Sum of Penguins Pieces Don’t Add Up to a Contender

Other Rick and I were chewing the hockey fat yesterday at Wright’s Gym as we are wont to do. Naturally, the topic turned to our favorite flightless water fowl.

Usually at this time of the year, we’re chomping at the bit for the season to start. However, neither of us is especially enthused about our team as it’s presently constructed. Or more to the point, our chances of reaching the playoffs, let alone making any noise should we arrive.

Truth be told, I haven’t been this de-psyched for a season since the early-2000s, pre-Sid, pre-Geno.

I keep scanning our prospective lineup and shaking my head. A word pops into my head. Mediocre. And that’s with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin healthy and manning their customary posts. Forgive me if I’m churning up ground I’ve already tilled and plowed, but it bears repeating. I didn’t think we were that far off from Cup contender status entering the offseason. However, in my humble opinion, we took a significant step backward this summer.

We bled off four pretty decent hockey players in Cody Ceci, Frederick Gaudreau, Jared McCann and Brandon Tanev. Heck, even Mark Jankowski and Colton Sceviour…two guys I wasn’t especially fond of…did an okay job in limited roles.

All we got to replace them on the open market is Brock McGinn, Danton Heinen and (ugh) Dominik Simon.  McGinn may (or may not) prove to be a suitable substitute for the fiery Tanev, the team’s emotional pulse and fire starter. But Heinen isn’t McCann, at least not offensively, and Simon most assuredly isn’t Gaudreau.

Having drafted him, I’m sure GM Ron Hextall knows a thing or two about defenseman Mark Friedman. But until the former Flyer proves himself an every-day player, we enter training camp down a top-six right-handed d-man.

So many holes. So few answers.

Perhaps the biggest question mark of all is between the pipes. What if new goalie guru Andy Chiodo can’t restore a dinged and dented Tristan Jarry to his early promise? The consequences are too grim to ponder.

Of course, there’s always the hope one of the kids will surprise. Maybe Samuel Poulin or Nathan Legare or Radim Zohorna will dazzle in camp and earn a spot. Or perhaps newly re-acquired Filip Hallander, rumored to be NHL-ready, will step to the fore. However, Mike Sullivan’s spotty track record with kids tells me they’ll more than likely be sent to the Baby Pens to cut their professional teeth.

Then there’s the Metro Division competition. To my eye, the Rangers and Flyers have improved (beware those Broadway Blueshirts). The Islanders are solid and deep as always. Despite the loss of Dougie Hamilton, the Hurricanes appear to have held serve. The once-mighty Capitals seem to be in the same boat as our Pens…torpedoed amidships by age and cap issues and taking on water. Look for both clubs to bail furiously to keep ahead of New Jersey and Columbus…and each other.

Although Jim Rutherford’s no longer at the helm, our present Pens have the look and feel of JR’s Carolina clubs that consistently finished out of the money.

I could be wrong and really hope I am. (It’s been known to happen a time or two.) After all, I wasn’t too enthused about our team last season and we won a division title. We still have our big three of Crosby, Malkin and Kris Letang and there’s still some talented pieces in place (Jake Guentzel, Kasperi Kapanen, Brian Dumoulin to name a few). Yet I sense the Cup window that in hindsight probably closed with the ill-fated Derick Brassard trade in 2018 has shut for good and we’ve backed into the initial phase of what’s likely to be a long and painful rebuild. As inevitable as death and taxes.

Buckle your seat belts, black-and-gold fans. I sense we’re in for a bumpy ride.

Lou Angotti Passes Away

Former Penguins player and coach Lou Angotti passed away at the age of 83. A natural center who played right wing in the ‘Burgh, Angotti skated for the club in 1968-69 and tallied 17 goals and 37 points. He was traded to St. Louis the following summer in a deal for Ron Schock.

However, Angotti is most noted for coaching the dreadful 1983-84 “Boys of Winter” to a 38-point season. In a plan hatched by then-GM Eddie Johnston to secure the first overall pick and draft phenom Mario Lemieux, the black and gold tried their darndest to lose hockey games. Angotti later admitted in a 2014 interview with TSN to going as far as purposely putting the wrong players on the ice in certain situations.

“Eddie Johnston and I did what we thought we had to do to save the franchise,” Angotti confessed. “We were coaching not to win.”

Save it they did. With a little help from No. 66.