I'm starting to understand why many of the old farts who run these teams seem to be complacent or slow to react relative to fans' expectations (perhaps with the notable exception of JR).
After watching hockey for 30+ years, my takeaway is that there is no magic winning formula. Bob McCown wrote a book ~15 years ago that included a piece about how much luck factors into the outcome of hockey games. This is backed up by the statistics: on any given day, the 20th ranked team in the NHL can beat the best team. How often does that happen in football or basketball? How often does the "Cup favorite" actually win the Cup relative to basketball?
This point extends to team building. In the Crosby/Malkin era, I think an argument could be made that our teams were better on paper in '08 and '13 than they were in any other year. Who would have argued that by losing Hossa (+ Detroit adding him) that we'd beat the Wings in a rematch in '09? Who would have argued that our 2016 team would win a Cup? Who would have argued that our 2017 team (minus Letang and constantly being outshot) would repeat? Hockey's a fickle game. Good teams can become great teams for a few weeks and win a Cup. Great teams can be stymied by mediocre teams. Heck, how did our '93 team not threepeat?
I'm just enjoying the Crosby/Malkin era while it's still here. I didn't expect '16 and '17. Everything from here on out is gravy and I'm not going to lose sleep if this team misses the Playoffs or wins a Cup. I live in Vancouver, a hockey-mad city that has known nothing but heartbreak since the team's inception half a century ago. As Pens' fans, we're spoiled rotten.