The 90's Penguins had their core and could never pull it off again. I'm seeing a repeat of that scenario. It has nothing to do with Crosby and Malkin. Lemieux and Jagr were the best in the world as well, but they never again had the right blend of players behind them.
Lost too many role players? That should be the easy part.
This team has two of the absolute best centers + Neal + Letang, that alone is enough to contend. Especially when the other parts are playing to standard.
ugh, I was trying to forget that...
I remember quite well how we lost against the islanders and never really got there again.
This is an epic failure of this team, this team doesn't handle being favored very well. Everytime we top some power ranking, or get proclaimed the best in the land we always go into the tank.
I can't imagine that Blysma is not on the hot seat to some degree after this debacle. Not saying it's all his fault, but the utter lack of discipline on the ice is mind boggling. I think we have a shot to come back and get another cup with this core, but not without major re-tooling on D, and maybe a much better backup goalie to push Fleury.
This is easily the dumbest thread i've seen in a long time. We've got Sid back healthy, the soon-to-be-Hart trophy winner, a perennial Norris candidate, a 40 goal sniper, a guy who was in the discussion for the Vezina the past two years, and a Selke runner-up two-way power forward still years away from his prime, and we're asking if the window has closed because we don't have the right "role players"?
It's amazing how quickly a disappointing playoff series will turn this place into a panicked mess.
The window is not closed. What we need is a youth movement. And defense of course (which will be the youth movement). Get Despres and Strait on the back end next season and bring in a veteran shutdown d at the deadline. Dump Martin and Lovejoy, Maybe Orpik.
The window is not closed. What we need is a youth movement. And defense of course (which will be the youth movement). Get Despres and Strait on the back end next season and bring in a veteran shutdown d at the deadline. Dump Martin and Lovejoy, Maybe Orpik.
Remember that it is nigh-impossible to win the Cup, with 15 worthy (well, 6-10 worthy) teams failing to each year. If you make the playoffs you have a chance, therefore the "window" is open as long as you're a top-16 team. Which, really, should be always. It's not that hard to make the playoffs in the NHL.
Do you Pens fans feel that you can ever win a Cup with Fleury again?
Yes because he doesn't usually play this terrible. Fans that don't see all of our games might think he's always like this, but he isn't. He was remarkably consistent from the late fall/early winter of 2010 until the last 2 weeks of this regular season and the playoffs. I have no idea what has happened to him down the stretch.
Yes because he doesn't usually play this terrible. Fans that don't see all of our games might think he's always like this, but he isn't. He was remarkably consistent from the late fall/early winter of 2010 until the last 2 weeks of this regular season and the playoffs. I have no idea what has happened to him down the stretch.
He doesn't usually play this bad, but really, he hasn't been great in the playoffs since the Pens lost to the Wings in the finals.
Even when they won the Cup, he wasn't at his best, and since then he has been pretty bad every year.
For starters, he probably shouldn't be playing 65+ games a year. If he is failing in April consistently, he could be getting worn down. Get a better backup and limit him to 55-60 games.
Then, you need to protect Fleury. He isn't a Lundqvist or Quick, he isn't going to win a series for you. Focus on defense. Fleury seems to me to lose confidence a little more than you would want in a goalie, so stop leaving him hung out to dry.
He doesn't usually play this bad, but really, he hasn't been great in the playoffs since the Pens lost to the Wings in the finals.
Even when they won the Cup, he wasn't at his best, and since then he has been pretty bad every year.
For starters, he probably shouldn't be playing 65+ games a year. If he is failing in April consistently, he could be getting worn down. Get a better backup and limit him to 55-60 games.
Then, you need to protect Fleury. He isn't a Lundqvist or Quick, he isn't going to win a series for you. Focus on defense. Fleury seems to me to lose confidence a little more than you would want in a goalie, so stop leaving him hung out to dry.
What options are out there though for a better backup that can fit into our cost structure?
He doesn't usually play this bad, but really, he hasn't been great in the playoffs since the Pens lost to the Wings in the finals.
Even when they won the Cup, he wasn't at his best, and since then he has been pretty bad every year.
For starters, he probably shouldn't be playing 65+ games a year. If he is failing in April consistently, he could be getting worn down. Get a better backup and limit him to 55-60 games.
Then, you need to protect Fleury. He isn't a Lundqvist or Quick, he isn't going to win a series for you. Focus on defense. Fleury seems to me to lose confidence a little more than you would want in a goalie, so stop leaving him hung out to dry.
I agree he needs less games during the regular season and probably needs insulated by a tighter defensive style/system.
He has been good at times since the 2008 Finals loss. He was spectacular against Philly in the 2009 playoffs, shaky early in the Washington series, solid against Carolina, horrendous in 3 road games in those 2009 Finals, but dominate in the 3 home games and the game 7 on the road.
I didn't mind him in the Ottawa series that we won in 2010. He wasn't great or horrible. Hard to complain about that. I didn't think he played that poorly against Tamp last year. He had a horrible game early in the series that killed his stats, but for the most part he still gave the team a chance to win the rest of the games. The team just couldn't score.
The Montreal series and this Philly series are his two worst performances of his career. Just embarrassingly bad. It's why his reputation with other fan bases is so bad.
I suppose finding a quality backup for Fleury is an option for the off-season. But if you add to the goalie budget, you'd have to subtract somewhere else. If we're talking about going from a bare minimum salaried goalie to one making $1-1.5 million, that wouldn't be that big of a deal. But would said goalie make the impact on Fleury, keep the latter fresh enough and still produce enough for us? If not, we'd have to get someone even more expensive. So that might cost us a Tyler Kennedy, or maybe a Kunitz. Or maybe an Orpik or Michalek. I doubt we're talking about a $5 million backup (Martin's cap hit).
And at the end of the day, if we're talking about significantly upgrading the backup position, so that we can get someone who can do for Fleury what say Cory Schneider has done for Vancouver, then what are we really saying here? Because Luongo is about to lose his gig in Vancouver. So what we'd really be saying is we're looking to replace Fleury, over time.
If that's the mind set, might as well speed up the process imo.
The Montreal series and this Philly series are his two worst performances of his career. Just embarrassingly bad. It's why his reputation with other fan bases is so bad.
I think it's also why WE should be questioning him. Look, I don't think there's much question about Fleury's talent. But where's the consistency? Maybe we should look to revamp the defense completely, combine it with even more offense and then let the chips fall where they may in the crease. Other teams have gone in this direction, and personally I'm a believer in going the short-term plan with goalies. They're a lot like coaches. Franchise goalies may be slightly easier to find than career coaches, but they're both not easy to find at all. Guys we THINK are franchise goalies (like Fleury, Luongo) are often too inconsistent. And then franchise goalies suddenly appear from way deep in the draft, like Lundqvist and Rinne. It's a total crap shoot.
Maybe if we got the right coach for this superstar-laden roster, revamped the blueline and added even more offense, we wouldn't need Fleury to steal us a game in Philadelphia. Maybe we'd just need a guy to come up with a couple of key saves here and there.
I suppose finding a quality backup for Fleury is an option for the off-season. But if you add to the goalie budget, you'd have to subtract somewhere else. If we're talking about going from a bare minimum salaried goalie to one making $1-1.5 million, that wouldn't be that big of a deal. But would said goalie make the impact on Fleury, keep the latter fresh enough and still produce enough for us? If not, we'd have to get someone even more expensive. So that might cost us a Tyler Kennedy, or maybe a Kunitz. Or maybe an Orpik or Michalek. I doubt we're talking about a $5 million backup (Martin's cap hit).
And at the end of the day, if we're talking about significantly upgrading the backup position, so that we can get someone who can do for Fleury what say Cory Schneider has done for Vancouver, then what are we really saying here? Because Luongo is about to lose his gig in Vancouver. So what we'd really be saying is we're looking to replace Fleury, over time.
If that's the mind set, might as well speed up the process imo.
I don't think you need a Schneider type backup...spending $1-1.5M to get a Biron/Ellis/Leighton/Clemmensen would be sufficient.
Honestly, the backup isn't as important as the commitment from the coach to play the backup 20-25 times. There is a chance doing so may have cost Pitt home ice in the first round this year, but you have to take that chance.
And there is a decent chance that extra rest wouldn't make a difference. Maybe Fleury's confidence is just shot right now in the playoffs. But I think you have to give him every opportunity to succeed before you make a drastic change.
