In the wake of the Panthers’ rousing 2-1 Game 7 triumph over the Oilers, I thought I’d share a few rambling thoughts.
First, a tale of the two Sunshine State Cup champions. In 2018-19, the Lightning ripped through the regular season and captured the Presidents’ Trophy by playing a wide-open style…and were promptly swept by the CBJ in the First Round of the playoffs.
Following the stunning upset, Bolts coach Jon Cooper told his core players, “We played the game your way. Now we’re going to play it my way.”
His way was a heavier, tighter-checking style.
The result? Back-to-back Cups and three trips to the Final.
In ’21-22 the Panthers likewise won the Presidents’ Trophy employing a wide-open style. They were swept in the second round by the Lightning.
They, too, came to the conclusion they couldn’t win a Cup playing track-meet hockey.
“They’re Stanley Cup champions for a reason,” said then-Panthers coach Andrew Brunette. “The evolution of how they were a high-flying kind of offensive team and they found a recipe of how to win and they stuck with it.”
Accordingly, Panthers GM Bill Zito went to work. He promptly peddled 115-point scorer Jonathan Huberdeau and offensive defenseman MacKenzie Weegar to the Flames for bruiser extraordinaire Matthew Tkachuk. Along with rugged Sam Bennett, the spit-in-your-eye power forward provides a physical one-two punch that few teams can match. In the process helping to redefine the way the Panthers play.
Harder, grittier, edgier.
For years I’ve been imploring Pens execs to add some functional aggression to our lineup. Heck, we all saw the benefits after GM Kyle Dubas imported tenacious forward Michael Bunting at the trade deadline. A Milquetoastish, plain vanilla (and losing) team suddenly began to display some spunk and spirit.
Imagine what we could do with a couple more guys of Bunting’s ilk?
Sadly, the Pens will resist such moves. They’ll continue to draft the likes of Brayden Yager and second-tier skill guys like Tristan Broz and Owen Pickering. Players who generally aren’t good enough to fill starring roles or gritty enough to fill support roles at the big-league level.
Of course you need talent to win. But it’s all too easy to forget that along with the Sidney Crosbys, Evgeni Malkins and Kris Letangs, Craig Patrick and Ray Shero drafted guys like Ryan Malone, Brooks Orpik, Colby Armstrong, Max Talbot and Tyler Kennedy. Hard-nosed kids who played with an edge and made us difficult to play against.
Speaking of the draft, it’s worth noting that the Panthers had only four home-grown talents on their playoff roster. Which flies in the face of conventional wisdom that states you need to build through the draft.
It’s also worth noting that teams that have drafted quite well such as Ottawa and Columbus have struggled to put the finishing touches on their respective rebuilds.
It’ll be interesting to see how Dubas approaches the Pens’ retool/rebuild.
Oh Canada!
I couldn’t help but feel badly for Connor McDavid and the Oilers. To battle so hard and rally from such a huge deficit…only to come up a goal short? I can’t imagine how crushing and devastating that would be.
With no goals and just three assists in the Final, I’ve got to think star forward Leon Draisaitl feels especially bad. Perhaps Stuart Skinner, too, for yielding the Cup winner on a semi-softie, although the kid has absolutely nothing to be ashamed of.
I feel for our north-of-the-border brethren as well. Since Montreal won the Cup in ’93, Canadian teams are 0-for-6 in the Final.
E-Rod Sips the Bubbly
In closing, a nod to PenguinPoop colleague Caleb Di’Natale. Back when the Pens signed Evan Rodrigues as a free agent in October 2020, Caleb sang the plucky forward’s praises. Kudos that drew its share of derision from myself and Other Rick.
Doubling-down on his platitudes, Caleb then claimed to have a vision of E-Rod hoisting the Cup.
Well, last night his vision came true!
Couldn’t be happier for Caleb…and E-Rod.
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Hey Rick,
First, I doubt Sullivan paid any attention to how the Panthers won. He is no doubt pointing at the losers and saying "Look, a team with no Defense and no Goalie made it to the finals".
Also, Do you remember Chuck Howley? How about Bobby Richardson? How many people do you think there are out there who do know these names? Now the big question, what do they have in common with McDavid?
Yes, they won MVPs in championship games as losers! I am NOT SORRY, McDavid fans, losers do not deserve MVPs of Superbowl games, World Series, or Stanley Cups. If a player is all that valuable, his team wins. More specifically, when it came right down to it, McDavid was about as invisible as he could get when the chips were on the table, he had no Goals or Assists in the last 2 - Games. At least Chuck Howley had 2 interceptions, when the championship was on the line, in his losing cause. McDavid meekly rolled over but still got the Conn Smythe.
A couple of things about E-Rod.
First, in game 6 of our Penguins against NYR series, E-Rod took a stupid retaliatory penalty (with the Penguins leading 2 - 0 at the time) that led to Zibanejad scoring a PPG 5s into the Penalty, starting a 3 Goal outburst that would leap from the Rangers ahead of our Pens to a lead and Sully's boys never really recovered. So, no I don't miss E-Rod. Fla can afford to have an E-Rod because they have guys that will stand up for him, guys that know when to retaliate and when not to retaliate. In Pgh, under Sully, our Penguins are not willing to defend each other and no one on this team knows how or when to exact revenge. As I have said many times, Pittsburgh employs a bunch of Ruth Buzzi s.
Also, Sully is clueless when it comes to putting players in a position to succeed. Again, to reiterate something I said on several occasions, E-Rod is not Wing nor a bottom 6 and Sully kept trying to ply him in both those roles. There are few Jacks-of-all-trades in the NHL but Sully keeps insisting on trying to make every player a utility player. Even if our Pens could corner the NHL market on Utility players, those Jacks are Masters-of-none, so the odds would be totally stacked against a team laden with such utility knives.