The disintegration of our Pittsburgh Penguins has begun. By my unofficial time table, a season or two early.
It isn’t as much a prediction as a statement of fact. With a 1-5-1 record over the past seven games—including a pair of dismal losses to the Bruins—the Pens are hurtling toward the infernal regions of the NHL standings at breakneck speed.
Look out below.
How bad could it get? Pretty bad, if I’m reading the tea leaves correctly. Chained to a puck-retrieval system they’re ill-suited to play, the Pens are in a state of flux. They appear confused and disorganized. They lack size, strength, toughness and flow. Worse yet, they’re fragile—mentally and physically.
You have to feel for Mike Sullivan. On one hand, leading an NHL team is every coach’s dream. But he’s stepped into a nightmare.
It reminds me of 2005-06. Sidney Crosby’s rookie season. Anticipating a black-and-gold resurgence, then-Pens GM Craig Patrick imported a slew of free agents to compliment “Super Sid” and a fellow named Mario. Some pretty accomplished ones, too. Point-man extraordinaire Sergei Gonchar, power forward John LeClair, and former Cup hero Mark Recchi.
The propped-up Pens promptly fell flat, dashing any hopes of a playoff berth. On December 15 Patrick fired coach Ed Olczyk and replaced him with Michel Therrien, who had prodded the Baby Pens to a rousing 21-1-3 start.
Sound familiar? It should. While the names have changed, we’ve experienced almost the exact same scenario a decade later.
Expect similar results, too. The Pens didn’t execute an immediate turnaround under Therrien. On the contrary, the team went a ghastly 4-17-5 during the Montreal native’s first 26 games at the helm.
Lemieux retired. Recchi was dealt to Carolina, where he won another Cup. Youngsters Colby Armstrong, Erik Christensen and Michel Ouellet were promoted from Wilkes-Barre to plug the gaps.
After much wailing and gnashing of the teeth, Therrien’s instruction finally took hold. The Pens finished that ill-fated season on a mild upswing.
Sullivan’s facing a similar challenge. While I don’t envision a crash and burn of such epic proportion, it’s liable get ugly. Indeed, Sullivan’s recent comment about teaching the team “the right way” to play has an eerily Therrien-esque ring.
Expect lots of tinkering. Lots of losses, too.
Hopefully, an immediate sag in performance won’t trigger a flurry of desperation deals from GM Jim Rutherford. JR needs to ride out the storm…at least for now.
Sprong Returned to Junior
The Penguins returned forward Daniel Sprong to the Charlottetown Islanders of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. A second-round pick last summer, the speedy 18-year-old tallied two goals in 18 games while seeing mostly spot duty on the fourth line.
To replace Sprong, the team recalled forward Scott Wilson from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. The 23-year-old native of Oakville, Ontario led the Baby Pens with 15 goals in 25 games.
Wilson (5’11” 183) made his Penguins debut last season. He appeared in one regular-season contest and three playoff games.
So now ew have a coaching change..and we still lose, so maybe it wasn’t the coach all along. So the guy whp put his stamp on this team G.M. Jim Ruthford, regardless of what he walked into, when does he lose his job??
Hey Rick,
Free fall ! No kidding. In our past 10 games our record was 2 wins- 8 losses.
5 straight losses under the new Coach.
In the next 10 games we play Columbus,Wild,Jets,Leafs,Wings,Isles,Hawks twice,Montreal and then Carolina again.New coach or not, if you really look at these 9 teams coming up, we will be lucky to win 3 of the next 10 games.
Really lucky!
Our defense,Letang included are not big enough,fast enough,tough enough and smart enough to compete for a Stanley Cup.
Our forwards are not doing the job either.Crosby and Malkin have failed to deliver a Cup to Pittsburgh for the past several years. What is going to change in the future? Until we retool the team…we will never win a cup !
This team as currently configured can not even compete in the middle echelon of the NHL,forget about being an elite team !
One observation I would like to add,is that the rest of the League has gotten much better,especially with young elite talent, that the Pens simply do not have.We have failed to keep pace with the rest of the league.Giving away all the draft picks in the past has finally caught up with us.
Yes we are in a Free fall.
Great observations, as always, Jim.
It’s appalling how poorly this team fits together. Like some crazy patchwork quilt. There’s no offensive flow, no rhythm. They can’t give or receive passes. Nobody ventures into the high slot. We either stand on top of the other team’s goalie (Hornqvist and Perron) or we’re off on the perimeter somewhere.
There’s no size, no toughness, no spark. And not much hope for a successful season.
Hey Rick,
Over the weekend I have watched many different media outlets and all have their opinions on what is wrong with the Pens.( US and Canadian National media, Pittsburgh media,even local Nova Scotia and New Brunswick media.) I especially like to read the fans opinions on who or what they blame as the cause of the Pens rapid decline in the league this year. Looking at things from a far,you get a different perspective on what people are saying. Most of the Pittsburgh fans and most of the Pittsburgh media want to “hang” GM Jim Rutherford. Everything is his fault.Just like everything was former Coach Mike Johnston’s fault.They did the same with Ray Shero and Coach Dan Bylsma. Very few mention Mario and Ron as the real cause.
In the Canadian media,there was a report that the Pens have actually been declining for the past 2-3 years. The issues were not just the Coach or GM.It was how the Team was being run.Not for a sustainable Hockey operation, but to make the most $$$$. They also mention that GM Jim Rutherford was not the first pick for GM.Other people declined to come to Pittsburgh they reported, because they knew the team was for sale. Makes sense !
In the local Nova Scotia media,the comment was made that Mario started to build his new 25 million dollars mansion in Quebec two years ago.So it appears Mario had a plan to sell the team long before last June’s announcement. But that is a tough call, because if you were Mario and had a chance to make 100 million dollars by selling your team, it would be hard not to do that.
Secondly,and proudly they report that Sid Crosby has done everything he could to insure success in Pittsburgh and the NHL. He has given millions of dollars in salary concessions each year to the team so they could hire better players to help win another Cup.He has done every media event asked of him by the NHL. It is not easy being Sid Crosby.
But it has also been 10 long and difficult years of physical abuse his body has taken due to the style of play which he operates at. He has had several concussions as well.So maybe time is catching up to Sid.
Cheers..
Rutherford is doing the exact same thing he did to the Hurricanes. Make a bunch of moves that seem good at the time. Only to have them backfire and gut the team in the long run. The canes still haven’t recovered from his term. How does this guy keep getting jobs?
Really astute observation about Rutherford, Will. My brother, Dan, who’s one of the sharpest hockey people I know, has exactly the same take on JR.
With the notable exception of last season’s deadline deals, I’ve endorsed most of the trades he’s made. Then you stand back and look at the overall effect and go, “How the heck did this happen?”
I’m fearful that as the team slides Rutherford will trade us into an even deeper hole.
traded too many draft picks in the last few seasons….never a smart move
Amen, Eric.
As a result, we have no real building blocks in the pipeline. Part of the reason Rutherford’s had to go outside the organization to plug holes.
Some of the kids at Wilkes-Barre (Sheary, Wilson, Simon and Dea) are playing well and producing. But they’re all undersized and there’s no guarantee they’ll have an impact at the NHL level. I still have hope that Pouliot will one day be a good offensive defenseman. But again, no guarantee.
It’s a pretty bleak scenario, actually. Barring some kind of major superstar sell off to restock the system, I don’t think it’s going to be a quick fix.
I agree here Rick. In that last three games particularly I thought they look better out there but still somethings not clicking. Sid looks like a zombie out there. Where’s the fire he had, especially when they won it all in ’09? Why is he not getting down and dirty to help get out of this funk? Maybe it is because the way Mike Sullivan wants them to play isn’t fully implemented yet and that takes time. To your point of the GM, hopefully JR doesn’t plan to or clean house too much but they should invest in their future more, maybe look at drafting and signing undrafted guys with more size and strength who like to play the body and help protect the stars. Get the players that play that heavy brand of hockey. The way things are going, the stars are heading for early retirement if they don’t. Maybe the Pens having a bad season is just what they need. Also saving a 1st round pick wouldn’t hurt. (correct me if I’m wrong the Pens retain their 1st rounder in ’16 if they don’t make the playoffs this year as a condition of the Kessel trade)
I’m with you 100 percent Greg.
We’ve got to get bigger, tougher and stronger. More competitive. If you blend in some bigger guys, then you can afford to sprinkle in undersized guys like Sheary. You need different types of players with different attributes to make a complete team.
Also agree that having a bad season might be a blessing in disguise. As it stands now, there’s no way this team will compete for anything meaningful (other than a high draft pick).
Regarding Crosby. There was a play back in the shootout loss to the Kings on December 11 that, to me, symbolizes the difference in him this year. With about 30 seconds left in the 3-on-3 overtime he gathered up the puck near the Kings’ blue line. One defenseman was back, but it looked like Crosby might be able to beat him if he turned on the jets. Sid looked up, dumped the puck into the corner, and went to the bench.
I don’t know any of the specifics. Maybe he was at the end of a long shift and needed to get off.
Bottom line? I think the Sidney Crosby of old would’ve taken the puck to the net and tried to score, no matter what the circumstance. Now he’s laying up.
I’ve never even hinted at this until now. But maybe Sid needs a change of scenery. Maybe the years of carrying the mantle of our unfulfilled expectations for another Cup has worn him down. As you mentioned, he just looks so stale and lifeless half the time. A shadow of the player he was.