When you’re young, it’s only natural to be looking forward in life. When you’re in high school, you can’t wait to get out of high school. When you’re going through your young adult years, you’re always looking to achieve that next goal. Get married. Have a kid. Buy a house. Those years can be a relentless rollercoaster that doesn’t slow down for a decade.
At some point though, you start to slow down and actually look back at what you’ve done. The funny thing, when we look back—things aren’t always exactly how we thought they were. Sometimes, we look back with better perspective (and without emotion) and see exactly what was going on.
The Penguins rise to success took a few years to get started, but once it did it was a whirlwind. They went from being a team that made the post season and learned how to go through the rigors of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, to a team that broke through and won it all.
It all happened pretty fast and Pens fans enjoyed the ride, but now that we are a little removed from the last year we can take a minute and see what knocked the train off the tracks. When last season started, I don’t think you’d find a lot of people who would tell you the Penguins wouldn’t even be able to make the Eastern Conference Finals—especially after making back to back Cup Final appearances. Certainly their GM had an underlying confidence:
“I don’t know if we had a fear of losing. We always felt that we could find it and when we had to win, we’d win. But in the end, as we found out, when we had to win, we couldn’t.” –Ray Shero
Even though the good guys over at The Confluence, Pens Universe, and The Pensblog have probably analyzed this to death, the national media saw an 8th seed playing a 7th seed in the Eastern Finals and they had their story. They actually moved on from the Pens much quicker than I thought they would after Pittsburgh was eliminated. Either way, they moved on and people didn’t really talk about what happened.
Over the previous two seasons, they were the team that was supposed to be the next dynasty. They went up against the evil Red Wings (“evil” added for effect) in the Finals only to be turned away by the veteran squad; finally broke through and prevailed. But that was only supposed to be the beginning of the story—so what happened? Why were the Penguins less-than-dominant in the regular season (barely would have made the playoffs in the West) and a disappointing playoff team that was eliminated in the Eastern Conference Semifinals?
Now that the dust has settled on the 2009-10 season and we’ve all had a couple of months to remove ourselves from the joy/disappointment, we’re finally to a point where we can start to objectively look back at the year that was. But don’t get too excited Pens haters, last year might not be the inevitable beginning of the end.
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The first things that come to mind are pretty standard complaints from Penguin fans (and hockey fans in general). A point of concern over the last couple of years, the Penguins didn’t have much in the way of wingers to go with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Both Malkin and Sergei Gonchar missed about 20 games due to injury. Combining the winger and injury problems, you also have the 32 games Chris Kunitz lost. Other people will say it was because they went to the Stanley Cup Finals in two consecutive seasons and they simply ran out of gas at the end (Bobby Holik said that when the Devils went to back-to-back Finals, he felt like he aged half a decade. Throw in the Olympics and the condensed schedule, and it’s easy to point this as an excuse).
But none of those things are really going to gain any pity from the rest of the league. Even though those excuses are readily accessible, most fans thought there were three bigger problems that prevented the Penguins from playing to their potential last year.
Power play
At times the power play was absolutely atrocious last year. Penguins fans might think that Mike Yeo’s departure will cure that (and it might), but watching Gonchar leave isn’t going to help next season. Either way, a team that has Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Sergei Gonchar should be better than the 19th best PP unit in the league. Then again—a subpar power play wasn’t something that was isolated to last season since the Pens were rocking the 19th best power play the year they won the Cup. But either way, it’s a weakness when it really shouldn’t be. Standing around in stationary positions while the 4 penalty killers stay in position will do that to a team.
“The reasons for the lack of power play success has been among the most popular discussion items among Penguins fans. I’ve always contended that the primary reason was systemic rather than personnel-related. In my view, the Penguins’ power play was nearly entirely stationary, merely passing the puck back and forth between Gonchar at center point and either Malkin or Crosby on the right half wall. The successful power plays, for example the Flyers or Wings, constantly have their players moving, with and without the puck. That movement always creates additional passing/shooting lanes. Those lanes quickly close when you don’t move.” –The Confluence
One of the most brutally abused scapegoats over the last couple of seasons for Penguins fans has been assistant coach Mike Yeo. With the defensive and PP struggles (he was in charge of both), he was an obvious target. But since he’s departed to the Houston Aeros, it’s time for the players on the ice to put up or shut up. If they continue to stand around and remain wildly inconsistent, then maybe Pens fans will have to find themselves a new scapegoat. Watch out Kris Letang!
Marc-Andre Fleury
There were times when Marc-Andre Fleury seemed like he was one step away from a Rick DiPietro-type punch line. His numbers took a dramatic turn for the worse in every single category and he didn’t give fans a tangible reason to get behind him. The national perspective was that he absolutely sucked. He forgot how to stop pucks and was the reason that the Penguins would not repeat as Cup champs. But a deeper look shows that there may have been some external factors contributing to his statistical slide.
“It doesn’t look like Fleury had an awful year. If fact, it doesn’t even look like he had a below average year. His power play save percentage was a new career high, and it was well above average among starting goalies this year. While his even strength save percentage was very low, it seems to be more of a product of the defense in front of him. Fleury was no less focused at even strength than Vezina nominee Ilya Bryzgalov, and had the team in front of him played even average defense, his save percentage would be right where it was last year.” –Pensburgh.com
In that great article over at Pensburgh, they went into a long, statistical analysis that broke down all of the even strength goals Fleury surrendered. After coming up with the numbers and comparing them to the league’s elite, it showed that Fleury didn’t have nearly the poor season that people thought he did. He really didn’t give up many soft goals and was the unfortunate target of some point-blank opportunities from the opposition.
The stats backed up exactly what I thought I saw with my own eyes. Even though there was some serious backlash against Fleury, every time I watched him play it seemed like he was getting ZERO help. He’d get beaten on a 2-on-1 down low where one of his defensemen lost a forward going back door. He’d get beaten on a one-timer when a sniper was left wide open between the circles. He’d get beaten on a breakaway or an odd-man rush. You get the idea.
Maybe there was something else that was to blame for the goals against? This brings us to:
Defensive Corps
The blueline received a bit of a face lift after the 2009 Stanley Cup. Rob Scuderi (aka The Piece) received a big raise from Los Angeles Kings and Hal Gill found a new home in Montreal with the Canadiens. In their place, the Penguins would lean on Jay McKee and eventually, Jordan Leopold. Neither of those guys really scream “shutdown defenseman,” do they? Apparently, they didn’t speak to Pens management either because Leopold is gone and McKee might have to accept the league minimum if he wants to hang around Pittsburgh.
Here’s a newsflash: Apparently losing Hal Gill and Rob Scuderi was a big deal. People may have had an idea of how much it would affect them, but it wasn’t until the playoffs that it became a glaring hole to outsiders. It wasn’t lost on Ray Shero, either. When he was putting together his offseason wish list, he obviously had one thing in mind.
“The Penguins invested heavily in defense this offseason by adding Michalek and Martin on the free agent market, addressing a unit that was considered a weakness by the end of last season. It’s becoming a common trend for teams to load up on defense these days…” –Adam Gretz (NHL Fanhouse)
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The Penguins and their fans can already count on an exciting season. With the new Consol Energy Center opening its doors and the Winter Classic coming to Heinz Field, the Steel City should be getting pumped up about hockey. But it won’t just be the hockey venues hyping Pittsburghers this year. An improved defense corps should go a long way towards solidifying every aspect of the team on the ice. And as much excitement as a new building can create, winning seems to be the best way to sell tickets. Remember, this is still a team that had over 100 points last season. Not so bad for a disappointing season, is it?
It might have seemed like the Penguins were missing something last year—but I bet those feelings are gone this year. We just needed a few months to be able to realize it.
Matt Reitz is the Editor-In-Chief here at ViewFromMySeats.com and former NHL Writer for ProHockeyTalk on NBCSports. When he’s not shoving a mic in the face of NHLers or explaining why home teams should wear white, he’s usually trying to figure out what song to play next on his iPod. It’s a never-ending job.
