Pens will finish anywhere from last to 8th from the bottom. I just do not see them climbing any further up from the hole that they have dug for themselves, though I do see improvement. Lets' put it this way, I always saw the team as basically a .500 team, give or take a point or two, who flirted with the playoffs. Now that they have a good coach they could be that team. Where would that put them? Right now they have 23 points in 34 games. They have 48 games remaining in the 82 game season. That means that if they go .500 the rest of the way, they end up with 71 points. I actually doubt that they do that because it will take more adjustment time to get down the new system . . . hell to actually play a system . . . before they start hitting their stride and then winning as many as they lose, but for now let us say that they go .500.
In 2003-4 garnering 71 points would have put the Pens in 7th place in the standings. And remember with the new rule on ties points are much easier to come by, so I would say those same 71 points will have a team finishing bottom five. Actually I find it almost impossible that the Pens finish anywhere else, though I do expect improvement and to emerge from laughing stock status eventually this season.
At least a shot at number 1 is not at all out of the realm of possibility or even probability. In fact it is the most likely scenerio that I can see.
And good for them, and their fans. We wanted much more, both the team and the fans. The Pens did everything they could to turn it around and it did not work. If anyone is accusing them of tanking then you really are stretching. All of us would much rather have seen playoff hockey this year. We did not. So now if it ends up the Pens are bottom five you would take the lottery away from this team and their suffering fans, who payed thousands each for seats by the way to see some pretty bad hockey? Give me a break.