Has Ray Shero Dropped The Ball?

With the Penguins current sitting 10th in the Eastern Conference and out of playoff position with a thoroughly uninspiring 26-24-5 record this season -- and with mostly the same roster that started the season -- it's a fair time to question whether Penguins' GM Ray Shero has dropped the ball in doing his part to put the best Penguins' team together.

Shero has come out and said that he believes in the current group (and Penguins' coach Michel Therrein), and thinks they'll make the playoffs. But when does he realize that it's very possible the Penguins as presently constituted just might not make it??

Sure, free agency changed the Penguins. Shero tried to compensate for the losses of Marion Hossa, Ryan Malone, Jarkko Ruutu, Gary Roberts, Georges Laraque and Adam Hall. He just didn't do it very well. Miroslav Satan, Ruslan Fedotenko and Matt Cooke have been adequate, but they haven't given the Penguins enough. Cooke has been a good contributor for the Penguins. Fedotenko has delivered as expected. Satan has been a disappointment.

Of course, hindsight on the performance of those players is 20/20, but one of the things Shero clearly failed to replace is the abrasiveness that accompanied many of the guys the Penguins lost. And the results show on the ice. The Penguins haven't brought their lunch pails on enough nights this season and are no longer a difficult team to play against.

Hossa' loss probably hurt the most and, in all fairness, that can't be pinned on Shero. By taking less money to go elsewhere, Hossa did the unexpected. I'm not even sure it's justifiable to criticize him for not having a plan "B", or acting faster, as some critics have. But it's undeniable that Sidney Crosby's talents are being partially wasted by having him play with guys like Pascal Dupuis and Tyler Kennedy, as he did in the Penguins' last game against the Red Wings. That's no disrespect to Dupuis and TK, who are solid players, but they don't belong on #87's wing.

Shero's number one goal should be to find a high-end caliber winger who can and will play with Crosby well. And when he finds that player, keep him.

Although most GM's and/or fans would probably be reluctant to trade one of the Penguins' strong, young assets (read: Jordan Staal, Ryan Whitney or Alex Goligoski) to acquire one of those players, Shero doesn't have much choice. Trying to sign free agents in the hope they might fit there -- like the failed Janne Pesonen experiement -- isn't going to get it done. Kudos to Shero for trying that way (and I hope he continues to do so), but the odds of that method bearing fruit are about as likely as Mario Lemieux coming out of retirement.

Or worse.

In particular, Shero really has to take a hard look at moving one of his defenseman. The Penguins have a surplus of blueliners of all kinds and in the salary cap era, that's just a luxury that a team cannot afford, especially when it has other important needs like the Penguins.

Which brings me back to the beginning of these piece. Did Shero drop the ball? It's been obvious for months now that the Penguins have needs -- the scoring winger for Crosby and missing grit being only 2. What has Shero been doing to address those needs? By all accounts, he has been exploring the trade market. In that sense, maybe he hasn't been presented with a worthwhile offer? It's very possible that other teams are lowballing the Penguins because it's obvious the Penguins need help in some areas and are desperate to make the playoffs since they are paying salaries nearly up to the cap.

But a fair argument can be made that this team needed a shake up a long time ago if they were going to make a playoff run. Now they're in a position where they are going to be fighting for the rest of the season just to get a chance to run up against the Boston Bruins in round 1. Sure, anything is possible in the playoffs, but that's not a matchup that's favorable to the Penguins -- or most teams.

Had Shero acted sooner, the Penguins might have been able to come together by now.

When Shero was hired, he brought with him a good amount of experience in long-term franchise building thanks to his role in the development of the Ottawa Senator and Nashville Predator teams. Clearly, it's his goal to form a team that is competitive, if not successful, year in and year out. I appreciate that goal.

However, Shero has never been a part of a team with as much talent as the Penguins ... a team who was 2 wins away from winning the Stanley Cup last year ... a team that is paying up to the salary cap ceiling. That ups the stakes. As evidenced by him acquiring Hossa last season, Shero is clearly aware of that.

The team is and has been clearly underachieving. The players need to be better, and the coaching staff needs to do more.

So does the GM.