in regulation this week, as well as listening to ex-Pen Coach Eddie O talk today, I had to wonder: What about expectations?
Eddie O, along with the rest of the NHL on NBC crew, before deciding that I needed to watch a "real hockey game" (my terms) rather than a blowout, discussed the belief among several of the Penguins players that they could be like the Edmonton Oilers were last year. An amusing discussion ensued where Eddie O noted that the Pens began the year with a 75-1 line to win the Cup and are now have a line of 15-1 odds. Eddie O was animated and vehement as he insisted that the Penguins were not like the Oilers, because no really expected the Oilers to do what they did. But "people are aware of Pittsburgh," was the general gist of the conversation, with which the NHL on NBC commentators agreed.
Glancing at hysterical reaction from fans to the team’s two consecutive losses this week (including, admittedly, my own), listening to the guys in the press booth who are in awe and fawning over the Pens’ young talent, at some point in time, expectations have got to hit these players. At first, expectations were just to make the playoffs. That’s a goal, three points away from being achieved. After that, now what? What are the expectations? Of the fans? Of the press? Of the players themselves? And will the fans and the media’s expectations ever begin to weigh on the players?
When it comes to the fans, watch highlights of a New York Rangers loss at home this season. Watch as the MSG crowd, who came into the year expecting great things from Henrik the Great and Jagr, is disappointed by a team that didn’t play consistently for much of the season. Watch as the crowd boos the power play and gets aggravated by the team. Granted, call Jags super-sensitive as I surely will (and I still love Jags like crazy), but watch how those unfulfilled expectations of the fans do not help the Rangers. It’s not a good thing.
Read some excerpts of the New York papers this season. Read the disappointment of the writers who follow the Rangers. Read where those media guys lay the blame for the season, and read about the questions they pepper the players with over their season that has not yet met expectations. Again, it’s not been a terribly good thing for the Rangers.
Unlike Rangers fans who came into the year expecting to better last season’s renaissance, Penguins fans figured to be happy with improvement. And, then, suddenly, the team had the best record in the NHL since sometime in January, and reeled off a 16 game points streak and stumbled, albeit not enough to lose two consecutive games in regulation, before reeling off another points streak. Now ask Penguins fans and Pittsburgh media their expectations, and the expectations run the gamut...but some fans, and some members of the media, are daring to dream of the Cup—not next year or the year after that, but this spring.
While I don’t yet know the answer to this question, I have to pose the question. At what point do these expectations of the fans and media, for better or worse, begin to impact the Penguins team? What are the responsibilities of the coaching staff and of the veteran players on the team to deal with the raised expectations? Are the raised expectations significant for the team—and are they significant as a stumbling block or as a propellant to great heights?
I don’t yet know the answer to that question, but I do know that the expectations, continually revised all year, are still changing—and honestly, trending upwards. Still, I have to ponder, what will be the ultimate significance, for the players, of heightened expectations from outside sources?
Random NHL Notes
∑ Various commentators and hockey analysts are beginning to eat their words when it comes to the New York Rangers. Oh, we probably shouldn’t have counted them out, etc, has been flying from the mouths of various analysts. I’m going to adopt a wait-and-see attitude toward the Rangers—specifically because their fortunes hinge on Jagr and the one fans dubbed Henrik the Great last season.
Still, whether I’m an opponent or a hockey analyst or whoever I am, I think it’s downright silly to count out a team with the likes of Brendan Shanahan and Jaromir Jagr for dead. Say what you will for Jags (moody, neurotic, fussy, and insanely talented all fit), but he and Shanny are at the point in their careers where they know what matters, and what matters is the Cup. Jags and Shanny have also performed when it’s mattered the most, and they know what it takes.
Despite the lingering effects I believe Jagr still feels from his injury, with him it’s all mental. If he believes he can win and believes his team can win, that’s going to be enough for the Rangers. But I’m saying it now: It’s downright stupid to count out a team with two 600 goal scorers, both of whom already have multiple Stanley Cup championship rings. It’s particularly stupid because it’s not like either Shanny or Jags has suddenly looked old. Don’t count out the Rangers, and don’t count them out because of Jagr and Shanahan.
∑ Goaltending matters at this time of year. The right save at the right time makes a huge difference. Rick DiPietro’s return to the Islanders made an instantaneous difference for a team that lost games when he was injured and unable to play. Despite my protestations about Jags and Shanny, it’s going to be Henrik who decides if the Rangers are in the postseason, not Jags and Shanny. At this time of year, you have to have a goalie who can make the key save at the key moment.
∑ The Islanders are now a "borderline" playoff team. You’ll know I’ve proffered no comment on the Chris Simon incident (it was ugly, it was gross, I’m glad the NHL suspended him for as long as they did, I think perhaps they could have suspended him for longer and that would have been even better), but a part of me wonders if it would be that type of poetic justice for the Islanders owner and for a franchise that employed Chris Simon to miss the playoffs even after trading for Ryan Smyth. Just because, you know, the Islanders make me go, "Ew." (Memories of David Volek, is how I attribute this involuntary reaction of "ew!" to the sight of the Islanders.) That, and well, I don’t like Jason Blake.
∑ Without potential playoff rivalries, it was harder to "hate" players—and there are certain players on rival teams that I love to hate. (I’d love such players on my team, but on the other team, such players are nemeses.) It is wonderful to once again have the chance to care enough to have players to hate. I can despise Jason Blake and Brendan Witt and wish to see Sidney Crosby do a 1 on 2 move beating both of those players. I can appreciate that Dany Heatley is a good player and still want my penalty killers to shut him down. It really is wonderful to be able to hate the opposition again.
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∑ Various commentators and hockey analysts are beginning to eat their words when it comes to the New York Rangers. Oh, we probably shouldn’t have counted them out, etc, has been flying from the mouths of various analysts. I’m going to adopt a wait-and-see attitude toward the Rangers—specifically because their fortunes hinge on Jagr and the one fans dubbed Henrik the Great last season.
Still, whether I’m an opponent or a hockey analyst or whoever I am, I think it’s downright silly to count out a team with the likes of Brendan Shanahan and Jaromir Jagr for dead. Say what you will for Jags (moody, neurotic, fussy, and insanely talented all fit), but he and Shanny are at the point in their careers where they know what matters, and what matters is the Cup. Jags and Shanny have also performed when it’s mattered the most, and they know what it takes.
Despite the lingering effects I believe Jagr still feels from his injury, with him it’s all mental. If he believes he can win and believes his team can win, that’s going to be enough for the Rangers. But I’m saying it now: It’s downright stupid to count out a team with two 600 goal scorers, both of whom already have multiple Stanley Cup championship rings. It’s particularly stupid because it’s not like either Shanny or Jags has suddenly looked old. Don’t count out the Rangers, and don’t count them out because of Jagr and Shanahan.
∑ Goaltending matters at this time of year. The right save at the right time makes a huge difference. Rick DiPietro’s return to the Islanders made an instantaneous difference for a team that lost games when he was injured and unable to play. Despite my protestations about Jags and Shanny, it’s going to be Henrik who decides if the Rangers are in the postseason, not Jags and Shanny. At this time of year, you have to have a goalie who can make the key save at the key moment.
∑ The Islanders are now a "borderline" playoff team. You’ll know I’ve proffered no comment on the Chris Simon incident (it was ugly, it was gross, I’m glad the NHL suspended him for as long as they did, I think perhaps they could have suspended him for longer and that would have been even better), but a part of me wonders if it would be that type of poetic justice for the Islanders owner and for a franchise that employed Chris Simon to miss the playoffs even after trading for Ryan Smyth. Just because, you know, the Islanders make me go, "Ew." (Memories of David Volek, is how I attribute this involuntary reaction of "ew!" to the sight of the Islanders.) That, and well, I don’t like Jason Blake.
∑ Without potential playoff rivalries, it was harder to "hate" players—and there are certain players on rival teams that I love to hate. (I’d love such players on my team, but on the other team, such players are nemeses.) It is wonderful to once again have the chance to care enough to have players to hate. I can despise Jason Blake and Brendan Witt and wish to see Sidney Crosby do a 1 on 2 move beating both of those players. I can appreciate that Dany Heatley is a good player and still want my penalty killers to shut him down. It really is wonderful to be able to hate the opposition again.
Ú
Random Notes
∑ Today’s 5-0 victory over the Bruins was a wonderful thing. Wonderful because the Penguins finally did what a superior opponent should do to an inferior opponent. The Penguins dominated the Bruins in every aspect of the game. They killed every penalty and got a shorthanded goal. Their power play began the day two for two and put the team in a position to dominate the game. The Penguins’ goaltending was flawless (as noted by the score), but a defenseman even picked up the puck when Fleury lost sight of the puck. Overall, however, this game was a thing of beauty—no matter how disappointed the NHL on NBC was to see a blowout—precisely because the Penguins were performing as their talented dictated they should. When facing subpar goaltending, a frustrated power play, and a team that’s been losing more than winning lately, the Penguins did what superior teams are supposed to do. They crushed their opponent and won the game in the blowout.
∑ Much as I adore blowout victories for my team, any individual honors need to be set aside at this time of year. Do I want Crosby to win the league scoring title? Of course. Do I want Malkin to win the rookie scoring race? Yes. But not at the loss of such a significant player to an injury. When it comes to the last few minutes of a blowout game, Crosby, Malkin, Gonchar, Whitney, and certain other players need to be NOWHERE near the ice. (The bench is as close to the ice as these players should get.) It is stupid and reckless to risk injury in a game that your team has already won. Going beyond "rubbing the opponent’s face in the loss," as commentators mentioned today, the Penguins, who appear to be primed for the playoffs, are risking losing a key piece of the puzzle for nothing. As much as I yearn for the Pens’ players to garner as many individual honors as possible, it says a lot about the make up of this team that individual honors must take a backseat to the whole team’s chances at a postseason run.
∑ By the way, that statement about blowout victories also works the other way. Fortunately, the Penguins have not yet been in many games yet this season that are hopeless, and I hope and anticipate they will not experience a blowout loss for the remainder of the season. Plus, I should note the caveat that with the Penguins’, a blowout loss never seems a sure thing—unlike the Bruins, a team that just appeared to give up after being down 3-0, the Penguins always seem to think they can mount a comeback from such a deficit.
To further my point about keeping key players OFF the ice in the waning minutes of a game that has already been decided, recall last year’s playoffs. The Rangers against the Devils. The Devils had already won the game. The Rangers weren’t coming back from a three goal deficit, that’s for sure, and yet with perhaps two minutes remaining in the game, Rangers Coach Renney sends out star Jaromir Jagr. Jagr’s shoulder gets crushed, he can’t play the rest of the series, requires off season shoulder surgery, and has to rehabilitate his shoulder over the summer rather than train. There are times when the shoulder injury still appears to linger this season.
Now ask yourself a question, one that Rangers fans might have asked themselves all summer. Why in the world was Jaromir Jagr on the ice in a game the Rangers had already lost? Did Jagr have to be injured WHEN he was injured? Wasn’t it rather inane to have Jagr on the ice just to "set a tone" for the nexxt game?
As a Penguins fan, I like to think my team’s star players are invincible. Maybe it’s just that the kids are kids, and kids don’t break, right? (After all, wasn’t Jagr much less injured as a kid than as he got older?) But the wrong blocked shot at the wrong ankle, or a stick to the face, or a hit into the boards—it can happen to anyone, even Pittsburgh’s beloved, talented superstar children.
Hockey is a game of risks, and players risk injury every game. They know it, and as a fan, I know it. But there’s worthwhile risk and worthless risk. Most of the game, it’s worthwhile to put your best players on the ice. You let your best players play the game because you need them to win the game. But when the game is well in hand, when the scoreboard but not the time on the clock dictates that you have already won the game—or, worse case, you are, in the Bruins’ case yesterday, down by 5 goals with a minute left on the clock—coaches should not send out their best players in the midst of lopsided free-for-alls.
The Bruins were tired and sedate today, but not all teams will be; in fact, I’ll be curious to see how the Bruins respond to the Penguins later in the week. And yes, I understand that Crosby winning the scoring title matters—I get that. But hockey is a team game, and for a team, like the Penguins, that has a chance, perhaps, to go a long way, the team has to come before anything else—and that means protecting and preserving the health of your most talented players by not sending them out in the waning minutes of lopsided blowouts.
∑ In the previous note, I referenced Crosby, Malkin, Gonchar, and Whitney as players you probably don’t want on the ice late in games. I view those players are far too crucial to the Penguins’ overall team to have them experience an injury in the waning moments of a blowout. I probably should have added Jordan Staal to the list.
Yet glancing over the list of "top line talent" that I firmly believe needs to remain ON the bench at the end of a blowout, what strikes me is a comment made by the NHL on NBC guys (yes, I know, really). While taking pains to note that "Boston isn’t very good," the NHL on NBC guys nevertheless gushed over the Penguins. "When your fourth line guys are making those kind of moves (a reference to a Georges Laraque dipsy-doodle move around a defender), you know you’re good," said one of the guys, "and Pittsburgh is really good." That comment, along with the fact that fear was struck into my heart when both Maxime Talbot and Colby Armstrong had to leave a recent game due to injuries (they both returned and played that day), gave me pause.
The best aspect of this Penguins team is that it is a team, a team complete with four lines and players who play their specific roles well. The Penguins’ premier offensive forwards do not kill penalties; the Penguins have a group of penalty killers who kill penalties. The Penguins have a group of players whose job it is to score on the power play. The Penguins have four lines that can cycle the puck and chip in goals. The fact of the matter is, yes, it would hurt for the Penguins to lose Crosby or Malkin for any length of time, and it would probably hurt more than losing some other player. And yet, well, you remove a player from the Penguins’ team—say Colby or Talbot can’t return to the game—you’ve lost a part of what makes this team so good. Hopefully, the Penguins, with their depth and those NHL-caliber forwards who are sitting in the press box most nights, have enough depth to compensate for any injuries that may come. What struck me about the commentary noting how well the lower lines cycled the puck was that perhaps it’s a little less obvious than first thought about who should NOT go on the ice at the end of blowouts.
Because, really, I’ve always believed the Pens can least afford to lose Whitney or Gonchar (their defensive depth just isn’t there yet), along, of course, with Malkin and Crosby. Staal’s intangibles (more on that in a second) have convinced me he needs to be preserved, too. Yet, seriously, in the midst of a blowout, what I am partially saying is that this player is less crucial than this player to the team’s success—and while that is true—Jarko Ruutu, Maxime Talbot, and Colby Armstrong—are important parts of this Penguins team too.
It’s nice to have a team that is a team, where you know and believe that everyone’s role is important to the team’s success. Still, when it comes to who’s sitting on the bench when the Pens have rung up a 5-0 lead with less than 5 minutes left in the game, I have to go with those players whose skills can’t be mimicked by other players. You have to preserve and protect those players who are the ones who could be eligible for individual honors at the end of the season. And, of course, it should be noted, you protect and preserve these players AFTER their skills have already helped to assure your team of victory. (Or, in the case of Renney with Jagr last year, when you need to preserve their health so they can give you a chance to win the next playoff game—but more on that issue as the playoffs near.)
∑ While Jordan Staal’s game winning goal against Atlanta may have been a fluke, as admitted both by Staal and Atlanta’s goaltender, the Penguins’ obscene 23-0-2 record when Staal scores a goal is something to behold. And for this fan, a logical question follows. Why do the Penguins have such a ridiculous (as in outlandishly good) record when their eighteen-year-old rookie deposits the puck in the net?
Prior to the start of the season, I figured the Penguins were a "borderline" playoff team with everything going right—no significant injuries, Malkin centering an effective second line, Gonchar playing like Gonchar did in Washington, Fleury giving us solid goaltending, and Crosby being Crosby. At present, with their magic number at 3, and tied for New Jersey for the Atlantic Division lead, the Penguins are not shown as one of the 6-11 teams who are "borderline" playoff teams. That magical statistic about Jordan Staal is a key reason why the Penguins are currently for home ice advantage, rather than just a playoff berth.
Jordan Staal’s emergence as a rookie who may add an additional thirty goals to the team's totals before the year is over (don’t want to jinx him, as he currently stands at twenty-nine) wasn’t anything that management or I anticipated at the start of the season. The Penguins have such a fantastic record when Staal scores precisely because Staal’s scoring shows depth that most of us, myself most definitely, assumed the team would lack until future seasons. While the statistic reflects quite nicely on Staal, it also says something else about why the team has one of the league’s best records since the start of 2007. The Penguins have goal-scoring depth now; they no longer have to rely on just Crosby, Malkin, and the power play to carry them.
Granted, it’s true that when the power play struggles, or when Crosby and Malkin both struggle, the Penguins likewise struggle. Yet at times when one of Crosby or Malkin has been ostensibly "slumping," how often has it been a goal from a second, third, or fourth liner has picked up the team? How many times has a shorthanded goal lifted the Penguins and put them back into a hockey game? (Against Ottawa, trailing 4-1, that deficit turned into a 5-4 win.) How many times has a timely goal from someone other than Malkin or Crosby been the difference in the ridiculous number of one goal games the Penguins have played this season?
The obscene 23-0-2 record doesn’t mean that Jordan Staal is the Penguins’ MVP (unsung hero, perhaps, though not all that unsung). Rather, that obscene record shows what happens when the Penguins have depth that goes beyond two superstars, depth that, to be honest, we haven’t seen in Pittsburgh since the EARLY (not the LATE) nineties. By the late nineties (prior to Mario’s first retirement), the Pens had the two best players in the world, but without team-wide depth, they didn’t have enough to win that third Cup. (Well, that and the officiating wasn’t suited to their team’s talents, but it’s best I don’t get started on that in the midst of my present enjoyment of the current team.)
Am I saying the Pens are ready to win the Cup this year? No. I am saying that the team’s gaudy winning percentage when Jordan Staal scores a goal reflects what happens when a team replete with two superstar talents begins to develop the depth to support those superstars. What happens with depth like that? Wins. Lots and lots and lots of victories, and the difference between contending for a division title versus barely sneaking into the postseason.
∑ Oh, by the way, the Penguins lost two consecutive games in regulation this week for the first time in memory (I think another blog informed me that the last time had been January 9 and 10th of this year). It had been awhile. I had forgotten how much losing sucks. I was particularly annoyed by coaching decisions that weren’t made (more on those in a little bit) and by the fact that the Penguins did not appear to be playing to their potential. Yet in the midst of writing something else, I found myself writing this. After two consecutive wins in regulation, including one blowout, it seems perhaps a good time to share what I wrote after that first regulation loss to the New York Rangers.
Question: Did I expect the Pens to make the playoffs before the season?
Answer: I thought they had an outside shot if everything—absolutely everything—went right.
Question: How many points do the Penguins still have?
Answer: Ninety-two.
Question: Are the Penguins fighting for home-ice advantage, rather than a mere playoff berth, at the moment?
Answer: Yes.
Question: Did you ever expect this team to be fighting for home-ice advantage in the month of March?
Answer: Well, not at the beginning of the season, but you know, my expectations have changed since January.
Question: How have those expectations shifted?
Answer: Okay, well, it would take a total, utter collapse for the team not to make the playoffs. At this point, I’m wondering about how far the Penguins can go in the playoffs. Oh, and I have to admit, I think it would be really cool (though perhaps not best for the team if they’d have to play Carolina or Tampa Bay in the first round) to win the Atlantic Division and take that title away from New Jersey.
Question: Do the Penguins still have a chance to win the division?
Answer: Well, yes.
Question: Have you seen this team go on a 14-0-2 run, and have you seen this team go 6-1-1 in their previous 8 games? Did you watch this team beat the best two teams in the Eastern Conference, points wise, on consecutive nights, less than a week ago?
Answer. Yes, and yes. And yes.
Question: Having seen what you’ve seen, what is your problem with the team’s loss to the New York Rangers? A team they had to play on the road, after being absolutely dead tired? A game where they had a chance to win until the last 30 seconds because their BACK-UP goalie played phenomenally and kept the team in the game when the team was being out shot by a 2 to 1 margin for most of the entire game?
Answer: My problem is that during this nationally televised game, the broadcasters in between periods were praising the Rangers as the flavor of the day for sneaking back into the playoffs without mentioning the Penguins’ improvement from the first half to second half of the season (save for the Eastern Conference standings, which showed that clearly enough, numerically speaking, I suppose). My problem is that the best player in the world didn’t look like he was on MY team for most of last night. My problem is that our rookie hotshots looked more like tired rookies than hotshots last night. My problem is that my team LOST a game that I wanted them to win. My problem is that I’m concerned about a dead-tired team being out shot by a team I regard as inferior. I’m concerned about my team’s tentative play. Are the kids going to play like this again? Are the rookies going to go back to being phenoms? Is the best player in the world going to be the best player in the world on my team? Is the lucky bounce going to go MY team’s way rather than the opposition’s way?
Question: Do you need a reality check?
Answer: Eh. Probably.
In any case, thanks to the Pittsburgh Penguins for winning two consecutive games in regulation over the weekend and, at least until Tuesday, having the same number of points as do the New Jersey Devils. Thanks for the reality check that I certainly needed. Thanks to the Penguins for playing so well against the Bruins that the NHL on NBC decided that I no longer needed to view the blowout but would better off watching an actual competitive game between two teams battling for their playoff lives rather than listening to commentators continuing to gush over how good my team is.
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∑ Today’s 5-0 victory over the Bruins was a wonderful thing. Wonderful because the Penguins finally did what a superior opponent should do to an inferior opponent. The Penguins dominated the Bruins in every aspect of the game. They killed every penalty and got a shorthanded goal. Their power play began the day two for two and put the team in a position to dominate the game. The Penguins’ goaltending was flawless (as noted by the score), but a defenseman even picked up the puck when Fleury lost sight of the puck. Overall, however, this game was a thing of beauty—no matter how disappointed the NHL on NBC was to see a blowout—precisely because the Penguins were performing as their talented dictated they should. When facing subpar goaltending, a frustrated power play, and a team that’s been losing more than winning lately, the Penguins did what superior teams are supposed to do. They crushed their opponent and won the game in the blowout.
∑ Much as I adore blowout victories for my team, any individual honors need to be set aside at this time of year. Do I want Crosby to win the league scoring title? Of course. Do I want Malkin to win the rookie scoring race? Yes. But not at the loss of such a significant player to an injury. When it comes to the last few minutes of a blowout game, Crosby, Malkin, Gonchar, Whitney, and certain other players need to be NOWHERE near the ice. (The bench is as close to the ice as these players should get.) It is stupid and reckless to risk injury in a game that your team has already won. Going beyond "rubbing the opponent’s face in the loss," as commentators mentioned today, the Penguins, who appear to be primed for the playoffs, are risking losing a key piece of the puzzle for nothing. As much as I yearn for the Pens’ players to garner as many individual honors as possible, it says a lot about the make up of this team that individual honors must take a backseat to the whole team’s chances at a postseason run.
∑ By the way, that statement about blowout victories also works the other way. Fortunately, the Penguins have not yet been in many games yet this season that are hopeless, and I hope and anticipate they will not experience a blowout loss for the remainder of the season. Plus, I should note the caveat that with the Penguins’, a blowout loss never seems a sure thing—unlike the Bruins, a team that just appeared to give up after being down 3-0, the Penguins always seem to think they can mount a comeback from such a deficit.
To further my point about keeping key players OFF the ice in the waning minutes of a game that has already been decided, recall last year’s playoffs. The Rangers against the Devils. The Devils had already won the game. The Rangers weren’t coming back from a three goal deficit, that’s for sure, and yet with perhaps two minutes remaining in the game, Rangers Coach Renney sends out star Jaromir Jagr. Jagr’s shoulder gets crushed, he can’t play the rest of the series, requires off season shoulder surgery, and has to rehabilitate his shoulder over the summer rather than train. There are times when the shoulder injury still appears to linger this season.
Now ask yourself a question, one that Rangers fans might have asked themselves all summer. Why in the world was Jaromir Jagr on the ice in a game the Rangers had already lost? Did Jagr have to be injured WHEN he was injured? Wasn’t it rather inane to have Jagr on the ice just to "set a tone" for the nexxt game?
As a Penguins fan, I like to think my team’s star players are invincible. Maybe it’s just that the kids are kids, and kids don’t break, right? (After all, wasn’t Jagr much less injured as a kid than as he got older?) But the wrong blocked shot at the wrong ankle, or a stick to the face, or a hit into the boards—it can happen to anyone, even Pittsburgh’s beloved, talented superstar children.
Hockey is a game of risks, and players risk injury every game. They know it, and as a fan, I know it. But there’s worthwhile risk and worthless risk. Most of the game, it’s worthwhile to put your best players on the ice. You let your best players play the game because you need them to win the game. But when the game is well in hand, when the scoreboard but not the time on the clock dictates that you have already won the game—or, worse case, you are, in the Bruins’ case yesterday, down by 5 goals with a minute left on the clock—coaches should not send out their best players in the midst of lopsided free-for-alls.
The Bruins were tired and sedate today, but not all teams will be; in fact, I’ll be curious to see how the Bruins respond to the Penguins later in the week. And yes, I understand that Crosby winning the scoring title matters—I get that. But hockey is a team game, and for a team, like the Penguins, that has a chance, perhaps, to go a long way, the team has to come before anything else—and that means protecting and preserving the health of your most talented players by not sending them out in the waning minutes of lopsided blowouts.
∑ In the previous note, I referenced Crosby, Malkin, Gonchar, and Whitney as players you probably don’t want on the ice late in games. I view those players are far too crucial to the Penguins’ overall team to have them experience an injury in the waning moments of a blowout. I probably should have added Jordan Staal to the list.
Yet glancing over the list of "top line talent" that I firmly believe needs to remain ON the bench at the end of a blowout, what strikes me is a comment made by the NHL on NBC guys (yes, I know, really). While taking pains to note that "Boston isn’t very good," the NHL on NBC guys nevertheless gushed over the Penguins. "When your fourth line guys are making those kind of moves (a reference to a Georges Laraque dipsy-doodle move around a defender), you know you’re good," said one of the guys, "and Pittsburgh is really good." That comment, along with the fact that fear was struck into my heart when both Maxime Talbot and Colby Armstrong had to leave a recent game due to injuries (they both returned and played that day), gave me pause.
The best aspect of this Penguins team is that it is a team, a team complete with four lines and players who play their specific roles well. The Penguins’ premier offensive forwards do not kill penalties; the Penguins have a group of penalty killers who kill penalties. The Penguins have a group of players whose job it is to score on the power play. The Penguins have four lines that can cycle the puck and chip in goals. The fact of the matter is, yes, it would hurt for the Penguins to lose Crosby or Malkin for any length of time, and it would probably hurt more than losing some other player. And yet, well, you remove a player from the Penguins’ team—say Colby or Talbot can’t return to the game—you’ve lost a part of what makes this team so good. Hopefully, the Penguins, with their depth and those NHL-caliber forwards who are sitting in the press box most nights, have enough depth to compensate for any injuries that may come. What struck me about the commentary noting how well the lower lines cycled the puck was that perhaps it’s a little less obvious than first thought about who should NOT go on the ice at the end of blowouts.
Because, really, I’ve always believed the Pens can least afford to lose Whitney or Gonchar (their defensive depth just isn’t there yet), along, of course, with Malkin and Crosby. Staal’s intangibles (more on that in a second) have convinced me he needs to be preserved, too. Yet, seriously, in the midst of a blowout, what I am partially saying is that this player is less crucial than this player to the team’s success—and while that is true—Jarko Ruutu, Maxime Talbot, and Colby Armstrong—are important parts of this Penguins team too.
It’s nice to have a team that is a team, where you know and believe that everyone’s role is important to the team’s success. Still, when it comes to who’s sitting on the bench when the Pens have rung up a 5-0 lead with less than 5 minutes left in the game, I have to go with those players whose skills can’t be mimicked by other players. You have to preserve and protect those players who are the ones who could be eligible for individual honors at the end of the season. And, of course, it should be noted, you protect and preserve these players AFTER their skills have already helped to assure your team of victory. (Or, in the case of Renney with Jagr last year, when you need to preserve their health so they can give you a chance to win the next playoff game—but more on that issue as the playoffs near.)
∑ While Jordan Staal’s game winning goal against Atlanta may have been a fluke, as admitted both by Staal and Atlanta’s goaltender, the Penguins’ obscene 23-0-2 record when Staal scores a goal is something to behold. And for this fan, a logical question follows. Why do the Penguins have such a ridiculous (as in outlandishly good) record when their eighteen-year-old rookie deposits the puck in the net?
Prior to the start of the season, I figured the Penguins were a "borderline" playoff team with everything going right—no significant injuries, Malkin centering an effective second line, Gonchar playing like Gonchar did in Washington, Fleury giving us solid goaltending, and Crosby being Crosby. At present, with their magic number at 3, and tied for New Jersey for the Atlantic Division lead, the Penguins are not shown as one of the 6-11 teams who are "borderline" playoff teams. That magical statistic about Jordan Staal is a key reason why the Penguins are currently for home ice advantage, rather than just a playoff berth.
Jordan Staal’s emergence as a rookie who may add an additional thirty goals to the team's totals before the year is over (don’t want to jinx him, as he currently stands at twenty-nine) wasn’t anything that management or I anticipated at the start of the season. The Penguins have such a fantastic record when Staal scores precisely because Staal’s scoring shows depth that most of us, myself most definitely, assumed the team would lack until future seasons. While the statistic reflects quite nicely on Staal, it also says something else about why the team has one of the league’s best records since the start of 2007. The Penguins have goal-scoring depth now; they no longer have to rely on just Crosby, Malkin, and the power play to carry them.
Granted, it’s true that when the power play struggles, or when Crosby and Malkin both struggle, the Penguins likewise struggle. Yet at times when one of Crosby or Malkin has been ostensibly "slumping," how often has it been a goal from a second, third, or fourth liner has picked up the team? How many times has a shorthanded goal lifted the Penguins and put them back into a hockey game? (Against Ottawa, trailing 4-1, that deficit turned into a 5-4 win.) How many times has a timely goal from someone other than Malkin or Crosby been the difference in the ridiculous number of one goal games the Penguins have played this season?
The obscene 23-0-2 record doesn’t mean that Jordan Staal is the Penguins’ MVP (unsung hero, perhaps, though not all that unsung). Rather, that obscene record shows what happens when the Penguins have depth that goes beyond two superstars, depth that, to be honest, we haven’t seen in Pittsburgh since the EARLY (not the LATE) nineties. By the late nineties (prior to Mario’s first retirement), the Pens had the two best players in the world, but without team-wide depth, they didn’t have enough to win that third Cup. (Well, that and the officiating wasn’t suited to their team’s talents, but it’s best I don’t get started on that in the midst of my present enjoyment of the current team.)
Am I saying the Pens are ready to win the Cup this year? No. I am saying that the team’s gaudy winning percentage when Jordan Staal scores a goal reflects what happens when a team replete with two superstar talents begins to develop the depth to support those superstars. What happens with depth like that? Wins. Lots and lots and lots of victories, and the difference between contending for a division title versus barely sneaking into the postseason.
∑ Oh, by the way, the Penguins lost two consecutive games in regulation this week for the first time in memory (I think another blog informed me that the last time had been January 9 and 10th of this year). It had been awhile. I had forgotten how much losing sucks. I was particularly annoyed by coaching decisions that weren’t made (more on those in a little bit) and by the fact that the Penguins did not appear to be playing to their potential. Yet in the midst of writing something else, I found myself writing this. After two consecutive wins in regulation, including one blowout, it seems perhaps a good time to share what I wrote after that first regulation loss to the New York Rangers.
Question: Did I expect the Pens to make the playoffs before the season?
Answer: I thought they had an outside shot if everything—absolutely everything—went right.
Question: How many points do the Penguins still have?
Answer: Ninety-two.
Question: Are the Penguins fighting for home-ice advantage, rather than a mere playoff berth, at the moment?
Answer: Yes.
Question: Did you ever expect this team to be fighting for home-ice advantage in the month of March?
Answer: Well, not at the beginning of the season, but you know, my expectations have changed since January.
Question: How have those expectations shifted?
Answer: Okay, well, it would take a total, utter collapse for the team not to make the playoffs. At this point, I’m wondering about how far the Penguins can go in the playoffs. Oh, and I have to admit, I think it would be really cool (though perhaps not best for the team if they’d have to play Carolina or Tampa Bay in the first round) to win the Atlantic Division and take that title away from New Jersey.
Question: Do the Penguins still have a chance to win the division?
Answer: Well, yes.
Question: Have you seen this team go on a 14-0-2 run, and have you seen this team go 6-1-1 in their previous 8 games? Did you watch this team beat the best two teams in the Eastern Conference, points wise, on consecutive nights, less than a week ago?
Answer. Yes, and yes. And yes.
Question: Having seen what you’ve seen, what is your problem with the team’s loss to the New York Rangers? A team they had to play on the road, after being absolutely dead tired? A game where they had a chance to win until the last 30 seconds because their BACK-UP goalie played phenomenally and kept the team in the game when the team was being out shot by a 2 to 1 margin for most of the entire game?
Answer: My problem is that during this nationally televised game, the broadcasters in between periods were praising the Rangers as the flavor of the day for sneaking back into the playoffs without mentioning the Penguins’ improvement from the first half to second half of the season (save for the Eastern Conference standings, which showed that clearly enough, numerically speaking, I suppose). My problem is that the best player in the world didn’t look like he was on MY team for most of last night. My problem is that our rookie hotshots looked more like tired rookies than hotshots last night. My problem is that my team LOST a game that I wanted them to win. My problem is that I’m concerned about a dead-tired team being out shot by a team I regard as inferior. I’m concerned about my team’s tentative play. Are the kids going to play like this again? Are the rookies going to go back to being phenoms? Is the best player in the world going to be the best player in the world on my team? Is the lucky bounce going to go MY team’s way rather than the opposition’s way?
Question: Do you need a reality check?
Answer: Eh. Probably.
In any case, thanks to the Pittsburgh Penguins for winning two consecutive games in regulation over the weekend and, at least until Tuesday, having the same number of points as do the New Jersey Devils. Thanks for the reality check that I certainly needed. Thanks to the Penguins for playing so well against the Bruins that the NHL on NBC decided that I no longer needed to view the blowout but would better off watching an actual competitive game between two teams battling for their playoff lives rather than listening to commentators continuing to gush over how good my team is.
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Friday, March 23, 2007
Time to Believe?
How good is this team?
Two wins on two consecutive nights against the top teams in the Eastern Conference gave this Penguins fan pause. The fact that the Penguins won a 5-4, skate-and-score shootout one night before winning a 3-0 game "Devils style" made the wins far more impressive to me. Because, as everyone knows, when it comes to the Stanley Cup playoffs, championship teams have to be able to win games every which way. The offensive juggernaut champion Penguins of the early nineties won their fair of shootouts, but they also won tight-checking affairs that ended with scores of 1-0.
Did I just utter the word "championship teams"? More importantly, did I just dare—somewhat—to appear to compare this current Penguins team to the Penguins teams of the early 1990’s that won Stanley Cups? And, in what I wouldn’t have done, at least not quite like that, prior to those wins over New Jersey and Buffalo—am I now prepared to call the Penguins legitimate contenders for the Cup this postseason?
Allow me an honest moment to admit that rationality about one’s team’s postseason chances does not come easily for rabid partisans. This is why, for example, Paul Steigerwald, and perhaps the more optimistic of Pittsburgh media, wonder aloud "Are the Penguins the best team in the NHL?" and say things like "No team wants to face this team in a seven game series." Others go to a different extreme and point out every weakness with the current crop of Penguins, and while I don’t disagree with some of the comments, the degree of criticism makes me wonder by what divine miracle the Penguins have already accumulated ninety points.
Since I have not yet been swept up into the hoopla of the postseason (when my rabid partisan allegiance will kick into full gear for only the second time this decade), I want to take this opportunity to examine the question, honestly, "How are good are the Penguins?" Prior to the postseason, I want to review what I’ve seen so I can come to a more accurate judgment about my young Penguins. In basic terms often used by those who write playoff previews, I want to discover if my Penguins are "contenders" or "pretenders."
Facts pointing to "Contender"
Certain facts give merit to the idea that the Penguins are legitimate contenders for the Stanley Cup this season. The Penguins have two superstars in Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Like it or not, superstars help to win playoff games. Plus, one of the Penguins superstars happens to be the best player in hockey. While other teams have superstars, no other team has the best player in hockey.
In addition to superstar talent, the Penguins have depth. At present, the Penguins do not yet—not quite—have the same number of 20 goal scorers (five to six) as do the Buffalo Sabres and Carolina Hurricanes. No matter. A scan of NHL statistics reveal that the Penguins have the most 10 goal scorers in the NHL. And if one of the Penguins players who’s scored 15-16 goals this season (cough, Eric Christiansen or Michel Ouellet) gets hot, suddenly the Penguins have the same number of 20 goal scorers as do the Sabres and Hurricanes while still having more overall goal scoring depth.
Going along with depth and superstar talent comes the ability the Penguins have to skate. Put bluntly, the Penguins are fast. When the Penguins show up to play, they can outskate most teams. In addition outskating most teams, all four of the Penguins lines know how to cycle the puck beautifully. The Penguins, when applying their talents properly, can play a game that is tailor made for a long playoff run: they can roll four lines and allow their speed slowly to force other teams to commit infractions against them.
Before you hold up your hands and say wait, wait, you have to be done, you’ve listed all the Penguins’ obvious strengths, I have to say—No. Not yet. I haven’t. Because there are few things, probably not thought of by strengths by most Penguins fans who nitpick and criticize every thing about this team, that are actually strengths of the team.
Ryan Whitney and Sergei Gonchar—hear me out—have the ability to play defense in a type of way that is crucial in the postseason. Gonchar and Whitney can make the long breakout pass. Gonchar and Whitney can keep the puck in at the blueline at a critical time. Gonchar and Whitney make up the best offensive defensive punch the Penguins have had since the days Larry Murphy and Paul Coffey patrolled their blue line. (You know where Coffey and Murphy ended up, and you surely remember where the Cup ended up that season.)
The youth of the team, in many respects, is actually a strength of this team. In a Q & A on ESPN’s website, 18-year-old Jordan Staal states the team’s actual goal, of course, is to win the Stanley Cup. Pooh-pooh Staal’s naïve eighteen-year-old dreams all you want, the fact of the matter is that these Penguins have shown all year long that they aren’t interesting in meeting others’ expectations, but rather in meeting—and surpassing, if possible—their own expectations. I honestly believe the children—as I refer to the majority of the Penguins team—are so ignorant that they don’t understand this whole concept of "Well, you need to go to the playoffs at least once and learn what you’ll encounter before it’s your time." The kids don’t know anything except that they want to win and believe they can win, and the few veterans along for the ride are along for the ride precisely because they share the belief of the kids on the team.
Oh, finally, this Penguins team is a team. After beating the two best teams in the Eastern Conference, the Penguins didn’t play their best game against the Montreal Canadians. They returned to the bad habits of taking far too many penalties, which their penalty killers were a little too tired to kill effectively (facing a potent Montreal power play didn’t help matters, either). The Penguins gave up goals that allowed the Canadians back into the game frequently. And yet, no matter who lapsed—whether it was someone taking a penalty, the goalie giving up a goal, or something else—the Penguins just determined they would win the game, and of course, won the game. As a team, players pick up the slack when someone is having an off night, or something just isn’t clicking. That’s the sign of a complete team—and yes, complete teams win championships.
All the Signs Pointing to "Pretender"
For Penguins fans who dissect their team critically, or who just prefer to counter those who claim the Cup should be the Penguins this spring with a dose of harsh reality, this section is for you.
While by the only standard that counts (wins), the Penguins goaltending has been perfectly sufficient, perhaps more questions lurk about this position than any of the others coming into the postseason. Marc-Andre Fleury’s postseason history is not luminous, to say the least, and there are times when he’s shown an unfortunate penchant for giving up the wrong goal at the wrong time. The sunny-side optimists will note that Fleury is winning games at a rate not seen since the Penguins had a team that set the NHL record win streak at seventeen games. Still, in all fairness, the Penguins goaltending, come postseason time, as a question mark. Since goaltending is mental, for the most part, anyway, does Fleury have what it takes for the postseason?
Perhaps more so than the question mark that is Fleury is the Penguins’ defense. To be perfectly honest, aside from Whitney and Gonchar’s offensive prowess, the Penguins’ defensive unit does not exactly impress me. I wince when we’re forced to use Josef Melichar to shadow Jaromir Jagr (shutting Jagr down aside, it just doesn’t seem like something that should be in Melichar’s job description). While the Penguins have perhaps the offensive depth to roll five complete lines, it would be nice if they had anything resembling that glut of legitimate NHL forwards as blueliners. While the Penguins offense has been able to compensate—and often hide—the weaknesses of their blueline, at some point in time, one has to assume that legitimate NHL stars will figure out how to exploit the Penguins blueliners.
Moving on from personnel issues, there is the issue of the Penguins special teams. Fans who note the power play is ranked fifth in the league may wonder what my problem is. My problem is that the Penguins power play is only ranked fifth in the league. The Penguins would be wise to watch videotape of how the Montreal Canadians scored their power play goals and adopt a similar method (suited to their personnel, of course) to score their power play goals. This means, well, when the shooting lane is available, more often than not, you need to shoot the puck, particularly in the playoffs. While the Penguins’ penalty killing is ranked lower than their power play, my concern is not so much the ability of the Penguins’ penalty killers (at least not the forwards, who’ve proved to be decently adept this season) but of the Penguins' penchant to take too many penalties. As the games against Buffalo and New Jersey showed, the Penguins’ penalty kill works a lot better when the penalty killers don’t have to kill 10 penalties.
And, then, of course, comes the X-factor of inexperience. I’ve already noted that I actually view the youth of this team as a strength. The weakness comes in when one notes inexperience. Players who have played in the NHL playoffs understand that what flies during the regular season doesn’t typically work out in the playoffs. Call out the new NHL all you want, but you don’t typically squander 2 to 3 goal leads with regularity in the playoffs and expect to win games. Nor, honestly, do you typically come back to win games where you put yourself down by three or four goals. Teams with experience hold leads, and that works against the Penguins in two ways. The Penguins won’t be able to continue to erase multiple goal deficits, as they have done during the regular season, and they won’t be permitted to continue winning games where they regular relinquish leads. At least, the Penguins won’t be able to do these things with any regularity.
Oh, I forgot one other issue that Penguins fans have, but at the present moment, I’m not sure it’s so much a personnel issue as, perhaps, it is players who have been placed in the wrong role or on the wrong line. I’ve read criticisms of Recchi, Malone, and Ouellet as wingers on scoring lines—and I can’t say I disagree with these criticisms. I also can’t say that I believe that any team, given the current budget constraints of the NHL,will have a team as deep in scoring depth as did the Oilers of the eighties or the Penguins of the early nineties. When it comes to acknowledging the reality that the Penguins have a plethora of 10 goal scorers rather than 6 consistent 20 goal scorers to be placed on the top two lines, it seems to me that adjustments need to be made based on the opposition and a player’s current streak. If Eric Christiansen, for example, is better designed to play as a scoring winger against the Canadians, move him up to a scoring line for that game or series. Make adjustments based on who is hot and who can successfully match up against the other team. Whining that the Penguins’ young wingers are not yet the 20 to 30 goal men they may someday become is fruitless; the team must learn to deploy the personnel it currently has effectively.
The Conclusion
Contender or Pretender?
Before coming to a conclusion about whether these Penguins are contenders or pretenders, it helps me to remember the perspective of a rather cynical and jaded Penguins beat writer, who noted before the two games against the Sabres and New Jersey that, really, the games will probably just show which team was better on a certain night in March. Perhaps Post-Gazette beat writer Dave Molinari was guarding against overreacting. Overreacting to a strong showing which says the team is absolutely prepared to win the Cup this season. Or overreacting to a losing showing which said the team just wasn’t yet ready to contend.
Still, this Penguins partisan has to take the games against Buffalo and New Jersey into account. (Truth told, she wanted no part of the New Jersey game because she couldn’t believe this team could pull off back-to-back wins, so different stylistically, on consecutive nights. She is glad her young team proved her wrong.) This Penguins partisan also has to survey the rest of the NHL playoff field and realistically guard her heart. Truth told, she’s had to revise her expectations continuously this year. An outside chance at the playoffs, okay, the playoffs, okay, perhaps, maybe, home ice advantage, a 100-point season would be awesome but still….
As the season winds down, this Penguins’ fan has to place her team, honestly, somewhere in the middle of "bonafide Cup contender" and "total pretender." In truth, prognostications about where this team will go are what prognostications are—guesses.
The Penguins’ superstar talent, scoring depth, team chemistry, youth, vitality, chemistry, and yes, the fact that they’ve learned how to camouflage their weaknesses, are reasons why I believe no team is eager to play the Penguins in a seven game series.
The Penguins’ question marks in goal, their lack of depth on the blueline, the question of what happens if a significant injury occurs to a significant player at an inopportune time, as well as the fact that the Penguins might end up facing off against a team tailor-made to exploit every one of their weaknesses, including inexperience, leads me to be wary of expecting the Penguins to bring home the Cup this year.
Best-case scenario, realistically and to be honest? I can see the Penguins, drawing the right match-ups, not suffering significant injuries, making adjustments in the midst of a series and games, advancing to the Eastern Conference finals.
Worst-case scenario, realistically? I can easily see the Penguins, matched up against a more experienced opponent tailor-made to exploit their defense corps, being bounced from the playoffs in four or five games.
Frankly speaking, much of the fun of playoff season is not knowing what will come, and experiencing what will come as it does come. Having not been swept up in this excitement since the spring of 2001, I’m thrilled. Plus, back in 2001, when it came to Mario and Jags, they’d been there before, and I knew what to expect, generally speaking. What makes this ride so much more fun is that I don’t know what to expect of the kids.
Right now, however, the thing that strikes me is that even my worst-case scenario ( a first round playoff exit) is something that I would have viewed as a successful first step, a successful season, prior to the start of this year. What also strikes me is that I know advancing to the Eastern Conference finals, or even—really unexpectedly—bringing home the Stanley Cup—will not have occurred due to divine intervention. There won’t be miracles when the time comes for this assembled talent to start showcasing its talent in the NHL postseason; there will just be talent doing what talent does at the time when it most matters.
At the moment, contender or pretender is, for sure, a question to ponder. For this fan, though, I’m just grateful it’s a question that I can ponder, this season, of the Pittsburgh Penguins. And when it comes to playoff time, well, no matter what happens, as the actual games themselves are being played, that’s when I will have to throw that "contender or pretender" question to the wind and just allow myself to be caught up in the excitement of the Pens—and yes, believe.
Ah. I love playoff hockey, and I’ve missed my team’s presence in the postseason. Because, once the Penguins are in the playoffs, for those games, I may as well let myself be captivated and believe.
But first—how about the team gets itself in playoff order in the remaining games prior to the postseason?
How good is this team?
Two wins on two consecutive nights against the top teams in the Eastern Conference gave this Penguins fan pause. The fact that the Penguins won a 5-4, skate-and-score shootout one night before winning a 3-0 game "Devils style" made the wins far more impressive to me. Because, as everyone knows, when it comes to the Stanley Cup playoffs, championship teams have to be able to win games every which way. The offensive juggernaut champion Penguins of the early nineties won their fair of shootouts, but they also won tight-checking affairs that ended with scores of 1-0.
Did I just utter the word "championship teams"? More importantly, did I just dare—somewhat—to appear to compare this current Penguins team to the Penguins teams of the early 1990’s that won Stanley Cups? And, in what I wouldn’t have done, at least not quite like that, prior to those wins over New Jersey and Buffalo—am I now prepared to call the Penguins legitimate contenders for the Cup this postseason?
Allow me an honest moment to admit that rationality about one’s team’s postseason chances does not come easily for rabid partisans. This is why, for example, Paul Steigerwald, and perhaps the more optimistic of Pittsburgh media, wonder aloud "Are the Penguins the best team in the NHL?" and say things like "No team wants to face this team in a seven game series." Others go to a different extreme and point out every weakness with the current crop of Penguins, and while I don’t disagree with some of the comments, the degree of criticism makes me wonder by what divine miracle the Penguins have already accumulated ninety points.
Since I have not yet been swept up into the hoopla of the postseason (when my rabid partisan allegiance will kick into full gear for only the second time this decade), I want to take this opportunity to examine the question, honestly, "How are good are the Penguins?" Prior to the postseason, I want to review what I’ve seen so I can come to a more accurate judgment about my young Penguins. In basic terms often used by those who write playoff previews, I want to discover if my Penguins are "contenders" or "pretenders."
Facts pointing to "Contender"
Certain facts give merit to the idea that the Penguins are legitimate contenders for the Stanley Cup this season. The Penguins have two superstars in Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Like it or not, superstars help to win playoff games. Plus, one of the Penguins superstars happens to be the best player in hockey. While other teams have superstars, no other team has the best player in hockey.
In addition to superstar talent, the Penguins have depth. At present, the Penguins do not yet—not quite—have the same number of 20 goal scorers (five to six) as do the Buffalo Sabres and Carolina Hurricanes. No matter. A scan of NHL statistics reveal that the Penguins have the most 10 goal scorers in the NHL. And if one of the Penguins players who’s scored 15-16 goals this season (cough, Eric Christiansen or Michel Ouellet) gets hot, suddenly the Penguins have the same number of 20 goal scorers as do the Sabres and Hurricanes while still having more overall goal scoring depth.
Going along with depth and superstar talent comes the ability the Penguins have to skate. Put bluntly, the Penguins are fast. When the Penguins show up to play, they can outskate most teams. In addition outskating most teams, all four of the Penguins lines know how to cycle the puck beautifully. The Penguins, when applying their talents properly, can play a game that is tailor made for a long playoff run: they can roll four lines and allow their speed slowly to force other teams to commit infractions against them.
Before you hold up your hands and say wait, wait, you have to be done, you’ve listed all the Penguins’ obvious strengths, I have to say—No. Not yet. I haven’t. Because there are few things, probably not thought of by strengths by most Penguins fans who nitpick and criticize every thing about this team, that are actually strengths of the team.
Ryan Whitney and Sergei Gonchar—hear me out—have the ability to play defense in a type of way that is crucial in the postseason. Gonchar and Whitney can make the long breakout pass. Gonchar and Whitney can keep the puck in at the blueline at a critical time. Gonchar and Whitney make up the best offensive defensive punch the Penguins have had since the days Larry Murphy and Paul Coffey patrolled their blue line. (You know where Coffey and Murphy ended up, and you surely remember where the Cup ended up that season.)
The youth of the team, in many respects, is actually a strength of this team. In a Q & A on ESPN’s website, 18-year-old Jordan Staal states the team’s actual goal, of course, is to win the Stanley Cup. Pooh-pooh Staal’s naïve eighteen-year-old dreams all you want, the fact of the matter is that these Penguins have shown all year long that they aren’t interesting in meeting others’ expectations, but rather in meeting—and surpassing, if possible—their own expectations. I honestly believe the children—as I refer to the majority of the Penguins team—are so ignorant that they don’t understand this whole concept of "Well, you need to go to the playoffs at least once and learn what you’ll encounter before it’s your time." The kids don’t know anything except that they want to win and believe they can win, and the few veterans along for the ride are along for the ride precisely because they share the belief of the kids on the team.
Oh, finally, this Penguins team is a team. After beating the two best teams in the Eastern Conference, the Penguins didn’t play their best game against the Montreal Canadians. They returned to the bad habits of taking far too many penalties, which their penalty killers were a little too tired to kill effectively (facing a potent Montreal power play didn’t help matters, either). The Penguins gave up goals that allowed the Canadians back into the game frequently. And yet, no matter who lapsed—whether it was someone taking a penalty, the goalie giving up a goal, or something else—the Penguins just determined they would win the game, and of course, won the game. As a team, players pick up the slack when someone is having an off night, or something just isn’t clicking. That’s the sign of a complete team—and yes, complete teams win championships.
All the Signs Pointing to "Pretender"
For Penguins fans who dissect their team critically, or who just prefer to counter those who claim the Cup should be the Penguins this spring with a dose of harsh reality, this section is for you.
While by the only standard that counts (wins), the Penguins goaltending has been perfectly sufficient, perhaps more questions lurk about this position than any of the others coming into the postseason. Marc-Andre Fleury’s postseason history is not luminous, to say the least, and there are times when he’s shown an unfortunate penchant for giving up the wrong goal at the wrong time. The sunny-side optimists will note that Fleury is winning games at a rate not seen since the Penguins had a team that set the NHL record win streak at seventeen games. Still, in all fairness, the Penguins goaltending, come postseason time, as a question mark. Since goaltending is mental, for the most part, anyway, does Fleury have what it takes for the postseason?
Perhaps more so than the question mark that is Fleury is the Penguins’ defense. To be perfectly honest, aside from Whitney and Gonchar’s offensive prowess, the Penguins’ defensive unit does not exactly impress me. I wince when we’re forced to use Josef Melichar to shadow Jaromir Jagr (shutting Jagr down aside, it just doesn’t seem like something that should be in Melichar’s job description). While the Penguins have perhaps the offensive depth to roll five complete lines, it would be nice if they had anything resembling that glut of legitimate NHL forwards as blueliners. While the Penguins offense has been able to compensate—and often hide—the weaknesses of their blueline, at some point in time, one has to assume that legitimate NHL stars will figure out how to exploit the Penguins blueliners.
Moving on from personnel issues, there is the issue of the Penguins special teams. Fans who note the power play is ranked fifth in the league may wonder what my problem is. My problem is that the Penguins power play is only ranked fifth in the league. The Penguins would be wise to watch videotape of how the Montreal Canadians scored their power play goals and adopt a similar method (suited to their personnel, of course) to score their power play goals. This means, well, when the shooting lane is available, more often than not, you need to shoot the puck, particularly in the playoffs. While the Penguins’ penalty killing is ranked lower than their power play, my concern is not so much the ability of the Penguins’ penalty killers (at least not the forwards, who’ve proved to be decently adept this season) but of the Penguins' penchant to take too many penalties. As the games against Buffalo and New Jersey showed, the Penguins’ penalty kill works a lot better when the penalty killers don’t have to kill 10 penalties.
And, then, of course, comes the X-factor of inexperience. I’ve already noted that I actually view the youth of this team as a strength. The weakness comes in when one notes inexperience. Players who have played in the NHL playoffs understand that what flies during the regular season doesn’t typically work out in the playoffs. Call out the new NHL all you want, but you don’t typically squander 2 to 3 goal leads with regularity in the playoffs and expect to win games. Nor, honestly, do you typically come back to win games where you put yourself down by three or four goals. Teams with experience hold leads, and that works against the Penguins in two ways. The Penguins won’t be able to continue to erase multiple goal deficits, as they have done during the regular season, and they won’t be permitted to continue winning games where they regular relinquish leads. At least, the Penguins won’t be able to do these things with any regularity.
Oh, I forgot one other issue that Penguins fans have, but at the present moment, I’m not sure it’s so much a personnel issue as, perhaps, it is players who have been placed in the wrong role or on the wrong line. I’ve read criticisms of Recchi, Malone, and Ouellet as wingers on scoring lines—and I can’t say I disagree with these criticisms. I also can’t say that I believe that any team, given the current budget constraints of the NHL,will have a team as deep in scoring depth as did the Oilers of the eighties or the Penguins of the early nineties. When it comes to acknowledging the reality that the Penguins have a plethora of 10 goal scorers rather than 6 consistent 20 goal scorers to be placed on the top two lines, it seems to me that adjustments need to be made based on the opposition and a player’s current streak. If Eric Christiansen, for example, is better designed to play as a scoring winger against the Canadians, move him up to a scoring line for that game or series. Make adjustments based on who is hot and who can successfully match up against the other team. Whining that the Penguins’ young wingers are not yet the 20 to 30 goal men they may someday become is fruitless; the team must learn to deploy the personnel it currently has effectively.
The Conclusion
Contender or Pretender?
Before coming to a conclusion about whether these Penguins are contenders or pretenders, it helps me to remember the perspective of a rather cynical and jaded Penguins beat writer, who noted before the two games against the Sabres and New Jersey that, really, the games will probably just show which team was better on a certain night in March. Perhaps Post-Gazette beat writer Dave Molinari was guarding against overreacting. Overreacting to a strong showing which says the team is absolutely prepared to win the Cup this season. Or overreacting to a losing showing which said the team just wasn’t yet ready to contend.
Still, this Penguins partisan has to take the games against Buffalo and New Jersey into account. (Truth told, she wanted no part of the New Jersey game because she couldn’t believe this team could pull off back-to-back wins, so different stylistically, on consecutive nights. She is glad her young team proved her wrong.) This Penguins partisan also has to survey the rest of the NHL playoff field and realistically guard her heart. Truth told, she’s had to revise her expectations continuously this year. An outside chance at the playoffs, okay, the playoffs, okay, perhaps, maybe, home ice advantage, a 100-point season would be awesome but still….
As the season winds down, this Penguins’ fan has to place her team, honestly, somewhere in the middle of "bonafide Cup contender" and "total pretender." In truth, prognostications about where this team will go are what prognostications are—guesses.
The Penguins’ superstar talent, scoring depth, team chemistry, youth, vitality, chemistry, and yes, the fact that they’ve learned how to camouflage their weaknesses, are reasons why I believe no team is eager to play the Penguins in a seven game series.
The Penguins’ question marks in goal, their lack of depth on the blueline, the question of what happens if a significant injury occurs to a significant player at an inopportune time, as well as the fact that the Penguins might end up facing off against a team tailor-made to exploit every one of their weaknesses, including inexperience, leads me to be wary of expecting the Penguins to bring home the Cup this year.
Best-case scenario, realistically and to be honest? I can see the Penguins, drawing the right match-ups, not suffering significant injuries, making adjustments in the midst of a series and games, advancing to the Eastern Conference finals.
Worst-case scenario, realistically? I can easily see the Penguins, matched up against a more experienced opponent tailor-made to exploit their defense corps, being bounced from the playoffs in four or five games.
Frankly speaking, much of the fun of playoff season is not knowing what will come, and experiencing what will come as it does come. Having not been swept up in this excitement since the spring of 2001, I’m thrilled. Plus, back in 2001, when it came to Mario and Jags, they’d been there before, and I knew what to expect, generally speaking. What makes this ride so much more fun is that I don’t know what to expect of the kids.
Right now, however, the thing that strikes me is that even my worst-case scenario ( a first round playoff exit) is something that I would have viewed as a successful first step, a successful season, prior to the start of this year. What also strikes me is that I know advancing to the Eastern Conference finals, or even—really unexpectedly—bringing home the Stanley Cup—will not have occurred due to divine intervention. There won’t be miracles when the time comes for this assembled talent to start showcasing its talent in the NHL postseason; there will just be talent doing what talent does at the time when it most matters.
At the moment, contender or pretender is, for sure, a question to ponder. For this fan, though, I’m just grateful it’s a question that I can ponder, this season, of the Pittsburgh Penguins. And when it comes to playoff time, well, no matter what happens, as the actual games themselves are being played, that’s when I will have to throw that "contender or pretender" question to the wind and just allow myself to be caught up in the excitement of the Pens—and yes, believe.
Ah. I love playoff hockey, and I’ve missed my team’s presence in the postseason. Because, once the Penguins are in the playoffs, for those games, I may as well let myself be captivated and believe.
But first—how about the team gets itself in playoff order in the remaining games prior to the postseason?
Sunday, March 11, 2007
A "What If" Question To Ponder
For all I can list the Penguins’ Achilles’ Heels (lack of defensive depth, inexperience, and the negatives of perhaps too much youth and not being sure of exactly what you have), I have been pondering a ridiculous—and for the moment, irrelevant—question in mind for awhile.
Last summer, Chris Pronger was available. While it made logical sense for the Pens not to pursue Pronger at the time—as obtaining him likely would have cost them a player who is an important piece of their current or future team—my question pertains to Pronger.
If the Penguins had Chris Pronger on their blueline, in addition to the rest of their team, would they not have to be considered the prohibitive favorites to win the Stanley Cup?
Given the team’s four line depth and superstar talent, and given Pronger’s ability to make Dwayne Roloson look like Patrick Roy last spring, what if the Penguins had a defenseman like Pronger? Wouldn’t the Pittsburgh team be the oddsmakers’ favorites to capture the Cup?
Of course, the question is moot point. Pronger, when healthy, has helped to make Anaheim one of the favorites to come out of the Western Conference. And, at the present moment, the Penguins lack a shut-down defenseman like Pronger.
Yet the question lingers. At some point, perhaps not this season but in future seasons, perhaps the Pens will have to trade offense (Paul Coffey as part of that deal in 1992, remember?) for defense. That time, of course, hadn’t arrived this spring—it may still remain a year or two years away.
And yet, I’d state it here and now: If the Pens had Pronger (obviously, they don’t) or a defenseman like him, it would take quite a bit of a lot of something for some other team to defeat Pittsburgh in a seven games series.
But for the moment, as the Pens play their games in March in the hopes of securing their first postseason birth in years, you go to battle with the team and defense you have. Here’s hoping that defense pleasantly surprises those naysayers and critics, such as myself, and gives Pens fans reason to cheer as spring blooms and blossoms.
For all I can list the Penguins’ Achilles’ Heels (lack of defensive depth, inexperience, and the negatives of perhaps too much youth and not being sure of exactly what you have), I have been pondering a ridiculous—and for the moment, irrelevant—question in mind for awhile.
Last summer, Chris Pronger was available. While it made logical sense for the Pens not to pursue Pronger at the time—as obtaining him likely would have cost them a player who is an important piece of their current or future team—my question pertains to Pronger.
If the Penguins had Chris Pronger on their blueline, in addition to the rest of their team, would they not have to be considered the prohibitive favorites to win the Stanley Cup?
Given the team’s four line depth and superstar talent, and given Pronger’s ability to make Dwayne Roloson look like Patrick Roy last spring, what if the Penguins had a defenseman like Pronger? Wouldn’t the Pittsburgh team be the oddsmakers’ favorites to capture the Cup?
Of course, the question is moot point. Pronger, when healthy, has helped to make Anaheim one of the favorites to come out of the Western Conference. And, at the present moment, the Penguins lack a shut-down defenseman like Pronger.
Yet the question lingers. At some point, perhaps not this season but in future seasons, perhaps the Pens will have to trade offense (Paul Coffey as part of that deal in 1992, remember?) for defense. That time, of course, hadn’t arrived this spring—it may still remain a year or two years away.
And yet, I’d state it here and now: If the Pens had Pronger (obviously, they don’t) or a defenseman like him, it would take quite a bit of a lot of something for some other team to defeat Pittsburgh in a seven games series.
But for the moment, as the Pens play their games in March in the hopes of securing their first postseason birth in years, you go to battle with the team and defense you have. Here’s hoping that defense pleasantly surprises those naysayers and critics, such as myself, and gives Pens fans reason to cheer as spring blooms and blossoms.
Questions Remain
For all that I love my Penguins, I cannot believe that they are a favorite to win the Stanley Cup this spring. I can’t even believe the team is guaranteed a playoff spot for several reasons:
∑ Will the goaltending be strong enough? With the stress of tight games with playoff implications, do we get "money" goaltending when it most matters?
∑ For all I love the Penguins’ offensive depth, the lack of defensive depth hurts. Save for Whitney and Gonchar’s offensive prowess, the remainder of the Penguins’ defenseman are not exactly stalwarts (and Whitney and Gonchar aren’t defensive stalwarts). The Penguins still lack the reliable, big-time shut down defender.
∑ While I never want to see injuries happen, what happens if an injury occurs to a player who is not easily replaced? Does the team have enough of the right kind of depth to overcome such an injury?
∑ Can the superstars and stars still do their thing amidst tighter checking and more specific game plans? W ill they be able to make adjustments, or we will have to endure watching them learn how to make adjustments and more often than not, being unsuccessful in those immediate adjustments?
∑ What factor does inexperience play? Does the inexperience of the kids matter when it comes to these tight one goal games? Does inexperience rear its’ ugly head for bad or can inexperienced ignorance actually be used as a propellant to great good, as in, "Well, we didn’t know we were supposed to go through this whole process of losing before we won" ?
g
For all that I love my Penguins, I cannot believe that they are a favorite to win the Stanley Cup this spring. I can’t even believe the team is guaranteed a playoff spot for several reasons:
∑ Will the goaltending be strong enough? With the stress of tight games with playoff implications, do we get "money" goaltending when it most matters?
∑ For all I love the Penguins’ offensive depth, the lack of defensive depth hurts. Save for Whitney and Gonchar’s offensive prowess, the remainder of the Penguins’ defenseman are not exactly stalwarts (and Whitney and Gonchar aren’t defensive stalwarts). The Penguins still lack the reliable, big-time shut down defender.
∑ While I never want to see injuries happen, what happens if an injury occurs to a player who is not easily replaced? Does the team have enough of the right kind of depth to overcome such an injury?
∑ Can the superstars and stars still do their thing amidst tighter checking and more specific game plans? W ill they be able to make adjustments, or we will have to endure watching them learn how to make adjustments and more often than not, being unsuccessful in those immediate adjustments?
∑ What factor does inexperience play? Does the inexperience of the kids matter when it comes to these tight one goal games? Does inexperience rear its’ ugly head for bad or can inexperienced ignorance actually be used as a propellant to great good, as in, "Well, we didn’t know we were supposed to go through this whole process of losing before we won" ?
g
Why The Penguins Aren’t A Borderline Team
(Caveat: Right Now)
The Penguins played a borderline playoff team yesterday and won the game. Granted, they beat the Rangers sans Brendan Shanahan and sans Jaromir Jagr for the third period. Still, the Penguins won the game.
When the U.S. broadcasts on NBC and Versus show the Eastern Conference playoff race and teams fighting to get into the playoffs, at the present moment, they don’t show Pittsburgh as just clawing to get into the final spot. While I am fully aware that the Penguins’ grasp on a playoff spot is anything but guaranteed and tenuous at best until the team actually clinches its first postseason birth since 2001, I wanted to list some of the reasons the Penguins find themselves in their current position.
Lady Luck: The Penguins have endured brief stretches of games with Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby this season. Yet, for the most part, the Penguins’ star players—Crosby, Malkin, Fleury—have stayed healthy. Health matters. The Penguins haven’t lost ludicrous numbers of man-games to injuries, and they haven’t lost significant players (example: Jordan Staal or Sergei Gonchar) to an injury.
4-line Depth: Along with Lady Luck comes the admission that, for the first time in many, many years, the Penguins have the ability to roll 4 lines. Even beyond having the ability to roll4 lines, the Penguins have players very capable of playing a role on the third or fourth line relegated to watching from the press box due to their depth. While I don’t feel like looking up this statistic, Colby Armstrong scored his tenth goal of the season when he scored the OT winner against the Rangers. How many 10-goal scorers do the Penguins have at the moment? How many other teams (I’m guessing you can count them on a single hand) have as many 10-goal scorers?
Superstars: Sidney Crosby is the best player in hockey. Hands-down, period. He scores over a point a game and is slumping—which, granted, he is, for Sidney Crosby. Likewise, Malkin might be a rookie, but he’s already a superstar (albeit a superstar who may not be as consistent as I would prefer). When your 1-2 center combination is the highest scoring in the league, you have something pretty special.
Stars: The Penguins have complementary stars. Someday Jordan Staal might be a superstar himself, but for now I’ll take his league-leading 7 shorthanded goals and his goal total (trailing only Malkin and Crosby) and label him a star. Say what you will for Whitney and Gonchar, but offensively, they’re stars, and they form the second best offensive combination in the entire NHL. (The best combination resides in Anaheim and shares multiple Norris Trophies between them.) Mark Recchi may be 39, but he’s still capable of pulling out that trigger release when necessary. In addition to two superstars, the Penguins have a reliable stable of complementary stars.
Special Teams: The Penguins’ road penalty kill could use some work. Nevertheless, the Penguins’ penchant (ability) to score shorthanded goals cannot be taken lightly. Likewise, the team’s first power play unit, although potent, frequently fails to shoot the puck frequently enough. No matter—the Penguins still have the fifth best power play in the entire NHL. Their special teams help them to win games more frequently that they cause them to lose games—and that’s good.
Team Concept: A graphic was displayed on the national broadcast today that fascinated me. The Penguins have gone on a 5-1-0 tear when Crosby fails to score a point. Prior to these six games, the Penguins had never won a game in which Crosby failed to record a point. While of course the team wants Crosby to score goals, there will be days when he is shadowed. And when Malkin, Staal, or someone else, picks up the slack and the team still wins, you don’t just have a one-line, borderline playoff team. You have a four-line team that has the potential to do some serious damage come the postseason.
Goaltending: I can probably count on one hand the number of games the Penguins have lost this season due to inferior goaltending. Even the best goalies have bad games and get yanked. Goaltending is mental before anything else. And when the goalie can make the key save at the crucial time, for a team like the Penguins,, that is all that is required.
Role Players: It goes along with four-line depth, I suppose, but players know their roles. They know what they are supposed to do, what their roles on the team are, and how they are supposed to contribute—and they strive to contribute in that way. It goes a long way to building team chemistry and unity.
Confidence: The Penguins know they are young. The Penguins know they are talented. The Penguins believe they can win every game. Confidence goes a long way to propelling a team to its’ first postseason birth in several seasons.
For all the above listed reasons, we are not seeing the Penguins flash across the screen when they show the sixth through thirteenth Eastern Conference teams. Most of the borderline playoff teams are missing at least one of the ingredients listed above that the Penguins possess.
Be aware, though—and beware—if one of those ingredients goes awry in the last few weeks of the season, it might not be long before you see the Pens on the list of Eastern Conference teams trying to claw their way into the postseason.
P
(Caveat: Right Now)
The Penguins played a borderline playoff team yesterday and won the game. Granted, they beat the Rangers sans Brendan Shanahan and sans Jaromir Jagr for the third period. Still, the Penguins won the game.
When the U.S. broadcasts on NBC and Versus show the Eastern Conference playoff race and teams fighting to get into the playoffs, at the present moment, they don’t show Pittsburgh as just clawing to get into the final spot. While I am fully aware that the Penguins’ grasp on a playoff spot is anything but guaranteed and tenuous at best until the team actually clinches its first postseason birth since 2001, I wanted to list some of the reasons the Penguins find themselves in their current position.
Lady Luck: The Penguins have endured brief stretches of games with Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby this season. Yet, for the most part, the Penguins’ star players—Crosby, Malkin, Fleury—have stayed healthy. Health matters. The Penguins haven’t lost ludicrous numbers of man-games to injuries, and they haven’t lost significant players (example: Jordan Staal or Sergei Gonchar) to an injury.
4-line Depth: Along with Lady Luck comes the admission that, for the first time in many, many years, the Penguins have the ability to roll 4 lines. Even beyond having the ability to roll4 lines, the Penguins have players very capable of playing a role on the third or fourth line relegated to watching from the press box due to their depth. While I don’t feel like looking up this statistic, Colby Armstrong scored his tenth goal of the season when he scored the OT winner against the Rangers. How many 10-goal scorers do the Penguins have at the moment? How many other teams (I’m guessing you can count them on a single hand) have as many 10-goal scorers?
Superstars: Sidney Crosby is the best player in hockey. Hands-down, period. He scores over a point a game and is slumping—which, granted, he is, for Sidney Crosby. Likewise, Malkin might be a rookie, but he’s already a superstar (albeit a superstar who may not be as consistent as I would prefer). When your 1-2 center combination is the highest scoring in the league, you have something pretty special.
Stars: The Penguins have complementary stars. Someday Jordan Staal might be a superstar himself, but for now I’ll take his league-leading 7 shorthanded goals and his goal total (trailing only Malkin and Crosby) and label him a star. Say what you will for Whitney and Gonchar, but offensively, they’re stars, and they form the second best offensive combination in the entire NHL. (The best combination resides in Anaheim and shares multiple Norris Trophies between them.) Mark Recchi may be 39, but he’s still capable of pulling out that trigger release when necessary. In addition to two superstars, the Penguins have a reliable stable of complementary stars.
Special Teams: The Penguins’ road penalty kill could use some work. Nevertheless, the Penguins’ penchant (ability) to score shorthanded goals cannot be taken lightly. Likewise, the team’s first power play unit, although potent, frequently fails to shoot the puck frequently enough. No matter—the Penguins still have the fifth best power play in the entire NHL. Their special teams help them to win games more frequently that they cause them to lose games—and that’s good.
Team Concept: A graphic was displayed on the national broadcast today that fascinated me. The Penguins have gone on a 5-1-0 tear when Crosby fails to score a point. Prior to these six games, the Penguins had never won a game in which Crosby failed to record a point. While of course the team wants Crosby to score goals, there will be days when he is shadowed. And when Malkin, Staal, or someone else, picks up the slack and the team still wins, you don’t just have a one-line, borderline playoff team. You have a four-line team that has the potential to do some serious damage come the postseason.
Goaltending: I can probably count on one hand the number of games the Penguins have lost this season due to inferior goaltending. Even the best goalies have bad games and get yanked. Goaltending is mental before anything else. And when the goalie can make the key save at the crucial time, for a team like the Penguins,, that is all that is required.
Role Players: It goes along with four-line depth, I suppose, but players know their roles. They know what they are supposed to do, what their roles on the team are, and how they are supposed to contribute—and they strive to contribute in that way. It goes a long way to building team chemistry and unity.
Confidence: The Penguins know they are young. The Penguins know they are talented. The Penguins believe they can win every game. Confidence goes a long way to propelling a team to its’ first postseason birth in several seasons.
For all the above listed reasons, we are not seeing the Penguins flash across the screen when they show the sixth through thirteenth Eastern Conference teams. Most of the borderline playoff teams are missing at least one of the ingredients listed above that the Penguins possess.
Be aware, though—and beware—if one of those ingredients goes awry in the last few weeks of the season, it might not be long before you see the Pens on the list of Eastern Conference teams trying to claw their way into the postseason.
P
Still Smiling and the Comparisons
Much as I might criticize the Penguins for failing to hold leads and for allowing their opposition to jump out to leads, the fact of the matter is that I still smile after every Penguins come-from-behind win. Frankly, even when the children are behind by a few goals, I expect that they can mount a comeback. Perhaps I first realized this after I almost tuned out of the Versus game against the Caps where the Penguins won 5-4 in a shootout after being down 4-0. In all honesty, the children make games that probably shouldn’t be that exciting incredibly exciting—and that cuts both ways. Sometimes the Penguins win games by a hair that they should have sewn up long before the ending buzzer, and other times the Penguins win games by erasing multiple-goal deficits and winning games that "fairness" says that they have no right to win.
Notice a common theme in there? Regardless of the aesthetics or the specifics, the Penguins, for the moment, are still winning games. When my team wins games, o matter how they might win those matches, a smile naturally stretches across my face. Winning is good.
With the goodness of winning, and with the way this particular Penguins team has penchant for winning, naturally the comparisons have begun to come to the high-flying Penguins teams of the early nineties. Do you remember those games when the Penguins could appear absolutely disinterested for 55 minutes and decide to win the game in the last 5 minutes and win the game by virtue of sheer talent? Do you remember the way those teams could score at will? Do you remember when the star players were so busy trying to set up the perfect play on the power play that you yelled at them to shoot the puck? Do you remember all of that?
Obviously, this Penguins team is not yet, probably, as far along as were the Penguins’ teams of the early nineties. The Penguins three core players are 18, 19, and 20. Many of the supporting cast are in their first or second seasons of making real contributions to a NHL team. And despite the youthfulness of this Penguins team, the similarities are striking. An ability to score at will (at least against most opponents). Defense and goaltending that are (against most opponents) adequate until the at-will scoring machine works its’ magic. An incredibly potent power play that when unproductive, is typically kicking itself in the foot rather than being stopped by the opposing team’s strategy. And, of course, superstars and soon-to-be superstars doing what only obscenely talented players can do.
Of course, another similarity is the knowledge that can become an honest boost to confidence or an arrogant thorn in the flesh. By that knowledge, of course, I mean the knowledge that sometimes talent alone is enough to win. As fans of the early nineties’ teams were well aware, especially during the regular season, those teams could coast on talent alone. Sometimes hard work, if not frowned upon, was just viewed as something other teams had to do, but not something we have to do. Because we have so much talent that it doesn’t matter how hard they work or how hard we work—our talent can win. And while this young Penguins’ squad hasn’t yet begun to display the arrogant swagger where the possibility of hard work is summarily and routinely dismissed, there have been moments—and more than moments—in certain games where the Penguins have allowed their knowledge of the talent on their team to allow themselves to play a less-than-complete game. Assurance in talent can be a great thing or a huge impediment—confidence is one thing; arrogance is another. At moments, fortunately not too many to have cost the Pens that many point as of yet, the 2006-07 Penguins have been eerily reminiscent of those high-flying ‘90s teams who loved to win on talent rather than sweat.
Fortunately for the 2006-07 Penguins, they’re led by Sidney Crosby, who counts among his attributes a dedication to hard work. Since teams take their cue from their leader (and Crosby leads the team no matter if there is no captain’s C yet stitched on his sweater), hopefully the rest of the team takes its’ cue from Crosby and re-dedicates itself to hard work.
Because, as fans of those early 90’s teams know, when confident talent commits itself to diligent hard work, the results are amazing—yes, even championships. But as fans of later Penguins’ teams know, without the hard and diligent work part, even with the same confident talent—the results may be good, even very good for awhile, but they fall far short of great.
If we desire greatness, the team needs to maintain confidence in its’ talent and ability, along with the assurance that it is hard work that will help that all of that talent and ability to soar to wondrous heights.
Much as I might criticize the Penguins for failing to hold leads and for allowing their opposition to jump out to leads, the fact of the matter is that I still smile after every Penguins come-from-behind win. Frankly, even when the children are behind by a few goals, I expect that they can mount a comeback. Perhaps I first realized this after I almost tuned out of the Versus game against the Caps where the Penguins won 5-4 in a shootout after being down 4-0. In all honesty, the children make games that probably shouldn’t be that exciting incredibly exciting—and that cuts both ways. Sometimes the Penguins win games by a hair that they should have sewn up long before the ending buzzer, and other times the Penguins win games by erasing multiple-goal deficits and winning games that "fairness" says that they have no right to win.
Notice a common theme in there? Regardless of the aesthetics or the specifics, the Penguins, for the moment, are still winning games. When my team wins games, o matter how they might win those matches, a smile naturally stretches across my face. Winning is good.
With the goodness of winning, and with the way this particular Penguins team has penchant for winning, naturally the comparisons have begun to come to the high-flying Penguins teams of the early nineties. Do you remember those games when the Penguins could appear absolutely disinterested for 55 minutes and decide to win the game in the last 5 minutes and win the game by virtue of sheer talent? Do you remember the way those teams could score at will? Do you remember when the star players were so busy trying to set up the perfect play on the power play that you yelled at them to shoot the puck? Do you remember all of that?
Obviously, this Penguins team is not yet, probably, as far along as were the Penguins’ teams of the early nineties. The Penguins three core players are 18, 19, and 20. Many of the supporting cast are in their first or second seasons of making real contributions to a NHL team. And despite the youthfulness of this Penguins team, the similarities are striking. An ability to score at will (at least against most opponents). Defense and goaltending that are (against most opponents) adequate until the at-will scoring machine works its’ magic. An incredibly potent power play that when unproductive, is typically kicking itself in the foot rather than being stopped by the opposing team’s strategy. And, of course, superstars and soon-to-be superstars doing what only obscenely talented players can do.
Of course, another similarity is the knowledge that can become an honest boost to confidence or an arrogant thorn in the flesh. By that knowledge, of course, I mean the knowledge that sometimes talent alone is enough to win. As fans of the early nineties’ teams were well aware, especially during the regular season, those teams could coast on talent alone. Sometimes hard work, if not frowned upon, was just viewed as something other teams had to do, but not something we have to do. Because we have so much talent that it doesn’t matter how hard they work or how hard we work—our talent can win. And while this young Penguins’ squad hasn’t yet begun to display the arrogant swagger where the possibility of hard work is summarily and routinely dismissed, there have been moments—and more than moments—in certain games where the Penguins have allowed their knowledge of the talent on their team to allow themselves to play a less-than-complete game. Assurance in talent can be a great thing or a huge impediment—confidence is one thing; arrogance is another. At moments, fortunately not too many to have cost the Pens that many point as of yet, the 2006-07 Penguins have been eerily reminiscent of those high-flying ‘90s teams who loved to win on talent rather than sweat.
Fortunately for the 2006-07 Penguins, they’re led by Sidney Crosby, who counts among his attributes a dedication to hard work. Since teams take their cue from their leader (and Crosby leads the team no matter if there is no captain’s C yet stitched on his sweater), hopefully the rest of the team takes its’ cue from Crosby and re-dedicates itself to hard work.
Because, as fans of those early 90’s teams know, when confident talent commits itself to diligent hard work, the results are amazing—yes, even championships. But as fans of later Penguins’ teams know, without the hard and diligent work part, even with the same confident talent—the results may be good, even very good for awhile, but they fall far short of great.
If we desire greatness, the team needs to maintain confidence in its’ talent and ability, along with the assurance that it is hard work that will help that all of that talent and ability to soar to wondrous heights.
Seriously Now
For all I could ho-hum the Penguins victories until the cows come home to roost (which will never happen, as cows do not roost, so that means into perpetuity), the fact of the matter is that the Penguins players have come to expect what I have come to expect.
Penguins players expect to win games. They even expect to win games when they spot teams multiple-goal leads or relinquish leads in games. Lately, despite the team’s propensity for giving their opponents a multiple-goal lead or allowing their opponent to climb back into a game, the Penguins have typically pulled at least 1 point, most often 2, even when "playing with fire."
Because, as everyone knows, the Penguins just can’t continue to do this. At some point, spotting teams multiple goal leads has to catch up with you. At some point, sitting on a lead has to catch up with you. You just can’t keep getting away with what the Penguins have somehow been able to continue to get away with doing in recent games. Honestly, you can’t.
Except, well, anecdotal and recent evidence points that the contrary statement is true. For the most part, the Penguins have gotten away with this nonsense of allowing their talent to sprout up or kick on or reboot or whatever you want to term it, at crucial moments in games. And for the most part, the Penguins have come away with at least a point in those games.
Coaches, of course, as well as experts and even the players, will tell you that teams can’t keep doing what the Penguins are doing. Yet the actions of the Penguins’ team itself demonstrates differently. To be clear: Sometimes, against inferior opponents, and perhaps even more often than just sometimes, you can do what the Penguins are doing and still win games. In the end, talent wins out, and when a superior team is playing an inferior team, sometimes talent matters matter more than spotting the other team a two-goal lead or relinquishing a lead.
The issue, of course, becomes clearer when the Penguins are the inferior team to that particular opposing team, or even when the Penguins are close to equal with a team. Then, unless Lady Luck is really on your side, you surely can’t get away with what the Penguins have made a habit of doing successfully. And, as the race for the playoffs get tighter, and assuming the Penguins can make the playoffs, what the Penguins have been getting away with doing, yes, will, catch up to them.
But let me be clear. The reason the Penguins are winning games while playing only a certain percentage of the sixty minutes going full-bore is because, in those games, the Penguins are the superior team. They should win games against inferior opponents.
Do I believe it’s to Pittsburgh’s benefit to continue their practice of letting other teams jump out to leads and/or relinquishing leads? Of course not—because, when the Penguins face off against teams like Buffalo and New Jersey and even against still more desperate teams such as Carolina, the New York teams, etc, in coming weeks—the Penguins are going to have the intensity of their opposition. They can’t be outworked when the other team is playing with desperation or when a team—for the moment—is a superior team to them.
So, much as I knew the Penguins weren’t out of yesterday’s game even after appearing comatose (I believe that was how Dave Molinari’s PG recap put it today) for the first forty minutes of play, there will come a time when the Penguins aren’t going to be able to manufacture those three goals in a span of a little over twenty minutes. Try that against Buffalo, try that against Jersey—it will not happen. May as well work to overcome those bad habits—and yes, of course, be glad you sneaked away with two points. But acknowledge, honestly, that you sneaked away with two points that you shouldn’t have had to sneak away with—they should have been guaranteed if you’d worked to your fullest capacity for the entire sixty minutes of the hockey game.
For all I could ho-hum the Penguins victories until the cows come home to roost (which will never happen, as cows do not roost, so that means into perpetuity), the fact of the matter is that the Penguins players have come to expect what I have come to expect.
Penguins players expect to win games. They even expect to win games when they spot teams multiple-goal leads or relinquish leads in games. Lately, despite the team’s propensity for giving their opponents a multiple-goal lead or allowing their opponent to climb back into a game, the Penguins have typically pulled at least 1 point, most often 2, even when "playing with fire."
Because, as everyone knows, the Penguins just can’t continue to do this. At some point, spotting teams multiple goal leads has to catch up with you. At some point, sitting on a lead has to catch up with you. You just can’t keep getting away with what the Penguins have somehow been able to continue to get away with doing in recent games. Honestly, you can’t.
Except, well, anecdotal and recent evidence points that the contrary statement is true. For the most part, the Penguins have gotten away with this nonsense of allowing their talent to sprout up or kick on or reboot or whatever you want to term it, at crucial moments in games. And for the most part, the Penguins have come away with at least a point in those games.
Coaches, of course, as well as experts and even the players, will tell you that teams can’t keep doing what the Penguins are doing. Yet the actions of the Penguins’ team itself demonstrates differently. To be clear: Sometimes, against inferior opponents, and perhaps even more often than just sometimes, you can do what the Penguins are doing and still win games. In the end, talent wins out, and when a superior team is playing an inferior team, sometimes talent matters matter more than spotting the other team a two-goal lead or relinquishing a lead.
The issue, of course, becomes clearer when the Penguins are the inferior team to that particular opposing team, or even when the Penguins are close to equal with a team. Then, unless Lady Luck is really on your side, you surely can’t get away with what the Penguins have made a habit of doing successfully. And, as the race for the playoffs get tighter, and assuming the Penguins can make the playoffs, what the Penguins have been getting away with doing, yes, will, catch up to them.
But let me be clear. The reason the Penguins are winning games while playing only a certain percentage of the sixty minutes going full-bore is because, in those games, the Penguins are the superior team. They should win games against inferior opponents.
Do I believe it’s to Pittsburgh’s benefit to continue their practice of letting other teams jump out to leads and/or relinquishing leads? Of course not—because, when the Penguins face off against teams like Buffalo and New Jersey and even against still more desperate teams such as Carolina, the New York teams, etc, in coming weeks—the Penguins are going to have the intensity of their opposition. They can’t be outworked when the other team is playing with desperation or when a team—for the moment—is a superior team to them.
So, much as I knew the Penguins weren’t out of yesterday’s game even after appearing comatose (I believe that was how Dave Molinari’s PG recap put it today) for the first forty minutes of play, there will come a time when the Penguins aren’t going to be able to manufacture those three goals in a span of a little over twenty minutes. Try that against Buffalo, try that against Jersey—it will not happen. May as well work to overcome those bad habits—and yes, of course, be glad you sneaked away with two points. But acknowledge, honestly, that you sneaked away with two points that you shouldn’t have had to sneak away with—they should have been guaranteed if you’d worked to your fullest capacity for the entire sixty minutes of the hockey game.
Ho-Hum
The Penguins spot yet another (and in this case, inferior) opponent a multiple goal lead. Ho-hum.
Pittsburgh’s power play appears comatose for two straight periods. Malkin, Gonchar, Whitney, Crosby, Recchi, Roberts, and whoever else they’re putting on the ice, even for a 5-on-3, just don’t seem that interested in capitalizing on the man advantage. Ho-hum.
While the Penguins fail to capitalize on several opportunities with the man advantage, their opponents don’t make much use of their man-advantage time, either. The Penguins kill a few penalties, and Marc-Andre Fleury ensures the deficit remains at merely two goals entering the final period of play.
Malkin shoots the puck (gasp) and scores. Ho-hum. 2-1.
Another power play. Time for a contribution from another star. Welcome back to goal scoring, Sidney Crosby. 2-2. Ho-hum.
Overtime. For whatever reason, Crosby and Malkin are both in need of skate repairs. No matter. We’ve had our contributions from the stars for this game. It’s someone else’s turn to shine. How about a goal from one of our "role" players? Colby Armstrong scores in overtime.Ho-hum.
3-2 Penguins win. Ho-hum.
Another come-from-behind victory. Ho-hum.
The power play scored twice in the final period, finishing 2 for 11 for 19%. Ho-hum.
The Penguins got another 2 points in the standings, despite playing, as the Post-Gazette’s recap noted, less than 60 full minutes.
Ho-hum, ho-hum, ho-hum.›
The Penguins spot yet another (and in this case, inferior) opponent a multiple goal lead. Ho-hum.
Pittsburgh’s power play appears comatose for two straight periods. Malkin, Gonchar, Whitney, Crosby, Recchi, Roberts, and whoever else they’re putting on the ice, even for a 5-on-3, just don’t seem that interested in capitalizing on the man advantage. Ho-hum.
While the Penguins fail to capitalize on several opportunities with the man advantage, their opponents don’t make much use of their man-advantage time, either. The Penguins kill a few penalties, and Marc-Andre Fleury ensures the deficit remains at merely two goals entering the final period of play.
Malkin shoots the puck (gasp) and scores. Ho-hum. 2-1.
Another power play. Time for a contribution from another star. Welcome back to goal scoring, Sidney Crosby. 2-2. Ho-hum.
Overtime. For whatever reason, Crosby and Malkin are both in need of skate repairs. No matter. We’ve had our contributions from the stars for this game. It’s someone else’s turn to shine. How about a goal from one of our "role" players? Colby Armstrong scores in overtime.Ho-hum.
3-2 Penguins win. Ho-hum.
Another come-from-behind victory. Ho-hum.
The power play scored twice in the final period, finishing 2 for 11 for 19%. Ho-hum.
The Penguins got another 2 points in the standings, despite playing, as the Post-Gazette’s recap noted, less than 60 full minutes.
Ho-hum, ho-hum, ho-hum.›
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