Penguins Offseason

[Aoki11]

A name I would love to see come to Pittsburgh is Evander Kane

[KirkHerbstreit]

Hiller also got benched this year and only had a few starts down the stretch...be careful what you wish for.

I will take my chances. I watch almost every playoff game. I've yet to see a goalie come close to matching the gaffes fleury makes. I'm not talking about getting beat over the glove hand. I am talking about mindnumbing, backbreaking, did I really just see that happen goals. Fleury has the lead over the past 5 years by far in that department.

[Aoki11]

Hiller also got benched this year and only had a few starts down the stretch...be careful what you wish for.

Sorry I just saw this and you are right, he did get benched. But it wasn't because of bad play. Hiller has a history of vertigo like symptoms that hinder his ability to play for very long clips at a time. I believe it was in 2010 he didn't play for almost 2 months. I heard that he experienced these same symptoms yet again this year. Also, Anaheim has a young powerhouse backup goalie that would be a starter on some teams, so it's not like using him was a risk. They knew that Hiller probably would not be coming back after this year, so they were probably trying to get him some experience. I know that that is not really fact based, but if I were Bruce Bordreau you better bet I am giving him some starts if this was the situation.

Also your comment about Halak. Other than St. Louis what are these lockdown defensive teams you speak of? Certainly not the Montreal team that beat the pens right? I remember them still struggling with the pens without Sid and malkin. I might be wrong about that. I remember Halak had to be on his game in that series and it wasn't like his team had it in the bag. I will agree St. Louis is good defensively all around. As for him being on three teams, they brought in the, IMO, highly overrated Ryan Miller who at the time was considered better than Halak. I believe he then ended up in Washington and St. Louis got bounced first round. Jaro thrived in net at SL, did okay at Wash the games he played and now he will probably be the starting goaltender for NYI who will have John Tavares injury free next year.

[Aoki11]

Correction: Crosby and malkin were out in the 2010-2011 SC playoffs, so that just kind of makes my point a little more.

[abpk2903]

I couldn't agree more!!!!

[HockeyGenie]

In 2010 Montreal was the 8th seed, just scraped by to make the playoffs, upset a Capitals team that was touted as the greatest thing since sliced bread, and then upset the pens. I want to make something clear, Halak wasn't a god in this series (sorry aoki) but on the other end Montreal wasn't a stout defensive team either. This was another example of the pens underplaying against an average team that find even belong on the same ice as them. Just look at what happened in the ECF. Pens should have easily handled Montreal and then beat Philly then made it to the finals. But again: what if?

[Aoki11]

Welcome Mr. Rutherford, goodbye Dan. Although I am not the condemner of him that everyone else seems to be I'm also not stupid and realize a new direction is sorely needed. Very excited to see his first move in terms of player.

On a side note, I am anxious now that there is a new GM in place. I don't want to start a whole debacle but was Ray the problem? I guess we will see.

[HockeyGenie]

On a side note, I am anxious now that there is a new GM in place. I don't want to start a whole debacle but was Ray the problem? I guess we will see.

You pose a good point.

The statement for why Shero was fired was always that he couldn't get a locker room that had any accountability. That might be so, but in my opinion this is a double edged sword. Why? Look at it this way: whenever the penguin players saw that statement that was directly from none other than Mario himself, how do you think they felt? I would imagine pretty crappy. It definitely wasn't a confidence booster. And yes I know they underachieved yet again but I think there is a better strategy than to attack the current roster while they are still on the team. I.e: that would be like me saying well my team sucks but it is because the GM wasnt able to look deep into the future and just magically guess that these players weren't going to be "accountable". And by the way who are these unaccountable players? Sid? Other than a few frustration points I thought he was a pretty good leader and obviously played well. Malkin? He was a point producing machine. Fleury? They don't make it out of the CBJ series without him. Jussi? Was still in the top 5 for goals long after his team was bounced. Bottom two lines? How good do you expect them to be? They are a group of young, speedy, solid and defensively sound players. I guess this leaves a kuni, or a james Neal. Maybe. Either way calling them out wasnt a genius move.

I move on to say this, I don't think a general manager has all that much to do with a players accountability. Sure you're not going to pick some jackass that is clearly not a fit for your team but other than that, if its not clear, I honestly don't think you can place the blame on a general manager for that reason.

The firing of DB was, and there is no other word for it, necessary. It had to happen.

[konjo78]

Kunitz played well in the postseason. The players who underachieved were Neal, Crosby, and most of the back line. New gm was needed but keeping blysma off the market until the end of June was kind of a dick move :/ overall I don't think the pens got the gm they were hoping for and have downgraded from shero, a man who brought a ton of top talent to Pittsburgh.

[Aoki11]

Crosby had more points than Kunitz but Crosby underachieved and Kunitz played well. That one doesn't really make sense.