Why not one more for Pens?
Three-peat not out of the question for Pittsburgh
NASHVILLE — It was a half hour after Pittsburgh Penguins had won their second consecutive Stanley Cup and the general manager of the team — the man who hired the head coach, who last year brought in Phil Kessel and this year traded for Ron Hainsey, while refusing to trade Marc-Andre Fleury — couldn’t stop smiling.
They told Jim Rutherford this couldn’t be done. Well, take that, he said. “People said at the start of the year and all through the year that it’s hard to repeat,” said Rutherford. “But we always said, ‘nobody said that you can’t.’ And our guys were determined. We kept the same group together. They knew how to win these big games. They came in here and won this game. They know how to step up with the game. It was a gutsy, determined group of guys.”
This year’s win was tougher than last year’s. The team was without Kris Letang for the entire playoffs, had a threadbare defence, and seemed to be running on fumes after having played more hockey than any other team in the last 24 months.
“I think this one was harder than last year,” said Rutherford. “Yeah, especially with the pressure on us and with how many guys we had playing hurt. It was certainly more stressful for me this time around. I haven’t been breathing that good for the last two months, but now I can breathe.”
Rutherford can breathe, but he won’t rest. He said he would love to do what no other team since the New York Islanders have done in the early 1980s and win a third straight title. It sounds impossible. But people said the same thing about them repeating.
Here are five reasons why the Penguins could pull off the rare 3-peat:
Sid and Geno
From Mario and Jagr to Crosby and Malkin. It almost seems unfair. If it wasn’t enough that the Penguins had the best player in the world, they have another who some might consider to be the second-best. Certainly, that is the way it looked in the playoffs. If Crosby wasn’t scoring, Malkin was. And vice versa.
Of course, it was usually both dominating at the same time.
Malkin led the playoffs with 28 points, while Crosby, who won his second straight Conn Smythe Trophy, was second with 27 points. There was only one game where both were held off the scoresheet.
“They’re two players of a very select few in the league that singlehandedly have an ability to change the outcomes of games,” said head coach Mike Sullivan. “That’s how good they are. But I do believe that just in my time in Pittsburgh with them, I think they’re appreciative of one another.”
Kris Letang
Somehow, someway, the Penguins won a Stanley Cup without a No. 1 defenceman. The way that they spread out the minutes was reminiscent of the 2006 Carolina Hurricanes, a team that had Rutherford as the GM.
“When Letang went out I said to our guys, ‘Don’t worry. We can do this,’ ” said Rutherford. “You’ve got to get the guys playing the right amount of minutes, you have to have them playing within themselves.”
It was the kind of performance that gets made into a Disney movie, but don’t get used to it.
Letang, who underwent surgery for a herniated disc in his neck before the playoffs began, will be back for next season. With a true No. 1 defenceman in the lineup, Pittsburgh’s one weakness will become a definite strength again.
Jake Guentzel
No one knew much about the curly-haired rookie when the playoffs started. But after he led the post-season with 13 goals, including five game-winners, Guentzel was arguably Pittsburgh’s MVP.
The question now is whether it a flash-in-the-pan performance or the start of something special?
There are signs that it could be the latter. While Guentzel obviously benefitted from playing on a line with Crosby, he did score 21 goals and 42 points in 33 games as a rookie this year in the minors. And with 33 points in 40 games with the Penguins, he was on pace to finish second behind Auston Matthews in rookie scoring.
Only 22 years old, there is a good chance he could grow into the skilled winger Crosby has been searching his entire career for.
Money is no matter
Nothing splits up a potential dynasty more than the salary cap. But the Penguins are in pretty decent shape.
Chris Kunitz ($3.85-million), Nick Bonino ($1.9-million) and Matt Cullen ($1-million) are unrestricted free agents, as are defencemen Trevor Daley ($3.3-millon) and Ron Hainsey ($2.83-million). But the bulk of Pittsburgh’s roster, including the Big 3 of Crosby, Malkin and Letang, are returning next season.
If the Penguins trade or lose Marc-Andre Fleury to the expansion draft, they would have an additional $5.75-million to play with. The team has to re-sign restricted free agents Conor Sheary and Justin Schultz, as well as find a couple of depth centres, but they should still have plenty of money left to sign a second-pairing defenceman such as Kevin Shattenkirk or Karl Alzner.
Matt Murray
It’s hard to imagine that the Penguins would have won the Cup — or even advanced past the first round — had Rutherford traded Fleury at the deadline. But while Fleury stepped in while Matt Murray was recovering from an injury, it was once again Murray who pushed a team that was routinely outshot and out-chanced over the hump.
Taking over the starter’s role in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference final, the experienced rookie goalie went 7-3 with a 1.70 goalsagainst average and .937 save percentage. He saved his best performances when it mattered the most, recording back-to-back shutouts in Games 5 and 6 to win the Cup.
“He was in a zone the last two games,” said Rutherford. “When he’s like that, you can’t score on him.”
With a No. 1 goalie who is only 23 years old and already has two championships under his belt, Pittsburgh should be a Cup contender for many, many years.