A Penguins Season Post-Mortem: Part I

Well, it's been several years since I've heard this kind of talk.

As the Pittsburgh Penguin players meet with the coaching staff and team management this morning to conduct their end-of-year meetings, the league remains in disbelief over the Penguins' 7-game defeat at the hands of the Montreal Canadiens in the second round, and both observers and fans alike are abuzz over what changes will or need to be made to the current Pittsburgh roster.

Emotions obviously remain raw over what happened on Wednesday night at Mellon Arena and, while I certainly understand and share that feeling, some people are going off the deep end.

For instance, the writer from The Hockey News who actually said the Penguins must trade Evgeni Malkin.

His article can be found here:

http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/33579-THNcom-Playoff-Blog-Penguins-must-trade-Malkin.html

Credit this guy for at least writing something people will talk about -- because that's what I'm doing -- even if what he says makes zero sense.

And that's being charitable.

I don't know how you can suggest trading Geno in one breath, and then in the same breath say that, if you don't get the deal you want, keep him, because "there are worse things than having Evgeni Malkin on your team."

Is that for real??

Sure, Malkin had a down season. Sure, he eats up 8.7 million dollars of cap space in a room that isn't getting any bigger.

But to trade him?

Laughable.

Malkin remains one of the most talented players in the game. One who, by the way, is 23 with about a decade of outstanding hockey in front of him. He's obviously still learning the importance of being consistent and brining his A-game night in and night out, but I think the Stanley Cup ring he already has shows that he's capable of doing it. For what he's provided the Penguins, I'm more than willing to give him a pass this season.

And that's true despite what a franchise player like him would fetch in a trade. Other teams would kill to have a guy like that center their #1 line. The Penguins are fortunate to have 2 game-breakers like him and Sidney Crosby.

Here's the next laughable piece of journalism I need to talk about:

http://www.puckupdate.com/2010/05/13/penguins-need-a-goalie-upgrade/?utm_source=bleacherreport.com

Not surprisingly, the target of this writer's critique is Penguins' goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.

Now, I've been critical of Fleury in this space on several occasions this year, and frankly, that criticism came with a fair amount of justification. I think even Fleury would admit that he was inconsistent and uneven this year, and his playoff performance against the Canadiens was a microcosm of his play during the regular season, if not worse. He let up the first goal of the game to Montreal early on their first shot at least 3 times in the series and, in the last two games, finished with a 6.80 GAA and SV % of 76.9.

In fact, in the final game the other night when Pittsburgh needed him the most, he might have played his worst game as a Penguin.

BUT, to say he was the sole reason they lost, or that except last year, he hasn't put together a dominant, consistent stretch is sorely mistaken.

Fleury was far from the sole reason the Penguins lost to the Candiens. He was a reason -- and he could have been a difference maker -- but he was hardly the only one. And, as regular observers of the team know, Fleury wasn't just solid in last year's post-season, he was actually even better the year before when the Penguins made their first run to the Stanley Cup Final before losing to the Red Wings that season.

Like Malkin, Fleury is still working on his consistency, and like Malkin, I'm more than willing to give him a pass this year. I believe Fleury will bounce back strong next season. Regardless, he remains one of the top 10-15 netminders in the league. The Penguins could be doing a lot worse than keeping him around to tend goal for them the next 5-8 seasons.

Ask Philadelphia about that.

Did I actually call that piece on Fleury journalism?

Beyond those two genius pieces of authorship, there's a lot of other talk about what went wrong for the Penguins this season, and what they need next year. Some of it is right on point.

Pittsburgh has played a lot of hockey the last 3 seasons and, while nobody on the team will admit it takes a toll, the fatigue factor is undeniable. The Pens will benefit from having a longer off-season this year.

The Penguins also missed in this year's post-season the defensive presence that last year's two shutdown blueliners, Rob Scuderi and Hal Gill, provided them. There's no doubt that Pittsburgh could have been better in its own end in this year's playoffs.

Just as, on the other side of the coin, there's no doubt they couldn't fairly afford to keep one those players. Scuderi is getting approximately 3.5 million dollars in Los Angeles to suit up for the Kings and, while it would be great to still have him around, the salary cap makes that impossible. Plain and simple.

Would the Penguins have benefitted from at least keeping Gill around at near 2 million or 2 million plus for a few years? Perhaps. After all, he did to them in a Canadiens' uniform exactly what he did to the opposition while wearing black and gold last year. But again -- Gill's absence was not the only reason, or the biggest reason, why Pittsburgh lost to Montreal.

Like the struggles of Malkin and Fleury, Pittsburgh had problems with being consistent most of the year. After a great start to the season the team's play leveled off most of the rest of the year. The Pens simply weren't able to get into a groove where they just ran off a month or 6 weeks of outstanding hockey.

But it isn't easy to be as consistently good of an outfit as the Penguins have been the last 3 years. AND, despite the up-and-down nature of their performance this year, they still finished with 101 points and nearly won the Atlantic Division. One more victory in the playoffs and we're sitting here talking about them being the first Eastern Conference team to participate in three consecutive Eastern Conference finals in nearly 3 decades.

But it's a fine line in this business, and while it took everything from the Canadiens to get by an underachieving Pittsburgh team, the fact remains that they're the one still playing, and the Penguins are not.

I'll have more post-mortem in the coming days, including discussion about an interesting quote from Crosby after game 7, some additional thoughts on Sergei Gonchar, and where the Penguins go from here.

By then, the anger may be in full bloom.

For now, disillusionment remains.