Was this ever possible for Pittsburgh?

Ugene Magic

EVIL LAUGH
Oct 17, 2008
54,146
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Pittsburgh
No, 2013 was their best shot. All the idiot coach had to do was Dupuis-Crosby-Iginla and Kunitz-Malkin-Neal (the latter line tortured Boston the year before when Sid was out).

Just remember after the Pens lost both Sid, Geno(2nd half) and even Staal (1st half) for half a season that they were dominant and just before the head games started to manifest. I'll stick with 2010/11.
 
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KIRK

Registered User
Aug 2, 2005
109,700
51,216
Just remember after the Pens lost both Sid, Geno(2nd half) and even Staal (1st half) for half a season that they were dominant and just before the head games started to manifest. I'll stick with 2010/11.

Geno was NOT having a good year. He was bouncing between centering crap and playing on Staal's wing. They would've had to have gotten that figured out. And, we still would've had KCD . . . not a line that screamed success two years later against a Boston team better than its 2013 version, and that is who we would've faced in the ECF.
 

Pancakes

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Mar 4, 2011
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Disco won a cup because he was the anti-Therrien, tweaked his system, and a lot of things outside of his control happened right (e.g., drawing Carolina instead of Boston in the ECF, Datsyuk hurt in the SCF, etc).

He never won another because he didn't think any of this factored tremendously into his winning a cup.

I don't disagree that he was an issue and needed to go, but I think people overrate the importance of coaching.

Roster construction and the personal performance of players matters way more. No coach could have made us win with the way Fleury was playing net in those years, for example. Bylsma exacerbated it by having a crappy system, but even with Sully or [insert good coach] we don't win with that kind of goaltending.
 
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BHD

Vejmelka for Vezina
Dec 27, 2009
38,124
16,511
Moncton, NB
It’s unrealistic to expect a team to win every season, but it’s reasonable to expect better outcomes with certain players (i.e, generational talents). That said, the back-to-back Cups were a pleasant surprise. As spoiled as it sounds, it’s been awesome watching this team win 3(!) Cups instead of just 1.

This team could be hot garbage at the bottom of the division for a bunch of years, but you can always look back on 2016 and 2017. March-June of 2016 was the most fun I ever had as a fan.
 
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BHD

Vejmelka for Vezina
Dec 27, 2009
38,124
16,511
Moncton, NB
Now, 2011 would be interesting if not for injuries. With a better coach and a healthy roster, I think that one had a good chance at being a winner.

Ugh... Crosby’s scoring/the Pens’ winning streak. That’s the only season I find myself lamenting over.
 
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billybudd

Registered User
Feb 1, 2012
22,049
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Is this an Asham, Rupp thing? Because 2011’s roster blew. D blew. Crosby led that team on a unrealistic run. It was basically the 2014 of those early years. Went all in 2008, 9, and 10. We got hit with a cap crunch.

Ya, that's revisionism.

Dustin Jeffrey was on fire before he blew his knee out (which would ruin his career). We had Letestu and a solid D, 1-6 (arguably 1-8). Just because people on THIS site made Niskanen a whipping boy at that time doesn't mean he wasn't comfortably contributing as a 5/6 (which he was). 2011 Niskanen was certainly better than 2017 Ruhwedel, let alone some of the guys we've seen on "contenders" in the recent past (Mike Weber, f/e). Even Adams was still a contributor at that time. Plus, Rupp and Asham did a ton compared to what it's reasonable to expect from 4th liners. Kuhnhackl and Rowney are significantly worse than those 2. Staal/Kennedy/Cooke were awesome.

The only thing that team was missing at mid-season was wings for Malkin, but Neal and the 2011 incarnation of Dustin Jeffrey solve that problem, in my view, were Malkin to have not blown his own knee out.

Edit: and a better coach.
 
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