It was the thought of many back in 2009 that the Pittsburgh Penguins were starting their dynasty. After drafting players like Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin then getting to two straight Stanley Cup Finals in 2008 and 2009 winning in 2009 it seemed as though the Penguins were ready to claim their monopoly over the NHL.
After the second round in 2010 where the Penguins lost in seven games to surprise team Montreal Canadiens it’s been rough going for the Pens. Since then Pittsburgh has had some issues getting past the second round.
You can point to a number of things on why the Penguins have had trouble. In 2011 both Crosby and Malkin were out with injuries, and even still pushed the Tampa Bay Lightning to seven games in the first round before losing.
Since then it’s hard to come up with excuses. In 2012 they were arguably the best team in the league, on paper they probably were in fact the best. Awful defense and goaltending put them in a 3-0 hole in the first round against bitter rivals Philadelphia Flyers eventually losing that series in six games.
2013 was better, but ended on a very sour note, getting past the first two rounds for the first time since 2009 but only scoring two goals in a four game series against the Boston Bruins.
2014 they made it to the second round again and even found themselves up 3-1 against the New York Rangers and still ended up losing that series.
And this past season after being in the playoffs pretty much the entire season stumbled late and had to qualify for the playoffs on the last day of the regular season clinching the final wild card spot. For a team loaded with skill I think most people expected a lot more than a wild card spot for the Penguins. Heavy underdogs in their first round series against the best team in the NHL New York Rangers the Penguins made the games close but still lost the series in five games.
After a bad season the Penguins didn’t waste much time in reloading. With Phil Kessel trades rumors coming out left and right from Toronto since the trade deadline if not before then Pittsburgh jumped on the opportunity on the first day of free agency giving up Nick Spalling, Kasperi Kapanen, Scott Harrington and draft picks. The Penguins also got Tim Erixon and Tyler Biggs in the deal. A big win for the Penguins, a five time thirty goal scorer now the chance to play with one of the two best centers this sport has. Anything under forty goals would probably be disappointing.
The Penguins, like always won’t have to worry about offense. With the best player in the game Crosby and top five or top ten player in Malkin centering your top two lines you won’t have to worry about offense in the regular season. The forward depth look great as well, Bonino and Cullen (or maybe Fehr) should fill out the bottom two centers and you have wingers in Bennett, Dupuis, Fehr, Hornqvist, Kessel, Kunitz, Perron and Plotnikov one of my new favorite names to say in the NHL. The forward group barring and injuries looks great.
The defense continues to leave questions. That’s not anything new, since 2012 that’s been the normal thing around Pittsburgh so switching up the defense may not be that bad of an idea. But the Penguins defense heading into this season looks to be very young. Rob Scuderi is the oldest guy on D at thirty-six and will be thirty-seven midway through next season, he’s on the downside of his career and can only handle so much. Ben Lovejoy is thirty-one, a good depth defenseman, then the next oldest is Kris Letang at twenty-eight. Ian Cole is twenty-six, and after him you have young guys under twenty-five who have only played a handful of NHL games. One exception is Olli Maata who looked great his rookie season, one of my favorite players to watch on this team who unfortunately missed the majority of his sophmore season due to injury.
Most likely the top four will be fine and the Penguins will rely on young guys stepping up into the lineup and filling out the rest of the team. If Marc-Andre Fleury can have a great season the defense can really settle in and give the young D some confidence knowing hes back there. Fleury hasn’t had a goals against average over 2.39 since 2009-10 so the Penguins haven’t had to worry about him in the regular season, you expect that to be much of the same this upcoming season.
In terms of prospects, it’s not something this team has to worry about to much, they’re in win now mode and will trade them if they see a good option. Their best prospect seems to be Derrick Pouliot who could be the fifth or sixth defenseman or higher if they want him to get more minutes. Another prospect making some noise recently is goalie Matthew Murray who in forty games played last season had a 1.58 goals against average and .941 save % in the AHL. The Penguins don’t need a goalie with Fleury hogging the NHL spot but it’s nice to have a twenty-one year old who can post those numbers in the AHL and if they ever want to test him in the NHL they can do that.
The Penguins had a bad season last year, only 98 points for a team this good is unacceptable. Fans and management know that and changes have been made. Losing players like Brandon Sutter, Paul Martin, Christian Ehrhoff, Steve Downie, Daniel Winnik and Blake Comeau and adding Phil Kessel, Nick Bonino, Sergei Plotnikov, Eric Fehr and Matt Cullen. If the team can stay healthy this is a pretty deep squad.
Offense will carry this team and defense will be the question early if not throughout the season, but with two of the best players in the world in Crosby and Malkin, one of the better defenseman in the entire NHL and a solid goalie this team should make the playoffs in their division and contend for a Stanley Cup out east. If not, head coach Mike Johnston will most likely have to pay with his job.
