For those of us ancient enough to remember the TV show Happy Days, it was a classic episode. The one where Fonzie tried to admit he was wrong to Ralph Malph, but couldn’t get the words out.
“I was wrrrr…,” stammered the Fonz.
Well, the same goes for me. I was wrrrr… about our Penguins.
Six weeks ago I predicted a black-and-gold implosion of epic proportions. As recently as three weeks ago I felt they wouldn’t make the playoffs. I’ve carped about their lack of size and snarl. I truly believed you built a hockey team the old-fashioned way. With a mixture of skill and brawn. Heavy on the brawn.
My idea of a hockey club? The Columbus Blue Jackets. You see where they are. Vying for the NHL cellar, last I checked.
The Penguins have made a believer out of me.
My word are they fast. Aggressive. Crisp. Relentless. Watching them eviscerate Anaheim at the CONSOL last night brought to mind the Red Wings team that skated us into the ice during the 2008 Cup Finals. The poor Ducks simply couldn’t cope. Heck, even our kids skated circles around them.
I know, given how well the team’s playing, it’s all-too-easy to get carried away. But things are starting to feel an awful lot like 2009. When Dan Bylsma loosened the restraining bolts cinched so tightly under Michel Therrien and the Pens took off.
Sidney Crosby’s on fire. Seven goals and 12 points in his past four games. Are you kidding me? Paul Steigerwald and Bob Errey were right. Sid hasn’t dominated this way since his pre-concussion days.
Kris Letang’s been otherworldly. Eight goals and a staggering 26 points in his last 17 games. Foot soldiers like Chris Kunitz (five goals since January 12) are finding the net, too.
A far cry from the end of the Mike Johnston Era, when the stars struggled to score and the team looked as choppy as overtime ice. Mike Sullivan—with a big assist from GM Jim Rutherford—changed all that. Now the Pens are skating with passion and purpose. Not to mention that breathtaking speed.
Okay, maybe I’m not a total convert just yet. I still feel we’d benefit from a pile-driving forward. And a crease-clearing defenseman. But I’m coming around.
Maybe you can teach an old-school dog new tricks.
Yeah, they have played very well, but we haven’t played an elite team in a while. Florida is good but not a contender, Washington, Chicago, L.A. and Dallas. That’s the measuring stick, plus the playoffs are not a lock, yet.
Oh yeah and Kessel, don’t get me started on that $8 million waste of space, at 15 goals is a bust and after what we gave up, maybe the picks and prospects wouldn’t win us the cup but neither will Phil, I still hate the trade!!!
Hey Rick,
Don’t jump off the band wagon just yet my friend.In my last post I wanted to see how we would do against the Rangers before I made my decision.(The Caps too.)They beat us 3 -0 ! Did we play better ? Yes. Was it fun to watch ? Yes. But they still won!
Why? 1. Size matters. Marc Staal 6’4 210#,Dylan Mcllrath 6’5 225#, Chris Kreider 6’3 226#,Kevin Hayes 6’5 227#,Vic Stalberg 6’3,Rick Nash 6’4 225#, even tiny JT Miller is 6’1 205#. We can not match that.The Rangers are built to play against the bigger teams come play off time.It is not a coincidence that d man 5’11,190 # Trevor Daley got injured last night.
When it is all said and done, to win it all you need to be big,fast and…
2. Smart ! The Rangers only took 2 penalties last night.You can not give the Pens 5 or 6 Power Play chances.They will burn you. The Rangers out hit the Pens 46 to 25 ! With their size advantage.No contest. They blocked 25 shots.We blocked 8.
Sure we did not have Malkin…but they did not have Nash either and he is more important to the Rangers then Geno is to us.We still have Sid !
3. Goal tending !!! King Henrik is as good as MAF or better. The Rangers did not let the Pens have to many second shot opportunities.Forced the Pen’s to
take perimeter shots.In short, they played play off style hockey.
So,while I am very happy my team is playing an offensive style of play and it is fun to watch,I am reminded that “WE dumped Disco Dan ” because it was said that our team could not play defense and needed discipline in order to win a cup after five years of failures.”
We brought in Mike Johnston to do that and the team floundered.
Now everybody is excited again that we are playing ” run and gun” style hockey,very similar to Disco Dan’s, but remember we were never successful doing that either.
So I stand by what I said Rick that we need to become bigger and stronger to win it all. With the new kids,recent additions and change of Coaches we are faster now which is a good thing.
Our Achilles heal is our size, talent pool in the minors and the lack of Cap space to make any real trades. Other teams will make trades and be better for it. Just look at the trade Ottawa did.
Cheers.
But at least they are fun to watch.
Hey Rick,
One other point. Last night Crosby never had a shot on goal.He had one blocked shot and one missed shot. Our team had 34 shots on goal,25 blocked shots and 14 missed shots on net for a total of 73 attempted shots. Our captain only had 2 attempted shots and both never reached the net !
This was not due to lack of effort on Crosby’s part. He competes every night.This tells me that the Rangers and their big bodies did a heck of a job shutting done one of the league’s most dynamic players. Keeping Crosby off the score sheet was no accident.Great execution by the Rangers.
This was no fluke.They did this in last year’s playoff’s as well.
Last point. Kessel,Hagelin,Pouliot,Sheary, and Cullen never had one single hit on anybody last night ?? The Rangers had 46 of them.
You get my point Rick.
Hey Jim,
Your latest comment got me to thinking about physical play. So I decided to look up team hits.
According to sportingcharts.com, the Pens rank 12th in the NHL in hits (1323) and 11th in hits/game (25) through February 10. They actually rank ahead of “heavy” teams like St. Louis and Washington. The Islanders are tops in hits/game (30.4). Philly ranks third (28.9); the Rangers eighth (27.1).
No question New York carried the physical play last night. But overall, I think that’s been the exception rather than the rule. Other than Columbus, I don’t think anyone’s really bullied us this season.
Mind you, I do wish we had more of a traditional physical presence. Along those lines, I’d love to see JR pry Kerby Rychel out of Columbus. Probably wishful thinking…
Jim, Rick, forgive me for jumping into this discussion.
Like you Jim and Rick I do prefer a little larger of a team but what I want to suggest is that looking at hits can be misleading. A player cannot get credited with a hit unless they do not have the puck so hits can be looked at more as a puck possession stat. Furthermore, it may be more important to split that stat into which zones the hits occur.
I certainly wouldn’t want to have a whole lot of defensive zone hits from my D, since that would mean that opponents would have had possession of the puck in my defensive zone. I would prefer to see my hits occuring in the offensive zone, wearing down opposing D with hits. So if Pouliot can get the puck out of his own zone, I wouldn’t be that worried, depending on the play.
I wouldn’t mind having offensive zone hits as long as we win the puck from those hits. But again if we have the puck in the offensive zone, there is no need to hit anyone. So if Kessel and Hagelin are normally in possession of the puck from either skating into the zone with it or winning the race to the puck when the puck is dumped into the attacking zone, they wouldn’t get a whole lot of hits.
However, I do agree that in the NYR game hits did play apart in the game out-come. Thrity-three of the forty odd hits that NYR had came from their forwards. I can’t say if they were all offensive zone hits, since no one tracks those totals (ESPN does keep track of where hits occur in the play-by-play of their box score, but they don’t total them). However, since forwards usually get their hits in the offensive zone, their hits on our smaller and undermaned “D” (due to Daley being hurt) could have had a great impact. And watching the game, it look like it did. The Rangers did look stronger as the game wore on. Even though they didn’t really ring up a lot of shots, they did have periods of extended pressure.
To sum up, I do agree that the Pens could use a couple of bigger players and that the Rangers size did play an important role in the game. However, I just want to caution that stats alone can be misleading. Looking at the game as a whole, breaking stats into zones and tying the two together may be more beneficial.
Excellent insights and thoughts, Other Rick.
My point? Despite the lack of a traditional physical presence, I don’t think the Pens are a timid team by any stretch. They battle hard and compete in the traffic areas. With the notable exception of the first two Columbus games, they aren’t easily intimidated or discouraged.
Do I think we’d benefit from a having a couple of capable bigger (and tougher) players? Absolutely. However, I wouldn’t want to add size just for the sake of adding size if it meant seriously detracting from our team speed. I see our quickness as a real asset right now…one that gives us an edge over most other teams.
Well said “other Rick”. Thank you for your insight. I enjoy and welcome the discussion and exchange of ideas on Ricks blog. There are some very well informed people who post on this site.Your points are well taken.
My point is and has always been that the Pen’s teams of recent years have been smaller and less punishing to play against than most of the real elite teams in the NHL.
We need a larger d corps if we are going to go far in the playoffs. To me,the real weakness of our team is that we rely to much on Kris Letang. Given his medical history of concussions and his style of play,that concerns me.Other teams take liberties with him and we do not respond.Would it be to much to ask for a 6’4 230 pound d man with speed,skill and some snarl to his game to play with Letang? Please !
Plus while I am ranting,dear Lord send us a left winger for Crosby as well ? Somebody big,fast who can score and cheap!
and a replacement for Beau Bennett to help the bottom six.
Cheers.
Thanks Rick Buker for allowing me the opportunity to discuss my Team with other fans who know the game.
Always a pleasure to hear from you, Jim, and to read what you have to say … 🙂
Like you, I’ve spent a good deal of the past few seasons bemoaning our lack of size and strength. But I’m (slowly) beginning to soften my stance.
For me, the recent Anaheim game was a real eye-opener. With guys like Ryan Getzlaf, Patrick Maroon, Corey Perry, and Chris Stewart–to name a few–the Ducks are a big, strong team. The kind I normally would envy. Yet they literally couldn’t touch us due to our speed.
I know there’s a balance to things. And it’s important for a team to have at least some size and strength. But maybe we don’t have to be the biggest kid on the block to be successful.
My new way of thinking, I guess …
Hey Rick
You might be right my friend.Time will tell.
We will all know for sure within the next 25 games or so.There is so much parity between the teams now in our conference that we can not be sure of anything. Even making the 8 th spot is going to be tough. Today I am boldly predicting we finish no higher than 6 th in the conference.Two months ago I would have said 10 th. So as a Pens fan I am very pleased despite my criticisms.
One other point missed in my post was that the Rangers “shut down” Crosby, in that they kept him off the score sheet. He never got a shot on goal. Only had 2 attempts. That, Rick is good team defense when you can do that.
How many times over the past years have we heard that Crosby disappears in the playoffs?
It is not due to his lack of effort.He only plays one style. All out.
I think it is because the bigger and faster teams can keep up with him and because of their size can keep him away from the net.
Plus the teams do not take stupid penalties against the Pens come play off time.
Call me a dinosaur or a relic.
Cheers.
Thanks for the Welcome Jim,
I am glad I found this site. You are right there are some good people commenting here. It gives you a lot to think about/consider.
And I am right there with you, I would love for the Pens to find a big 6’4+, 230lb+ D who also plays as a hard nose game and keep the MAF’s crease clear. I keep hoping they could bring one up through the system. I still think, that even if the regular season is moving toward more of a speed game, you still need some brute force to balance it out.
I also think that although, Rust, Kuhnhackl, and now Sundqvist haven’t shown themselves to be the whole package yet, that even when healthy, Bennett should not be given his role back, that all 3 of these players have shown to be very servicable and less fragile. In fact, the Fehr-Rust-Kuhnhackl line did a great job together and would do so again when Fehr gets back. I do not see a need to put Bennett in the mix. When healthy, it may benefit the team more to show case him and try and trade him while he is healhty, if he gets back befor ethe deadline. If JR could get Daley for Scuderi, he may be able to work some more magic with Bennett.
Agreed Other Rick!
Bennett should be a trade chip with possibly Cole/Love Joy and maybe Tristan Jarry if the deal made sense. ( We do not need both Jarry and Murray).
Cheers.
Kessel needs to pop a few and show you what he’s got and you guys are good. Is something wrong with him or do you guys think he really sucks? Coming from a fucked up long time leafs fan.
Hello Fltundutchman,
While I don’t think Kessel’s been a washout (15 goals, 19 assists), neither has he been the player I was hoping for. Given his speed and pedigree (five 30+ goal seasons), I was expecting him to fly down the wing and score off the rush. He hasn’t been that guy—at least not yet.
He did show signs of springing to life recently when teamed with Malkin and Hagelin. In particular, Hagelin’s speed and ability to carry the puck created space and opportunities for Kessel, who seems more dangerous when coming in behind the play. Unfortunately, with Malkin out that’s kind of gone by the wayside for now.
Kessel’s botched his share of scoring chances, too. Either by rushing his shot or not taking passes cleanly. Hard to know if he’s pressing a bit. He’s a better passer than I’d anticipated.
Other than that, he’s kind of what you expect. Kessel’s not going to win the Selke Trophy, nor is he going to dominate along the wall. But I don’t think he’s dogged it, either.
Not Sold Yet
Everyone gets worked up because they have a couple wins ? Sure they were scary fast against the Ducks . I was impressed . And it does seem like Crosby is done with Sandbagging and taking a hissy fit like a child since he got a coaching change . And Letang is getting a few points ( but still can’t play D ) . But when does the team go back to the slo mo skating as usual ? When does Letang go down with another of his every year , season ending injuries ? When does Sid decide he wants another Winger ( that he can’t mesh with . How many has it been now ? ) and pulls another childish tantrum . The Malkin Line is an amazing line .
The 3rd and 4th lines are doing a good job although when playoffs come , those smaller guys are going to get man handled . Then there is the D . Still not there . We have some good D men . But not all . And you can talk all you want about Goals from the D but what good are they if they can’t play D ? Playoffs is where you want good stay at home Defensemen . We have no Cap space , we have nobody anyone wants that we can afford to trade . At playoff time , Sid does a Ghost act , dries up like California in summer , or is injured ( or that’s the excuse we hear every year ) . No , sorry . This team is another 1 and done this season if they even make the playoffs .
Hey David,
Good to hear from you.
Perhaps I’m a tad guilty of getting caught up in the team’s current success. And I do understand your reservations. After all, this (dramatic) turnaround is fairly recent. For most of the season the Pens were decidedly underwhelming.
Still, I think the transformation is for real. It’s rooted in the way Sullivan’s got them playing. On their toes instead of their heels. With plenty of speed, energy, and puck support.
“Playing the right way,” as Sullivan notes.
Of course, getting tons of production from your superstars doesn’t hurt. It takes pressure off the rest of the team and allows the foot soldiers to just play their games. If they score like Sheary and Kunitz did the other night? Bonus.
I’m not a Sid basher, and I can’t comment on his frame of mind earlier this season. Did he look thrilled to be playing a 200-foot game under Johnston? No. (Neither did anyone else.) Do I think he dogged it? No. Do I think he’s been re-energized under Sullivan? Obviously…yes.
I agree 100% about the second line. Provided Geno’s okay (let’s keep our fingers crossed) it has a chance to be downright lethal. In particular, I think Hagelin’s speed and skill will create opportunities for Kessel, who–we’re discovering–seems more effective sneaking in behind the play than leading the rush.
I share your concerns about our defense. I wish we had an “all-arounder” like Chicago’s Brent Seabrook, who does everything well and provides some size and toughness to boot. Actually, minus the physical aspect, Brian Dumoulin’s developing into a reasonable facsimile. To me, he’s been a real pleasant surprise.
Barring injuries to the core–and JR overreaching at the trade deadline–I think the Penguins will do some damage this postseason. Most of the teams in the Eastern Conference are flawed to a degree.
I’ll be real curious to see how our “new-look” Pens stack up against the Capitals. I think our speed will give them fits.
Hey Rick,
After last night’s dizzying performance it is hard not to have visions of the cup, especially when we consider that the Pens torch Anaheim without Malkin. The second line is still a little sluggish without him. Once that line gets rolling again, a deep Cup run could be in the works. And once you get deep into the chase anything is impossible.
As you know I was worried that the team had no depth, when MJ was running the show, but these kids are flying. Some people I know have complained that the kids aren’t scoring but my counter argument has always been; they way those kids tie the puck up in the offensive zone and wear down the opposing “D” they are invaluable to the team, particularly to the top 2-lines. After chasing Rust, Kuhnhakl, Wilson, and now Sundqvist around they can’t keep up with Crosby, Letang, and Hagelin. Even Kunitz looks a little faster when the opponent’s “D” is exhausted.
Like you, I am partial to larger players and cannot be confused with a Coner Sheary fan, but how about the deflection he had on Letang’s wrist shot?
Barring an MJ relapse, I am going to really enjoy watching the rest of this season. And here is to hoping that it lasts until June (still without an idiotic trade involving giving away picks or youth for rent-a-bums)
Nice to hear from you, Other Rick…:)
It’s dawned on me that I’ve become (more than) a bit of a dinosaur when it comes to my preferred playing style. And I can’t help but be impressed with the way the Pens are playing. Especially after watching them literally skate circles around a pretty good Ducks team last night.
Goodness, what’s not to like? The speed and skill they’ve displayed? Incredible! As you noted, even though the kids aren’t scoring, they’re giving foes fits with their speed and hustle. And their hunger and enthusiasm–elements that were in short supply the past couple of years–have helped stoke the team’s competitive fires.
I do worry about us defensively. Just like I worry about the lack of a drop-your-gloves presence. But the defense can really move the puck with Daley and Pouliot back there, and they’re getting the job done in their own end. And, Columbus aside, I really don’t think anyone’s bullied us this season. At least not like I was expecting.
Give Sullivan and JR credit. They have a vision of how they want the team to play and they’re supporting it 100 percent.
It sure is fun to watch!
Hey Rick,
Before you try and check in at the Carnegie Museum as the next Jurrasic display, I would wait until after the play-offs. The Referees are calling a lot of the obstruction penalties now, but what will they be calling in May and June. It would not be the first time that the refs opened up the regular season by calling the game to the letter of the law only to put the whistles in their pockets come play-offs. So, there still may be a call for the Pens to bring up a Sestito or Oleksy.
However, in the mean time, the hunger of these WBS kids and the speed they bring combined with Sullivan’s fluid style of attack, where players do not play a position on the ice but flow back and forth covering for one another and forcing opposing D to keep chasing them around is making the Pens one of the most exciting teams to watch again.