Team of the Decade: Pittsburgh Penguins Edition

[Big McLargehuge]

Don't shit on Shane. Like Tom Waits, my man was big in Japan.

The one league where him being tall could actually mean something.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Don't shit on Shane. Like Tom Waits, my man was big in Japan.

Hahaha... nice.

Well... southern Germany, anyway (Ravensburg Tower Stars?!?). But I'll always updoot a Waits reference.

 

[HandshakeLine]

I remember someone on the the old official Pens forum got in trouble allegedly at a game for heckling Janne Laukkanen and then getting into a confrontation with Laukkanen's parents who were sitting right in front of him. Lord only knows if that was true, but I want to believe.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

IIRC Laukkanen wasn't even that bad... in context. Just injury issues.

 

[ZeroPucksGiven]

I remember someone on the the old official Pens forum got in trouble allegedly at a game for heckling Janne Laukkanen and then getting into a confrontation with Laukkanen's parents who were sitting right in front of him. Lord only knows if that was true, but I want to believe.

Am I the only one who liked Laukkanen? He was like the Dupuis of the Hossa trade. Pretty much a throw in...

 

[gopens66]

Hmm. What other teams can we do? Drafted by Penguins vs Acquired Elsewise by Penguins (very unfair given the Cs we've drafted)? Best team of players to have only played a season or less for the Pens? Best team of players to have never won a ring with us?

Luc Robitaille('94-'95)- Michel Briere('69-'70) -Jarome Iginla('12-'13)/Ziggy Palffy('05-'06)

Ron Hainsey('16-'17) Tim Horton('71-'72)

Tomas Vokoun('12-'13)
Ron Tugnutt('99-00)

 

[Peat]

This would be a pretty good starting lineup if we were to exclude the early 2000s teams. But frankly back in 2003 we would have been begging for any one of those players in the lineup haha... it was THAT bad.

I'm well aware that today's worst have a hell of a task to fit in with some of the awful, awful teams in our history that I thankfully didn't sit through... but I think they need to be considered. Again, it's a bit of a definition thing. Is Brassard as bad as the players back then in terms of skill? Probably not. But his underperformance compared to expectations and situation? I think it'd stack up pretty well.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

I'm well aware that today's worst have a hell of a task to fit in with some of the awful, awful teams in our history that I thankfully didn't sit through... but I think they need to be considered. Again, it's a bit of a definition thing. Is Brassard as bad as the players back then in terms of skill? Probably not. But his underperformance compared to expectations and situation? I think it'd stack up pretty well.

Well it's funny because you actually touched on why sitting through that era wasn't always THAT bad. Sure... they were never gong to win shit. Actually... winning A GAME was a big deal. Think of the shittiest goal Evgeni Malkin has ever scored... that would have been a beauty in those days. People were popping off on Malone being the next big thing because he scored on a nice deke this one time.

But it wasn't that they didn't try, ya know? They were just TERRIBLE. You couldn't even be that mad. The team had no money and years of suboptimal drafting hadn't left anything worth much in the pipeline. Then there was the uncertainty when it came to the team's future. So you just kinda had to have a sense of humor about the whole thing.

You're right that in most ways the really shitty Penguins that have come sense were more egregious because it's like... there's no excuse for that. So I think it would be interesting to take a deep dive on that someday.

 

[ZeroPucksGiven]

Well it's funny because you actually touched on why sitting through that era wasn't always THAT bad. Sure... they were never gong to win shit. Actually... winning A GAME was a big deal. Think of the shittiest goal Evgeni Malkin has ever scored... that would have been a beauty in those days. People were popping off on Malone being the next big thing because he scored on a nice deke this one time.

.

Your overall point is solid
But I thought Malone could turn into lite- power forward type. Glad he priced himself out of town though.

His offensive skills were ok, but I hate hate hated his defensive. I counted a 10 game sample size where he just slammed the puck around the boards where it was easily picked off by the awaiting defenseman at the point. He averaged something like 4x a game by my count! Drove me bonkers

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Yeah I wasn't tryin' to pick on ol' Taters. I actually put a lot of stock into him at the time. I mean... what else was there to be excited about, to be fair. But still I agree with your assessment... I think he had it in him to be a pretty good PF and he DID largely go on to have a respectable career and largely tore it up on a line with Malkin and Sykora here.

You're right about his defensive game and skating, though. Woof.

 

[Al Smith]

Well it's funny because you actually touched on why sitting through that era wasn't always THAT bad. Sure... they were never gong to win shit. Actually... winning A GAME was a big deal. Think of the shittiest goal Evgeni Malkin has ever scored... that would have been a beauty in those days. People were popping off on Malone being the next big thing because he scored on a nice deke this one time.

But it wasn't that they didn't try, ya know? They were just TERRIBLE. You couldn't even be that mad. The team had no money and years of suboptimal drafting hadn't left anything worth much in the pipeline. Then there was the uncertainty when it came to the team's future. So you just kinda had to have a sense of humor about the whole thing.

You're right that in most ways the really shitty Penguins that have come sense were more egregious because it's like... there's no excuse for that. So I think it would be interesting to take a deep dive on that someday.

Post-75/Pre-Mario teams were having a good night when they successfully executed two consecutive passes. But the crowds were fun and the tix were cheap. I wasn't following the Gen-X teams as closely because I was shuttling young kids everywhere at all hours, plus I was living out of the area by then, but from what I saw that 03-04 team was pretty close to being as bad as the 83-84 team.

Let's hope it's not an every twenty year thing, or 23-24 could be pretty bad.

 

[theicebox]

As recommended above, here is an all-time roster comprised of players who (unfortunately) did not win a cup with us. Went with a 90s / 00s / 10s roster and personal preference:

Straka (C) - Lang - Kovalev (A)
Robataille - Nedved - Naslund
Morozov - J. Cullen - Iginla
Roberts - Hrdina - Morrow
(Marleau - Barnes - Neal)

Martin - Kasparaitis (A)
Zubov - Tarnstrom
Sydor - Whitney
(Slegr - Ference)

Hedberg
Vokoun

Intentionally no Hossa.