Off Season Not Kind to the Pittsburgh Penguins

By Kim Dunning

The NHL off-season has not been kind to the Pittsburgh Penguins. It wasn’t unexpected that the Pens would lose players during the off-season. The Pens had quite a few free agents unlike last season. Losing key players and the reason the club managed to win back to back cups, hurts.

With the Vegas expansion draft, the Pens knew they were going to lose at least one member of its team. That player was lifelong Penguin Marc-Andre Fleury. Fans expected Fleury to be the player to go to Vegas. With a younger talent Matt Murray, he was cheaper and logical to keep. When the expansion draft happened and the reality of losing Fleury set in, it was emotional. This is a decision that could come back to haunt the Penguins for the upcoming season.

Why will losing Fleury come back to haunt the Pens? If you did not watch the Penguins in the first two rounds of the playoffs, you missed a lot. Fleury was an intricate part of the Penguins success. He managed to keep a struggling non-productive first period team in games. Letting one or two goals in at the most and making incredible saves. Fleury stood on his head so that the Pens high-powered offense woke up.

Watching the Pens offense in this playoffs was like watching your favorite old car. It was slow to start but once they started going, they were unbeatable.

Without Fleury, there wouldn’t have been back-to-back Cups. Matt Murray sustained an injury that kept him out of the first two rounds. Few teams could lose a starting goaltender and have the proven backup the Pens did this season. Fleury became the hero of the Washington Capitals series with his shut out in Game 7. Many Pens fans believe that without Fleury, Pittsburgh would not have made it out of the Columbus series. More believe that the Capitals would have had a better chance to win in the second round.

The Pens have also lost what most considered to be their strength down the middle. The Pens have lost their third line center, Nick Bonino to Nashville. Fourth line center, Matt Cullen, is still deciding between retirement and another season. Cullen is interesting. As the fourth line center and 40-years old, Cullen was still playing at a very high level. Credible sources have Cullen going back home to Minnesota to finish his career.

Pittsburgh’s ability to dominate down the middle of the ice is now compromised. They had incredible depth at center on all four lines. Now, as the off-season turns, the Pens aren’t so intimidating and deep on all four lines. This is a big part of how they were able to win back to back Cups.

Then there is Chris Kunitz. The winger who scored the goal on Crosby’s 1000th point. A good friend, teammate and the hero of the Game 7 double overtime game-winning goal. A veteran presence both on the ice and in the locker room. Kunitz is the only active player with four Stanley Cups. This is a veteran presence that is already missed, both in the locker room and on the ice.

Losing players is part of the salary cap era of the NHL. Loyalty is few and far between now and money talks. Great teams overcome obstacles.  This upcoming season will be interesting to see if Pittsburgh can once again rise and defeat the obstacles or if this is the year it finally gets to the team.

 

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Why Sidney Crosby Deserved the Conn Smythe

 

By Kim Dunning

Sidney Crosby, the MVP of the NHL Playoffs. You can almost tangibly hear the groans coming from fans who dislike him as a player. The excuses hockey fans used as to why Crosby didn’t deserve the MVP award were varied. Some say he didn’t do enough in the playoffs to be worthy of the Conn Smythe Trophy. If you read or trolled Facebook during the hockey playoffs, everyone who wasn’t a Penguins fan had negative things to say about Crosby and his playing style but like it or not, Crosby is up there with the likes of Mario Lemuiex and Wayne Gretzy. When asked right after Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals, Penguin players were adamant about how well deserved Crosby was of the MVP.

Crosby may not have shown up on the statistics as being a MVP like player but behind the scenes he definitely was. People who don’t follow hockey should know that the MVP is selected by a group of 18 people made up of the Professional Hockey Writers Association and was not only based on the final series with the San Jose Sharks but based upon Sidney Crosby’s entire playoff performance. Crosby had 19 points in the playoffs this season and none of those came in the final series against the Sharks. He did, however, have two assists in Game 6.

So why does he deserve the MVP? Easy! Crosby motivates his team to become better. Word on the street is that he showed up to non-mandatory skates and helped the rookies who were playing in their first Stanley Cup playoffs series get better. Crosby, although wasn’t the score machine that Phil Kessel was, still took a lot of pressure off his other teammates by being on the ice. He did what a great captain does, motivates everyone on the ice to be better players around him. Sometimes it’s not the performance on the ice that matters, sometimes it’s the things that go unnoticed that make that person an MVP.

With the Conn Smythe Trophy added to his collection, Crosby becomes an elite player. He is the only NHL player to win the Art Ross Trophy twice as the regular season points champion (2007 and 2014), the Hart Trophy twice (2007 and 2014) as the League MVP and the Ted Lindsay Award as players’ MVP three times (2007, 2013 and 2014). Also Crosby has an Olympic Gold Medal, two Stanley Cup Championships, World Championship, and World Junior Gold. These accomplishments have yet to be matched by any other NHL player.

So if you still feel Crosby doesn’t deserve the MVP for the playoffs, you are still entitled to your opinion. Hopefully this has opened your eyes a bit to Crosby’s other accomplishments and most importantly to his leadership. His teammates will agree that without him, they wouldn’t have won the Stanley Cup this year. It can now be said that Crosby has definitely grown into a great hockey player and even more important a mature and fierce leader. He’s no longer just “Sid the Kid”… he’s Sidney Crosby, captain and two time Stanley Cup Champion.