Are the Pens trending up, down, or treading water?

[MrBurghundy]

y'all read my posts? I ain't one to judge.

You have a certain charm about what you post though.

 

[joeyjake5]

I wonder how Lemieux would answer this question. Maybe that's why he wants out while the getting out is still favorable.

 

[Freeptop]

Not recently. "Just" the Bolts and Rangers.

It's also worth remembering that if not for a double overtime power-play goal in game 4, the series could have just as easily been 2-2. The games to that point had been 3-0 Pens (including an EN), 5-1 Lightning, 3-2 Pens, then 3-2 Pens in 2OT. It's not like the Pens were dominating the series, then just let it slip away. They were barely eking out the wins they did get before Tampa started pounding the Pens' depleted lineup.

Sure, Bylsma didn't help things by not adjusting to the Lightning at the time, but it isn't like that series showed the handwriting on the wall at the time. The Flyers series, though... that should have triggered bigger changes.

 

[plaidchuck]

Yeah they should have eked out one more win in 2011 but it honestly would have been pointless anyways, no way that lineup gets past Washington and the Bruins. But yeah 2012 needed disciplinary action st the very least from the gm to the 13th forward. Just downright embarrassing from crosby.and.letangs antics to malkin getting schooled by a rookie and whatever the hell fleury was doing.

 

[Coastal Kev]

 

[MrWilson*]

Trend is UP. Can't go much further down, IMO. With Crosby and Malkin still on the team, there is floor that will be maintained.

Pens are a very tough team to beat when they are all there. Playoffs this year are MUCH different with a 100% healthy Penguin team, which is one reason why I can't buy the ******** about how great the Hawkes or the Lightning are or West vs East or any of it. Those folks are discounting a lot of realities associated with injuries to key players at inopportune times.

Someone in another thread posted this excellent piece of research.

Maybe just some stats, but maybe the injury bug has a lot more to do with things than all the other complaints, not the least of which is that its a morale killer, especially heading into the playoffs with a new head coach.

IF the Penguins can cut out some dead wood, add/develop a few new bodies and get and stay healthy, they are a contending team in any league.

 

[Penguinator]

Trend is UP. Can't go much further down, IMO. With Crosby and Malkin still on the team, there is floor that will be maintained.

Pens are a very tough team to beat when they are all there. Playoffs this year are MUCH different with a 100% healthy Penguin team, which is one reason why I can't buy the ******** about how great the Hawkes or the Lightning are or West vs East or any of it. Those folks are discounting a lot of realities associated with injuries to key players at inopportune times.

Someone in another thread posted this excellent piece of research.

Maybe just some stats, but maybe the injury bug has a lot more to do with things than all the other complaints, not the least of which is that its a morale killer, especially heading into the playoffs with a new head coach.

IF the Penguins can cut out some dead wood, add/develop a few new bodies and get and stay healthy, they are a contending team in any league.

Agreed, it's not like we weren't dominating earlier in last season either.

 

[KIRK]

Agreed, it's not like we weren't dominating earlier in last season either.

Yep, we've become the Bruce Boudreau Washington Capitals, and we have a trophy case full of January Cups to prove it.

Sorry, but I don't know how anyone can watch anything that's happened in the last six years or read what the Pens and their PR machine are setting up for us now and not think the trend is down.

 

[Penguinator]

What goes up must come down but as far as hockey cycles usually go, the opposite is also true.

Up.

 

[gordie]

Yep, we've become the Bruce Boudreau Washington Capitals, and we have a trophy case full of January Cups to prove it.

Sorry, but I don't know how anyone can watch anything that's happened in the last six years or read what the Pens and their PR machine are setting up for us now and not think the trend is down.

One cup beats no cups. Pouliot and Maatta take off as star players on the backend might just change your "Negative Nancy" views.

 

[Gurglesons]

Yep, we've become the Bruce Boudreau Washington Capitals, and we have a trophy case full of January Cups to prove it.

Sorry, but I don't know how anyone can watch anything that's happened in the last six years or read what the Pens and their PR machine are setting up for us now and not think the trend is down.

The Caps haven't made an ECF since 1998.

I don't really think there is an apt comparison to who the Penguins are right now.

 

[KIRK]

The Caps haven't made an ECF since 1998.

I don't really think there is an apt comparison to who the Penguins are right now.

Clearly, the comparison to the Boudreau Caps, in reply to how the Pens have 'dominated' when healthy, went right over your head.

So, let's play connect the dots . . .

For years, people here mocked the Caps and when their fans would start celebrating their dominance in January, only to see them crash and burn in the playoffs. A poster here-- and it's not just one, just one to whom I replied-- wrote about the Pens dominance when healthy. It's a dominance in the last half dozen years that anyone with a two digit IQ might consider comparable to the Caps fans we'd mock a half dozen years ago. It's called an irony, which is something a little different than the idiocy that is inundating this forum.

 

[gordie]

Clearly, the comparison to the Boudreau Caps, in reply to how the Pens have 'dominated' when healthy, went right over your head.

So, let's play connect the dots . . .

For years, people here mocked the Caps and when their fans would start celebrating their dominance in January, only to see them crash and burn in the playoffs. A poster here-- and it's not just one, just one to whom I replied-- wrote about the Pens dominance when healthy. It's a dominance in the last half dozen years that anyone with a two digit IQ might consider comparable to the Caps fans we'd mock a half dozen years ago. It's called an irony, which is something a little different than the idiocy that is inundating this forum.

Apples and Oranges and irony does not exist. Pens have been a massive letdown come playoff time over the last 6 seasons. Washington have been choking dogs since their first season in 1974-75. They celebrate anything because that's what losers do. Pens might be more comparable to Detroit recently but even they won in 2008 unlike Washington.

 

[Gurglesons]

For years, people here mocked the Caps and when their fans would start celebrating their dominance in January, only to see them crash and burn in the playoffs. A poster here-- and it's not just one, just one to whom I replied-- wrote about the Pens dominance when healthy. It's a dominance in the last half dozen years that anyone with a two digit IQ might consider comparable to the Caps fans we'd mock a half dozen years ago. It's called an irony, which is something a little different than the idiocy that is inundating this forum.

The Pens and the Caps are not similar at all. We've gone to game 7s twice in the second round. And I would say we've only been completely embarrassed twice since the Cup win which would be the Flyers and Bruins series. Even the Bruins series wasn't a "tremendous" sweep, Pens were in every game.

I would assume hiring Rutherford would be when people could/will start looking at this franchise as a "joke".

 

[Al Smith]

Trend is UP. Can't go much further down, IMO. With Crosby and Malkin still on the team, there is floor that will be maintained.

Pens are a very tough team to beat when they are all there. Playoffs this year are MUCH different with a 100% healthy Penguin team, which is one reason why I can't buy the ******** about how great the Hawkes or the Lightning are or West vs East or any of it. Those folks are discounting a lot of realities associated with injuries to key players at inopportune times.

Someone in another thread posted this excellent piece of research.

Maybe just some stats, but maybe the injury bug has a lot more to do with things than all the other complaints, not the least of which is that its a morale killer, especially heading into the playoffs with a new head coach.

IF the Penguins can cut out some dead wood, add/develop a few new bodies and get and stay healthy, they are a contending team in any league.

Delete

 

[vikingGoalie]

The real question is why are we always so injured?

Star players having to carry to much dead wood? Voodoo curse?

 

[Nathaniel Skywalker]

Crosby is 28 next season. Not old but he's getting there...

 

[MrWilson*]

Delete

Truth hurts I guess. The Penguins have signed on to pay a few players a ton of dough. Lot of armchair GMs here talking ****, but if you think in Crosby, Malkin, Fleury, Letang, Maata Dupuis,etc that they don't have the core to put an ECF or SCF team together, then you didn't watch the Hawks/TB series. If those were the best teams in the NHL, Pens have a bright future.

 

[tom_servo]

I feel like we've already made too many mistakes, and the momentum is firmly against us. Now that Crosby and Malkin are nearing 30 and starting a slight decline, we're low on time as well as resources.

It just seemed to go by so fast.

Our only hope is in building a second wave for the latter half of their careers.

 

[Al Smith]

Truth hurts I guess. The Penguins have signed on to pay a few players a ton of dough. Lot of armchair GMs here talking ****, but if you think in Crosby, Malkin, Fleury, Letang, Maata Dupuis,etc that they don't have the core to put an ECF or SCF team together, then you didn't watch the Hawks/TB series. If those were the best teams in the NHL, Pens have a bright future.

Sorry - I just had an off-color post there that I decided to delete. I actually thought the graphic was interesting. It's hard to deny the Pens have had lots of injuries to key players over the past few years, and obviously that core of players was good enough to win the SC. But it's also hard to deny the org has been mismanaged to the point where they'll have to be extremely lucky, not only with injuries, but with filling in gaps at forward and D to win another sc.

And I love the fact the Flyers didn't lose a lot of impact minutes and didn't win a SC. So there's that.

I did watch most of the SCF, and the Pens don't approach either of those teams when it comes to overall speed and skill, although they do seem to have TB's number in the regular season.