So long 2017. You started off with a bang, bringing us some incredible memories. I want to thank all of the Pittsburgh Penguins for the great thrill ride from Ron Burkle and Mario Lemieux, through Jim Rutherford and Mike Sullivan and his staff, all the way down to the black aces who stood ready during the Stanley Cup run.
I am still jazzed about the 5 shutouts pitched by Marc-Andre Fleury (2) and Matt Murray (3). Fleury, your stoning of the Caps in game 7 to send them crying to early tee-times once again and Chris Kunitz–your no look pass to Conor Sheary to set up the team’s 2nd goal in game 1 against Nashville in the finals. Jake Guentzel, your tying of the rookie play-off goal scoring record, and Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Phil Kessel , your 2 year dominance in the play-offs will stand out in Penguin lore.
Penguins, your frenetic attacking personality carried over from 2016 through June of 2017 is what I will remember of this past year. What I will do my best to forget is the standing around watching, slogging team I watched last night. Where did that speedy, aggressive offense and smothering, swarming defense go?
Hockey is a fast game, a game skaters move and attack at high speeds, it is a thrilling game to watch. Detroit really exemplified that last night; the Penguins not so much. My wife actually yelled at me for yelling at the TV as I tried to cajole a lost, foundering, standing still team to try skating. Just as I noted yesterday in a reply on Rick Buker’s last post, I feared that Daniel Sprong was going to be wasted on a foot slogging line centered by pylon Riley Sheahan. Sheahan did show some hop in his first couple of shifts with Sprong but that didn’t last long. I wasn’t the only one complaining about Sheahan’s standing around in the offensive zone and watching the game rather than participating in the game. On one of an endless string of stagnant standing still offensive plays, when Sheahan stood on the goal line with the puck idly observing Detroit’s defense close off the passing lanes then trying to force the puck to a now covered Sprong ended once again in futility, Bob Errey (if I recall correctly) joined me to chorus, “Don’t just stand there, skate!”
Sheahan may be a great face-off man, but I would rather see him lose a couple of more draws and get on the scoring sheet.
To be fair, Carl Hagelin was trying to help. He was skating out there. However, Sprong was left to try and create his own chances. He did eventually get a shift or two with Crosby but only after the outcome was decided. (I am hoping to see more of that pairing this year)
The stagnant standing around, lost looks on the top 2 lines may be excusable. In what may have been a case of over coaching, Sullivan had 2 Left Wings playing on Crosby’s line and 2 Right Wings playing on Malkin’s line. They are all NHL caliber players but it is understandable that they too looked very tentative, wondering who was supposed to be where.
Everyone should know by now that I am one of the staunchest Matt Murray fans. I do think he is not just a good goalie but a great one. Unfortunately, last night, Murray really didn’t look good at all and uncharacteristically showed frustration after Gustav Nyquist slid Detroit’s last goal into the net. Murray did partially get his glove on the puck, just not enough to prevent the 4th goal. In Murray’s defense, even though Detroit only managed 23 shots on goal, the bulk of those shots were clean, open shots and often coming on odd man breaks. However, Murray has had a history of stopping all those shots with ease, just not last night; ending the 2017 on a note most sour.
Getting back to the stagnant, standing around attribute that this 2017-2018 Penguins personality has become; the only Penguin defenseman who actually skated with the puck was “Big Rig” Jamie Oleksiak. In the post-game show, the excuse of the Penguins were playing 5 left handed Defensemen and only 1 right-handed Defenseman, was tossed about. Regardless of which hand a Defenseman shoots with really has little effect on skating ability. Furthermore, the “Big Rig” was one of the 2 Defensemen playing on his opposite side and he did skate with authority carrying the biscuit and showing more moves than Riley Sheahan in the attacking zone.
It seems to me it is time to rewind the clock to January 2016 and simplify the game again and go out there and just skate again. It is time for Crosby, Malkin, Kessel, and Hornqvist to forget about the idea of 3-peating and just have fun again. With Guentzel and Sprong they have some young guns who can find the range. If Crosby, Malkin, Kessel, and Hornqvist start just trying to enjoy the game again, the wins will return.
I still would look to trade Sheary. I do like him and appreciate what he has accomplished these last 2 years, but last night once again he was very weak on the puck. In a friendly argument I had over Sheary, a friend tried to compare Sheary to Hall of Famer Mark Recchi. My response was Recchi is 2” taller, 20 pounds heavier and very strong on the puck. The Penguins may not be able to get the bank for Sheary but they really should be shopping him before his stock drops any further.
A journey of a 1,000 miles starts with a single step. Tomorrow looks like a good day to start that journey back to the top. Let’s Go Pens!
Odds and Sods
Kris Letang and Justin Schultz skated in regular contact jerseys in the Penguins last practice. Let’s hope they are ready to play against the Flyers to start that journey back up the standings.
The Penguins recalled Dominik Simon and sent Casey DeSmith, Andrey Pedan, and Garrett Wilson back down to Wilkes-Barre – Scranton.
I also wanted to thank Phil Krundle, Rick Buker, and James Arthurs for welcoming me to the Penguin Poop roster this past year and you Penguin Poop readers for all of the discussion and hockey talk you have contributed. Happy New Year to one and all!
Hey Coach,
Really great synopsis of this past year. Well done.You are a great addition to the PP team.
I am going to start off with the last lines I used in Rick’s past post because I think it should be expanded upon.
“Are we that bad ?….No Rick . I think the rest of the league is getting that much better, …and we have to as well !!
Make the big trade now !! ”
Pretty simple statement my friend. Look at the evidence to date to support that claim. New Jersey . Who would ever have thought ? They are a lot better than the 2017 version. Tampa bay. Hate to say it Coach, but they are a more complete team now than in 2017. That Drouin trade will pay big dividends for them go forward.Look at Carolina ! 7- 3 ? Two games in hand and two points ahead. Boston 7-1-2. Toronto. Winnipeg. LA, even Vegas….Many others.
The west has changed my friend. We need new horses ! Plain and simple. We can not win with the caliber of talent that we must face every night now. The league is a lot more balanced.They have the young talent, real talent and it shows.
Bad news for us in 2018. Only one option ??
cheers
Hey Jim,
Thanks Jim, and to you also Rick from below, but to be fair, most of good posts are proof read by my wife, so let me give her a shout out too. She also helps keep me from getting too negative. This morning I told her I was felt like a lashing out and ranting today, she tempered my mood and reminded me of all the great Hockey we got to watch during the Cup run.
To answer your question, no I don’t think the Penguins are really all that bad. I think that they are frustrated because as you say the rest of the league has caught up and that has them off kilter.
You mention Tampa Bay, if you recall, I was an advocate of the Penguins signing Dan Girardi this past off season. Many people said no. I thought a solid stay at home Right Handed D-man was needed. He only has 9 points but has also added 66 hits, 88 blks, and is a +16 right now. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a D man with those stats right now. Tampa Bay is surely benefiting from his play.
Will Butcher’s agent basically begged the Penguins to come and talk to him. Unfortunately, the Penguins passed on him, thinking they had all they needed when they signed Matt Hunwick. Butcher has 23 points and is a +3. His Hits and Blks aren’t all that impressive but his CORSI is 57.4%. Hunwick has 4 pnts is a -5 with a 48.8% CORSI. The seeds of this years frustration were surely sewn in the off season with over valuing our D and sentimentally holding on to too many spare parts.
I agree, a trade is in order. It should have been made a while ago.
However, I do think that the most important thing the team needs to do is stop standing around and start skating. That can be done ASAP. A trade still may take a couple of days to happen and a couple of more days for the team to gel.
Agreed Coach.
Hard to be an elite puck possession team when 30% of your team can not or will not move their legs. It is a far cry from the January 2016 Penguins who had all the AHL kids on their roster and who were just happy to be playing every night in the NHL. All thru the spring of 2016 until they lifted the Cup, those 5 or 6 kids never stopped moving. Just like flies on a hot summer day… They just swarmed the opposition.
Not quite the same today as you so accurately pointed out. I hope we get at least 3 new pieces minimum to go after the elusive 3rd Cup.
A new right winger for Sid, a third line center who can generate offense and play with Daniel Sprong and a replacement for Letang.
In my ideal world the team looks like this as a minimum.
Jake Sid New
Byran? Geno Phil
Carl New Daniel
Carter Riley Patric Ryran # 13
Ian Justin
Oli New
Brian Jamie Chad # 7
Matt
Tristan
With out a major trade move this is almost impossible to do. Geno ??
Great piece as always Coach.
How about you???
Me?
I still am liking the idea of trying to make an offer for Karlsson and Pageau. Letang, Cole, and possibly Sheary could get me the draft picks to make a bid to Ottawa for them. At least I would do my level best to make it happen. If I could sign Evander Kane, I would consider that trade as well. I still like the idea of getting Athansiou off of Detroit, particularly if he is unhappy with hi playing time in Detroit like the rumors suggest.
If at least the first two deals could be worked out, my line-up would look like this;
Crosby – Kane – Sprong – Maatta
Malkin – Guentzel – Kessel
Pageau – Rust – Hornqvist
Sheahan – Hagelin – Rowney
Maatta – Karlsson
Oleksiak – Schultz
Dumoulin – Ruhwedel
Murray
Jarry
I am still not sure about the D, I may still want to tweek it and see what Pedan, Tinordi, and Bengtsson could do. Although Bengtsson may be hurt right now, I haven’t seen his name in any box scores for WBS lately. I don’t dislike Ruhwedel but I am not sure about him as a day to day player as opposed to a 7th D man.
I am resigned to losing/needing to trade Cole and I don’t think the Penguins can do anything with Hunwick on the ice.
Hey Jim,
A couple of Caveats to my above;
I am no fan of rent-a-players so if I could not reach a contract extension on Kane prior to a trade I wouldn’t deal, so I would have to look elsewhere for a veteran winger.
In honestly, although I would not actively shop Maatta or Dumoulin, I also would not reject any offers for them out of hand. Neither of them are really hurting the team like Letang or Hunwick, but they aren’t really helping the team either. However, in dealing either of them, I would may need to find a D man in the exchange.
That is just one more complaint I have with the Reaves trade; I wanted that 1st round pick. I would have taken Nicolas Hague; Right now Hague has 20 Gs and 20 As and has 63 PIM in the OHL On the minus he is -4. The Guy you wanted Klim Kostin isn’t doing quite as well in the AHL right now. He only has 2Gs and 9As, 47PIM and is a +1 but may be turning it up in the 2018WJC he has 4Gs and 1A in 4 GPs and is a +6. As the probabilities that the Penguins even make the play-offs shrink, that trade looks worse and worse for the future of the Pens.
Hey Other Rick,
I don’t have time to comment right now, but I just wanted to say ‘great stuff’ as usual. Happy New Year to you, too!
We’re truly blessed to have you and Jim on PenguinPoop.
Rick