Apparently you havent been watching the pens very long. If you expect Sid to perform with Cooke & Kennedy and expect him to never get shut down, you will be very disapponited
Stanley Cup team:
Kunitz-Crosby-Guerin
Fedotenko-Malkin-Talbot
Cooke-Staal-Kennedy
Dupuis-Adams-Satan
Sykora
Orpik-Gonchar
Eaton-Letang
Gill-Scuderi
Boucher
Fleury
Garon
Now:
Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis
_____-Malkin-Neal
Cooke-Sutter-Kennedy
Glass-Vitale-Adams
Jeffrey/Tangradi/Bennett
Orpik-Letang
Martin-Engelland
Despres-Niskanen
Lovejoy/Strait/Bortuzzo
Fleury
Vokoun
*lineup and lines subject to change
I think the Penguins have more skill now than they did in 2008-09. Sure Staal and Gonchar are gone, but Sutter is still considered a solid 3rd line center.
Penguins could use more skill but they don't need more to be Cup contenders. They just need to play smart, disciplined hockey.
somehow you are right. but in 2011 Boston also experienced lack of skill in comparison with Vancouver
I for one agree. With how the lines were structured last year, a team-- say Philly-- could completely sell out in defending a Kunitz-Geno-Neal line without consequence. Sid didn't have the horses to exploit the advantage.
The obvious argument, then, is to split the horse, to make a team pick its poison. Thing is, that's not really a playoff solution either. Regular season, no problem. But, when the playoffs come, what advantage is there to giving teams the Sid or Geno can get you dilemma and then have one or both go into the playoffs shorthanded in terms of caliber of linemates.
Any team is going to have questions in the playoffs. I'd rather the Pens questions be about the defense than about whether Sid or Geno can exploit the advantage of no team having the depth to take out both of them if both actually had a pair of legit top six wingers.
Yes and no. Pittsburgh has 3-4 offensive threats (Geno, Sid, Neal, and say someone else steps up), and 1 defensive threat (Letang). MAF is a wash as everyone needs solid goaltending to go anywhere.
Boston's cup team had Bergeron, Horton, Marchand, Lucic, Krejci, Peverley, Ryder, Seguin (although didn't play much). Yes Pittsburgh owns them in top end skill as I'd put Geno, Sid and Neal above all of them... but there's something to be said about having 7 legitimate top 6 forwards, vs the 3 that Pittsburgh has.
Not to go to far off topic...
This is honestly (and I know I'll get flamed for saying it, don't think it'll happen, and am likely in the minority) why I would trade Malkin for 2 top quality (and more affordable) players (another C and a winger - or 2 wingers if you're comfortable with Sutter as a #2c). Until the cap starts going up again (likely year 4 of the CBA - maybe as early as yr 3), Pittsburgh will be in a tough position cap wise to put talent around Crosby and Malkin. Additionally, with the new contract limits, what will Malkin want (money wise) and what's that going to do to the Pens cap management?
How can you count Seguin (fourth liner then, who played like 6 games) and Ryder, Peverley, but not Kunitz, or even Dupuis and Sutter?Yes and no. Pittsburgh has 3-4 offensive threats (Geno, Sid, Neal, and say someone else steps up), and 1 defensive threat (Letang). MAF is a wash as everyone needs solid goaltending to go anywhere.
Boston's cup team had Bergeron, Horton, Marchand, Lucic, Krejci, Peverley, Ryder, Seguin (although didn't play much). Yes Pittsburgh owns them in top end skill as I'd put Geno, Sid and Neal above all of them... but there's something to be said about having 7 legitimate top 6 forwards, vs the 3 that Pittsburgh has.
Not to go to far off topic...
This is honestly (and I know I'll get flamed for saying it, don't think it'll happen, and am likely in the minority) why I would trade Malkin for 2 top quality (and more affordable) players (another C and a winger - or 2 wingers if you're comfortable with Sutter as a #2c). Until the cap starts going up again (likely year 4 of the CBA - maybe as early as yr 3), Pittsburgh will be in a tough position cap wise to put talent around Crosby and Malkin. Additionally, with the new contract limits, what will Malkin want (money wise) and what's that going to do to the Pens cap management?
Now did Philly beat the Pens because the Pens couldn't score enough goals? Pit scored 3, 5, 4, 10, 3, and 1 goals in that series. Certainly enough goals to win most series, but the Pens gave up 3! games with over 8 goals against and only held them under 3 goals for a single game. Now was goal scoring still Crosby's problem? 8pts in 6 games would say no.
When your 4th line has Dupers and Satan on it, you have a good team.
You're missing four critical distinctions:
1. The Pens ran a different system then.
2. That defense was far grittier.
3. Max Talbot morphed into Ryan Malone 2.0 for 16 rather fortuitously timed games in terms of how he played with Geno and Feds.
4. Most important for me, no team had the horses to go against a Feds-Geno-Talbot line. Washington wasn't deep in terms of shut down guys and not a good defensive team. Carolina had nobody to matchup against Geno (no shut down center, no smothering defenseman). And, Detroit had the same problem with Datysuk's broken ankle. If the Pens had faced Boston or NJ that year, it would have been far tougher sledding, because both of those teams, given their healthy personnel and systems, presented far more difficult matchup challenges.
You always need a little luck to win a cup. You need the right collection of talent to overcome things when luck isn't going your way.
Maybe the Pens get lucky, because I wouldn't count on the latter as this roster stands now.
Give me a winger for Sid, a winger for Geno, a playoff defenseman, and a sign that DB looked up the word 'adjustment' in the dictionary this summer, and it's a different story.
I really feel it has to be Tangradi for lack of batter options maybe Jeffrey but he would be better centering the 4th line
If Jeffrey doesn't automatically gel on LW on Geno's line, then he may be best served being the 4th line centre because I think Vitale would work really well as a RW on the 4th line with his forechecking ability. I still think Jeffrey has better potential than Tangradi offensively, so I think it's his spot to lose, but this does bring up another option.
Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis
Cooke/Tango-Malkin-Neal
Cooke-Tango-Sutter-Kennedy
Glass-Jeffrey-Vitale
Adams
Yes! Please let Adams be the 13th forward
Bury him in the minors!
Stanley Cup team:
Kunitz-Crosby-Guerin
Fedotenko-Malkin-Talbot
Cooke-Staal-Kennedy
Dupuis-Adams-Satan
Sykora
Orpik-Gonchar
Eaton-Letang
Gill-Scuderi
Boucher
Fleury
Garon
Now:
Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis
_____-Malkin-Neal
Cooke-Sutter-Kennedy
Glass-Vitale-Adams
Jeffrey/Tangradi/Bennett
Orpik-Letang
Martin-Engelland
Despres-Niskanen
Lovejoy/Strait/Bortuzzo
Fleury
Vokoun
*lineup and lines subject to change
I think the Penguins have more skill now than they did in 2008-09. Sure Staal and Gonchar are gone, but Sutter is still considered a solid 3rd line center.
Penguins could use more skill but they don't need more to be Cup contenders. They just need to play smart, disciplined hockey.
Now did Philly beat the Pens because the Pens couldn't score enough goals? Pit scored 3, 5, 4, 10, 3, and 1 goals in that series. Certainly enough goals to win most series, but the Pens gave up 3! games with over 8 goals against and only held them under 3 goals for a single game. Now was goal scoring still Crosby's problem? 8pts in 6 games would say no.
Yeah, I was going to say the same thing. The line of Sullivan-Crosby-Dupuis was actually pretty effective. I was a little surprised that Shero showed no interest in bringing Sully back on another one year deal. His game seemed to mesh well with Sid in the short time we saw them.
Time to trade one of those stud D-men in the system for an established winger.