Back in the day, the Italian-American Mafia and Jewish mob carried out their nefarious activities with the aid of well-established enforcement groups. Headed by notorious gangsters such as Louis “Lepke” Buchalter and Albert “The Mad Hatter” Anastasia, “Murder, Inc.” was believed to have iced as many as 1000 unfortunate souls during the 1930s and early ‘40s.
Well, a modern-day proponent of malevolence and mayhem has surfaced in the National Hockey League. Cleverly disguised as the Metropolitan Division. Among the charter members…the Rangers, Flyers, Blue Jackets and Capitals. The caporegime? Our very own Pittsburgh Penguins.
Their specialty? Rubbing out teams from rival NHL divisions, to use the vernacular of the day. Often with brutal efficiency.
Need proof?
Exhibit A: the Pens’ 7-0 whacking of Arizona last night at PPG Paints Arena. Black-and-gold assassins Sid the Kid, Geno and Phil the Thrill blazed away in murderous Tommy Gun fashion. Chased those poor Coyotes all the way back to the desert.
Want more proof?
Exhibit B: the NHL standings. As of December 13, five of the league’s top seven teams are from the Metro. Heck, six wins in a row, and we still can’t claim sole possession of first place. That’s because Alain Vigneault and those darned Blueshirts from New York are trying to steal the champagne right from our Stanley Cup.
Reminds me of the Roaring Twenties, when Al Capone and Bugs Moran went toe-to-toe in Chi-Town.
Speakin’ of rival gangs, how about the hated Flyers? Nine-straight wins. The orange and black is musclin’ in on our turf, big time. Blame hit men like Claude Giroux (29 points), Wayne Simmonds (15 goals) and their puck-shootin’ Czech mate, Jakub Voracek (32 points). Not to mention second-line sidekick Brayden Schenn.
Expect lots of flyin’ lead (rubber) when they roll into town on February 25.
Can’t forget the Tortorella Gang over in Columbus. They’re 17-5-4. Fewest goals allowed in the league. Armed to the teeth with guys like Boone (Jenner), Harts (Scott Hartnell) and Nicky (Foligno). Now they’re packin’ some skill, too, with kid d-men Seth Jones and Zach Werenski and emerging triggerman Cam Atkinson.
Even Ovi and the fifth-place Caps are feelin’ the heat.
Five rival gangs. Three guaranteed playoff spots. Someone’s liable to get bumped off.
With 41 points and a share of the division lead, Sully’s boys are sittin’ pretty. But they’d better beware.
Hey all,
Just heard on the evening news that the Pens, Rangers, Flyers, Blue Jackets and Caps have won a combined 28 games in a row.
Murder, Inc., indeed!
Rick
Hey Rick,
Love the analogy.
The good news, from my standpoint, is that I am not the Pens coach. When I coached, I only focused on my team and how they were playing, since that is all I could affect. And I always instilled in my teams the same philosophy, “focus on what you are doing, do it the best you can and ignore the rest”.
You may be thinking that is a good philosophy, and wondering why I say it is good news that I am not the coach; well, that philosophy, though effective, is boring. Since I don’t coach, I can join in the fun of looking at the bigger picture and all the possible scenarios that may present..
The Metropolitan Division is running roughshod over the rest of the league. But truth be told, only 2 of the teams really give me pause (NYR and CBJ) with honorable mention to Phi.
CBJ is undefeated in division match-ups. The hope here is that CBJ has only played 4 games within the division so far, so their real test is yet to come. NYR has actually played more divisional games and has a within divisional record similar to the Pens (7-4-0 for NYR, 6-3-0 for the Pens). Phi gets honorable mention by me because of the teams historic rivalry and their Phi in division record is 3-2-0, which projects closely to the Pens 6-3-0.
I also want to throw this out there. The Pens have Jekyll and Hyde d their way through the first 1/3 of the season mainly due to inconsistent goaltending rotation. If last nights game is any indication of how Murray is going to react to consistent starts then I may not worry as much when the Pens play more divisional games; at least not from a talent stand point. I will still worry about some Hanzelesque goonery from some teams. What are the old sayings, “too old of a dog to learn new tricks” and “can’t change the spots on a leopard”. So far, Phi and NYR have both played fairly clean hockey, but as the season wears on and push comes to shove, I worry about a return to their roots.
Hey Other Rick,
Perhaps the Pens’ Achilles heel. If games get out-of-hand on the scoreboard–as it did last night–and the opposition reverts to Neanderthal tactics a la Hanzal, we really don’t have a deterrent among the current mix as you so aptly noted.
I’m not worried about the Rangers and Flyers so much, although Schenn, Simmonds and Radko Gudas certainly have the capacity to get down and dirty for Philly.
I’m more concerned with Ovechkin and the Capitals. Specifically Tom Wilson, who takes all kinds of liberties and cheap shots when he knows he won’t be challenged.
To a much greater extent I worry about Columbus, who we’ve yet to meet. As a team, they just play hard, straight-forward, old-school hockey. A Gary Roberts type game. Josh Anderson, Brandon Dubinsky, Foligno, Hartnell, Jenner, and Dalton Prout (currently on IR).
There’s really no defense against that. You can neutralize a Wilson with Tom Sestito. But you can’t neutralize a whole team with one guy.
We do have a couple of other guys in the organization–spare defenseman Steve Oleksy and Baby Pens forward Garrett Wilson–who won’t back down from a scrap. But if you dress them, you start to significantly alter the lineup and perhaps lose part of what makes you special in the first place.
Rick
Hey Rick,Coach,
That is the real problem in that 1 or 2 tough guys may be ok, but if you add any more you affect the balance and chemistry of your team. The only way to compensate is to draft high every year,( A top 10 pick which are usually the bigger guys with skill and speed ) who can play productive minutes and yet give you that intimidation factor as well. Nobody worries about an OVI who goes 240 #, 6’3′ being pushed around or an Arron Ekblad, 6’4″. But when your team is composed of 5’11”, 195 # players and you play a large,physical team it can wear you down.
Another point to mention. Today my Hockey buddies were saying that just because the Pen’s won last year and we kept almost the exact team, most of the Division and the Eastern conference teams have ADDED players. Hence we are getting more and more parity as your article suggests Rick. It will not be easy to repeat.
Cheers.
Hey Rick, Jim,
LIke you Rick, I worry most about CBJ. They always play the Pens tough and they appear to be this years Cinderella. Last year we were the Cinderella, now CBJ wears that slipper. The wild card that I pointed out above is CBJs record in the Metropolitian division. All of the top teams in the division have really great records against the rest of the league, but it what we do head-to-head that will decide who emerges from the divisional play-offs to move on to the conference finals, Right now CBJ is 4-0. A 4-0 record is perfect but it is only 4 games. Will this years cinderella thrive once it starts to play more games against what appear to be the toughest foes in the league or will they fade under that weight?
Jim, I would have prefer that the Pens had added someone to their roster, just like you mention. Every season is different. The chemistry that won the previous year rarely wins the next. The league is dynamic and changes. It was a good thing that the team didn’t lose anyone but Lovejoy to UFA, but it may not have been so good that they failed to make a trade.
Also Jim, traditionally I have been in the same camp as you and Rick, I prefer larger players. However, Sullivan has opened my mind to the possibilities these smaller players present. I wish somehow we could mix the talent of say a Sheary with the size of a Sestito, but…
Because of this lack of size, particularly among D I have mentioned to Rick more than once, the Pens need to keep on the roster and be ready to use 8 or 9 D-men this year.
But moving on to Was, Ovie is one of the best forwards in the game today, when he stays out of the box. But my worry over Was isn’t so much as a team that may beat the Pens on the score board. Was has losing record right now within the division and may be a fading star. Unless they make a blockbuster trade; even with Holtby and Ovie their time may have past. My only concern with them is that a cement head piece of trash like Wilson will deliberately injure enough players as to make the Pens too weak to chase that repeat Cup; particularly watching the pathetic refereeing last game that allowed Hanzal to celiberately try to take out Crosby and several other player. Last years push to clean up the league may have lost its steam.
As for NYR, I go back and forth with them. I start to believe in them and still do believe in thier skaters to a large degree, but with the chinks in King Henry’s armor exposed, so much so that Raanta has ha back-to-back starts with a healthy Henry on the bench, part of me wants to brush back any worries.
There still is 2/3 of a season to play. The Pens still may retool a little. They may make a blockbuster trade or they may find a home grown hero (Guentzel, yes he is small but looks like he may have leathal fire-power) to power them back to the top.
Go Pens
Hey guys,
Jim, your observation about the correlation between drafting higher and the size of the early picks is well taken. There were some genuine monsters among the first 20-25 selections this year.
Like you, Other Rick, I’ve undergone a bit of a transformation regarding my preference for bigger, stronger players. Still, I can’t help but envy a team like Columbus—talented AND tough.
In terms of “just play” toughness, the Pens have few peers. Sidney Crosby, Patric Hornqvist and Chris Kunitz set the tone. But I still think they’ll have their hands full with the Blue Jackets.
One deterrent I neglected to mention, and perhaps the most obvious. Score on the power play…
Rick
Another player that may enter into the Picture for the Pens may be Sundqvist. He is finding the range down in WBS; leads the team in goals last I looked and 2nd in points. He was already playing great positional hockey last year. So he may be the man that could help the Pens against a club like CBJ. He may be able to counter the bigger players like Sestito and Wilson without causing a drop in offensive skill.
Just thought I would throw that out there. He has been a guy I have wanted to see get ice-time for quite a while.
Sorry Rick,
Forgot to mention
Agreed, Powerplay efficiency can negate chippy play in a dose response manner. Therefore it may be imperative for Sullivan and the boys to keep improving the PP to make it the most lethal in the league making other teams think twice before trying to get physical. A lethal PP may be more intimidating than a 6’6″ 240lb goon.
Hanzal and Tippett may have to agree with that. The Pens were willing to be good sports and try and play out the clock last game until Hanzal tried to be a tough guy, forcing Sullivan to put an exclamation point on the game with a PPG from the first PP unit.
Multi-tasking today, I meant to say inversely proportional manner not dose response.
Hey Coach,Rick,
I am sorry to sound like a old broken record,saying the same thing over and over,but I truly believe that Pen’s could have problems with a team that is bigger, faster and plays physical but a controlled game forcing the play.
The easiest way to make life difficult for the Pen’s,( I did not say defeat), is to do what was happening in November. Dump and chase and force the Pen’s to play in their end.Get on top of them and press the d to over play the puck.
I know we have our forwards coming back as a five man unit and that is great. My question is what happens when the opposing team does the same, having a size and quickness advantage over our Pen’s ? That day you will want some size on your team to handle it.
We need a Victor Hedman, Dougie Hamilton or younger version of Shea Weber ! Not a goon
per say, but a tower of strength who can tie 2 big men up like OVI and Backstrom and still make a play. Conversely, I wish Patrick H. was 230 # and 6’3″. A thirty goal scorer that can intimidate and give Sid some protection.
Sid and the smaller guys do take a lot of extra abuse that other teams dish out especially at play off time.
Coach I agree Oscar S. is looking real good and he will be the replacement for Cullen.
Finally on J.Schultz. I hope he scores plenty of goals and points, because if he can get a 5+ million contract next year, then we get a first round, and a third round pick for sure, and maybe a 1st, 2nd, and a 3rd if he gets a little more. That is the genius of Jim R.!
Let’s go pens..
Excellent stuff, guys … 🙂
Hey Jim,
Not arguing with you there, I am still sort of holding out hope that we can work out a deal somewhere to get that big mobile D. I don’t mean any disrespect towards Lovejoy, he did a yeoman’s job, particularly in the play-offs last year, but I can’t help but wonder how not only this team would have looked, but Simon Despres’ career would have looked if we could have pulled a Mulligan and swapped those players back. Under Sullivan, I think Despres could have matured into the D that everyone thought he could/should have been. Unfortunately the pressures felt by Bylsma and MJ to win made life for any kids coming up absolutely miserable. Under Sullivan came in, it appeared that the coaches demanded the Kids to come in and play like 10 year veterans, took out their frustrations over lackluster play of the veterans on the kids, and couldn’t seem to differentiate between standing up for team mates and taking stupid penalties; so much so that Despres, despite the fact that he was always a plus in the plus minus dept was always one of the first guys benched, particularly when he would stand-up for teammates.
But if they still had him and allowed him to developed, he may be in the same position Schultz is in right now, ready to take off.
Don’t count out Hamilton either, Jim, there is still a lot of hockey to play and Chad Johnson may yet implode, while Hamilton is still in dis-favor and they may yet be a trading partner for MAF.
Hey Riconi
Very funny and very serious. YOU ARE 100%.
Some really good teams are not going to make the trip on the 2017 Stanley Cup playoff wagon.
Parity.U betcha! If someone is not careful they will get rubbed out quickly. No mercy.
Let’s go Pen’s. 🔫🔫💰💰
Thanks Jim.
Just having a little fun … and making a point, too.
You actually inspired this with some of your comments over the weekend … 🙂
Rick
Hey Rick,
U asked me for my last name a while back….Now my turn.
Please send me an email so I may contact you.Thanks