OT: Around the NHL: The Countdown to Camp

[plaidchuck]

Bishop had a torn groin.

And stamkos? Chokeitis?

 

[Waffle Fries]

I don't think so. No individual trophies even though he's better defensively than Toews and should have a Selke under his belt. He's a great player but I don't see how his career equates to HHOF.

Prime Hossa was a better player than Toews is right now. He deserves to be in the hall, in my opinion. He's been underrated his entire career.

 

[plaidchuck]

Letang needs to study keith, play smart and not get plastered constantly. The pens imo need to be villains again and stop letting their stars be abused.

 

[ColePens]

Chicago just proved all pens fans excuses wrong. Chicago isn't big. Why don't they get hit? You can't catch up to the puck moving that fast and the stars spin out and barely retaliate. Injuries? No worries. Play draft picks? Wait...whaaaat? What about experience?

Pens organization should blame themselves for doing everything the Hawks didn't do to succeed.

 

[Waffle Fries]

Johnson had a broken wrist. Still waiting for anything about Stamkos.

 

[plaidchuck]

The east just sucks too. Once again the wcf was the real cup final.

 

[Deutschland Dangler]

Injuries? No worries.

They are lucky in that aspect, though (something they have in common with most recent Cup winners). When one of the key players actually goes down like Kane this year, it's not only not crippling, it even turns into an advantage. That's one thing where you just either have luck or you don't.

 

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

You can go cliche and say the East sucks, but the Lightning gave Chicago more trouble than anyone expected. Had Stamkos showed up even in the slightest, and Bishop not pulled a Fleury in game 5, this is a totally different series.

 

[wej20]

Chicago just proved all pens fans excuses wrong. Chicago isn't big. Why don't they get hit? You can't catch up to the puck moving that fast and the stars spin out and barely retaliate. Injuries? No worries. Play draft picks? Wait...whaaaat? What about experience?

Pens organization should blame themselves for doing everything the Hawks didn't do to succeed.

They have a clear identity, Pens want to be all things to all men and it isn't working. Pens had 13.7 PIM/GP compared to Chicago's 7.3 PIM/GP (30th compared to 2nd)

 

[plaidchuck]

You can go cliche and say the East sucks, but the Lightning gave Chicago more trouble than anyone expected. Had Stamkos showed up even in the slightest, and Bishop not pulled a Fleury in game 5, this is a totally different series.

Coulda woulda shoulda.

 

[Pete Gas]

This was one of the worst hockey seasons in a long time.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Chicago Blackhawks: What the Penguins should have been if management wasn't colossally stupid and obsessed with keeping around useless veterans, as well as completely ignoring the fact you can draft and develop forwards as well.

I'm glad Chicago won. With every subsequent Cup win those guys have, it just highlights even more how much the Penguins' organization has failed in the past 5 years.

 

[NatureBoy]

Congrats Chicago, this is a Dynasty! And they will stay on top, I have no doubt about it! They have great coaching, they have great depth, they are excellent at drafting players! That´s how you get to the top and stay there!

No matter if they have to trade 1 or 2 players because of the cap this summer. They already signed Panarin, I´m pretty sure they will get Reilly as well.

This is THE franchise, everybody should take them as a role model. From a Pens standpoint, it is a shame that this organization was not able to duplicate that, this should have been the final almost every other year.

 

[WayneSid9987]

Congrats Chicago, this is a Dynasty! And they will stay on top, I have no doubt about it! They have great coaching, they have great depth, they are excellent at drafting players! That´s how you get to the top and stay there!

No matter if they have to trade 1 or 2 players because of the cap this summer. They already signed Panarin, I´m pretty sure they will get Reilly as well.

This is THE franchise, everybody should take them as a role model. From a Pens standpoint, it is a shame that this organization was not able to duplicate that, this should have been the final almost every other year.

Bolded is false. They are average to below average in drafting.
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/teams/dr00005218.html

I'm not sure how anyone can mimic thier "model" in the NHL today.
No way a team could hold onto a group like Toews, Kane, Hossa, Keith, Seabrook for as long and as cheap as they did unless the group collectively agree to leave a bunch of money on the table.

Hell, everyone that group^ are paid 6.3M and under still, to this very day with 3 Cups in the bag.

If Hossa stuck with the Pens and signed for 5.275M for a gazillion years(like he did with the Hawks) and they eventually managed to find a dominate top 3 D-Core(like the Hawks have), they would be in a pretty similar spot. They'd also need a Saad like player as well. Oh yea, thats right, we could've drafted him.

 

[NatureBoy]

Bolded is false. They are average to below average in drafting.
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/teams/dr00005218.html

I'm not sure how anyone can mimic thier "model" in the NHL today.
No way a team could hold onto a group like Toews, Kane, Hossa, Keith, Seabrook for as long and as cheap as they did unless the group collectively agree to leave a bunch of money on the table.

Hell, everyone that group^ are paid 6.3M and under still, to this very day with 3 Cups in the bag.

If Hossa stuck with the Pens and signed for 5.275M for a gazillion years(like he did with the Hawks) and they eventually managed to find a dominate top 3 D-Core(like the Hawks have), they would be in a pretty similar spot. They'd also need a Saad like player as well. Oh yea, thats right, we could've drafted him.

Well, when I look at that list, there is an impact player that played a crucial role almost every year. Sure, Kane or Toews may be easy picks, but still.

2005 Hjalmarsson (No. 108)
2006 Toews (No. 3)
2007 Kane (No. 1)
2009 Kruger (No. 149)
2011 Saad (No. 43)
2012 Teravainen (No. 18)

Not rating the Drafts 2013 and 2014 just yet, but I am sure there will be at least one good roster player for them each year.

If the Pens would have drafted like that......you know what I mean?! Yes, Sid and Malkin were easy like Toews and Kane (we still took Staal). But I don´t see the Kruger´s, Saad´s, Teravainen´s or Hjalmarsson´s anywhere in the Pens organization, do you? I get what you are saying, don´t get me wrong. But at least one roster player almost every year is pretty good imo.

 

[HuskerTornado]

This was one of the worst hockey seasons in a long time.

Indeed, the on-ice product was garbage. It has progressively gotten worse each year for the past several seasons.

 

[penguins2946*]

I wouldn't consider the Hawks a dynasty because I don't consider the Wings and Devils of the late 90s/early 2000s dynasties. Tbh, I think they're really lucky more than anything else. That doesn't take away from how good of a team they are, but they have gotten lucky with a lot of stuff over the last 6 years.

 

[Ugene Magic]

Stop comparing the Pens to Chicago.

Chicago won out on a boatload of assets that brought back more good assets.

The Pens were never in the position the Hawks were in and vice versus.

The Hawks were not what the Pens were suppose to be. The Hawks didn't have duel 8.7 contracts to contend with until this upcoming season.

It may hurt to see another team win three while the Pens had turmoil for half a decade, but that's just how the cookie crumbles.

Hats off to them.

 

[WayneSid9987]

Well, when I look at that list, there is an impact player that played a crucial role almost every year. Sure, Kane or Toews may be easy picks, but still.

2005 Hjalmarsson (No. 108)
2006 Toews (No. 3)
2007 Kane (No. 1)
2009 Kruger (No. 149)
2011 Saad (No. 43)
2012 Teravainen (No. 18)

Not rating the Drafts 2013 and 2014 just yet, but I am sure there will be at least one good roster player for them each year.

If the Pens would have drafted like that......you know what I mean?! Yes, Sid and Malkin were easy like Toews and Kane (we still took Staal). But I don´t see the Kruger´s, Saad´s, Teravainen´s or Hjalmarsson´s anywhere in the Pens organization, do you? I get what you are saying, don´t get me wrong. But at least one roster player almost every year is pretty good imo.

I look at it like one of those carnival games where you shoot a gun and hit the stuffed bears down.

Chicago had way more bullets than we did, thus missed more but hit some too.

Pens barely had any bullets but hit some too. Pens just needed more bullets. Especially in the 1st-3rd rounds.

 

[PensBandwagonerNo272*]

Stop comparing the Pens to Chicago.

Chicago won out on a boatload of assets that brought back more good assets.

The Pens were never in the position the Hawks were in and vice versus.

The Hawks were not what the Pens were suppose to be. The Hawks didn't have duel 8.7 contracts to contend with until this upcoming season.

It may hurt to see another team win three while the Pens had turmoil for half a decade, but that's just how the cookie crumbles.

Hats off to them.

Thanks for writing out pretty much exactly what I was about to post.

Grats to the Hawks. Now for about 100 days without hockey.

 

[SaintRon]

Congrats Chicago and Hoss. A classy org and now a dynasty. That's what heart is all about in spite of the other two cups. Looks like Hoss made the right decision. Saad should stay where he is. He would be ruined here.

3-1 for the C.

Sad, but true.

 

[The Old Master]

Pens barely had any bullets but hit some too. Pens just needed more bullets. Especially in the 1st-3rd rounds.

if we would have moved the old goats (instead of just letting them walk) for picks.......we would of had plenty of bullets. but no we traded our bullets for old goats.

 

[Bennett Brauer]

Anyone who wins the Cup deserves it, they're a great team, the best team in the league. I was jealous but now it's just a "whatever" You have to be lucky to be good, the Blackhawks are a very lucky organization, I'm not convinced they did everything to be successful by design. They hit home runs in the draft, they were also in a cap bind and traded valuable players, when you trade valuable players, you get value in return. We're seeing that value.

Seeing the Hawks win two Cups with Crawford and one with Niemi should put to rest that a team needs an elite goalie to win. People have said Fleury won't win another Cup, he can if the team in front of him is actually good.

I agree with UM, you can't compare the Penguins and Hawks. The Penguins weren't supposed to do anything like the Hawks, each organization has a blueprint to win, Shero's blueprint over the past few years has been the wrong one, he married himself to old, declining players and mortgaged the future for old declining players. I liked everything JR has until his last trade, the Winnik trade sucked also but in hindsight, with a healthy lineup, Winnik in the playoffs is better than Sill.

 

[Deutschland Dangler]

People have said Fleury won't win another Cup, he can if the team in front of him is actually good.

...and if he plays at least decent hockey himself.

 

[Bennett Brauer]

...and if he plays at least decent hockey himself.

Well, obviously

The past couple postseasons were convincing enough to me. As long as he keeps it up, shouldn't be a problem.