The staggering realization about the Pens over the past month or so has usually been “They aren’t who we thought they were”. Many fans, pundits, analysts, ECT thought the Pens could once again be among the cream of the crop in the NHL. Those thoughts however proved to mere hopes and dreams. I look at the Pens this year and think that they are who I thought they were. That is not to say I had not hoped they would win every game I watched them play, not at all. But I had tempered my expectations at the beginning of the year.
With the front office and coaching turnover and turmoil during last off season and all the players that were traded and left via free agency, it was going to be hard for the Pens to be a Cup contender year 1 under Mike Johnston. He was a successful junior coach with little NHL experience. He was going to have some growing pains just like players adjusting to his new system were going to have. He was going to have to deal with opposing NHL coaching minds and strategies and teams filled with much more talent than at the junior level. How will you adapt when opposing teams start to figure out your breakout or fore-check. This isn’t something that a coach can come in and do right from the start which is why the Pens had much more success at the start of the year than at the finish. The Pens will always be a talented team with Crosby and Malkin anchoring the offense but talent in the NHL will only get you so far. No one can doubt that there is just something missing from the Penguins teams over the past few years that comes down to more than injuries. The Pens lack an identity.
You look back at the teams that went to the cup in 2008 and 2009 against the Redwings and those were teams with young stars coming into their own. There was veteran presence and leadership. It was a team built more firmly on defensive responsibility than on long stretch passes trying to open things up offensively. Granted that style eventually led to Michel Therrien being replaced by Dan Bylsma but the smart thing that Bylsma did was not make big changes. He gave the star players a little more of what they wanted to just loosen the reins a little bit but he made sure they still play defense. A couple months later the Stanley Cup was in Pittsburgh. Those teams played hard, fought hard, were fast and broke through a shell of disappointment that had lingered for so many years before the first lockout of 2004-2005.
The problem now is those young stars have grown a bit. They aren’t the young kids going up against the savvy veteran Redwings dynasty. Crosby, Malkin, Fleury and Letang have now been among the elite for years. They are what teams are looking to swat down. Sometimes the hardest thing is continuing to live up the lofty expectations you set for yourself, keeping that same drive going not just in the regular season but in the playoffs when it counts.
For all accounts this team lacks true leadership whether it is behind the bench or in the locker room. No offense to Sidney Crosby but sometimes being a leader on the ice and in how you play isn’t enough. There needs to be a vocal presence. Whether it’s getting in the face of a teammate or saying the right things in between periods to help pull a team up when they are down, this team needs that. Now Crosby should be the captain that’s not being disputed but there needs to be secondary leaders who fill this role and the Pens don’t have that. They also need a coach who can rein them in when needed and light a fire under them for 60 minutes on a more consistent basis.
Going forward the Pens need an overhaul. They need a new blueprint to build a championship team. One that doesn’t involve trading away draft picks and prospects year after year. Sometimes it’s good to swing for the fences and it had worked in the past but when you do it year after year you are going to strike out. This has caused the Pens to become one of the older teams on average in the NHL with very little depth in the minors aside from defense. A staggering statistics is that since the 2005 draft when the Pens selected Sidney Crosby there are only 4 players the Pens have drafted that have had any sort of NHL impact that are still in the organization. This includes sparingly used Scott Harrington.
Maybe this coming season there will be a more patient approach to let the team grow a year. Move on from some aging players and bring in some prospects or draft picks that can help maybe not next season but the year after. Not make changes for the sake of change but a thought out plan to make the Penguins the envy of the NHL again in 2 or 3 years not a panic to win the Cup immediately. If true change doesn’t come this off season the Pens will be repeating the same pattern they have been stuck in after winning the Stanley Cup in 2009 hoping for a different result. And we all know what that is the definition of.
The Burgh Sports 