Penguins Post-Mortem part 2

We had joy, we had fun
We had seasons in the sun
But the wine and the song
Like the seasons have all gone
(Lyrics by Jacques Brel / Rod Mckuen
Sung by Terry Jacks)

As I wrote in my first installment, Mike Sullivan was the biggest reason why this team failed, and our Pittsburgh Penguins will miss the Playoffs for the first time in over a decade. He chose the players and after five years behind the bench they were the players he wanted, except for the Penguins top three Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang, all of whom have contracts that either make it impossible for his boss to move, or at least very difficult.

Last season when the Penguins played their best hockey, it was when the injury bug plagued them and many of Sullivan’s choices for player were removed from his toolbox. When those players started to come back, so did the Penguins troubles.

Sullivan also chose the strategies and tactics or at least chose the assistant coaches that made those decisions and, in the end, had the authority to override any choices below him. He chose to bench players. And he was responsible for making in game/in series adjustments. And in the end, he blamed everyone else for team failures, even though all the choices were his.

However, his boss, GM Jim Rutherford, had many opportunities to hold Sullivan accountable and he did not. Even after getting swept by the New York Islanders last season, instead of making Sullivan earn his contract extension this year, he game Sullivan an extension Furthermore, it has been painfully obvious to anyone with eyes to see that Rutherford and his coach were not always on the same page. Rutherford tried bringing in players with grit but Sullivan either did not use them at all or used them sparingly, grudgingly (Ryan Reaves, Eric Gudbranson).

Even when Sullivan acknowledge he had lost his team during the Islanders debacle last season by whining that nobody on the team was listening to him Rutherford backed his coach. Rutherford joined his Teflon coach in trying to ascribe blame to the players rather than themselves. Honestly, why would any player want to play for a Coach or GM that doesn’t have a clue how to lead, a Coach and GM that refuse to accept their own culpability but instead play a blame game in the media.

Furthermore, it was Rutherford who stripped the team of young talent and has kept the team up against the cap and unable to maneuver that much. Yes, early on Rutherford made some incredible trades, stealing major pieces for two Cup runs but he has since balanced them out with horrible trades and signings.

Trading Kaspari Kapanen and a pick for Phil Kessel while getting the Toronto Maple Leafs to retain salary was inspired and probably Rutherford’s greatest trade. That trade effectively bought this team their two Cups. However, publicly blaming Kessel for the Islander sweep and posturing that he was going to trade him all Spring and early summer limited any real trade value to Alex Galchenyuk and a prospect accelerated the end of the Crosby – Malkin era.

That prospect, Pierre-Olivier Joseph, may eventually help this team but that will not be for another couple of years. Truthfully, with the lack of quality Defensemen on this team, Joseph, after making significant progress in Wilkes Barre – Scranton, particularly in body weight, jumping from a childlike 163 lbs on his 6’-2” frame to a more man like over 180 lbs, may actually earn a spot on next seasons roster but the 21 year old is still 5 or 6 years away from really hitting his prime. John Marino’s are a rarity.

Paying the Vegas Knights, a draft pick to take Marc-Andre Fleury may go down in history as the dumbest trade in Penguins history. Nobody forced Rutherford’s hand on this one. All teams had to expose at least one goalie with two years professional experience to the draft and the Penguins only had Fleury and Matt Murray. So, Rutherford had to expose one of them and it only made sense to expose Fleury. However, no rule stated he had to pay Vegas a draft pick to take him. He could have dared them to take Conor Sheary, Tom Kuhnhackl, or any other of those kids off his roster. And if George McFee didn’t take Fleury, he would have gone down as the biggest idiot of all time for failing to draft Penguins fan favorite Fleury.

Add in horrible signings like Matt Hunwick, that the team barely was able to sneak out from under, thanks to Buffalo’s help, to Jack Johnson, and sorry to say this Patric Hornqvist. Johnson’s contract may not be all that large, but it forced the team into some seriously, well, “creative” decisions to get Cap compliant at the start of this past regular season.

And as much as I like Hornqvist and think he deserves all the money he will be getting, $5.3 million for 3 more years with full NTC this year and two more years of a M-NTC, it seriously hinders the team now and for 3 more years. Hornqvist certainly will earn that money if he stays healthy, but with the way he plays he misses a lot of games (he missed 10 of 69 this past season) so there is little room to have a quality kid around to step in.

Sullivan may be the biggest reason for our Penguins failure and the frustrating end to the era, Rutherford, like obesity or high blood pressure contribute heart disease, was a significant risk factor in missing the playoffs this season. Moving forward, the team needs to move on from Rutherford. With the way he squanders picks, even if the Penguins win the Alexis Lafrenière lottery, with his track record, there is no guarantee that Rutherford would not trade that pick for a high priced under-achieving veteran.

“With the flowers everywhere
I wish (our Penguins) could be there”