Speculation: What are your expectations for this coming season?

[Jaded-Fan]

If you move aside the ‘losses’ of our ‘all in’ roster, on paper we are better than we were going into last year. A roster that you have to remember had the second best record in the league.

Losses: Cooke, Kennedy, Lovejoy, and Tangradi.
Additions: Jussi Jokinen, Beau Bennett, and Rob Scuderi.

Here is the opening day roster last year (players lost to trade/FA in bold):

Forwards (13):
9 Pascal Dupuis, 10 Tanner Glass, 14 Chris Kunitz, 15 Dustin Jeffrey, 16 Brandon Sutter, 18 James Neal, 24 Matt Cooke, 25 Eric Tangradi, 27 Craig Adams, 46 Joe Vitale, 48 Tyler Kennedy, 71 Evgeni Malkin, 87 Sidney Crosby

Defensemen (8):
2 Matt Niskanen, 5 Deryk Engelland, 6 Ben Lovejoy, 7 Paul Martin, 41 Robert Bortuzzo, 44 Brooks Orpik, 47 Simon Despres, 58 Kris Letang

Goaltenders (2):
29 Marc-Andre Fleury, 92 Tomas Vokoun

This year’s starting lineup should be something like:
Forwards
Dupuis - Crosby - Kunitz
Jokinen - Malkin - Neal
Bennett - Sutter -Jeffrey
Glass - Adams - Vitale

Defense pairs
Letang - Scuderi
Orpik - Martin
Despres - Engelland / Niskanen

Goalies
Fleury
Vokoun

For all the doom and gloom talk, I am not sure how anyone can call this year’s roster worse than last year’s. That said, the questions that have plagued this team have not been addressed that I see either. So for me, I cannot see this team, absent some really significant team wide injuries, ending up with less than 100 points and worse than a top five in the league finish. I also do not see this team as one of the top cup contenders. Yes, on paper they should be, but the issues that have cropped up each playoff over the past few years, specifically the inability to make intelligent game adjustments or deal with trapping teams, make anyone who chooses the Pens as a cup favorite as a fool until proven otherwise.

The front office however did a magnificent job this off season setting the table for the Pens to be able to go ‘all in’ over the next half decade as the cap goes up and their core is tied up long term.

So for me, I plan on enjoying some very exciting winning hockey this upcoming season, but to watch this team like I would a team who is on the cusp of greatness, but is a year or two off. And that is fine. I could not imagine that the Pens could have had a better off season, and in fact I expected worse. Much worse.

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[Ogrezilla]

we should win the division. After that I won't even try to make a playoff prediction.

 

[Crafton]

i expect a lot of handwringing.

 

[Fordy]

Martin's hiring has me feeling much more positive. They'll make the playoffs. Whatever happens after that is a crapshoot.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

Yep, the roster going into this year looks better than the roster going into last year's. And considering the cap dropped almost 7 mil, that's pretty impressive.

I expect us to finish near the top of the conference and make another deep playoff run. With the right tweak(s) at the deadline, we've got as good a shot as anybody at the Cup.

 

[Sivek]

Anything less than a Cup is a disappointment while both Sid & Geno are healthy and in their prime. Goalie situation needs to straighten itself out well before the playoffs. MAF needs to play his best regular-season hockey yet, if not, teams needs to go with Vokoun to start the playoffs because you can't afford to take a couple of games to see if MAF is still insane come playoff time. Pens barely got out the 1st-round last season trying to walk that line. So either MAF is lights out, a .920 or better sv% in the regular season (something he's never done in a full load), or you head into the playoffs with Vokoun starting as long he is playing well. I'm getting too old for MAF playoff .gifs every game.

Everything else is rather minute stuff that will work itself out, except possibly the 3rd line being a significant problem come playoff time if Sutter doesn't take a step forward. The 3rd-line wings could be a problem as well depending how the personnel shakes out. A very, very, soft 3rd-line no matter what group of the current candidates plays there. Certainly a trade deadline area to target.

 

[billybudd]

For all the doom and gloom talk, I am not sure how anyone can call this year’s roster worse than last year’s.

It's good to put things in perspective like you have. The answer is that a sweep against a Boston team that looked completely beatable left a bad taste in a lot of peoples' mouths. But yeah, it might be overblown. I don't see a lot of teams in the Patrick division that look likely to have more wins than Pittsburgh.

That said, the wings on the bottom two lines look like a big, big problem to me. Adams is even older, and Cooke and Kennedy are better players (and fits) than Harry Zagashikebob or whoever the Hell else ends up taking their places.

 

[Jaded-Fan]

Yep, the roster going into this year looks better than the roster going into last year's. And considering the cap dropped almost 7 mil, that's pretty impressive.

I expect us to finish near the top of the conference and make another deep playoff run. With the right tweak(s) at the deadline, we've got as good a shot as anybody at the Cup.

And that is not even considering that we signed Letang and Kunitz long term, basically for the rest of their productive careers, after we did the same with Malkin and Crosby the two year's before.

Like I said, I expected worse, much worse, this offseason. My only question was whether we would get anything close to value for Letang. I had very little hope that we would sign him, and fairly reasonably to boot. At least one of Kunitz and Dupuis were also was gone in my mind.

And we kept them all for basically most of the remainder of their productive careers.

How many here would have guessed that outcome going into the off season? With the cap reportedly going up significantly next year, the Pens are sitting pretty. This year is gravy.

 

[Malkinstheman]

If fleury has another average .915%sv season do you think he starts in the playoffs? Im guessing bylsma plays him for the first game and watches him closely.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

And that is not even considering that we signed Letang and Kunitz long term, basically for the rest of their productive careers, after we did the same with Malkin and Crosby the two year's before.

Like I said, I expected worse, much worse, this offseason. My only question was whether we would get anything close to value for Letang. I had very little hope that we would sign him, and fairly reasonably to boot. At least one of Kunitz and Dupuis were also was gone in my mind.

And we kept them all for basically most of the remainder of their productive careers.

How many here would have guessed that outcome going into the off season? With the cap reportedly going up significantly next year, the Pens are sitting pretty. This year is gravy.

I like how we're set-up going forward.

As I've said before, we have the best options for top 6 wingers to start a season we've had during the entire Crosby/Malkin era. That's huge.

Key positions are all locked up and cost-controlled for the foreseeable future (save Fleury, who has this year to shape up or ship out), so Shero just has to pick the right complementary pieces from here on out.

It's good to put things in perspective like you have. The answer is that a sweep against a Boston team that looked completely beatable left a bad taste in a lot of peoples' mouths. But yeah, it might be overblown. I don't see a lot of teams in the Patrick division that look likely to have more wins than Pittsburgh.

That said, the wings on the bottom two lines look like a big, big problem to me. Adams is even older, and Cooke and Kennedy are better players (and fits) than Harry Zagashikebob or whoever the Hell else ends up taking their places.

It's not just that we're better than we were at the start of last season either. Boston got worse.

 

[Nietzsche Zone Play]

I think they are trying to address playing better against the trap by bringing in Martin. he's known for his defensive work, but he also devised a highly successful breakout and zone entry system while with Ottawa. considering how much the Pens management stresses successful zone entry, I would think they want him to add to it.

 

[Ogrezilla]

Anything less than a Cup is a disappointment while both Sid & Geno are healthy and in their prime. Goalie situation needs to straighten itself out well before the playoffs. MAF needs to play his best regular-season hockey yet, if not, teams needs to go with Vokoun to start the playoffs because you can't afford to take a couple of games to see if MAF is still insane come playoff time. Pens barely got out the 1st-round last season trying to walk that line. So either MAF is lights out, a .920 or better sv% in the regular season (something he's never done in a full load), or you head into the playoffs with Vokoun starting as long he is playing well. I'm getting too old for MAF playoff .gifs every game.

Everything else is rather minute stuff that will work itself out, except possibly the 3rd line being a significant problem come playoff time if Sutter doesn't take a step forward. The 3rd-line wings could be a problem as well depending how the personnel shakes out. A very, very, soft 3rd-line no matter what group of the current candidates plays there. Certainly a trade deadline area to target.

The Pens won in 6 against NYI. They did not "barely" get out of the first round.

And if anything but a Cup is a disappointment, most seasons are going to end in disappointment.

 

[Ragamuffin Gunner]

It doesn't matter if they have a better opening night roster when Db is behind the bench.

They'll win the Metro and the first round, only to lose in the 2nd round or ECF.

 

[Til the End of Time]

i expect a good regular season, maybe winning the division. crosby and malkin play great but miss out on their awards because of injuries.

maf puts together his standard fairly solid regular season performance, thus ensuring he starts the playoffs. he then plays somewhat poorly but not at the historically awful levels that would result in him being pulled. coaches and the team hail his play as an improvement and he continues to play. pens will lose to the first solid hockey team that they play, as they have done for many years now.

a pretty standard year for a perennially overrated team.

 

[Ogrezilla]

It doesn't matter if they have a better opening night roster when Db is behind the bench.

They'll win the Metro and the first round, only to lose in the 2nd round or ECF.

I'm really banking on Martin helping him. Someone to let him know when his **** stinks could go a long way.

 

[ColePens]

It's officially Cup or bust for me now.

 

[Jaded-Fan]

Ok, another question.

How many cups (if any) since our last cup win do you expect we would have won if we had, for instance, a Mike Babcock as coach of this team rather than Bylsma?

In other words, has this been a cup winning team held back by coaching, or an overrated team?

I ask not because this team has not won a cup since 2009, as they say, **** happens, injuries, bad bounces, whatever. It is not easy to win a cup. But I ask because this team has not lost (except for maybe one year when they were decimated by injuries) because of any of those things particularly, they just plain have looked out classed in most series. There is a difference between losing and not looking like you belong.

 

[ColePens]

I think we could have had one more w/ Babcock. Absolutely. Especially last season. Dan Bylsma, to me, is a joke. It's just going to get worse this year.

 

[Nightwing]

Either Cup or some major changes in the organization.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

I think they're going to have a good regular season and then fold the whole franchise before the playoffs because everyone's a big ass baby.

 

[mpp9]

I think we could have had one more w/ Babcock. Absolutely. Especially last season. Dan Bylsma, to me, is a joke. It's just going to get worse this year.

I'd rather not feel sick to my stomach the whole season thinking its just a matter of time before we're bounced out of the playoffs.

Scuderi helps make our #1 D better. Bennett being given a top 6 role is huge. J. Martin will only help clean things up in our own end.

I would have fired DB awhile back, but it's pretty obvious he's a part of the team's core now. Ill go into the season with some optimism.

 

[Speaking Moistly]

It's fix the major issues or bust for me. I'd rather that than the cup, it's a long term thing as opposed to one cup, that would be a buffer for any issues, and then the same issues hamstringing the team for more cup runs.

Bylsma, either he changes, or he's gone. (KCD goes, rookies get played, actual coaching with adapting, etc.)
Fleury, fixed or gone. (I'd rather he just be gone, any improvement could be a fluke that gets him extended, and then he's there being the same problem for God only knows how long.)

Letang had better improve with Scuderi and JMartin, but that's not a major issue for me right now.

 

[domaug*]

with the coaching changes and adding Scuderi among a few others to the roster, i expect the following to happen:

1A. Fleury will start playing much closer to his potential
---OR---
1B. Fleury will still have no clue how to mentally manage his game and fall apart in what could very well be his last year as a Penguin (and even a starting goaltender in the NHL)
2. The defense will be more structurally sound
3. The team will have a bit of a chip on its shoulder, but won't get their noses dirty as often as they did with players like Cooke and Murray
4. The team will either win the division or finish a few points shy of winning the division

 

[Ragamuffin Gunner]

Ok, another question.

How many cups (if any) since our last cup win do you expect we would have won if we had, for instance, a Mike Babcock as coach of this team rather than Bylsma?

In other words, has this been a cup winning team held back by coaching, or an overrated team?

I ask not because this team has not won a cup since 2009, as they say, **** happens, injuries, bad bounces, whatever. It is not easy to win a cup. But I ask because this team has not lost (except for maybe one year when they were decimated by injuries) because of any of those things particularly, they just plain have looked out classed in most series. There is a difference between losing and not looking like you belong.

Our team last year was the best team I've seen in years. DB literally took the best team since the lockout and ruined it. he is a terrible coach and the Pens won't win another Cup with him behind the bench.

The Pens have at least 2 more SCF appearances with Babs with at least 1 win.

 

[Malkinstheman]

I think that as long as we have kcd together we wont win the cup, or have suces against legitmate contenders. Breaking that line up allows for the top two lines to play to their strengths.