Remember the Good

Tonight I was commenting on a favorite local media member's congratulatory post to Brooks Orpik and Paul Martin for their recent selection to the US Olympic Team, seconding his congratulations, when another poster was pretty negative about  both being on the team and calling it a homer decision.  He was a Pens fan.  I did not get sarcastic but noted that there was a large committee who made the choices, not just team Pittsburgh, and left it at that.  At this point the typical internet idiot came out, not due to his disagreement with my position, but due to the fact he immediately went to name calling mode, and telling me that Ray Shero, Dan Bylsma, and David Poile all were horrible at their jobs and made big mistakes.  I indulged the idiot for a few but moved on as you cannot reason with idiots, as entitled to his opinion as he is, his need to beat his chest and throw about names while denigrating people who make more important decisions before their first piss each day than he likely does all year made it a waste of time to engage him.  His big point was that other than Whitney fetching Kunitz in a trade Shero had done nothing for the Pens and that Bylsma was a loser.  I chose not to respond and clutter the timeline of a person I respect any more than I had in my brief encounter with said idiot, but in very short order I can list a few things that would seem to indicate that these men are pretty good at their jobs.  First, let me say yes, I LIKE both men quite a bit, but I have also QUESTIONED at times ASPECTS of their jobs.  For instance, if you look at Shero's draft history, it is littered with players who never did anything for the Penguins, and are either gone or pretty much pigeon holed as non NHL or non-impact NHL players.  As for Disco, I, like many fans got quite frustrated with the past couple of post seasons, and the one right after the Cup.  That frustration with recent post season results does not negate a very positive overall body of work.  I mean, they have gone to the Eastern Conference Finals and lost, the Stanley Cup Finals and lost, and won the Stanley Cup in Bylsma's 5 completed seasons with the Pens.  The Pens were mired in 11th place when Bylsma took over in February of 2009 and they won the Stanley Cup later that year.  Four best of seven series folks, and they avenged their 2008 loss to an excellent Detroit team in so doing.  Let's not forget that in 2010-11, Bylsma won the Jack Adams Award as the NHL's best coach for guiding the Penguins to 106 points despite losing Crosby and Malkin among others for the second half of the year.  In his three full seasons post Cup the Penguins have finished with 101, 106, and 108 points, while finishing atop the Eastern Conference in last season's strike shortened season with 72 points. This year the Penguins again have been demolished by injury and yet remain near the top of the entire league, recently winning 14 of 18 games, despite losing their top 5 defensemen, Malkin, Bennett, Glass, Dupuis and others.  So, despite being concerned about recent post season play, stubbornness related to matching lines or adapting to the other team, and an infatuation with Deryk Engelland that drive me nuts, you can hardly call the Bylsma tenure a failure.  He also contributes mightily to a general feel along, with GM Ray Shero that makes the Penguins a place that highly valued players take less than market value to stay long term and be part of an organization that treats them right.  That is an underrated contribution to the long term success of the organization.

Let's get back to Ray Shero, who according to this clown has done nothing but the Whitney trade other than play with Craig Patrick's players.  First, when you look at the value of Kunitz to the Penguins (an off the radar winger at the time), and compare that  to what happened to Ryan Whitney's career this is no small feat!  However, it is hardly the only valuable thing Shero has done.  First, he has created an atmosphere that makes the Pens a destination that players want to go to, and he has done that in many ways I will not detail as many others have done that before me.  But let's start with some early moves that helped mold this team like trading Noah Welch to Florida to get Gary Roberts. whose toughness and leadership helped this young team go on its magical and unexpected tear to the 08 Finals.  He also sent Carcillo and a pick to Phoenix to bring in Georges Laraque, who also added toughness and grit his first couple of seasons here that changed the swagger level of the young stars on the ice.  In the off season of 07-08 he signed Petr Sykora, another prominent player on the teams that went to the Finals, and he brought in Hal Gill at the deadline who played a prominent role in the  Cup run.  To me the Hossa deal helped win the cup in 2009.  And yes, I know Hossa was not on the Pens in 2009, but sending Erik Christensen, Colby Armstrong, Angelo Esposito and a pick to Atlanta for Marian Hossa and Pascal Dupuis told this team they were ready to win and win now.  That run to the 08 Finals does not occur without that deal, and the 2009 championship does not occur without that 2008 run that ended in a home loss in Game 6 of the Finals.  Oh yeah, and Dupuis has been arguably the best value in the NHL dollar for dollar over that time frame.  The players our fans were distraught over losing have done nothing of note since the trade.  Ray Shero, his guts, and savvy played a major role in turning the Pens into a perennial Cup contender.

Does anybody think that getting James Neal and Matt Niskanen for Alex Goligoski is anything short of robbery?  Niskanen has been at worst a solid fifth defenseman, and at best during the recent injury spate, the leader and anchor of a blue line that contributed to a lengthy win streak putting the Pens near the top of the league while playing with mostly AHL players.  When you see the money being thrown around does anybody think Shero sucks for getting Neal for five years at 5M per year?  The acquisition of Neal also gave Malkin a bonafide sniper to play with and when paired they are amazing to watch!  Does anyone think that deal Neal signed sucks?   Didn't think so!

What about the Jordan Staal deal.  Remember he was Shero's first pick ever and a big part of the Penguins success and Stanley Cup win.  The emotional ties there could have led to a disastrous attempt at retaining him.   As Staal was about to enter his final year before going UFA he turned down a 60M offer from the Pens which SHOULD have killed any leverage the Pens had in dealing him since it was pretty obvious he could be had for nothing at the end of the year.  Yet Shero gets Brandon Sutter, Brian Dumoulin and the 8th overall pick in return for a lame duck pending UFA?  Sutter is a key component of the current team, Dumoulin showed he is ready for NHL play and will either allow the Pens to deal a more expensive blue liner to make room for him or get value back in a trade for him.  Pouliot is getting high marks as a guy who could be NHL ready next year and a potential top power play quarterback.  Oh, yeah we saved 4M in cap space for a year as well. I would say that move was also borderline robbery on the part of Shero given the situation at hand.

 Shero sucks??  OK pal.

Can you criticize some of his drafts?  Yes, especially the early ones which did not net much in return for the Penguins.  However, in this recent run of injuries the blue line was stocked with Shero picks like Despres, round one 2009, Bortuzzo round 3, 2007, Maatta, round one 2012, Samuellson round 2, 2009, and before injury Beau Bennett the first round pick in 2010 was a top nine forward.  The system is stocked with young defensemen and Shero has shown in getting Kunitz, Neal and Niskanen in return for Whitney and Goligoski what he can do with young defensemen in the trade market.  The Penguins have won 2 Division Championships, had a conference finals loss, a Stanley Cup Finals loss, and a Stanley Cup Championship under Shero's tenure.   They are again among the favorites to win the Cup this year.  Their organizational depth was there for all to see for the past two months, meaning they are set up well for the long run also.   There are very few organizations in pro sports who would not trade places with the Penguins if they could. yes, I can pick some items that both do to debate and question, but in the end the results have spoken for themselves and on top of that they are both classy men and assets to the organization in ways outside of the hockey specific items noted above.   Yeah, these two are idiots.