Are our Penguins Tough Enough?

I was brooding all morning about our Penguins’ latest loss (okay, so they picked up a point – kissing their sister). Watching our Penguins squander a 3 goal lead has left me colder than their mascot’s homeland.

How could our favorite team fall this far, this fast?

In the depths and darkness of my musings a question our own Phil Krundle recently posed in a reply on another post here on these boards started echoing in my head, “When was the last time you saw someone lay out to block a shot?”

Well Phil, I can’t say for sure, but I will have to say, since Ian Cole was discarded.

As my mind continued down this path, all I could hear in my head was the Fabulous Thunderbirds,

“I’d wrestle with a lion and a grizzly bear
It’s my life baby but I don’t care

Ain’t that tuff enuff
Ain’t that tuff enuff
Ain’t that tuff enuff
Ain’t that tuff enuff”

Some Neanderthals would only measure toughness by the number of penalty minutes a player may accumulate, or maybe refine that judgement to the number of fighting majors to which a player dances.

Still some others would add into that equation the number of hits a player dishes out over the course of a season. However, looking at hits to measure a players’ toughness is often confounded by puck possession. A high number of hits could simply mean the player plays on a team that can’t control the puck. After all, by the rules, you aren’t supposed to hit players who don’t have the puck (Referees, particularly NHL referees, please pay close attention to that previous statement).

Perhaps, one of the more over looked facets of toughness is a players’ willingness to sacrifice his body by laying out in front of a shot. Like hits, quantifying toughness from looking at the block shot stats kept by the NHL can be misleading. The NHL doesn’t differentiate body blocks and stick blocks. They just count all blocks. A lot of players wave their sticks in front of opponents to block shots. In their attempts to block shots they often times tip shots passed their own goalies.

Perhaps it is only anecdotal, but it would seem to me that when players have the intestinal fortitude to place their body in harms’ way, in front of the shot instead of waving their stick at it, the shot is truly blocked and not simply redirected. A human body represents a much larger surface area, giving a greater chance of blocking the shot.

When our boys in Black-n-Gold were winning back-to-back Stanley Cups, there were 3 devote followers of this now ancient art (ancient in terms of Penguins who practice it); Ian Cole, Nick Bonino, and Tom Kuhnhackl. Yes, all 3 of these shot blocking cultists spent time on the Injured Reserve (IR) due to their disdain for their own bodies when games were on the line. However, watching the fearless machismo of these men called others to follow.

In this past off-season, GM Jim Rutherford went out in search of leadership on a team that still boasted a large proportion of Stanley Cup winners on it. One would think ,after back-to-back Cups, leadership was the last thing that this team needed but perhaps they do have a need of leadership. To that end, Rutherford resigned grizzled veteran father figure Matt Cullen. Although Cullen does bring leadership, the team may need a different type of leadership. The team may need is a player who leads by example. The team may need a leader with the toughness necessary to throw his body in front of frozen vulcanized rubber traveling at around 100 mph to hold on to that 4 – 1 lead to keep momentum on the Penguins’ side.

Perhaps Lady Luck only likes alpha male types that are bold enough, fearless enough, and tough enough to risk it all to win. Perhaps Lady Luck only smiles on the rough guys.

What was the question Bonnie Tyler asked in 1980s song?

“Where have all the good men gone
And where are all the gods?
Where’s the hockey tough Hercules to fight the rising odds?”

(Okay, so I paraphrased that one – I am going to do that again – paraphrase in just another sentence or 2)

Our Penguins could certainly use such a hero.

Unfortunately our coach, Mike Sullivan, well he takes his cue from REO Speedwagon

“He doesn’t like the tough guys
He says that they’ve got brains all where they sit
They think they’re full of fire
He thinks they’re full of …..”

Nick Bonino left Pittsburgh on his own – chasing the big money. That is true enough. However, 2 time Cup winning coach but totally ignored for the Jack Adams trophy, Sullivan ran Ian Cole out of town. He forced Rutherford to trade the big left handed defenseman by not playing him. Oh yes, that is right, he also didn’t like playing Ryan Reaves doling out ice time to the fan favorite Reaves with an eye dropper.

As for Tom Kuhnhackl, he may never have truly stood a chance on this team. With Phil Kessel, Patric Hornqvist, Daniel Sprong, and Bryan Rust, he was an afterthought at Right Wing (RW), so Sullivan tried playing him on his natural Wing, but Kuhnhackl never look good on the port side, only on the right. In the end, although Rutherford offered him a contract, he went in search of greener pastures.

It seems to me that the Penguins, as a team, will only be spinning their wheels until they get themselves a hero, a white knight on a fiery steed who will lead the team in the area they seem to be sorely lacking, toughness, the toughness that it takes to sacrifice the body and start funneling shots back to the perimeter again.

Odds and Sods
Did anyone else notice Daniel Sprong and Phil Kessel back checking like demons last night? I believe it was Bob Errey that pointed it out.