After watching the Penguins clinch their tenth-consecutive playoff berth with a 5-0 drubbing of the New York Islanders on Saturday, I couldn’t help but reflect on last year. When we squeaked past a woeful Buffalo Sabres squad on the final day of the regular season to literally crawl into the playoffs on our belly.
Remember?
Now we enter the homestretch as the hottest (and perhaps best) team in the National Hockey League. Winners of five in a row. Eleven out of 12. Six-straight on the road, for good measure.
Our scintillating performance harkens back to 2009. The parallels are hard to ignore. Following a moribund start, the team rallied around an energetic young coach to win a Stanley Cup.
Could it happen again this year?
You bet. Here are a few reasons why.
Star Power
For sheer star power, it’s hard to match the Pens’ quartet of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel and Kris Letang. Indeed, the fabulous foursome boasts of skills and attributes that less gifted clubs can only dream about.
They’re lighting it up, too. Sid earned the NHL’s First Star for March while pacing the locals to a 12-4 record. Letang’s been magnificent, piling up minutes and points (a career-best 62) in Norris Trophy proportions. With six goals in his past nine games, Kessel’s come on like gangbusters at just the right time.
Don’t forget Marc-Andre Fleury. Often overlooked, “Flower” won eight of nine starts to go with a sterling 1.98 GAA. Along the way, he outdueled more heralded counterparts Braden Holtby and Henrik Lundqvist.
Depth
The Pens have been rocked by injuries, especially of late. Malkin, Fleury and defensive stalwart Olli Maatta presently are on the shelf, along with Kevin Porter, Scott Wilson and rookie sparkplug Bryan Rust.
Our boys just close ranks and keep comin’. That’s because general manager Jim Rutherford assembled a deep team. The kind we haven’t seen in the Steel City for a number of years.
Take the defense, for example. When Ben Lovejoy was hurt in February, Ian Cole returned from a month-long exile to plug the gap. Quite capably, too. In 21 games since his return, Cole’s recorded eight assists and a plus-14.
Lovejoy stepped back in when Maatta went down. The Pens haven’t missed a beat. Derrick Pouliot played really well when called upon. He can’t break into the regular rotation, partly because newcomer Justin Schultz has done such a good job.
That’s what I call depth.
Reminds me of ’91 and ’09 when the black and gold had players like Randy Hillier and Philippe Boucher waiting in the wings.
Speed
Speed thrills. It kills. And it, most profoundly, enables the Pens to dominate opposing teams.
Adversaries like Washington, Philadelphia, the Rangers and Islanders have melted in the face of the Pens’ blitzkrieg attack. Burners like Carl Hagelin, Kessel and Rust routinely turn foes into a collection of uniformed pylons with their blazing speed.
It brings to mind a Gary Roberts lament from the ‘08 Finals. After the Pens were dominated by the lightning-fast Red Wings in Games 1 and 2, a frustrated Roberts griped, “You use up so much energy trying to find the puck, that by the time you get it you’re exhausted.”
The same goes for our present-day Pens. They don’t allow opponents room to breathe.
Passion
When Mike Sullivan assumed the coaching reins from Mike Johnston on December 12, he inherited a troubled team. It was reflected in the Pens’ often pallid performances. Not to mention an unusually quiet bench.
And now? Players are animated and focused. Thanks in no small part to Sullivan’s influence, the team’s work rate is fantastic. Kids like Tom Kuhnhackl and Conor Sheary fling themselves after loose pucks, pouring out every ounce of energy, every shift.
Their exuberance and hunger is contagious. Crosby looks like “the Kid” of old. Matt Cullen skates like he’s 29, not 39. Chris Kunitz is flying, too. Everyone, from crease-crashing Patric Hornqvist to callow Oskar Sundqvist, works his tail off.
Opponents are laboring to keep pace.
Coaching
In light of our recent success, it’s easy to forget how disorganized the Penguins looked under Johnston.
Lacking rhythm, pace and flow, the Pens struggled at times to connect on a single pass, let alone the series of short, tape-to-tape passes MJ prescribed. Puck support—especially in the offensive zone—was virtually nonexistent.
Man, have things changed. Again, credit Sullivan. He tore out the defensive restraining bolts that had superstars Crosby and Letang mired in quick-drying cement. His up-tempo approach re-ignited the offense to the tune of 150 goals since New Year’s Eve. An average of 3.57 goals per game. Incendiary by today’s NHL standards.
Sullivan’s a whiz on match-ups, too.
Is a Stanley Cup a certainty? Hardly. To paraphrase an old Beatles tune, the playoffs are a long and grinding road. Although we’ve had our way with them, our Metro Division rivals could present a significant road block. Washington, in particular, surely will employ a hammer-and-tongs approach in an attempt to slow our boys down and soften them up.
In the wild, wild West, Dallas would prove a most difficult foe. Chicago, too.
We’ll need all our horses to go the distance. If Fleury and Malkin return hale and healthy? I like our chances.
Mike Johnston is the worst thing to happen to hockey. He shouldn’t be allowed within 1,000 miles of Pittsburgh and hopefully won’t get hired to coach anywhere above the high school level
Hey Guy94,
In fairness to Johnston, he didn’t have the benefit of Daley, Hagelin, Schultz and the kids skating for him. He was making do with Perron, Scuderi, Plotnikov and a soon-to-be retired Dupuis (sorry Duper). Not to mention an 18-year-old kid (Sprong) he didn’t feel comfortable playing.
Perhaps if he’d had the benefit of our newfound speed, things would’ve gone differently. Maybe Johnston would’ve opened things up a bit, instead of sticking with the structured system that probably earned an extra win here and there, but failed to foster any flow or creativity. Maybe not.
I don’t think MJ’s a horrible coach. He knows the game pretty well (he’d probably make a good analyst). And he did restore the Portland Winterhawks from flat-line status to junior hockey power. So he’s had some successes.
Obviously, he wasn’t a good fit for us. In sharp contrast to Sullivan, the team never seemed to respond to him. The superstars languished. At times, he definitely appeared to be in over his head.
Still, I can’t help but feel for the guy. Maybe it’s just my perception. But he seemed to be kind of alone and isolated the whole time he was here. Like an island unto himself.
I wish him well.
If nothing else THEY ARE PLAYING EXCELLENT HOCKEY!!
go pens go
Hi Rick,
Good points my friend. Well said. I have been waiting for three months to write this post and with great embarrassment. I got it wrong! I was one of the most adamant nay Sayers on your blog. I said the defense was to small,not tough or fast enough to beat the big boys come play off time. I was wrong ! Our forwards were not big enough,not talented enough as a group to beat the elite teams come play off time. Winning 11 of 12 games in March proved me wrong ! Our Coach will be fired at the end of the year. Wrong again. He will outlast the GM.
So Rick, congratulations to the Pen’s earning a spot in the playoffs. Glad to get this one wrong my friend.
One final point,I think it is the play of the other players, not the core of 4 players you mentioned that will get us to the Cup Finals. This is a true Team effort plus this Coach is not afraid to bench Crosby or Malkin on the first Power play if they do not do well and send out the kids. That has never happened before and Sullivan deserves a lot of credit.
cheers
JIM
Hey Jim,
Oh jeez, don’t feel bad for misreading the Pens. I got it wrong, too. Big time. Remember, I was the genius (???) who predicted a total collapse a few months back.
I don’t know if anyone could’ve seen this coming. You mentioned in a previous comment that sometimes you have to be lucky to be good, and I think we’ve certainly had our share of that.
Injuries aside, it’s kind of been a perfect storm for the Pens, hasn’t it? Sullivan being a terrific hire and the team buying into his system. Rutherford making all the right moves. The kids coming up from Wilkes-Barre and being huge contributors.
By the way, outstanding point about the support and role players. Can’t say enough about the play of guys like Cullen, Hagelin, Kuhnhackl, Rust, Sheary, and Bonino (of late). Same thing on ‘d’ with guys like Cole and Schultz (and Pouliot when he plays) stepping it up.
It’s truly been a team effort. And that’s what it takes to win a Cup.
Hey Rick,
Spot on observations. In January, the “experts” and “odds makers” had the Penguins at 23 to 1 to win the Cup, even with the loss of so many players, those same self proclaimed pundits have listed the Pens odds at winning the Cup to 10 to 1.
That doesn’t mean I am planning a Stanly Cup victory party, yet. However, the confidence Sullivan has instilled in this team seems to be infecting me. I may not yet be willing to put money on them winning the Cup, but then again, I won’t put any money on them not winning the Cup either. With Washington’s history of play-off chokes even more storied than the Pens, despite their President’s trophy, if the Pens make it to the Championship series, I can see them make it to the Finals.
And as I mentioned to you the other day, although not a player, Sullivan gets my vote (as if I had one) as the Most Valuable Person on this team.
Hey Other Rick,
Always good to hear from you. And I couldn’t agree more…especially about Sullivan. This is in no way meant to demean Michel Therrien and Dan Bylsma—good coaches both. But I think Sullivan may prove to be the best bench boss we’ve had here since Scotty Bowman. Certainly since Herb Brooks.
Granted, it’s early in his tenure. But Sullivan doesn’t appear to have a weakness…at least not a glaring one. He communicates well. He’s not an ogre, but he’s not afraid to confront and correct players. Although he preaches an offensive style, he doesn’t abandon the need for defensive structure and attention to detail. He’s good on match-ups and in-game strategy.
Perhaps most importantly, the team’s really responded to him. They’ve bought into his system hook, line and sinker.
I think we may have found our Joel Quenneville.
Regarding the Capitals. Just my opinion. But I think they overreached at the trade deadline and wound up clunking themselves up by acquiring guys like Mike Weber and Daniel Winnik (and a washed-up Mike Richards, too).
Brooks Laich—traded to Toronto in the Winnik deal—was extremely popular and well-respected among his teammates. Little things like that can make a difference.
I think Braden Holtby’s overrated, too.
Hey Rick,
You just brought up a really interesting point about the Caps over-reaching with their trades. I hadn’t really thought about it, but now that you brought it up, I am wondering if the trades you mentioned will, in the end, destroy the Caps team chemistry the way Shero destroyed the Pens chemistry with trading for Morrow, Inginla, Murray, and Jokinen.
Not that I don’t like those players, but the ubiquitous rumor mongers suggest that Crosby, Malkin, Neal, Letang, et al got ticked off at the trade becuase they felt that management didn’t have faith in them. Maybe there is/will be a little of that type of resentment in the Caps locker room, most especially with their history of failure. I could see super-egos like Ovie getting into his own head, especially if a bounce or two goes against him.