Really, Gary?

Soaring Expectations*

And a Multiple-Choice Question

Gary Roberts likes the Pittsburgh Penguins. Roberts is happy with the way he has been treated by the organization, and he enjoyed his time playing with the Penguins' children. In fact, he enjoyed the kids so much that he signed up for another tour of duty with the Pens' kids. And in doing so, Roberts only confirmed, aloud, a pervasive feeling that is beginning to reach most parts of the NHL.

When Roberts signed a $2.5 million 1-year contract with the Pens, he let slip that he believed the Pens were closer than Ottawa to winning the Stanley Cup. He said he believed it would be difficult for Ottawa to return to the Cup finals, and that, after seeing how Ottawa played against other teams (presumably New Jersey and Buffalo), that he believed perhaps all the Pens needed was "experience." While it's not a huge deal to be considered closer to the Cup than the Maple Leafs, a team that missed the playoffs, it's hardly a small thing for a returning veteran to say that he believes his own team is closer to winning a Cup than are the defending Eastern Conference champions. In fact, what Roberts said was huge in that Roberts verbalized what the Pittsburgh organization, and others around the league, are coming to believe.

The sentiment around the NHL is a dangerous one, and it's one seen as not if but when this group of Pens captures the organization's third Cup. And after last year's turnaround, expectations have soared. The youth and veterans who comprise the Penguins aren't going to be happy merely to make the playoffs this year. At some point, and very soon, this team is not going to be satisfied with anything less than a Cup. Which is all well and good, really, and it's what should be expected when you boast the kind of talent the Pens do. But let's allow ourselves a moment of reflective honesty: it's darn scary, too.

When you become the kind of team the Pens are on the verge of becoming, you are the team that every team in the league guns for because they want to stop you. At some point, all this gunning at is ridiculous (see the 1992-93 Pittsburgh Penguins, during the regular season, anyhow). However, this young hockey team is not yet at the mature point where their players are in their primes and are easily equipped to dance around and laugh at all the fancy attempts made by opposing coaches and players to stop them. The Penguins aren't going to surprise anyone next season. Teams will be studying videotape and matching lines, and they will be doing this during the regular season. Teams will be doing whatever they can to stop the Pens' offense, and while that's easier said than done, particularly in regards to Sidney Crosby, Malkin and Staal, their precocious oodles of talent aside, still have lots of developing to do. To have to develop, as they will, with other teams suddenly emphasizing not just stopping Crosby but stopping Malkin and Staal, too, well--

It's just enough to make this Pens fan pause and appreciate how much she loved the 2006-07 season. Having no expectations, aside from a bit of improvement and growth from the kids, the team exceeded my wildest dreams in the regular season. And even in the playoffs, Crosby and Staal gave me tremendous hope for the future. Yet this multiple-choice question has been floating in my mind for awhile:

In the 2007-08 season, it is most likely:

A. The Penguins compete for the President's Trophy and win the Atlantic Division and earn home ice advantage for the playoffs and win many postseason games.

B. The Penguins suffer through injuries and periods of sophomore slumps and make the playoffs as a fifth, sixth, or seventh seed, but manage to advance to the second or third round of the playoffs this time.

C. The Penguins' regular season isn't quite as successful as the 2006-07 season, and the team is once again ousted from the playoffs in the first round.

D. Various problems, e.g., injuries to key players, sophomore slumps, inconsistent play and coaching, lead the Pens to miss the playoffs by a narrow margin.

The thing that frightens me about the above multiple-choice question is that I can see "E," as in "any" of the above being possibilities for next season. While I see no reason for Staal and Malkin to regress rather than progress, they wouldn't be the first players to struggle more as sophomores than as rookies. I wonder what happens if an injury befalls a key player at a critical time (something the Pens were very fortunate with in the 2006-07 season). And yet I see the same thing that everyone else in the NHL sees, which is why "A" cannot be eliminated from consideration as an outlandish pipe dream, the way we assumed it would have been just a year ago.

At some point in time, though, and it will happen: The players are going to have acknowledge the raised external and internal expectations. It's what happens the first time the team fails to meet those soaring expectations, I think, that will ultimately determine whether answer choice A, B, C, or D, proves most true in the 2007-08 season.

*Probably the first of many posts about the seriously high expectations that the Pittsburgh Penguins will be expected to meet, and will expect themselves to meet, in future seasons.*