Pens -- JAN 2017
- Thread starter COOL MAN
- Start date
And that's funny, because they were badly outplayed in the 2nd (though the B's had almost nothing to show for it). Still, I'll give the B's credit; even though nothing is going right for them here in the 3rd, they're still out there fighting.
Might be because they have a rematch later this week in Boston; maybe they're simply trying to salvage whatever time Claude Julien has left.
Pens and Bruins drop the puck in Boston. Murray in the net. Malkin a scratch. Let's Go Pens!
With 3 mins left that borderline call on Daley is a penalty? Maybe it is...but I would dearly love consistency sometimes...
Look....GO AWAY you condecending POS. Everything you post OT is filled with hate and vitriol , Conservative/Liberal, Republican /Democrat it doesn't matter. Intellegent people debate and learn, or its an idiot Twitter post no comment, no nothing. I imagine it is because your fingers are in your mouth ...to the rest of this Pens board i apologize but somebody has to come right out and say it apparently point blank. I'll take it on....no problem.
Now you are also under the opinion you are annexing Canada you POS mother ****er! Go on and tell me more dirtball!
http://www.thescore.com/news/1218832
Thoughts? Interesting for sure...I think GMJR would need to sweeten the pot just a bit to get it done. Shattenkirk would certainly help out on the backend, if only for a few months....a pure rental it seems.
Thoughts? Interesting for sure...I think GMJR would need to sweeten the pot just a bit to get it done. Shattenkirk would certainly help out on the backend, if only for a few months....a pure rental it seems.
Sorry gents
.....bad form to bring it here.
You go right ahead and say whatever you want to that miserable f***.......doesn't bother me one bit.
I gotta admit, I'm even more tired of the Shattenkirk talk than the Fleury (and Bishop) talk. I'll bet Armstrong is holding out for a top paring replacement D-man and two high picks in return.....and he's smoking crack if he thinks he can get even close to anything like that. If I were GMJR, the best I might offer him is Maatta solo.
I don't know if you guys watched the ASG Skills last night, but I gotta say I found it underwhelming at best. It started with the goofy "appearance" by Snoop Dawg, along with the fact the players acted like they didn't know they were being introduced.
The fastest skater was fine......though I admit to being surprised (and frankly, disappointed) that McDavid didn't break the record; and I was downright shocked to learn that Mike Gartner's time stood up for 20 years until 2016. But I thought the hardest shot and shootout competitions ended up largely a waste of time. Ovechkin needed to challenge Weber......which he didn't......and basically nobody from the West made either Price or Rask have to move in the shootout. Price was SO unchallenged that I'm not sure he even needed to take a shower afterward.
Meanwhile, it was pretty obvious to everyone watching that Crosby was the class of the entire competition, even though the pressure on him was arguably greater than anyone else. And I liked Mike Smith shooting Score-O. But by the time the competition was over, I was ready for it (and Snoop Dawg) to just go away.
The fastest skater was fine......though I admit to being surprised (and frankly, disappointed) that McDavid didn't break the record; and I was downright shocked to learn that Mike Gartner's time stood up for 20 years until 2016. But I thought the hardest shot and shootout competitions ended up largely a waste of time. Ovechkin needed to challenge Weber......which he didn't......and basically nobody from the West made either Price or Rask have to move in the shootout. Price was SO unchallenged that I'm not sure he even needed to take a shower afterward.
Meanwhile, it was pretty obvious to everyone watching that Crosby was the class of the entire competition, even though the pressure on him was arguably greater than anyone else. And I liked Mike Smith shooting Score-O. But by the time the competition was over, I was ready for it (and Snoop Dawg) to just go away.
Excuse me while I wade through the incessant Twit feeds to respond to your pertinent inquiry...
Anyway I did not see it sadly (my band who seems to have had a resurgence of late played a little impromptu jam session at my friend (band mates place ), in Oshawa last night lol. It was an eclectic crowd as I imagine you could expect at our age but a fun evening...and yes torontoeers can still rock it out lol.
I love what you're saying about Crosby having a good night. The wife and I have always tuned into the skills vs anything else on the wknd, and tried to do the game (s) this eve for about 5 mins before realizing....oh yeah! They're still standing in cement like last year...AND the year before!
http://thehockeywriters.com/10-greatest-players-in-pittsburgh-penguins-history/
10 Greatest Players in Pittsburgh Penguins History
In light of the NHL’s celebration announcing the 100 greatest NHL players of all-time, now is a good time to look back at the greatest players in Pittsburgh Penguins history.
Nine different Penguins made the Top 100, but that doesn’t mean they will automatically make our list here. Some of those players were only in Pittsburgh for a short time, in one case just a year, and that isn’t enough to qualify them as one of the greatest players in franchise history.
Here are the 10 greatest players based solely on what each player did while donning a black and gold sweater:
Honorable Mention: Tom Barrasso
Goaltender of the back-to-back Stanley Cup champion teams from 1991 and 1992, Barrasso held a 226-153-53 record in his 12-year Penguin career. He also posted an .896 save percentage and 3.27 GAA during the highest-scoring era in NHL history.
Barrasso helped lead the team to 10 playoff appearances and two Stanley Cups during his tenure. He won all 16 playoff games, including 11 in a row, in 1992, and would have won the Conn Smythe Trophy if it weren’t for a guy named Mario. Barrasso was 11-0 with a .927 save percentage and 2.14 GAA in his final 11 postseason games that spring as he led the Penguins from back from a 2-1 game deficit to the New York Rangers in the second round and then went on to sweep the Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks in the next two.
Incredibly, Barrasso also still leads the franchise in wins in an individual season with 43. He set that mark in 1992-93 when the Penguins won their only Presidents’ Trophy. It’s amazing that record still stands because it pre-dates the shootout era when games still ended in ties.
10. Paul Coffey
He played just four and a half seasons with the Penguins, but Coffey makes our list as one of the best defensemen to ever play the game. In 331 games with Pittsburgh, Coffey scored 108 goals and 440 points. His 1.33 points-per-game average rivals Sidney Crosby and will likely never be repeated by a defenseman in franchise history.
Coffey scored 113 points in 1988-89 and then 103 points in 1989-90 with the Penguins, the two most prolific seasons ever by a Pittsburgh blueliner. Those were two of his four 100-point seasons in his career, an accomplishment a defender has only achieved 14 times in league history.
The Penguins traded Coffey in the middle of the 1991-92 season, so he won just one Stanley Cup with the team. He also won the Norris Trophy three times, but not during his time in Pittsburgh. Coffey only played longer for the Edmonton Oilers than he did the Penguins, but his stay in the Steel City still wasn’t long enough to place him higher on this list.
9. Marc-Andre Fleury
Hopefully one day Fleury will get his due as one of the greatest Penguins of all time. With 370 wins, a 2.58 GAA, .912 save percentage and 43 shutouts, Fleury owns every goaltending record in team history, and it’s not even close. He has more wins than the next two winningest goalies in Penguins history combined, and more than twice as many shutouts as Barrasso.
Fleury’s had playoff struggles over his career, but his postseason numbers are still better than Barrasso’s, and the 32-year-old also has a pair of Stanley Cup championships. In 2008 and 2009, Fleury led the team to back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals appearances, posting a .919 save percentage and 2.31 GAA with three shutouts.
With Fleury as the team’s No. 1 starter for 12 seasons prior to 2016-17, the Penguins have made 10 straight playoff appearances and will tie the franchise record of 11 as long as they hold onto a playoff spot this spring. Nicknamed “The Flower”, Fleury will also go down as one of the greatest “team players” and teammates of the Sidney Crosby era.
8. Jean Pronovost
Pronovost is one of two players on our list that pre-date the championship years. Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are the only Penguins with more goals in franchise history than Pronovost. He is fifth with 316 goals and seventh with 603 points on the all-time Penguins lists.
He played 10 seasons with the Penguins, and over his final nine years, Pronovost scored at least 20 goals a season and averaged 33.3 goals. He set a franchise-high with 52 goals and 104 points in 1975-76. Pronovost also still holds the record for the fastest goal in Penguins’ history, scoring six seconds into a game in 1976.
From 1973-78, he averaged 40 goals, and in his 10 seasons, he helped the Penguins to the postseason five times. He scored nine goals and 18 points in 29 playoff contests.
7. Rick Kehoe
The forward finished just behind Pronovost with 312 goals but edged him with 636 points. He remains sixth in goals and fifth in points behind only Lemieux, Jagr, Crosby and Malkin.
Kehoe began his career with the Toronto Maple Leafs, but he joined the Penguins in 1974-75 and scored at least 27 goals in each of his first nine seasons with the club. In 1980-81, he averaged over a point per game for the second time in his career and set a new franchise record with 55 goals. He also won the Lady Byng Trophy that season.
He held the record for goals in a season and points in a career until Lemieux shattered all his records. Kehoe also scored four goals and 21 points in 39 playoff games.
6. Kevin Stevens
For younger Penguins fans that don’t know Stevens, he was the Chris Kunitz of the 1990s. He brought a scoring touch and physical presence to the top line and made a living protecting the team’s superstar. He is the only player in franchise history with over 1,000 penalty minutes.
Stevens missed a lot of games because of his style, but he still averaged over a point per game during his Penguins tenure. He finished his days in a black and gold uniform with 260 goals and 555 points in 522 games, which was good enough for 1.06 points per game, ninth-best in franchise history.
From 1991-94, the power forward averaged 45 goals and 102 points per season and scored a career-high 55 goals in 1993. In the 1991 and 1992 playoffs, Stevens scored 30 goals and 61 points in 45 games.
5. Ron Francis
Perhaps the most underappreciated player in NHL history, Francis is fifth all-time in points and second in assists only to Wayne Gretzky. Francis spent seven and a half of his 23 years in the NHL with the Penguins, and during that time, he tallied 164 goals and 613 points in 533 games.
Pittsburgh acquired the former No. 4 pick at the 1991 deadline, and he proved to be the missing piece to the Penguins’ first championship team. In 1991, he scored seven goals and 17 points in 24 playoff games.
The following spring, he tallied eight goals and 27 points in 21 postseason contests and helped fill the void left by Lemieux when the latter broke his wrist in the second round against the Rangers. In the team’s first game without their superstar, Francis scored a hat trick to help even the series at two. Pittsburgh wouldn’t lose again that postseason.
During his Pittsburgh tenure, Francis also won the Lady Byng Trophy twice (1995 and 1998) and the Selke Trophy once (1995). His best statistical season with Pittsburgh was in 1993 when he recorded 24 goals and 100 points.
4. Evgeni Malkin
“Geno” became the fourth-leading scorer in franchise history before turning 30 and passed Pronovost for fourth on the team’s all-time goals list last week. He achieved that despite missing 176 regular-season games over the first decade of his career. Malkin is sixth all-time in franchise history with 1.18 points per game.
In 2009, he became the first Russian player to win the Conn Smythe Trophy, leading the Penguins to their third Stanley Cup. He scored 14 goals and 36 points in 24 games that postseason. Last spring, he tallied six goals and 18 points in 23 postseason games as he carved his name into Lord Stanley’s Cup a second time.
Crosby has been widely considered the best player in the game for a decade, but there really isn’t a huge gap between “Sid the Kid” and Malkin. Very few can take over a game like Malkin, and at his very best, he is arguably more dominant than Crosby. That potential was on display in the 2009 playoffs, especially in the Eastern Conference Final, where the Russian forward scored six goals and nine points in a four-game sweep.
Malkin has won the Art Ross trophy twice, leading the NHL in scoring in 2008-09 and 2011-12. He also won the Hart Trophy in 2012 and the Calder Trophy in 2007. Without a doubt, he is the biggest snub among current players from the NHL’s Top 100 player list.
3. Jaromir Jagr
Jagr is still second on the Penguins’ all-time list in goals, assists and points, and this season became the second-leading scorer in NHL history. Only Gretzky has more points than Jagr and only Gretzky and Gordie Howe have more goals.
Before current Florida Panthers teammate and Pittsburgh-native, Vincent Trocheck was born, Jagr had already won two Stanley Cups. Prior to the birth of No. 1 pick, defenseman Aaron Ekblad, Jagr already had 199 goals, 489 points and an Art Ross trophy.
During his time in Pittsburgh, Jagr won the scoring title five times and the Hart Trophy once. He scored a career-high 62 goals in 1995-96 and then 127 points in 1998-99. Jagr has continued to play well with the seven other teams he’s played with since leaving Pittsburgh in 2001, but he’s never led the league in scoring again or won the Stanley Cup with any other team.
In the postseason, Jagr scored 65 goals and 147 points in 146 games with the Penguins. He also remains the franchise’s all-time leader in plus/minus (plus-209) and game-winning goals (78).
2. Sidney Crosby
Crosby cemented his legacy last summer with a Conn Smythe Trophy and a second Stanley Cup championship. That gave him the edge over Jagr on our list despite trailing him in goals, assists and points.
However, Crosby likely won’t trail Jagr for long. No. 87 is 14 assists and, ironically, 87 points, from passing Jagr on the Penguins’ all-time list. Crosby should pass Jagr in both categories by the end of 2018. “Sid the Kid” is also just seven points away from becoming the third Penguin to reach the 1,000-point mark. Barring the worst slump in his career, he will achieve that mark in under 800 games and before turning 30.
There aren’t many trophies Crosby hasn’t won. In addition to the Conn Smythe, he’s won two league MVP awards, two scoring titles and a Richard Trophy for leading the league in goals with 51 in 2009-10. With an NHL-leading 28 goals and 55 points at the All-Star break, Crosby has a chance to add to his trophy case this season.
If he can also lead Pittsburgh to another Stanley Cup this spring, becoming the first team to repeat in nearly two decades, or win a third championship at some point in the coming years, it isn’t inconceivable to think Crosby could challenge for the top spot on our list when his career is finished.
1. Mario Lemieux
The term “Pittsburgh legend” comes to mind when thinking about “Super Mario”. If not for his injuries, many believe he would have challenged Gretzky for several all-time NHL records. As it was, Lemieux finished with 690 goals and 1,723 points, which places him in the top 10 on both lists, and he did it all with the Penguins.
He scored at least 100 points in each of his first six seasons in the NHL, recording a career-best 85 goals and 199 points in 1988-89. That season, he became just the second player to score 70 goals in two seasons and the fourth player to score 50 goals in 50 games. Lemieux was also the only player to score 13 shorthanded goals in one season, and his nine hat tricks in 1988-89 are the same amount of hat tricks Crosby has in his career.
Lemieux won the Calder Trophy in 1984-85 and then captured six scoring titles in a nine-year span starting in 1987-88. In two of the three seasons where he didn’t win it, he missed significant time due to back problems. “Super Mario” won scoring titles in 1991-92 and 1992-93 despite missing 18 and 22 games in those seasons, respectively. In the spring of 1993, he returned from cancer to lead the NHL in scoring and win the MVP.
He retired after winning his sixth Art Ross trophy in 1996-97, but three years later, he returned to the ice and continued to average more than a point per game for the next three seasons. From his return in 2000 until his retirement in 2006, he led the league in points-per-game average.
Despite all the awards and playing success, Lemieux is the greatest Penguin, and will likely remain so, because he saved the franchise…twice. The excitement he brought to the rink helped bring the Penguins out of bankruptcy in the mid-1980s. Then, he bought the team when it was in trouble, threatening to fold or move in 1998.
Without Lemieux, there is no hockey in Pittsburgh today, and behind his leadership, the Penguins are tied for the most Stanley Cups since 1990.
10 Greatest Players in Pittsburgh Penguins History
In light of the NHL’s celebration announcing the 100 greatest NHL players of all-time, now is a good time to look back at the greatest players in Pittsburgh Penguins history.
Nine different Penguins made the Top 100, but that doesn’t mean they will automatically make our list here. Some of those players were only in Pittsburgh for a short time, in one case just a year, and that isn’t enough to qualify them as one of the greatest players in franchise history.
Here are the 10 greatest players based solely on what each player did while donning a black and gold sweater:
Honorable Mention: Tom Barrasso
Goaltender of the back-to-back Stanley Cup champion teams from 1991 and 1992, Barrasso held a 226-153-53 record in his 12-year Penguin career. He also posted an .896 save percentage and 3.27 GAA during the highest-scoring era in NHL history.
Barrasso helped lead the team to 10 playoff appearances and two Stanley Cups during his tenure. He won all 16 playoff games, including 11 in a row, in 1992, and would have won the Conn Smythe Trophy if it weren’t for a guy named Mario. Barrasso was 11-0 with a .927 save percentage and 2.14 GAA in his final 11 postseason games that spring as he led the Penguins from back from a 2-1 game deficit to the New York Rangers in the second round and then went on to sweep the Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks in the next two.
Incredibly, Barrasso also still leads the franchise in wins in an individual season with 43. He set that mark in 1992-93 when the Penguins won their only Presidents’ Trophy. It’s amazing that record still stands because it pre-dates the shootout era when games still ended in ties.
10. Paul Coffey
He played just four and a half seasons with the Penguins, but Coffey makes our list as one of the best defensemen to ever play the game. In 331 games with Pittsburgh, Coffey scored 108 goals and 440 points. His 1.33 points-per-game average rivals Sidney Crosby and will likely never be repeated by a defenseman in franchise history.
Coffey scored 113 points in 1988-89 and then 103 points in 1989-90 with the Penguins, the two most prolific seasons ever by a Pittsburgh blueliner. Those were two of his four 100-point seasons in his career, an accomplishment a defender has only achieved 14 times in league history.
The Penguins traded Coffey in the middle of the 1991-92 season, so he won just one Stanley Cup with the team. He also won the Norris Trophy three times, but not during his time in Pittsburgh. Coffey only played longer for the Edmonton Oilers than he did the Penguins, but his stay in the Steel City still wasn’t long enough to place him higher on this list.
9. Marc-Andre Fleury
Hopefully one day Fleury will get his due as one of the greatest Penguins of all time. With 370 wins, a 2.58 GAA, .912 save percentage and 43 shutouts, Fleury owns every goaltending record in team history, and it’s not even close. He has more wins than the next two winningest goalies in Penguins history combined, and more than twice as many shutouts as Barrasso.
Fleury’s had playoff struggles over his career, but his postseason numbers are still better than Barrasso’s, and the 32-year-old also has a pair of Stanley Cup championships. In 2008 and 2009, Fleury led the team to back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals appearances, posting a .919 save percentage and 2.31 GAA with three shutouts.
With Fleury as the team’s No. 1 starter for 12 seasons prior to 2016-17, the Penguins have made 10 straight playoff appearances and will tie the franchise record of 11 as long as they hold onto a playoff spot this spring. Nicknamed “The Flower”, Fleury will also go down as one of the greatest “team players” and teammates of the Sidney Crosby era.
8. Jean Pronovost
Pronovost is one of two players on our list that pre-date the championship years. Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are the only Penguins with more goals in franchise history than Pronovost. He is fifth with 316 goals and seventh with 603 points on the all-time Penguins lists.
He played 10 seasons with the Penguins, and over his final nine years, Pronovost scored at least 20 goals a season and averaged 33.3 goals. He set a franchise-high with 52 goals and 104 points in 1975-76. Pronovost also still holds the record for the fastest goal in Penguins’ history, scoring six seconds into a game in 1976.
From 1973-78, he averaged 40 goals, and in his 10 seasons, he helped the Penguins to the postseason five times. He scored nine goals and 18 points in 29 playoff contests.
7. Rick Kehoe
The forward finished just behind Pronovost with 312 goals but edged him with 636 points. He remains sixth in goals and fifth in points behind only Lemieux, Jagr, Crosby and Malkin.
Kehoe began his career with the Toronto Maple Leafs, but he joined the Penguins in 1974-75 and scored at least 27 goals in each of his first nine seasons with the club. In 1980-81, he averaged over a point per game for the second time in his career and set a new franchise record with 55 goals. He also won the Lady Byng Trophy that season.
He held the record for goals in a season and points in a career until Lemieux shattered all his records. Kehoe also scored four goals and 21 points in 39 playoff games.
6. Kevin Stevens
For younger Penguins fans that don’t know Stevens, he was the Chris Kunitz of the 1990s. He brought a scoring touch and physical presence to the top line and made a living protecting the team’s superstar. He is the only player in franchise history with over 1,000 penalty minutes.
Stevens missed a lot of games because of his style, but he still averaged over a point per game during his Penguins tenure. He finished his days in a black and gold uniform with 260 goals and 555 points in 522 games, which was good enough for 1.06 points per game, ninth-best in franchise history.
From 1991-94, the power forward averaged 45 goals and 102 points per season and scored a career-high 55 goals in 1993. In the 1991 and 1992 playoffs, Stevens scored 30 goals and 61 points in 45 games.
5. Ron Francis
Perhaps the most underappreciated player in NHL history, Francis is fifth all-time in points and second in assists only to Wayne Gretzky. Francis spent seven and a half of his 23 years in the NHL with the Penguins, and during that time, he tallied 164 goals and 613 points in 533 games.
Pittsburgh acquired the former No. 4 pick at the 1991 deadline, and he proved to be the missing piece to the Penguins’ first championship team. In 1991, he scored seven goals and 17 points in 24 playoff games.
The following spring, he tallied eight goals and 27 points in 21 postseason contests and helped fill the void left by Lemieux when the latter broke his wrist in the second round against the Rangers. In the team’s first game without their superstar, Francis scored a hat trick to help even the series at two. Pittsburgh wouldn’t lose again that postseason.
During his Pittsburgh tenure, Francis also won the Lady Byng Trophy twice (1995 and 1998) and the Selke Trophy once (1995). His best statistical season with Pittsburgh was in 1993 when he recorded 24 goals and 100 points.
4. Evgeni Malkin
“Geno” became the fourth-leading scorer in franchise history before turning 30 and passed Pronovost for fourth on the team’s all-time goals list last week. He achieved that despite missing 176 regular-season games over the first decade of his career. Malkin is sixth all-time in franchise history with 1.18 points per game.
In 2009, he became the first Russian player to win the Conn Smythe Trophy, leading the Penguins to their third Stanley Cup. He scored 14 goals and 36 points in 24 games that postseason. Last spring, he tallied six goals and 18 points in 23 postseason games as he carved his name into Lord Stanley’s Cup a second time.
Crosby has been widely considered the best player in the game for a decade, but there really isn’t a huge gap between “Sid the Kid” and Malkin. Very few can take over a game like Malkin, and at his very best, he is arguably more dominant than Crosby. That potential was on display in the 2009 playoffs, especially in the Eastern Conference Final, where the Russian forward scored six goals and nine points in a four-game sweep.
Malkin has won the Art Ross trophy twice, leading the NHL in scoring in 2008-09 and 2011-12. He also won the Hart Trophy in 2012 and the Calder Trophy in 2007. Without a doubt, he is the biggest snub among current players from the NHL’s Top 100 player list.
3. Jaromir Jagr
Jagr is still second on the Penguins’ all-time list in goals, assists and points, and this season became the second-leading scorer in NHL history. Only Gretzky has more points than Jagr and only Gretzky and Gordie Howe have more goals.
Before current Florida Panthers teammate and Pittsburgh-native, Vincent Trocheck was born, Jagr had already won two Stanley Cups. Prior to the birth of No. 1 pick, defenseman Aaron Ekblad, Jagr already had 199 goals, 489 points and an Art Ross trophy.
During his time in Pittsburgh, Jagr won the scoring title five times and the Hart Trophy once. He scored a career-high 62 goals in 1995-96 and then 127 points in 1998-99. Jagr has continued to play well with the seven other teams he’s played with since leaving Pittsburgh in 2001, but he’s never led the league in scoring again or won the Stanley Cup with any other team.
In the postseason, Jagr scored 65 goals and 147 points in 146 games with the Penguins. He also remains the franchise’s all-time leader in plus/minus (plus-209) and game-winning goals (78).
2. Sidney Crosby
Crosby cemented his legacy last summer with a Conn Smythe Trophy and a second Stanley Cup championship. That gave him the edge over Jagr on our list despite trailing him in goals, assists and points.
However, Crosby likely won’t trail Jagr for long. No. 87 is 14 assists and, ironically, 87 points, from passing Jagr on the Penguins’ all-time list. Crosby should pass Jagr in both categories by the end of 2018. “Sid the Kid” is also just seven points away from becoming the third Penguin to reach the 1,000-point mark. Barring the worst slump in his career, he will achieve that mark in under 800 games and before turning 30.
There aren’t many trophies Crosby hasn’t won. In addition to the Conn Smythe, he’s won two league MVP awards, two scoring titles and a Richard Trophy for leading the league in goals with 51 in 2009-10. With an NHL-leading 28 goals and 55 points at the All-Star break, Crosby has a chance to add to his trophy case this season.
If he can also lead Pittsburgh to another Stanley Cup this spring, becoming the first team to repeat in nearly two decades, or win a third championship at some point in the coming years, it isn’t inconceivable to think Crosby could challenge for the top spot on our list when his career is finished.
1. Mario Lemieux
The term “Pittsburgh legend” comes to mind when thinking about “Super Mario”. If not for his injuries, many believe he would have challenged Gretzky for several all-time NHL records. As it was, Lemieux finished with 690 goals and 1,723 points, which places him in the top 10 on both lists, and he did it all with the Penguins.
He scored at least 100 points in each of his first six seasons in the NHL, recording a career-best 85 goals and 199 points in 1988-89. That season, he became just the second player to score 70 goals in two seasons and the fourth player to score 50 goals in 50 games. Lemieux was also the only player to score 13 shorthanded goals in one season, and his nine hat tricks in 1988-89 are the same amount of hat tricks Crosby has in his career.
Lemieux won the Calder Trophy in 1984-85 and then captured six scoring titles in a nine-year span starting in 1987-88. In two of the three seasons where he didn’t win it, he missed significant time due to back problems. “Super Mario” won scoring titles in 1991-92 and 1992-93 despite missing 18 and 22 games in those seasons, respectively. In the spring of 1993, he returned from cancer to lead the NHL in scoring and win the MVP.
He retired after winning his sixth Art Ross trophy in 1996-97, but three years later, he returned to the ice and continued to average more than a point per game for the next three seasons. From his return in 2000 until his retirement in 2006, he led the league in points-per-game average.
Despite all the awards and playing success, Lemieux is the greatest Penguin, and will likely remain so, because he saved the franchise…twice. The excitement he brought to the rink helped bring the Penguins out of bankruptcy in the mid-1980s. Then, he bought the team when it was in trouble, threatening to fold or move in 1998.
Without Lemieux, there is no hockey in Pittsburgh today, and behind his leadership, the Penguins are tied for the most Stanley Cups since 1990.
Interesting analysis this morning by the Pitt Post Gazette's Jason Mackey regarding particularly-troubling (and almost exclusively on the defensive side of the ledger) YTD Pens' stats. Granted stats may never tell the entire story; but at the end of the day, they (unlike political discussions) never lie......
By Jason Mackey / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
As the Penguins emerge from the All-Star break and look to plow through the dog days of winter, a few parts of their game could use some work.
At least if you consider how the past 11 Stanley Cup champions — the salary-cap era — have fared when it comes to things such as goals and shots allowed, faceoffs and penalty-killing.
The Penguins, despite looking unstoppable at times, have a few weaknesses. They might be able to hang five goals on you, which they’ve already done 15 times, but some of their defensive numbers aren’t as pretty.
These four stand out the most.
The problem? They’ve allowed 140 goals in 48 games, an average of 2.92 per contest that has them ranked 23rd in the league. Only two teams since 2005 have finished outside the top 10 in goals against per game — the 2008-09 Penguins (2.84, 17th) and the 2005-06 Hurricanes (3.15, 20th).
The connections there are sort of ironic; current Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford was in his old job in Carolina when the Hurricanes won. But it’s not smart company to keep. The past 11 Cup champs have allowed an average of 2.38 goals against per game.
You can say it’s skewed by eras. Fine. The average rank of a Cup winner was sixth. The 2016-17 Penguins have work to do here, and they know it.
“It’s very important to tighten it up defensively,” defenseman Trevor Daley said.
How to fix it? A couple things. Before the break, coach Mike Sullivan seemingly ditched the goaltending timeshare and started Matt Murray in six consecutive games.
It’s great to say you have two No. 1 goaltenders, but your second guy (Marc-Andre Fleury) is allowing 3.23 goals-against per game, his worst such mark since 2005-06, when the Penguins coughed up an average of 3.78 goals an outing.
Aside from smoothing out the goaltending bumps, the Penguins have weathered a spate of injuries to their defense. Daley, Kris Letang and Brian Dumoulin all missed games, and Olli Maatta has been inconsistent. It’s tough to gain traction defensively when your back end is a game of musical chairs.
The problem? Of the four categories studied, shots allowed might be the least problematic. Five of the 11 Cup winners finished 15th or worse. That includes the Penguins a year ago, when they clocked in at 29.7.
Only one team — the 2010-11 Boston Bruins at 32.7 per game, which had them ranked 29th — has been worse than the current Penguins (32.4, 27th).
It’s also worth noting that Tim Thomas put up some pretty absurd numbers in Boston that season — 2.00 goals-against average, .938 save percentage and nine shutouts.
How to fix it? Having Murray thrust himself into the Vezina Trophy conversation would be an easy solution, but that might be asking a bit much from someone still eligible to win the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie.
Sullivan has exhorted his players to outplay, and not simply outscore, teams. He’s no dummy. Strong play away from the puck tends to lead to good things — more time with it, fewer shots against — and that’s the easiest way to correct this one.
“You can’t always control the goals,” Sullivan said. “What you can control is the process — how you play and limiting teams’ opportunities, more specifically their Grade-A opportunities.
“If you do that, usually the goals-against comes down. We discuss that with our team consistently about becoming a harder team to play against, a playoff-type team. That has to be part of our identity moving forward.”
The problem? No Cup winner in the salary-cap era has had a penalty-kill worse than Rutherford’s Hurricanes, ranked 19th at 81.8. That’s about three points better than these Penguins. Worse, the 2016-17 Penguins have allowed at least one power-play goal in 27 of 48 games (56 percent). They’re 15-11-1 (.574) when they do compared to 15-2-3 (.825) when they do not.
Power plays will decrease in the playoffs as referees swallow their whistles, but that only ramps up the importance of killing the opportunities the other team is afforded.
How to fix it? Getting Matt Cullen back from a broken foot in a couple of weeks will help, but it offers no guarantees; the group got this way while Cullen was healthy.
Sullivan has started to try a few different guys here, specifically a recast-as-a-fourth-liner Chris Kunitz, who has not looked out of place.
But the biggest issue with this group is not easily explained with numbers. It’s confidence. Kill a bunch in a row. Feel good about yourselves. Rinse, wash, repeat.
The problem? The Penguins don’t win nearly enough faceoffs.
Sidney Crosby isn’t concerned with his 47.5 success rate on draws, even though he never has been below 50 percent for a full season. For someone so smart, dedicated and consistent, he deserves the benefit of the doubt.
But the team-wide numbers aren’t good. Only the 2008-09 Penguins (19th at 49.1) have hoisted a Cup without winning at least 50 percent of draws. The faceoff struggles also have compounded the penalty-killing issues; the Penguins have won just 40.8 percent of draws short-handed, 28th in the NHL.
The average Cup winner since 2005 wins 51.6 percent — about four percent better than the Penguins right now — and ranks eighth. That gulf, from their ranking of No. 27 to the average of No. 8, is the largest of any of the four categories.
How to fix it? Video, video and more video, for one. The Penguins watch a lot, but extra certainly wouldn’t hurt. Having Cullen’s return could help. Nick Bonino puts a tremendous amount of work into winning draws, but his success rate has dropped from 50.4 percent a year ago to 48.9 percent in 2016-17.
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
As the Penguins emerge from the All-Star break and look to plow through the dog days of winter, a few parts of their game could use some work.
At least if you consider how the past 11 Stanley Cup champions — the salary-cap era — have fared when it comes to things such as goals and shots allowed, faceoffs and penalty-killing.
The Penguins, despite looking unstoppable at times, have a few weaknesses. They might be able to hang five goals on you, which they’ve already done 15 times, but some of their defensive numbers aren’t as pretty.
These four stand out the most.
The problem? They’ve allowed 140 goals in 48 games, an average of 2.92 per contest that has them ranked 23rd in the league. Only two teams since 2005 have finished outside the top 10 in goals against per game — the 2008-09 Penguins (2.84, 17th) and the 2005-06 Hurricanes (3.15, 20th).
The connections there are sort of ironic; current Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford was in his old job in Carolina when the Hurricanes won. But it’s not smart company to keep. The past 11 Cup champs have allowed an average of 2.38 goals against per game.
You can say it’s skewed by eras. Fine. The average rank of a Cup winner was sixth. The 2016-17 Penguins have work to do here, and they know it.
“It’s very important to tighten it up defensively,” defenseman Trevor Daley said.
How to fix it? A couple things. Before the break, coach Mike Sullivan seemingly ditched the goaltending timeshare and started Matt Murray in six consecutive games.
It’s great to say you have two No. 1 goaltenders, but your second guy (Marc-Andre Fleury) is allowing 3.23 goals-against per game, his worst such mark since 2005-06, when the Penguins coughed up an average of 3.78 goals an outing.
Aside from smoothing out the goaltending bumps, the Penguins have weathered a spate of injuries to their defense. Daley, Kris Letang and Brian Dumoulin all missed games, and Olli Maatta has been inconsistent. It’s tough to gain traction defensively when your back end is a game of musical chairs.
The problem? Of the four categories studied, shots allowed might be the least problematic. Five of the 11 Cup winners finished 15th or worse. That includes the Penguins a year ago, when they clocked in at 29.7.
Only one team — the 2010-11 Boston Bruins at 32.7 per game, which had them ranked 29th — has been worse than the current Penguins (32.4, 27th).
It’s also worth noting that Tim Thomas put up some pretty absurd numbers in Boston that season — 2.00 goals-against average, .938 save percentage and nine shutouts.
How to fix it? Having Murray thrust himself into the Vezina Trophy conversation would be an easy solution, but that might be asking a bit much from someone still eligible to win the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie.
Sullivan has exhorted his players to outplay, and not simply outscore, teams. He’s no dummy. Strong play away from the puck tends to lead to good things — more time with it, fewer shots against — and that’s the easiest way to correct this one.
“You can’t always control the goals,” Sullivan said. “What you can control is the process — how you play and limiting teams’ opportunities, more specifically their Grade-A opportunities.
“If you do that, usually the goals-against comes down. We discuss that with our team consistently about becoming a harder team to play against, a playoff-type team. That has to be part of our identity moving forward.”
The problem? No Cup winner in the salary-cap era has had a penalty-kill worse than Rutherford’s Hurricanes, ranked 19th at 81.8. That’s about three points better than these Penguins. Worse, the 2016-17 Penguins have allowed at least one power-play goal in 27 of 48 games (56 percent). They’re 15-11-1 (.574) when they do compared to 15-2-3 (.825) when they do not.
Power plays will decrease in the playoffs as referees swallow their whistles, but that only ramps up the importance of killing the opportunities the other team is afforded.
How to fix it? Getting Matt Cullen back from a broken foot in a couple of weeks will help, but it offers no guarantees; the group got this way while Cullen was healthy.
Sullivan has started to try a few different guys here, specifically a recast-as-a-fourth-liner Chris Kunitz, who has not looked out of place.
But the biggest issue with this group is not easily explained with numbers. It’s confidence. Kill a bunch in a row. Feel good about yourselves. Rinse, wash, repeat.
The problem? The Penguins don’t win nearly enough faceoffs.
Sidney Crosby isn’t concerned with his 47.5 success rate on draws, even though he never has been below 50 percent for a full season. For someone so smart, dedicated and consistent, he deserves the benefit of the doubt.
But the team-wide numbers aren’t good. Only the 2008-09 Penguins (19th at 49.1) have hoisted a Cup without winning at least 50 percent of draws. The faceoff struggles also have compounded the penalty-killing issues; the Penguins have won just 40.8 percent of draws short-handed, 28th in the NHL.
The average Cup winner since 2005 wins 51.6 percent — about four percent better than the Penguins right now — and ranks eighth. That gulf, from their ranking of No. 27 to the average of No. 8, is the largest of any of the four categories.
How to fix it? Video, video and more video, for one. The Penguins watch a lot, but extra certainly wouldn’t hurt. Having Cullen’s return could help. Nick Bonino puts a tremendous amount of work into winning draws, but his success rate has dropped from 50.4 percent a year ago to 48.9 percent in 2016-17.
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
Great read...I honestly didn't realize MAF's numbers were that inflated in the wrong direction! I guess it goes to show my eye test isn't always the proper narrative lol. I had thought he looked ok but not spectacular this year...same for MM really. Both of them need to be better if value is to be found in a trade and a Cup repeat is the desire...Interesting analysis this morning by the Pitt Post Gazette's Jason Mackey regarding particularly-troubling (and almost exclusively on the defensive side of the ledger) YTD Pens' stats. Granted stats may never tell the entire story; but at the end of the day, they (unlike political discussions) never lie......
By Jason Mackey / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
As the Penguins emerge from the All-Star break and look to plow through the dog days of winter, a few parts of their game could use some work.
At least if you consider how the past 11 Stanley Cup champions — the salary-cap era — have fared when it comes to things such as goals and shots allowed, faceoffs and penalty-killing.
The Penguins, despite looking unstoppable at times, have a few weaknesses. They might be able to hang five goals on you, which they’ve already done 15 times, but some of their defensive numbers aren’t as pretty.
These four stand out the most.
The problem? They’ve allowed 140 goals in 48 games, an average of 2.92 per contest that has them ranked 23rd in the league. Only two teams since 2005 have finished outside the top 10 in goals against per game — the 2008-09 Penguins (2.84, 17th) and the 2005-06 Hurricanes (3.15, 20th).
The connections there are sort of ironic; current Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford was in his old job in Carolina when the Hurricanes won. But it’s not smart company to keep. The past 11 Cup champs have allowed an average of 2.38 goals against per game.
You can say it’s skewed by eras. Fine. The average rank of a Cup winner was sixth. The 2016-17 Penguins have work to do here, and they know it.
“It’s very important to tighten it up defensively,” defenseman Trevor Daley said.
How to fix it? A couple things. Before the break, coach Mike Sullivan seemingly ditched the goaltending timeshare and started Matt Murray in six consecutive games.
It’s great to say you have two No. 1 goaltenders, but your second guy (Marc-Andre Fleury) is allowing 3.23 goals-against per game, his worst such mark since 2005-06, when the Penguins coughed up an average of 3.78 goals an outing.
Aside from smoothing out the goaltending bumps, the Penguins have weathered a spate of injuries to their defense. Daley, Kris Letang and Brian Dumoulin all missed games, and Olli Maatta has been inconsistent. It’s tough to gain traction defensively when your back end is a game of musical chairs.
The problem? Of the four categories studied, shots allowed might be the least problematic. Five of the 11 Cup winners finished 15th or worse. That includes the Penguins a year ago, when they clocked in at 29.7.
Only one team — the 2010-11 Boston Bruins at 32.7 per game, which had them ranked 29th — has been worse than the current Penguins (32.4, 27th).
It’s also worth noting that Tim Thomas put up some pretty absurd numbers in Boston that season — 2.00 goals-against average, .938 save percentage and nine shutouts.
How to fix it? Having Murray thrust himself into the Vezina Trophy conversation would be an easy solution, but that might be asking a bit much from someone still eligible to win the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie.
Sullivan has exhorted his players to outplay, and not simply outscore, teams. He’s no dummy. Strong play away from the puck tends to lead to good things — more time with it, fewer shots against — and that’s the easiest way to correct this one.
“You can’t always control the goals,” Sullivan said. “What you can control is the process — how you play and limiting teams’ opportunities, more specifically their Grade-A opportunities.
“If you do that, usually the goals-against comes down. We discuss that with our team consistently about becoming a harder team to play against, a playoff-type team. That has to be part of our identity moving forward.”
The problem? No Cup winner in the salary-cap era has had a penalty-kill worse than Rutherford’s Hurricanes, ranked 19th at 81.8. That’s about three points better than these Penguins. Worse, the 2016-17 Penguins have allowed at least one power-play goal in 27 of 48 games (56 percent). They’re 15-11-1 (.574) when they do compared to 15-2-3 (.825) when they do not.
Power plays will decrease in the playoffs as referees swallow their whistles, but that only ramps up the importance of killing the opportunities the other team is afforded.
How to fix it? Getting Matt Cullen back from a broken foot in a couple of weeks will help, but it offers no guarantees; the group got this way while Cullen was healthy.
Sullivan has started to try a few different guys here, specifically a recast-as-a-fourth-liner Chris Kunitz, who has not looked out of place.
But the biggest issue with this group is not easily explained with numbers. It’s confidence. Kill a bunch in a row. Feel good about yourselves. Rinse, wash, repeat.
The problem? The Penguins don’t win nearly enough faceoffs.
Sidney Crosby isn’t concerned with his 47.5 success rate on draws, even though he never has been below 50 percent for a full season. For someone so smart, dedicated and consistent, he deserves the benefit of the doubt.
But the team-wide numbers aren’t good. Only the 2008-09 Penguins (19th at 49.1) have hoisted a Cup without winning at least 50 percent of draws. The faceoff struggles also have compounded the penalty-killing issues; the Penguins have won just 40.8 percent of draws short-handed, 28th in the NHL.
The average Cup winner since 2005 wins 51.6 percent — about four percent better than the Penguins right now — and ranks eighth. That gulf, from their ranking of No. 27 to the average of No. 8, is the largest of any of the four categories.
How to fix it? Video, video and more video, for one. The Penguins watch a lot, but extra certainly wouldn’t hurt. Having Cullen’s return could help. Nick Bonino puts a tremendous amount of work into winning draws, but his success rate has dropped from 50.4 percent a year ago to 48.9 percent in 2016-17.
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
As for Cullen, I love the guy and it is incredible the shape he is in at his age, but he is no spring chicken...if the Pens are banking on him returning to form after a significant injury, well....let's just say I hope that comes to fruition!
And Sid needs to get that faceoff percentage up a bit...no bones about it...
Horny is just on fire...and what a second. Lots of jam out there! Bring it home gents!
Time to turn to the Mounties. I trust MM and the boys can protect a 4-1 lead going into the 3rd. Nice job Pens and Let's Go Mountaineers!
It's Cyclones tonight right? Crazy week ...I didn't even know it was the Preds and it was tonight till a couple hours ago lol...
Well I tried to turn it on and she blocked me! In favour of the Pens....arrrggghhh...I guess I can't complain. She participates in a portion of my penchants....
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