Okay.....now the Pens are on a long term homestand to close out the season and the regular season life of their old barn. They were also catching the Capitals after clinching everything including the Presidents Trophy, and after playing an OT game the night before, and the Pens had something to prove, having lost all three of the previous meetings.........also the Pens are in a dogfight to take the 2nd seed in the conference thus avoiding both NJ and Washington until the conference championships........given their record against both, the Pens would come out flying and win this game, right? Well, as has been the case all too often this season our Pittsburgh Penguins gave a gutless half hearted performance led by their overpaid and underperforming goaltender, Marc Andre Fleury......Guys, if you read my posts from last year, I was positive about the Penguins even after falling behind 2-0 against both Washington and Detroit, and again after getting shellacked by the Wings in Game 5 of the Finals to fall behind in the series 3-2. Go back and read them, I can prove it!! I am unfortunately just as positive about the fact that the Pens will be gone after the first round possibly, and definitely no later than the second round. As it stands right now, the Pens will finish 4th and play the Senators in the first round with home ice advantage. The Pens will be in a dogfight to win this series, and if they are fortunate enough to do so, they will likely face Washington or New Jersey in the second round unless there are major upsets. They will not beat either team in a seven game series, I assure you. In ten tries this season they have not won a single game against either team this year, so to think that they will win 4 of the next seven would be pretty foolhardy to think...........no?
Some reasons in my opinion:
The Penguins have played a lot of hockey the past two years, and they may just simply be out of gas;
Their 3 center model puts a huge amount of their total spend into the three centers, cutting into their ability to pay for solid top 6 wingers. This means the 3 centers need to deliver in a big way based on their roles on the team. Malkin has been subpar all year, and that has hurt the team;
The goaltending has been SOFT and MAF is being overpaid for his level of performance. He is the 12th highest paid goaltender in the NHL, but his Save Percentage is 31st in the league, his GAA is 33rd in the league, and his shutouts are 33rd in the league. In addition, Fleury has been pulled in 8 of his 63starts or 13% of his starts. this by the way leads the NHL......by contrast not one of the top 12 goaltenders in salary was even close to that percentage but Luongo at 10%. Quick was at 3%, Miller at 5%, Nabokov, Broduer, and Bryzgalov were all at around 7%;
The two young defensemen who were supposed to step up this season with added responsibility have not done so......Letang has played pretty well, but has not scored nearly enough for what they had expected, and Goligoski after a strong start, just plain old SUCKS right now, and that is putting it mildly;
Trade Deadline misfire....two years ago the additions of Hossa and Gill at the trade deadline put the Pens into position to go the Stanley Cup Finals despite the high price of the Hossa deal, this was a win.......last year the additions of Adams, Guerin, and Kunitz gave the Pens a gritty penalty killer in Adams, a feisty winger that complimented Crosby and played the Pens forecheck game to a tee in Kunitz, and a veteran leader with some scoring punch in Guerin leading to the Stanley Cup Championship.......this year the Pens added Jordan Leopold who looks like a typical Shero steal adding some secondary scoring, and a solid two way defensive game, BUT despite what it looked like on paper the Ponikarovsky deal for Caputi and Skoula looks like a BUST. Poni has been invisible most of the time since he came here, and he is almost certainly a rental....so if the Pens dont make a deep run this post season, and Ponikarovsky is the dud he has been MOST of the time since the deal, the Pens gave up a kid who is thriving in Toronto for a rental who appears soft and lost out there;
And, yes maybe even coaching.....what you say???? Well, Dan Bylsma surely earned some leeway coming in and taking the Pens from 10th place in February to the Stanley Cup Championship last season.........but how much more leeway than Michel Therrien who took a team that played no system at all, and took them to the Finals only to be fired less than a year later? I know, a 4th place finish in the conference post Stanley Cup is not the same as the drop off in Therriens team, and Bylsma should not be fired, NO DOUBT......but, the staff has certainly not done anyting to improve our power play, it remains very poor....the Penguins have done nothing to deal with teams who now insist on playing the trap against them.......and the staff has certainly not been able to motivate a team during the stretch run for playoff seeding, as they lost games to Detroit, New Jersey, and Washington in stunningly easy fashion, and fighting tooth and nail with non playoff teams to win games.......very unimpressive month from an effort and preparation standpoint..............not ready to condemn for sure, but a little less certain of his long term magic..........
All of this leads me to think that this team is not playoff run ready, and they will save us season ticket holders lots of money this post season.....on a positive note, I loved Crosby again leading this team with a 3 point night to break 100 points again......with 3 game left and 48 goals I am hopeful that Sid the Kid will bust past 50 goals for the season. Also, Jordan Leopold needs to be signed for next season.....period. He just fits in here.
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