A Year Later, A Round Shorter
It has been five years since the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup. In every year since then, they've lost to a lower seed. After last year, I was the front runner in leading the "let's make major changes" brigade. I didn't want them to bring Fleury back. I said Blysma should be fired. I said we should get rid of Letang, Kunitz, Orpik, Sutter, and so on. A handful of those names I called for played better this time around. Marc-Andre Fleury redeemed himself and played great in the seven wins the Penguins had this post-season. He even played decent in some of the six losses. So, I'll bite the bullet on that one and say Fleury has earned a right to stay. On the other hand, I don't understand how a team with so much talent can struggle so much. An argument can be made that they have the two best players in the NHL. They might have the two best sidekicks to those players also. Though, it didn't look that way for 95 percent of the playoffs. Past knowledge aside, if I was watching these 2014 Stanley Cup playoffs, I'd say that Jussi Jokinen and Brandon Sutter were the two best players for the Penguins. I'd say Crosby looked like a child who didn't get the toy he wanted, and Malkin showed glimpses of greatness, but ultimately just met the bar of what we expected from him. James Neal looked like he didn't understand that the point of the game was to score goals, Chris Kunitz simply filled minutes, Beau Bennett disappeared against the Rangers, and Brian Gibbons was arguably one of the four best players against the Rangers. (Not because he played excellent, but because nobody else showed up.)
After back-to-back Stanley Cup appearances, the Penguins' fans raised the bar. Each year the team has assembled trade deadline deals that made everyone scream for excitement. "Jerome Iginla is the missing piece." It turns out he disrupted chemistry and was forced to play out of his natural position. "Brendan Morrow is a strong presence that we need." It turns out he was underwhelming and didn't accomplish much in the playoffs. "Doug Murray is a defensive stalwart and will secure our defensive pairings." Actually, he's slow and a big ogre. This year it was "Marcel Goc is a solid center and can change games in the faceoff circle." Actually, he got injured and didn't have enough time to get into the system. "Lee Stempniak is going to be the perfect fill-in for Pascal Dupuis." Or he'll get bounced from the first line after about four games and be replaced with Beau Bennett, Brian Gibbons, Evgeni Malkin, Big Bird, Elmo, I think I played a few shifts...okay you get it. The Penguins couldn't figure out which line worked with which players.
As I rehash the past mistakes and issues that the Penguins have had, I see two things. Bad coaching and bad front office decisions. Now I'm not "in the room" when Bylsma is addressing the team, but I haven't seen much that showed he was really making the right moves to improve this team. There isn't any accountability. There isn't enough determination and discipline. Too many times, I see Evgeni Malkin taking a penalty in the offensive zone. Or, Sidney Crosby gets knocked off his game because he wants to be a physical presence instead of a finesse scorer. James Neal goes and acts like a goon and makes dirty plays, Chris Kunitz seemed to settle into a role that killed his production late in the season and playoffs. Where is the coaching staff that organizes these issues? Everything is too reactionary by the Penguins. Yes, they lost a ridiculous amount of man games this year. Yes, they had a 3-1 lead over the Rangers until a force outside of hockey changed the momentum and will to fight for New York. But, this isn't the first time we've seen this. It's been five years since a Stanley Cup victory and the Penguins have under-performed every season.
"But, it's really hard to get back to the Stanley Cup Finals. In today's age, nobody can have repeated success like this. We should be happy that we've made the playoffs for eight consecutive seasons."
Okay, let's see how Pittsburgh stacks up against the top teams of the past ten years then. Should we be proud of what they accomplished?
The Boston Bruins have made the playoffs seven consecutive years. They have one Stanley Cup win, and two Stanley Cup appearances, the same as Pittsburgh. They've been bounced in the first round twice in these seven years, Pittsburgh has been bounced in the first round three times.
The Chicago Blackhawks have made the playoffs six consecutive seasons. They have won two Stanley Cups in their two appearances. They've been bounced in the first round twice, and they are four wins away from reaching their third Stanley Cup Final in five years.
The Los Angeles Kings have made the playoffs five consecutive seasons. They have won the Stanley Cup once, in their only appearance, and bounced from the first round twice.
The San Jose Sharks have made 10 consecutive appearances. They have never made it to the Stanley Cup Finals in that time, and were bounced in the first round four times.
The Detroit Red Wings have made the playoffs 23 straight years. In that time, they've won four Stanley Cups, but i'm only going to mention their last 10 seasons. In those seasons, they've made two Stanley Cup appearances, both against the Penguins and they each won a trophy. They've lost in the first round four times in those 10 years.
From gauging these five teams compared to the Penguins, it seems that Pittsburgh is right on par with the most successful teams of the past 10 years. They have a strong consecutive streak, they won a Stanley Cup, and they've been bounced in the first round about the same or less than the other teams. But is being one of the five best teams for a stretch of 10 years, really enough? Are they actually even one of the best teams?
Since 2008, in the Penguins first Stanley Cup appearance in the past decade, 27 of the 30 NHL teams have made it to at least one playoff appearance. 21 have made two appearances or more. 18 have made three appearances or more. And, exactly 16 have made four appearances or more. So, for the last seven seasons the majority of the playoff field has been the same for the majority of the time. 1/4 of the field has been exactly the same. 1/2 of the field has been the same all but one year, and 3/4 of the field has been the same for five of the seven years.
The Penguins are part of that 1/4 that has made the playoff every season in the past seven years. The only other teams are Boston, Detroit and San Jose, as mentioned above. Anyone with some hockey knowledge would probably put Anaheim, Chicago and Los Angeles above San Jose though for top teams in recent years as all three have a Stanley Cup win and San Jose doesn't. So, let's get a better gauge of which teams are really the best. Let's give a points system. 1 point for simply making the playoffs, 2 points for advancing 1 round, 4 points for advancing two rounds, 6 points for making the Cup finals, and 10 points for winning a Cup.
Excluding this current season, the best teams based on this points rating from 2008 are:
Chicago Blackhawks = 55 points (2 Stanley Cup wins, two first round losses, and a third round loss)
Pittsburgh Penguins = 48 points (1 Stanley Cup win, a Finals loss, two first round exits, and a second and third round loss)
Detorit Red Wings = 46 points (1 Stanley Cup win, a Finals loss, three 2nd round exits, and a first round loss)
Boston Bruins = 44 points (1 Stanley Cup win, a Finals loss, two second round losses, one first round exit)
The issue with this ranking is that a large portion of the team, specifically the bottom three lines, have changed a lot since 2008. In the last three seasons, the Penguins have 9 points by this barometer, which is the same as the Canadiens, and less than the Rangers (11), Sharks (11), Canucks (15), Flyers (19), Blackhawks (25), Kings (25), and Bruins (37).
By the end of the playoffs this year, Pittsburgh will possibly fall even further behind for their performance since 2011. With the talent on the Penguins roster, is it really acceptable to have a team that averages being just inside the top third of teams in the NHL the past three years?
No. It is completely unacceptable.
Now that we've discussed some metrics for the team's performance since making their first Finals appearance in the past decade, let's look at what they can do now.
1.) Fire Dan Bylsma.
2.) Fire Ray Shero.
3.) Make some major trades.
After firing Dan Bylsma, there is a perfect selection to replace him. Andy Murray (no not the tennis player). Murray was the head coach with the Los Angeles Kings from 1999 to 2006, then the St. Louis Blues from 2006 to 2010. Since being fired from the Blues, he's been coaching at Western Michigan University. When coaching the Kings, down 3-1 in a playoff series to Colorado, Murray made the announcement that any of his players who weren't giving 100% wouldn't be playing in game 5. The Kings came back to win the next two games and force a game 7. Isn't that exactly what the Penguins need? Haven't we had enough of this lack of accountability, lack of adjustments, and lack of performance from the Penguins.
I'll get deeper into steps two and three of this plan after doing some more research over the next few days.
