Penguins in pursuit of a dynasty . . . really
Defining D-word is just as difficult
You’re forgiven if three months of relative quarantine combined with two years of disappointing playoff results — including a first-round sweep at the hands of the New York Islanders — made you forget a historically important fact regarding the Penguins.
They still are chasing a dynasty.
I believe a dynasty remains possible, anyway, because I believe three Stanley Cup titles in five years — including a back-to-back set — would qualify. It’s not quite the 1970s Steelers (although four in six surely would be), but it meets a reasonable criterion.
Were the Tim Duncan-led San Antonio Spurs a dynasty in the 2000s, when they won three titles in five years (and four in nine)?
They were in my book, and they didn’t even win a back-to-back set.
What, precisely, defines a dynasty? Three or more championships in a row, for sure. Three in four years, yes. Four in six, definitely. Beyond that, it gets tricky. I called an expert witness, one Bryan Trottier, to help answer the question. He won four Cup titles in a row with the 1980s New York Islanders (and two more with the early 1990s Penguins).
Those 1980s Islanders didn’t leave any room for interpretation. They ruined people. They faced elimination exactly once while winning 16 consecutive series.
The Penguins pushed them to a fifth-and-deciding game in 1982, which also happens to be the most recent time the Penguins participated in a best-of-five series like the one they will play against Montreal if this season resumes.
As Trottier well knows, the most recent team to win as many as three Cups in five years was the late 1980s Edmonton Oilers, who won four in five and five in seven. They began their title run by dismantling the Islanders in 1984, a year after the Islanders dismantled them.
So how about these Penguins, if they win it all in this very strange season? Should we call them a dynasty?
“For me, yes,” Trottier said. “They have a core group that would have participated in all three, and that, to me, qualifies as a dynasty. I mean, I’d certainly give it every consideration, especially with free agency the way it is, and the salary cap — two big challenges teams have nowadays.
“I think that just makes it really, really tough.”
Listen, I wouldn’t call three in five a classic dynasty. Neither would Trottier. It wouldn’t be Yankees-Canadiens-Steelers-Islanders territory from the days of yore. It wouldn’t be Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls.
But it would beat the Chicago Blackhawks of recent vintage. They won three Cups in six years. That doesn’t cut it. The extra year hurts, as does the lack of a back-to-back.
And speaking of “core players,” it is somewhat remarkable, in these times, that the Penguins are likely to open the playoffs with eight of the 18 skaters, plus the same goaltender, who took the ice for the Cup clincher in San Jose in 2016 (we’re counting Conor Sheary, who left and came back).
It doesn’t match the 1980s Islanders, who kept 15 players for all four Cups. But it’s still impressive in an era when fantasy hockey teams have nearly as much stability as real ones.
“The amazing aspect of it, with the Penguins, is the consistency down the middle with Geno and Sid,” Trottier said. “I have to give them full marks. They’ve elevated everyone else around them. That’s the mini-core. Maybe that’s what we should call it — a mini-dynasty, because it’s a mini-core. And they’ve done a great job to surround that mini-core and pluck in all the right parts.”
It hasn’t been so amazing lately. Especially not last spring, when the Penguins went down with barely a whimper. But that seems like a million years ago, or at least long enough to make one forget a historically important fact.
These Penguins still are chasing a dynasty.