Lorne Starko and I were in his living room in Red Deer. My wife of one year, perhaps realizing for the first time just what she was in for, watches as two grown men laugh like idiots for most of the game and then huddle like scared children after Patty Lafontaine's two goals early in the third period.I watched Pittsburgh lose tonight, but any fool can see the future belongs to them. Crosby is a stunning talent, and Malkin + Staal are coming along right behind. Character guys like Armstrong and a goalie who looks like he might just make it.
Bill Torrey became a genius the day he walked around the Montreal Forum with Sam Pollock and refused to trade the pick that would turn into Denis Potvin. Glen Sather become one the day Peter Pocklington bought Wayne Gretzky.
Craig Patrick took over as Penguins GM on December 5, 1989. He enjoyed the fruits of Eddie Johnston's labor (Johnston made some fine moves and was GM when Mario was drafted) and set the table nicely for Fred Shero's kid.
The Penguins have some work to do, but you get the feeling that the window of opportunity for teams like Ottawa will be closing very soon. The NHL is about to get their first dynasty since the Edmonton Oilers 84-90.
I have no idea what Pittsburgh did to deserve this, but they're all that.
With the cap and lower UFA age, I think Pittsburgh won't be winning nearly as many cups as the 80s Oilers.
ReplyDeleteI'm not so sure. Oilers dealt Paul Coffey in Nov 87 after having won in 84. Pens will need to be creative but they've been bad so long they have an exceptional talent base.
ReplyDeleteThey'll have to deal off a few guys for youth and depth, but there's just so much there.
I think there are too many good teams for any team to become a true dynasty in this era. However, they should be exciting and good for a long time.
ReplyDeleteWhat did the Penguins do? They lost alot of hockey games and didn't screw up in the draft.
ReplyDeleteWell, the Crosby draft was a 30 team lottery, so along with being a terrible team to get Fleury and Malkin and Staal, they also lucked out on a generational talent.
ReplyDeleteThey should be good for a long time because they will likely keep their core and put pieces around them...ala Lecavalier, St. Louis, Richards, Boyle.
As long as they manage right, they will be good....very good.
Well, the Crosby draft was a 30 team lottery, so along with being a terrible team to get Fleury and Malkin and Staal, they also lucked out on a generational talent.
ReplyDeleteNot entirely true. The draft was weighted in favour of them, on account of them being so flippin' terrible since the Jagr trade. The Pens, Hawks, Jackets, Caps, and Panthers all had good chances of getting him. Whether you believe the conspiracy theory that the NHL basically gave Crosby to the Pens on a silver platter, it's not like they didn't do anything to earn it.
As for the Pens as this generation's Oilers, I've certainly drawn the comparison myself. Certainly, you look at the 1980 results, and while they got swept by the Flyers, two of the three losses were by a goal, one of them in OT. (The other was 5-1 in Philly.) The Oilers made it look good, and they were still short Kurri, Coffey, Moog, and Fuhr (and arguably Messier, since he wasn't much of a scorer at that point). Similarly, the Pens made it look good, even though they got clobbered in the series score. It may be severe stretching, but certainly, it's not like this is outside historical precedent, which is probably my ultimate point.
(Side note: while looking this up, I found something interesting: the last NHL playoff game played in Atlanta before this week was April 12, 1980. The Atlanta Flames lost 5-2 to the New York Rangers to drop the series 3-1. The next game was April 12, 2007, a 4-3 loss to the Rangers. You'd think some clever sports writer would pick up on that.)
Well, the Crosby draft was a 30 team lottery, so along with being a terrible team to get Fleury and Malkin and Staal, they also lucked out on a generational talent.
ReplyDeleteI was fully aware of that, yet, it wasn't a fait a compli that they were going to have the number one pick and with the draft balls, it was still a significant chance that they may not have had it...hence the luck factor.
I watched every bit of this series save the first two periods of G1 and here's a few conclusions I came to:
ReplyDelete- People will talk about Malkin wearing down over the long haul of the NHL's season and they'll dutifully point to his second half splits as proof, but if there was one reason why the Pens scoring wasn't more balanced I'd say it was Mark Recchi. I had no problem with the Crosby/Malkin tandem and even last night you had Emery robbing Malkin from the slot which shows the kid was still hitting the ball hard. It was a stacked Pens team that he was facing but going forward I wonder just how much Recchi has left. Then again maybe he's playing hurt because we know guys try to gut out things in April that they wouldn't even bother battling in January.
- Eaton impressed the fuck out of me but Gonchar looked worn down by all the icetime. It's a lot to ask a guy to play nearly the full slot on the PP AND then go out and face the loaded up Alfie line to boot.
- Ryan Whitney still has a lot to learn. Comrie made him look like a fool in G4 and Whitney's a risk and reward guy and he was the cause of many odd-man rushes by my eye. I thought Orpik stood up better than he did. Overall though, I think the Pens need to shore up that D this summer, or maybe just wait and pick up Jason Smith at next year's deadline.
- The Pens really weren't in the first three games, though they won G2, G4 was a coin-toss where I thought they had the most chances but the PP killed them and last night the PP killed them once again as they failed to click on two 5-on-3's in the game's first 5 min. Who'd want to bet that their PP would have gotten so cold? It was the deal that killed them in the last two games for sure.
- I thought the same thing about Fluery, I think he's built for longterm success. He's still a bit too active in his crease but I think he'll grow out of that and he didn't crumble against a team that can really bring it so I think the future's bright.
It's really hard to rate the Pens overall because this Sens team looks very balanced. Their top line is awesome and right now Murray's making everyone interested by giving them the PVP matchup, BTW Crosby took this and didn't fare poorly at all, as gets older and better and so does his linemates, it shouldn't take long before he puts up a 150 point season, and then Fisher and Schaffer muck while Comrie throws a scattered check and just moves around looking for his spots. The Neil line is tough to play against and then you have guys like Deano on the 4th line.
Just a note on this guy for a second along with some praise for the Oilers mgmt...of '06 that is;) It seems like the Oil had a Deano/winchester deal made but it didn't get done in time. Given that the aforementioned winchester, along with harvey, ended up playing with the 94-10 combo and that deano had played on iginla's line in cgy, I think that's where he would've played with the Oilers and it looks like they had the right idea. everything came up roses for them last year and this was another great idea that just didn't come to fruition. I hated that guy when he was an Oiler, outside of that 50 point season, because he just disappeared in the '98 playoffs and he was very soft. He's re-invented himself now though and it's worth mentioning.
On the blueline I think Phillips is even better than I thought he was. him and the young Jason Smith were looking after Crosby and Phillips looked much mroe suited for it,. Emery was great in the last two games and I think only the Sabres can take them out.
Yeah, Pittsburgh has an excellent opportunity to be very competitive for the next ten years if they handle their stars well...
ReplyDeleteHowever, a dynasty requires one teams relative dominance over an entire league.
Teams like Buffalo, San Jose and Nashville are also very strong. With the development of their upstart young stars and continued solid drafting, these teams are also going to continue to improve to become very, very good. I just can't see Pittburgh walking over all these teams year after year in a league with such competitive balance. Dynasties are done.
i can't believe someone else knows Lorne Starko!!
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