For more than a decade, the Pittsburgh Penguins were one of the NHL’s most dominant franchises. With stars like Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin leading the way, the team captured three Stanley Cups in a span of just eight years. However, over the past few seasons, the Penguins have struggled to maintain their winning ways. Some of the reasons are more obvious then others, but lets go over them.
One of the biggest factors contributing to the Penguins decline is the age of the roster and that’s no big secret. Crosby, Malkin, and Letang who have been the face of the franchise for over a decade, are in their mid-30s. While they are still productive players and seem to show no signs of slowing, it will come, but the rest of the team is not Crosby, Letang, or Malkin, not even close.
The average age of the current Penguins roster is 29.8; yikes. For a team that’s supposed to play a speed game, it’s hard, if not impossible, to do that with a senior home roster. If the Penguins adopted a more Islanders style of play, I think this group would be much better suited and would probably have a few more wins under their belt, but Sullivan is set on playing a speed game with defensemen that activate.
On top of that Hextall had the opportunity to add some much needed youth, or a goaltender, but decided to add his own kind of youth! Hextall got some guys from the Cretaceous instead of the Jurassic! What a treat!
So yes, there’s some excessive sarcasm there, but adding a piece like Mikael Granlund made no sense unless you wanted to waste cap, get a guy who passes and doesn’t focus on scoring, which is what they needed with depth, and he’s 31, then sure it makes sense if you’re trying to make your team worse. Hell, why not bring back Jaromir Jagr?
He also brought in defensemen Dimitry Kulikov(32) and brought back Nick Bonino(34), and while these are decent adds, you’re telling me you couldn’t find younger versions of what these guys do? or were you trying to please Sullivans love for veterans.
Another issue facing the Penguins is a lack of depth on the roster. While the core of Crosby, Malkin and Letang are still productive players, they cannot do it all on their own. The team has struggled to find consistent secondary scoring, their defense has been more than suspect at times, and goaltending has been embarrassing for them.
Bryan Rust is in a slump in comparison to his last season, and Jeff Carter is just embarrassingly washed up. He did manage to net two goals vs Colorado, which is big and much needed, but against Montreal, he was a -4 with only 8:28 TOI, I know that is due in part to bad goaltending, but no matter what that is absolutely unacceptable and he should of been a scratch next game, but god forbid Sullivan bench a veteran like Jeff Carter.
One of the most telling statistics for a player’s performance is their Corsi For percentage (CF%). Corsi For is a statistic that measures the total number of shot attempts (on net, missed, or blocked) a team takes while a player is on the ice, compared to the total number of shot attempts their opponents take. CF% is expressed as a percentage, and a player with a CF% above 50% indicates that their team is taking more shot attempts than their opponents while that player is on the ice.
According to Natural Stat Trick, Jeff Carter’s CF% this season is 43.0%, indicating that the Penguins are taking fewer shot attempts than their opponents while he is on the ice. Additionally, his expected goals for percentage (xGF%) is 44.5%, which means that he is not generating high-quality scoring chances when he is on the ice. Not to mention, again he got a -4 in 8 minutes, that just still amazes me that was even possible, I don’t want to say at least it can’t get any worse, because it absolutely could.
Speaking of much needed scoring, or lack thereof, Mikael Granlund has 2 points in 11 games since being traded to the Penguins, he’s basically invisible out there. Now I want to make it clear, I actually love Granlund as a player, he just makes zero logical or practical sense on this Penguins roster. He was also playing top 6 in Nashville, but in Pittsburgh he’s 3rd liner and you’re expecting 60 point production with him playing next to worse players and getting less TOI? Please…
I want to stress Mike Sullivan is one of the greatest Pittsburgh coaches (I can hear Penguin Poop writer The Other Rick yelling at the screen now). I do truly believe that, but it doesn’t matter if I believe it, because the stats don’t lie; 301-160-55 with a .637 winning percentage, and really the only statistic that matters, two stanely cups.
But Sullivan will not adapt, his stubbornness reminds me of Pittsburgh coaches before him just before Penguins management packed their bags and drove them to the airport. He wants to play a speed game, and as I stated before that does not work with this group of players. He has some sort of obsession with older veteran players who are not fast, and don’t work with the system he wants to play, maybe he prefers that they will just follow his system and not go off during a game stray from the system, as some younger players tend to do, but perhaps that’s exactly what they need.
When he won two Stanley cups with the Penguins, he had young players from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, as well as some veteran players, a hybrid composition. Yet, in his mind, it seems he thinks he won with vets & speed, and he’s somehow blanked out the “young” part that went along with the “speed” part.
Another obsession with Sullivan is his unwillingness to not have the defense activate and lead to needless breakouts and 2 on 1’s. His group of defensemen outside the first line, are not good or the type of defensemen who can activate. If you add players like Jan Rutta and Dmitry Kulikov, use them correctly only send them out as defensive defensemen, have them hit and block, have them wear down the other team. Not try and be Kris Letang, because you’re asking the impossible of them and not playing to their strengths.
Not to long ago it seemed as though moving forward with Tristan Jarry as the starter was the best move. At the time it was, and technically still is, but Tristian Jarry especially after coming back from injury and now injured again, was atrocious. Against the Montreal Canadians, he had an incredibly bad .429 SV%, he followed that with a decent .912 SV% against the Rangers, just to fumble to a .765 SV% the next Rangers game.
Just when it seemed he was returning a bit to his regular form with his .933 SV% win against the Avalanche, he injured himself again. He is becoming a band-aid boy, hurt way to much and when he comes back he plays worse than a 3rd stringer. He isn’t reliable in any aspect, from stopping simple shots or from getting injured, or choking in key games to pressure.
If the Penguins have hopes of capturing at least one more Stanley Cup they are not going to do it with Casey DeSmith as the 1A, it just isn’t going to happen. That being said Casey DeSmith has done fantastic for what has been asked of him, but eventually the inevitable will happen and the house of cards will tumble down.
The Penguins need to get a real backup, either a vet or a guy who is known to be able to handle a starting job, Hextall had the opportunity to do that but clearly does not see goaltending as an issue. And that in and of itself is an issue.
I will never bet against a team that has Sydney Crosby, let alone also having Malkin & Letang. Do I think they could win one more? Short answer yes, for the above reason, do I think they can win this year? No, but I’ll give them a 10% chance in case of a miracle situation and it would be a miracle, and it would mostly be because of Crosby if not entirely.
To change this team to have a chance while the core is still competitive, the first piece off the board is Hextall, and if Sullivan won’t adapt him as well, Jeff Carter has got to go but I don’t think anyone would take him, goaltending and defense are needed, then add some grit and you might have one more shot, but getting all that is a lot to ask of a new GM.
In conclusion, while the Pittsburgh Penguins have been a dominant franchise for many years, the team is currently in decline due to a number of factors, including aging players, a lack of depth, coaching issues, salary cap constraints, and tough competition in their division. It remains to be seen if the team can turn things around and regain its winning ways, but it will likely require significant changes and adjustments to the roster and coaching staff.
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