Wow.
Even after watching every game this postseason, I’m still in awe – the Pittsburgh Penguins, a team that looked dead and buried six months ago, are Stanley Cup champions.
The Cup is the hardest championship in major professional sports to win – 82 tough games, then four grueling rounds of playoff action. Everyone’s banged up after 100+ games – Matt Cullen played with a broken toe for the past eight games, for example – but everyone who can lace up skates finds a way to get on the ice. In past Cup runs, Pittsburgh’s stars have stood well above the rest of the team – think Lemieux in ’91, Jagr and Francis in ’92, Malkin and Fleury in 2009. This year was different. This was a team win in every sense of the word; every single player who took the ice this spring played a key role. Let’s review some of the ‘unsung’ heroes of this glorious run:
Jeff Zatkoff – yes, he only played two games and yes, he’s almost certainly played his last game in black and gold…but never forget what he did against the Rangers. His performance in Game One was flat-out fantastic, especially in the first two periods, and helped calm a jittery team down. If the Pens lose that game – and then Game 2, as they did – there’s a reasonable chance that they collapse and are a forgotten team.
Olli Maatta – I love the kid, and few pros have dealt with the adversity he has by age 21 (two shoulder surgeries, cancer) – but he struggled mightily down the stretch, and was a healthy scratch by the Conference Finals. Then, when Trevor Daley went down for the season with a broken ankle, Maatta stepped back in – and looked like a revitalized player. He was a HUGE part of their wins over Tampa and San Jose, and I couldn’t be happier for him.
Chris Kunitz – Let’s face it, the 30-goal version is gone forever. He’s more of a 3rd/4th liner at this point…but he still can hit, he still will go to the net, and he showed just enough flashes of his old form to make a big impact during this run with four goals and 12 points. He’s now been a key contributor on three Cup teams – that’s a heck of a resume for any hockey player.
Brian Doumolin – Defense-first defensemen are generally underrated as a group, and maybe none moreso than Doumolin. He never makes the fancy play, he rarely scores…he just makes smart, steady plays game after game. His positioning is flawless, he can skate, and his breakout passes are crisp…in the modern NHL, that’s a recipe for long-term success.
Brian Rust – no one exemplifies the mid-season change on this team more than Rust. He wasn’t a high draft pick, his passing skills are below average, and his hands are mediocre…but he can skate like the wind, and he ALWAYS goes to the net. The last 40 games of the regular season, Rust was a huge factor – and he carried that over to the playoffs, with six huge goals and to everyone’s surprise, that sweet pass to Crosby to set up the OT winner against Tampa. Rust, Kuhnackl, Scott Wilson, Doumolin, and Murray represent the infusion of youth and speed this team has desperately needed the past few seasons.
Nick Bonino – we finish with the unsung hero on the line that made the difference, the line that FINALLY gave the Pens scoring depth. Remember in early March, when Malkin was injured? The team had been playing well, but there was a real concern that losing ‘Geno’ might put a sudden stop to the team’s momentum. Additionally, while Kessel and Hagelin had found immediate chemistry after Hagelin’s arrival, Nick Bonino had been a huge disappointment. Coach Mike Sullivan threw them all together…and the Pens went 30-10 from that moment. With HBK in place, the team became a matchup nightmare – teams mostly elected to try to neutralize Crosby’s line, with varying levels of success…but that left bottom-pair defensemen to deal with HBK’s speed game after game. That didn’t work out very well at all for the opposition; HBK combined for 20 goals and 56 points in 24 playoff games. I’d be shocked if this line is broken up next season – and Bonino was the missing link. When he joined this line, it immediately took off.
The stars were the stars – Malkin, Crosby, and Letang each had moments of brilliance – but the speed and the depth set this team apart. GM Jim Rutherford and coach Mike Sullivan deserve tons of credit here. First, Rutherford inherited a mess – an aging, expensive roster with no salary-cap space and a lot of dead weight. The bottom-six forwards were along for the ride most postseasons. He made some mistakes along the way, but this year almost every move came up aces – capped by the heist of the decade, Scuderi for Daley. I get that Daley didn’t fit in Chitown – it happens; why a smart team like the Blackhawks ever wanted Scuderi, I’ll never know. Add to that the savvy trade for Hagelin and the commitment to the Wilkes-Barre kids, and suddenly the roster was fast.
Let’s be frank, though – this was a pretty good roster in December, when Sullivan was hired. It was just directionless. I’m not a big ‘chemistry’ guy, but even I could see that this team needed an identity. Former coach Mike Johnston didn’t trust his defense, so he had the team playing a tight, conservative style – which was akin to asking a racehorse to trot the Kentucky Derby. It was just an awful fit for the talent at hand, and the stars never really bought in. Sullivan immediately changed that – by all accounts, his communication and motivation started with the stars and worked down. When Crosby is in, the team follows – and clearly, there was 100% buy-in here.
The other thing Sullivan brought was resiliency. This was a roster defined as much by their petulance and thin skin as by their skill – the league knew the playbook by heart: hit Letang late, hit Crosby late, goad Malkin, and they all will take penalties and get off their game. They say old dogs can’t learn new tricks, but the entire Pittsburgh roster completely changed in this regard…by the playoffs, absolutely nothing fazed them. Every goal, every loss was seen as a chance to bounce back, something to overcome rather than a huge obstacle. It’s hard to overstate how much Crosby and Letang, in particular, changed their ways regarding retaliation – and they deserve huge credit for it.
Sullivan’s signature line was ‘Just play’. Perfect for how this group performed.
So what now? Is this a one-time thing, or is the ‘window’ open for this team? I think the window is definitely open; this isn’t a young roster in total, but it’s certainly not an old one either. Crosby is still only 29 this fall, Letang 29, Kessel 29, Malkin 30. That’s ‘late-prime’ for a hockey player, but it IS still prime – especially for Letang and Crosby, who both have work ethics second to none. The roster will almost entirely return – Ben Lovejoy may leave as a free agent and Matt Cullen may retire, but everyone else is under contract or only a restricted free-agent.
The big question is in goal, as I seriously doubt Marc-Andre Fleury is willing to accept backup or even ‘co-#1’ status…but there’s time. I’m sure that will all be addressed in late July or August, and we’ll revisit the question later this summer.
For now, I think it’s safe to say that the window remains open for another 3-4 years with the core of this roster. Repeating is tough, almost impossible in this league – don’t underestimate the wear of 25 extra games on a player – but there’s no question this team should be a factor in 2017.
Aside from injury, only one thing gives me pause – Sullivan. He did a great job here, one of the best coaching jobs I’ve ever seen, but he strikes me as a very intense coach. I have a feeling that he may have a short shelf-life with any one team, as his message starts to get ‘tuned out’. I doubt that happens in 2017, but I wouldn’t bet money on him lasting through 2020, that’s for sure.
The other big winner here was the advanced stats community. Now, some of you are already rolling your eyes, but bear with me for a minute – compared to baseball and other sports, hockey is in the ‘dark ages’ when it comes to using data to build the optimal team. However, the past 4-6 years have started to see a quantum leap forward in this area, and as for 2016 – well, just take a look at this chart:
This chart was created on April 10, by the analytical website “Don’t Tell Me About Heart”. My friend Jim Rebholtz sent this to me that day, and frankly I was dubious at best. The idea is that puck possession and the last 25 games are the best predictors of future success – and I can buy that – but Pittsburgh as an 83% favorite over the Rangers? It seemed absurd. 55% to make it through two rounds? 24% to win it all – THREE TIMES better chances than the next East team? Well, this site absolutely NAILED it all the way around, and I think it’s time to start paying more attention to those factors. You can bet that next April, I’ll be referencing puck possession stats (one prominent one is called ‘Corsi’ and end-of-year trends a lot more closely.
But that’s then…for now, rejoice Pens Fans, there will be a fourth Cup banner raised next fall! These moments are fleeting and may never come again – enjoy the moment to the fullest!
Dave Glass can be reached at dsglass74@gmail.com.