After any loss, especially an upset loss, there will be a tendency to focus blame. This morning in the short span of an hour I’ve heard and read criticism of almost everyone on the team – understandable reaction, but somewhat misguided in my opinion. Sometimes you have to step back and take the wider view. Let’s start with the obvious focal point, the captain, Sidney Crosby. The Kid had a disappointing series however you want to slice it, scoring only 1 goal in 7 games and taking a bad penalty only 10 seconds into Game 7. However, consider that in 13 playoff games this year, Crosby had 19 points and 6 goals – a 40-goal, 120-point pace over a full season. Last year, he had 31 points in 24 games, and for his career he has 82 points in 62 playoff games – an average of 1.32 points per game that is virtually identical to his regular-season career average of 1.36 points per game.
If you want to judge him solely by winning (which is TOTALLY unfair in a team sport) – his team has an 8-2 postseason series record since 2008, with 2 Cup Finals appearances and of course, 1 title. No question, he had a bad Game 7 and a mediocre series – but let’s lay off The Kid, if it hadn’t been for his fantastic regular season and his heroics against the Senators, the Pens would never have made Round 2. I’ve also heard complaints that he didn’t ‘lift his team’ the way Mario would have…please. Mario had 2 great Cup runs in 1991-92, but he also had 5 losing playoff runs after that, including 2 first-round exits in 1994 and 1997 with teams at least as talented as this years’ Penguin squad.
However, perhaps the most apt comparison is the 1996 Penguins, which lost in the conference Finals in 7 games to a low-profile, relatively no-name lower seed after taking a 3-2 series lead (sound familiar?). That was the year the Florida Panthers and their famous ‘Rat Brigade’ rode goalie John VanBiesbrouck all the way to the Cup Finals, where they were swept by the Avalanche. That Florida team averaged less than 3 goals per game in the postseason, but the ‘Beezer’ had a .932 save% and a 2.25 goals-against average – again, eerily similar to Halak’s .933% and 2.42 GAA this postseason. Lemieux and Jagr had had a great playoff season to that point, but were stymied by the Panthers’ tenacious defense and VanBiesbrouck’s stellar netminding. The point here is that EVERY great player has a bad game, or a bad series, at some point in his/her career, and to cherry-pick the latest bad game as some sort of ‘choking moment’ is rash and unfair – times like this are when you have to step back and look at the big picture even more. To me, the fact that Crosby can win a gold medal, a Stanley Cup, and get 19 points in 13 games and STILL be considered a disappointment by fans here only indicates how great he really is – he has set the bar so high that even he will sometimes fail to clear it.
While I absolve Crosby of blame for this loss, I will not spare Marc-Andre’ Fleury. Let me start by saying that at least 2 goals last night cannot be put on him – but that said, the first goal was, again, TERRIBLE and set the tone early. Many times this year, Fleury let in a bad early goal and was bailed out by his teammates – in Game 6 vs. Ottawa, he allowed 3 early goals before his team rallied. You can only go to that well so often, and Fleury was far too inconsistent, both in the playoffs and the regular season. This continues what has to be a disturbing trend for Pens’ management – over the last 3 seasons Fleury’s regular season save % has gone from .921 to .912 to .905, and his postseason sv% has gone from .933 to .908 to .891. In today’s NHL, .900 is the BARE MINIMUM acceptable number, and frankly .910 should be the goal – even on an up-tempo team like Pittsburgh. Quite simply, Fleury has to be better next year or the team has to think about going another direction in goal.
There are other players you can point to – Evgeni Malkin was disappointing all season, the defense corps was very hit-or-miss, the wingers were as usual not a huge factor – but again, let’s look at the bigger picture – management. Ray Shero has made some fine trades in his time as the Pens’ GM, so maybe he was due for a miss, but Alex Ponikarovsky (Poni) was a complete failure with Pittsburgh – so much so that he was benched for Games 5 and 6. In addition, the team has not developed ONE high-profile prospect since Jordan Staal was taken in 2006 – in other words, once the Pens stopped drafting in the top-3, the talent pipeline went dry.
The long-term great teams, the Red Wings, the Devils, etc., find a way to draft well even while winning – hitting on mid-and late-round picks, finding diamonds in the rough. In the NHL, players hit free-agency at age 27, and restricted free agency after 3 seasons – in other words, they don’t stay inexpensive for long, and it’s imperative to keep bringing on young, inexpensive talent to complement your high-paid stars. The Penguins’ window with their core isn’t open as long as you might think in the salary-cap era – Crosby has 3 more seasons under contract, Malkin has 4. Right now, by most accounts, the Pens’ minor-league system ranks among the worst in the game – Shero simply MUST upgrade that, and soon, or the team might decline quicker than anticipated.
Looking ahead, the Pens have several free agents – Gonchar, Cooke, Poni, Guerin, and Leopold being the most prominent. I think you can go ahead and say Poni is gone, and Gonchar is almost certainly gone as well at age 36. Cooke and Leopold are harder calls – I’m all for Cooke leaving, I don’t like his dirty style, but I expect he’s 50/50 to stay. Leopold is a quality 2-way defenseman, but the team probably needs a little more grit at the position, so his status likely depends on other moves. Guerin may retire, and even if he does not he looked to be out of gas by the end – I love Billy G., but I think it’s best to let him move on if he wants to keep playing.
As usual, the biggest hole is a quality scoring winger for Crosby, a position only capably filled for a few months while Marian Hossa was in town. They also will look at a rugged defenseman, but I expect the majority of their free-agent dollars to be spent on offense. The farm system DOES have some interesting defensive players – Ben Lovejoy, in particular, could develop into a nasty, shutdown defenseman.
As disappointing as last night’s loss was, take heart – Washington also lost, and they do not have a Cup to look back on with pride. Closing out the Igloo that way was a bitter pill to swallow, but this core of Penguins is not done giving us great moments yet. Instead of focusing on their recent failure, try to enjoy their overall success since 2007 and appreciate the memories we got in Mellon Arena’s twilight. I will have a column in the next few weeks detailing some of my favorite memories of Mellon Arena.
Next week – Round 3 predictions, as the NHL reaches their final four.
Dave Glass can be reached at buggyracer@verizon.net.