I Am a Spoiled Brat

(Note: If you're a Pittsburgh Penguins fan of a certain generation,
read to see if this statement applies to you.)

Last night, several moments coalesced to lead me to the conclusion that I am a spoiled brat--at least when it comes to the quality of hockey I have come to expect of my team, the Pittsburgh Penguins. Here is a brief summary of those moments:

• After the Penguins defeat the Bruins in a shootout (thank you, Evgeni Malkin), I check the updated standings on yahoo's NHL site and note that the Penguins--in spite of, in my opinion, playing rather atrocious (read: extremely mediocre) hockey, somehow have a managed a 4-2-1 record.

• I am mature/sane enough to recognize that complaining about winning games while playing bad (read: average at best) hockey is, generally, not really worth complaining about (I mean, if you can win when you're not playing your best hockey, that's some sign you're a decent or at least lucky team, right?). However, I do find myself complaining about the quality of the opposition . It is not exactly as though the Penguins have beaten quality opponents, I find myself saying. Let's wait until they play Montreal. Or even the Rangers. Or dare I say the Red Wings. Because right now, the way the Penguins are playing, well, to put it mildly, I am not going to be convinced until they can beat quality opponents (and they did a poor job of convincing me they could do that when squandering a 3-0 lead to the Washington Capitals).

• I am irritated and irate (yes, the words hold the same general meaning, and the emotions I feel warrant two adjectives describing my emotions) when the Penguins allow other Eastern Conference teams to pick up a point when a tied game goes to overtime. Especially when, let's be real: These are teams that the Penguins, if they want to purport themselves to be a great team, should be finishing off in regulation. The Versus announcers (note I was kind and didn't call them bozos; perhaps this is early season kindness but we shall see if it lasts) can tell me all they want about Phil Kessel scoring goals and the Bruins being a likely playoff team, and I don't care: The Penguins are supposed to beat the Bruins in regulation. Every time. There is no excuse for not doing so if you are an elite team.

• Speaking of being an elite team, at several moments during last night's game, I realized that there is no getting around the fact that I am accustomed to watching the game's best players do what only elite hockey players are capable of doing. This, of course, means that I am accustomed to watching the best tandem of offensive defensemen this side of Anaheim's duo and the league's best power play quarterback sans Lidstrom when Sergei Gonchar and Ryan Whitney play the points on the Pittsburgh power play.
  I am accustomed to elite play from elite players--players who make the good play in their sleep, players capable of making the great play when being set up by two of the best centers in the world.

Being accustomed to elite play from kids who are barely able to drink legally in the States in Crosby and Malkin is a privilege, but it's also a drawback that can lead me to have unrealistic expectations for other players who will follow a more, er, normal developmental path. The young defensemen who have assumed many of Gonchar and Whitney's responsibilities are not yet elite players, and--gasp (snark warning)--they're not even going to be legitimate candidates for the All-Star team at this juncture of their careers! And the 20-year-old center who was drafted second overall and didn't come close to leading the NHL in scoring in his second full big-league season (as Crosby did and as Evgeni Malkin came tantalizingly close to doing) and who's struggling to find his offensive game--he doesn't look like a franchise player yet; he still looks like a kid who's trying to figure out aspects of the NHL game!

As a spoiled brat fan of the Pittsburgh Penguins, as the girl who grew up watching Mario Lemieux in his prime, only to be supplanted by watching Jaromir Jagr in his prime, as the one who got "hooked on HOF hockey" while watching several Hall of Famers and/or future Hall of Famers work on the same power play in the early nineties, and as the adult fan who's now had the chance to recharge my addiction to HOF hockey while watching Crosby and Malkin perform their show--let's just reiterate the obvious. I am a spoiled brat. I grew up watching elite players play the elite hockey only players of a generous God-given talent set are able to play. After a few years of, um, watching mere mortals play hockey as mere mortals do (lots of losses), I again got to watch a new generation of all-world players perform at all-world level--so much so that the team tore through the Eastern Conference playoffs last year (really, probably, in the eyes of fans and managerial types who care to be candid, a year or two ahead of "schedule"). And, well, in October of the season following that oh-so-close and yet oh-so-far Stanley Cup Finals loss, I may say that I don't expect perfection...and fine, I don't expect perfection. Well, not exactly.
I just expect the Penguins to play like an elite team...never mind that some of their young players aren't yet at an elite level and thus aren't yet capable of consistently playing at an elite level. Never mind that the season is barely a few weeks old and that the quality of hockey, in general, is not yet what it will be once teams and players have had time to gel.

Here's the thing. In order for my team to be what I want them to be--they have to beat the Bruins in regulation. They can't squander three goal leads to the Capitals. Jordan Staal must learn how to find the net, and another winger must learn to find the net at even strength on a consistent basis. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin cannot remain on the same line indefinitely; the Penguins need multiple lines capable of scoring goals at even strength. And while the Pittsburgh power play (after a porous start) has shown improvement, Malkin and the two young offensive defensemen have to use the skills they already have to produce on the power play. There can't be talk about potential when it comes to a team expected to be elite, for one that should be a contender--there has to be production, and not merely production, but productive production, the type of production that results in a complete team that literally, as a matter of course, bulldozes its way to victory after victory after victory.

Does the rational side of my brain understand that Letang and Goligoski are kids learning to play a tough position and that it's unfair to expect a 20-year-old to play the two-way game Sergei Gonchar's only gotten really good at playing in the past few seasons? Can I understand that certain players need time to adjust to a new team, new linemates, and new expectations, and a team culture that demands victories? Could I even cut the elite players slight slack when they're taking risks to create something great and occasionally make boneheaded (or, at least, not the "smartest") decisions with the puck? Of course. And sometimes, I do. Or I tell myself that I should.

But here's the cold, harsh truth. I am a spoiled brat fan of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who possess two of the best players in all of hockey, and--I am hopeful--a goaltender who in many ways has grown up before our eyes into the elite goalie he was for the playoff run last spring. And being a spoiled brat fan of the Pittsburgh Penguins entails that as much as I will love watching my team, as much as I will understand that Letang and Goligoski aren't Whitney and Gonchar and that Crosby and Malkin are the exception, not the rule, when it comes to the developmental curve of most young players, I will still expect that my team finishes off teams who will finish fifth through eighth in a conference in regulation, and I will still expect that my team handily beat teams that will not participate in the postseason. I will still expect the young defensemen to perform at a level high enough to result in production that helps the team to win games. I will still expect that the coach and his team figure out how to get this group of players arranged in such a way that even-strength goal scoring becomes the norm.

Absurd expectations? Unfair expectations? Ludicrous? Outlandish? Difficult?
Hmm. Maybe. Slightly. A little. But you know what--I don't need to hear excuses. "But this, but that." It bores this spoiled brat fan of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who expects one thing: victories. Lots and lots of wins--and hopefully, at some point come the spring, a chance, once more not just to come close to capturing hockey's holy grail...but actually to cling to the Cup upon season's end.

In the meantime, however, I'll concern myself with the Penguins winning enough games to make the playoffs, and when I find myself frustrated by a shootout win against a conference opponent that gives that opponent a point in the standings, I will note, that, yes, indeed, being a fan of the contemporary Pittsburgh Penguins means that you are, in fact, a spoiled brat who tends to expect nothing less than perfection.

Wins Are Great
Superstars Are Great, Too
Don't Get Too Excited
And Other Thoughts

-Don't get me wrong, I love watching the Penguins win. I especially love watching the Penguins win on Hockey Night in Canada. But here's the thing. The Toronto Maple Leafs are not expected to be a good hockey team. The Toronto Maple Leafs are expected to "contend" for the top overall pick in the 2009 draft. As such, the Pittsburgh Penguins, the young, promising team that went to the Stanley Cup Finals last season, are supposed to beat the Toronto Maple Leafs. And to be perfectly blunt, the Pittsburgh Penguins--even sans their top two offensive defensemen in Sergei Gonchar and Ryan Whitney and even with the offseason losses of wingers Hossa and Malone--are supposed to beat the Toronto Maple Leafs handily--you know, by a substantial margin. So, while it was a wonderful night for statistical milestones in Pittsburgh, and while it's reassuring to know the Penguins can still score on the power play, may no one delude themselves into thinking that the Penguins did anything wonderful or great tonight. The Pittsburgh Penguins merely did what a team with two of the top players in the world should do: beat a much less talented hockey team. The Penguins are going to need to continue to beat inferior opponents, and while they're at it, they're going to apply any lessons learned thus far in order to beat clubs far more talented than the Toronto Maple Leafs.



-Speaking of applying lessons learned, watching the Penguins power play sans Gonchar and Whitney has been, um, interesting, thus far this season. In fact, just watching the Penguins defense without Gonchar and Whitney has been, er, equally interesting.

But first to the power play...watching tonight, I was struck by a few things. I think it's good for Crosby and Malkin both to know how to play the point on the power play. I think it'll eventually be a useful skill for both of them, and perhaps something they'll get very, very good at, that can be used at certain times (recall that Mario Lemieux' career did include playing the point on the power play with much success). Even though the Penguins' power play was solid tonight (against an inferior opponent, when it should have been solid), I was struck by the pucks that Malkin didn't keep in the zone that Gonchar (or yes, even Whitney) generally keep in the zone, and keep in the zone with ease. Even for the best players, there is a learning curve. Malkin and Crosby are already at the top of the NHL as forwards, and their skillsets can be applied to manning the point on the power play. But neither Crosby or Malkin, at least not initially, is going to provide the same level of all-world power play point-man play we see in defensemen like Lidstrom. Numbers 87 and 71, as their statistics show, have got the talent--but now it's a matter of applying that talent in new situations. Which is just a long-winded way of saying: Crosby and Malkin are great, world-class players, but don't be shocked if, early this season, it takes some time for their all-world skill to manifest itself at an all-world level when they're manning the point on the power play.

Having noted that even a kid who's accumulated over 200 points in 161 NHL games is going to have a learning curve while manning the point on the power play for the first time, why not note that young offensive defensemen Alex Goligoski and Kris Letang are going to experience an even larger learning curve? Just like Paul Coffey (remember the Doctor swooned over Letang when visiting the Pittsburgh broadcasting booth last season), I love Letang's potential and style. And in tonight's game against Toronto, I saw the glimpses we'll see from time to time this season. I saw Letang rushing the puck confidently, I saw him hold the puck in, and I saw him knock down a Maple Leaf with a solid check. All of which, of course, I hope will one day become par for the course. But as Letang's current plus-minus rating might indicate, he is not yet at the stage where he's going to give you 24 to 25 minutes of solid, mistake-free play on a game-in, game-out basis. There are going to be lapses, there are going to be errors, and there's going to be the learning curve that comes when an inexperienced defenseman is "thrown to the wolves," so to speak, to get the experience he needs in order to improve. Goligoski and Letang both played less than 20 minutes tonight, and Goligoski, the rookie, has been a bit more protected (ice-time wise) than Letang thus far this season, but the bottom line is that Pittsburgh fans are watching two young, inexperienced defensemen....which, of course, is another long-winded way of saying: Don't expect Letang and Goligoski to replace Gonchar and Whitney. Don't expect them to do what Gonchar does, or even what Whitney does, at least not initially. Not because they may not one day be able to, but because reality dictates that just as Gonchar and Whitney needed NHL games to learn, so, too, will Letang and Goligoski.



-Oh, and my other thought about tonight's game, and about the Penguins in general? When you have two players as good as Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, well, you're just spoiled rotten, and you should expect to win games when you can dress two of the best players in all of hockey. I'm generally not a fan of Evgeni Malkin as Crosby's wing save for certain, special circumstances (Malkin, as last year proved, is a world-class center in his own right), and teams with only one line that is capable of generating scoring chances at even-strength may make the playoffs, but they generally are not built to advance in the playoffs. That said, the season is young, the Penguins in October (for better or worse, as the case may be) are not the same team they will be in January or in March--and the same goes for other NHL teams as well.
But just staring at the statistical milestones tonight, notating the points that two players have already put up, so quickly, is astonishing when you realize those two players play for your team and who, provided they stay healthy, are still at the nascent point of their careers. These players are going to score more goals, get more assists, learn how to play the point on the power play, and maybe Malkin's even going to get good at winning face-offs someday, too...but the point is, these players are already great. And as such, well, fretting about the state of the Pittsburgh Penguins seems a little overblown when both Crosby and Malkin are in the fold. Say what you will for the years of Mario Lemieux/Jaromir Jagr and what could have been/should have been, but those teams nearly always competed for division titles. The presence of world-class players in a lineup--especially two world-class players--means that talent can triumph against many opponents, and I'm looking forward to watching Crosby and Malkin do their shiny superstar thing this season.


-Oh, and while I already mentioned this in passing, it bears repeating, especially given that the playoff loss against the Red Wings probably still feels fresh. October hockey is not playoff hockey. Yes, a team needs to win the games and accumulate the points necessary to get into the postseason to compete for the Stanley Cup. But no hockey team in the autumn will be the same hockey team in the spring. For better or worse, injuries will occur, trades will happen, lines will be tweaked, etc., etc...the list is long.

Right now, it's interesting for me to ponder the blog post I wrote back in the spring of 2007, believing that sans a loss of Crosby, Malkin, or Fleury, the Penguins would be in the most trouble if Sergei Gonchar or Ryan Whitney were lost to injury. I find it interesting because both Gonchar and Whitney are out with injuries now, and no one can argue the Penguins don't miss those two players. The Penguins are a weaker team without Gonchar and Whitney--their power play is weaker, their power play options are weaker, ditto for the penalty kill, and while they still have depth on the NHL blueline, no one can argue that the defensemen who have assumed Gonchar and Whitney's minutes are as adept with outlet passes as are Gonchar and Whitney.

And yet what's interesting is what the Penguins know full well: They have to win games without Gonchar and Whitney. They have to rely on different players to win those games. And in order to win those games, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are going to take their turns at the point on the power plays on 5 on 3's, and we're going to wince more than a few times as Malkin gets comfortable at the point on the power play. We're going to wince way more often than that when we watch Goligoski and Letang get turned around or caught out of position or just not quite be able to do something that we've seen Gonchar do as a matter of course. And yet--the team in October won't be the same as the team in April.

Given last season, of course, I'm hopeful, but the season can go a ton of different ways, and the bottom line is the Penguins have to do what they did against Toronto tonight on a frequent basis against teams of a much higher caliber than the Maple Leafs. It should be a fun ride to see what they can do and how they do and who steps up to do it.


-Oh, and one last thought? Speaking of fun rides, the evolution of Marc-Andre Fleury from "kid with potential" to "goalie who makes the big save" and is congratulated on his postseason work by Martin Brodeur, that's just great. Here's to hoping Fleury continues his upward curve, and that a few of his teammates join him in creating upward curves of their own--to becoming peak players at their positions/within their roles, and in so doing, win lots of games...because, after all, winning is the name of the game. (And, yes, it's fun to beat any Canadian team on Hockey Night in Canada.)