CUPBOARD LOOKS BARE
BASED ON BODY OF WORK (SO FAR)
There might be a team or two out there that craves a playoff series against the Penguins this spring. It’s just hard to imagine why. Not when their lineup is sprinkled with the kind of talents that can alter the course of a game – or a best-of-seven series – in a burst of excellence.
Sidney Crosby’s cluttered trophy case includes a pair of Conn Smythes he has earned as playoff MVP, testimony to his ability to perform under pressure.
Evgeni Malkin has one of those as well.
Kris Letang is in the process of erasing Paul Coffey’s name from the franchise record book and should turn up on more than a few Norris Trophy ballots this spring.
Goalie Matt Murray had barely escaped puberty by the time he had claimed two Stanley Cup rings.
Coach Mike Sullivan has won nine of the 10 series for which he has been behind the Penguins’ bench, suggesting that he reacts to being on the big stage as well as anyone since Sir Laurence Olivier.
Of course, it’s possible that the whole issue will be moot, that the Stanley Cup playoffs will proceed without the Penguins participating.
That hasn’t happened since 2006, at the end of Crosby’s rookie season, but considering the Penguins’ precarious spot in the Metropolitan Division and Eastern Conference standings, there certainly is no urgency for them to begin printing firstround tickets just yet.
And what if they do manage to qualify, or even go on a late-season run that carries them to the top of the Metropolitan? (The odds on which approximate those of the Penguins staging their next championship parade, whenever that might be, before an adoring crowd on Broad Street in Philadelphia.)
With the trade deadline
having passed, rosters for the stretch drive and playoffs are largely set, which means that, injuries aside, the Penguins have a pretty good idea of the personnel on which they will rely for the balance of this season.
It is a group which has given no reason to believe the Penguins can elevate their game for an extended period once the playoffs begin. If the results from the first three-quarters of the season are a fair reflection of their capabilities, they lack the consistency, synergetic blend of talent and intangibles that a championship run requires. Consider:
• Goaltending is the most critical variable for any team during the postseason, and while Murray has had stretches of brilliance – witness when he stopped 88 of 90 shots in recent starts against Philadelphia and Edmonton – they generally have given way to spasms of mediocrity. If a team doesn’t have quality, reliable goaltending, what the 18 skaters do really doesn’t matter.
• The line between winning and losing in the playoffs can be excruciatingly thin, and special-teams play often is decisive. That’s bad news for the Penguins, considering that there have been times lately when their power play has been more likely to surrender a goal than to score one, and that their penalty-killing has sunk to the middle of the league rankings.
• Offensive balance is critical because it dissuades opponents from focusing their defensive efforts on a few individuals or a single line. That’s why it has to be troubling that right wingers Phil Kessel and Patric Hornqvist, who routinely fill top-six roles, have been going through protracted scoring droughts. As February expired, it had been so long since either scored a goal that they might have forgotten that whole raiseyour-arms-to-celebrate thing.
Of course, it’s always possible that Kessel and Hornqvist will regain their scoring touches during the final weeks of the regular season, and it would be folly to underestimate what guys like Crosby, Malkin, Letang and Murray can achieve.
So, if the Penguins do get into the playoffs, no one should be surprised if they win a series or two.
But no one should expect them to win four, either.