The Panther
Registered User
So, the Pens choked in round two in 1993. Okay, it happens. The Isles very nearly choked against Pittsburgh in '82, Edmonton "choked" against Calgary (a good team, but nevertheless) in '86, and Calgary themselves choked repeatedly in '87, '88, and '90 to '95. The Islanders recovered from their near-miss quickly and carried on with the Dynasty, Edmonton recovered and carried on the Dynasty, Calgary... not so much.
The Pens in 1992-93 had their only really dominant regular season in Mario Lemieux's whole career, going .708. Except for still-baby Jagr, most of their key guys weren't spring-chickens, but they weren't old either and might be said to have been in their late primes on average, all things being equal (which they weren't -- see: Kevin Stevens). Point being The Pens were still very well situated to compete for further Stanley Cups.
Then, Bowman left, with Eddie Johnston taking over (again). The Johnston effect seems to have been that, even though the team was still 4th-best in offense with Mario barely playing, they fell from 3rd-best defensively to 19th. Mario announced he would take time off to recover from lingering fatigue from his Hodgkin's treatments, and he barely played from October to mid-February. Judging by his stats (I can't really recall what happened now), he doesn't seem to have been quite up to full speed. In mid-season, The Pens acquired Shawn McEachern and Tomas Sandstrom from L.A. But the Pens went down in the first round to Washington, scoring only 2 goals per game in the series.
Then, of course, the Work Stoppage. Season cancelled until January 1995, followed by a inter-division heavy, grueling schedule and then the playoffs. The team acquired John Cullen (free agent) and traded for Luc Robitaille, losing Rick Tocchet. The Pens were still filling the net, but were still below-average defensively. What I can't recall is why Lemieux sat out the whole (short) season? Was it his back, or was he intending to play in October '94, but then decided to just give it up when the season was nearly cancelled? Pens did all right without him, getting their revenge on Washington but then going down hard against (eventual Cup champ) New Jersey.
My question is: What do you think would have happened in 1993-94 and 1995, if (a) Mario had been healthy and played all the games, and/or (b) Bowman had stayed?
My feeling is that Eddie Johnston was a "players' coach" who let the skilled guys do as they liked, more or less. We all know Bowman wasn't like that and was good at keeping certain players in check. Having said that, the Pens still did quite well (mostly) without Mario these two seasons and certainly could still score. It would seem to be defensively where they took a tumble. Would Bowman, then, have made the difference if he'd stayed?
The Pens in 1992-93 had their only really dominant regular season in Mario Lemieux's whole career, going .708. Except for still-baby Jagr, most of their key guys weren't spring-chickens, but they weren't old either and might be said to have been in their late primes on average, all things being equal (which they weren't -- see: Kevin Stevens). Point being The Pens were still very well situated to compete for further Stanley Cups.
Then, Bowman left, with Eddie Johnston taking over (again). The Johnston effect seems to have been that, even though the team was still 4th-best in offense with Mario barely playing, they fell from 3rd-best defensively to 19th. Mario announced he would take time off to recover from lingering fatigue from his Hodgkin's treatments, and he barely played from October to mid-February. Judging by his stats (I can't really recall what happened now), he doesn't seem to have been quite up to full speed. In mid-season, The Pens acquired Shawn McEachern and Tomas Sandstrom from L.A. But the Pens went down in the first round to Washington, scoring only 2 goals per game in the series.
Then, of course, the Work Stoppage. Season cancelled until January 1995, followed by a inter-division heavy, grueling schedule and then the playoffs. The team acquired John Cullen (free agent) and traded for Luc Robitaille, losing Rick Tocchet. The Pens were still filling the net, but were still below-average defensively. What I can't recall is why Lemieux sat out the whole (short) season? Was it his back, or was he intending to play in October '94, but then decided to just give it up when the season was nearly cancelled? Pens did all right without him, getting their revenge on Washington but then going down hard against (eventual Cup champ) New Jersey.
My question is: What do you think would have happened in 1993-94 and 1995, if (a) Mario had been healthy and played all the games, and/or (b) Bowman had stayed?
My feeling is that Eddie Johnston was a "players' coach" who let the skilled guys do as they liked, more or less. We all know Bowman wasn't like that and was good at keeping certain players in check. Having said that, the Pens still did quite well (mostly) without Mario these two seasons and certainly could still score. It would seem to be defensively where they took a tumble. Would Bowman, then, have made the difference if he'd stayed?