#must be how the club penguin players went when the game shut down

[sunsetzer]

[hazel3017]

I promised you guys an essay on the dark ages that was the Mike Johnston era, and here it is. By the way, this is gonna be long and longwinded, but bear with me people. This is all connected. You have been warned.

In 2013, Sidney Crosby was on a ridiculous tear where he scored 56 points in 36 games for a truly stupid 1.56 points per game. It was a shortened season, true, but no one was even close to touching him. If he’d played the full 48 games, he’d have 75 points. Martin St. Louis won the Art Ross with 60. Anyway, what happened instead was the broken jaw, courtesy of a Brooks Orpik slap shot, and Sid didn’t play for the rest of the season (he missed 12 games) which is probably why he didn’t win the Hart (he was nominated, but it went to Ovechkin).

The broken jaw also meant that the Penguins, in their infinite wisdom, allowed Sid to be interviewed while he was CLEARLY high on painkillers.

Sid returned to the ice (wearing a protective cage) in time for the second game of the playoffs (vs NYI) and picked up right where he left off. He had nine points in five games against the Islanders, and 6 points in five games against Ottawa. It was all rainbows and sunshine until the Penguins reached the ECF against Boston and the offence just dried up. Sid didn’t have a single point in that series, and ultimately the Pens only put up a collective 2 goals and were swept in 4 games. It was brutal. Especially for Flower, who really took a lot of flack. He’d been gaining a bit of a reputation as a bad playoff goalie, and the 2013 playoffs didn’t help. It was after this that Flower started seeing a sports psychologist.

For context, since they won the Cup in 2009, the Penguins had only won 3 playoff series before reaching the Eastern Conference final in 2013. Three. Think about that. They didn’t even make it past the first round in 2011 and 2012. 2013 was supposed to be different. They were the top seed in the East, and their offence was on fire through the first two rounds. And then they just crashed and burned. It was the 4th year in a row where they were eliminated by a lower-seeded team. Things were dire. And just to emphasis how truly sucky this time was for Sid, people thought he’d already played his best hockey. They thought the concussion and neck injury that kept him out for almost two seasons meant he wouldn’t ever be able to dominate the way he had before.

(Speaking of the concussion: he missed 41 games in 2010-2011, and 60 games in 2011-2012. Dire, dire times. He’s admitted he thought he might never play again. Also, at some point during this time, Sid and Geno went to a Lady Gaga concert together. Never forget.)

The 2013-2014 season comes around, and Sid is back to being on fire. Because it’s not a Penguins team unless everyone and their mother is out with an injury, Sid had a revolving door of line mates but would still finish the season with 104 points in 80 games for 1.30 PPG. Because he is stupid like that.

One of the injuries, by the way, was Pascal Dupuis in December 2013. The Pens were playing in Ottawa when Marc Methot hip-checked Sid, and Sid went flying into Duper, who almost got Sid’s skate to his face, and also tore his ACL. Duper needed surgery to repair the ACL damage, and while he was recovering, he started developing blood clots and serious health issues related to that, which he would never really recover from. He tried to play while on blood-thinners for a while, but ultimately had to call it a night in the 2015-2016 season. I bring this up because it will play a role in the timeline later.

So, mid 2013-2014 season; Sid is the engine that keeps the Penguins going, the NHL takes a break in February for the 2014 Sochi Olympics and we get the NHL Revealed series, which is actually pretty cool (there is a scene from Geno’s house and you can see his fridge where he has decals of himself and Sid, Tanger and Flower. It is adorable. Also there is Geno whining to Sid about Sid not warning him about their flight being delayed because then he would have just waited at home). Chris Kunitz is also an Olympian, and everyone at the time was pretty much in agreement that the only reason he was there was because of how well he played with Sid, and then they didn’t play well together at all. And everyone was up in arms about how Sid wasn’t scoring enough, but Canada still won gold (both Sid and Kuni scored in the gold-medal game) and Russia did not, and so Geno was sad and grumpy for about a month. Then Sid wasn’t having it anymore and talked to Geno because he obviously needed a friend, and Geno was no longer sad and grumpy.

Fast forward a little bit, and we reach the playoffs. The Pens played against Columbus, and it was super weird because almost every game ended 4-3 and no one could keep a 3-1 lead. Also, Sid wasn’t scoring. Again. It was a thing. He was still putting up points, and he averaged 1 PPG against Columbus, but people would not shut about how he hadn’t scored a playoff goal in 13 games dating back to 2013. He kept insisting that he was healthy too, but he actually had a busted wrist, which was the result of a Ryan Reaves hit where he got his wrist caught awkwardly against the board in a game in late March. The injury meant he had trouble putting any power behind his shots, which meant no goals, although he was still dominating possession. Add to that the abuse he took from the likes of Dubinsky and Marc Staal (and also Lundqvist squirting water at him lol!) it was a pretty miserable playoffs for him.

All of this is made worse by his deteriorating relationship with Coach Dan Bylsma. Now, I know I have read this somewhere, and I can’t for the life of me remember where, but there was a rumour—a rumour, mind you—that Bylsma had specifically instructed the players not to stick up for Sid when the other team’s players were abusing him. Apparently, Bylsma threatened with benching people if they got into scrums after the whistles. (RUMOUR, remember. Take it with a grain of salt). But Bylsma and Sid obviously weren’t getting along that great during the Rangers series, at least, and it didn’t help that Bylsma kept playing his favourites, aka Craig Adams and the gang. Jesus. As I recall, Kuni and Geno were pretty much the only ones sticking up for Sid, especially Kuni who was playing on his line. The Rangers series did give us this gem of an interview though.

Game 7 comes along, and the Penguins lose. They’d been up 3 games to 1 at one point, and again they were the higher-seeded team. Shortly after, reports about Bylsma losing the room started popping up and it was pretty obvious that there would be a new management. Sure enough, Shero was fired first, and then Bylsma later.

(Bylsma was actually fired by Jim Rutherford. Ownership said they wanted the new GM to decide if he wanted to keep Bylsma around or not. It was pretty obvious that Bylsma would have to go too, and a lot of people were upset that they kept Bylsma so long when that could potentially keep him from getting a job elsewhere.)

And now, finally, we enter the dark ages. Or, in which GMJR did the one mistake he needed to make in order to find the one true Penguins coach: Mike Sullivan.

Mike Johnston. What is there to say about Mike Johnston? He had pretty much only one facial expression in that he looked perpetually shocked, he snuffed out the offence of a team that has always been built for scoring goals and made them play boring, sluggish, defensive hockey instead. It very nearly broke Sidney Crosby. That is not to say that it was all MJ’s fault, but he was very clearly unsuitable for the Pens and vice versa.

Consider this: In 2012-2013, Sid went from a 1.56 PPG to 1.30 in 2013-2014. A pretty steep dive, but still dominating his peers (Ryan Getzlaf was the closest to him in points that year. He had 87 points. Sid had 104.). From 2013-2014 to 2014-2015, Sid’s PPG dipped again, even more this time as it reached an all-time low of 1.09. He’d never been below 1.26 before. Not so incidentally, the Pens went from 242 goals total to 217, and their winning percentage dipped from .665 to .598, the lowest it had been since the 2005-2006 season. This all coincided with Mike Johnston becoming coach. The Penguins just barely edged their way into the playoffs that season. They made it with literally the last game of the season, against Buffalo.

(No offence to Buffalo, but they were ranked dead last that season.)

The Pens lost the first round of the playoffs against the Rangers. They only managed one win in 5 games. Sid played okay, he had 4 points on the series, but the Pens were so sloooow. They kept being outskated by guys like Zuccarello and Hagelin—no wonder, with guys like Craig Adams and Rob Scuderi slowing the Penguins down.

(Also, would you believe I used to strongly dislike Carl Hagelin?)

Sid didn’t stick around for the fallout. He called the GM of Team Canada the same night they were eliminated and jumped on a plane to Prague. I actually think the World Championship did him a ton of good. He won another gold medal in the Olympics the year before, but I really think it must have messed him up going so long without playoff success. No one expects more from Sidney Crosby than Sidney Crosby.

Anyway: Worlds.

I’m pretty sure that what happens at Worlds stays at Worlds, but Sid seemed to have a really good time with his x1000 boyfriends. Like, there was Giroux (what????), Seguin (we don’t kiss and tell), MacKinnon (of course), and even Brayden Schenn (lmao).

Also, there was Geno and the pictures that launched a thousand plot bunnies. Because you can’t have one without the other.

Sid won gold and was happy, he became the 26th member of the Triple Gold Club and was happy, and he came home from Europe and promptly entered an existential crisis, I’m pretty sure. He turned 28 that year and freaked out about it. Probably, he realised how sucky the last few years had been for him. He grew a beard. It was very disturbing for everyone involved. He also went to all the weddings, hosted his first annual hockey school, and filmed the documentary that would win him an Emmy award as the “talent”. That is an actual thing that happened, people.

And then the new season began. And here, my friends, we must circle back to Pascal Dupuis.

So because of the blood clots Duper developed after his ACL injury, he had to sit out the rest of the 2013-2014 season. He was cleared for the start of 2014-2015, but again was out for the rest of the season when they discovered blood clots in his lungs in November 2014 and he had to go on blood thinners. The next season, he was cleared again, but was still on blood thinners to manage the blood clots. He was being monitored by medical professionals at the time, and it was a procedure that had worked for other athletes, but Duper experienced side effects like serious chest pains. In the end, he was forced to call it quits. This was in December 2015.

Up until that point, from the start of the season, Sid had 18 points by then. He was 86 in in scoring. 86. Comparatively, he had 29 points by the same time next year. In 5 fewer games. No one knew what was going on. Sid didn’t know what was going on, but there’s probably a few things that explain his low offence. If you believed the media at the time, he was washed up. They were literally writing up the obituary of his career. Sports Illustrated posited that he would be a 4th-line centre at the World Cup. People were wondering if he would even make the team. The Team Canada GM had to publicly state that Sid would be on the roster.

So what actually did cause the notorious slump? Like I said, a combination of things.

First, MJ’s system meant that Sid had to play a 200-feet game. “But he does that now!” you say, and true, he is defensively responsible, and the NHL is gonna have to start thinking about giving him Selke consideration sooner than later, but he’s always thinking offence first, and his line’s puck possession means he’s spending more time in the offensive zone than defensive zone. They only had a 52.2% defensive exit rate under MJ during that December. Under Sully, it was at 73.1%. Consequently, MJ’s defence first mentality meant that Sid had to constantly haul ass from one end of the rink to the other; he was overexerting himself. 

Second, he had bad puck luck. No, really. The puck just wouldn’t go in the net for him, and he had one goal on 30 shots at one point. That’s a 3.3 shooting percentage. Around 9% is League average, I believe.

Third, the power play was a mess. MJ had no clue how to configure it, even with the kind of fire power the Penguins’ boast. They just couldn’t make it work, which meant that Sid was missing out on the points he usually get from the power play.

And finally, there was Duper. Now, this is my personal opinion, but I honestly think Duper’s situation really messed him up. I think he spent so much time and energy worrying about Duper being okay that if affected him on the ice. When Duper was forced to retire, Sid was heartbroken. Consider this extract from Duper’s Why We Play the Game article:

One leg was twice the size of the other. It was a few hours before the game. We were in Edmonton last November. I was warming up in the hallway, doing some band work, some quick-feet stuff. At some point I looked down and saw that my right leg was really swollen.

When you are dealing with blood clots, this is the moment you always fear. Your body is betraying you. You can’t deny it. You can’t fight through it.

I took my equipment off and put on a tracksuit to go to the hospital to get checked out. As I was walking out of the locker room with the doctor, one of my teammates gave me a hug and just broke down in tears.

“Not again, Duper. Are you kidding me? Again?”

That’s the moment I realized that I needed to draw the line. People weren’t just worried about me playing hockey. They were worried about me playing with my life.

I believe that teammate was Sid, and I feel as if Duper confirmed that, but I can’t remember where I saw/heard it.

Once Duper was out for good, Sid noticeably started playing better. He had 9 points the rest of December alone. Also, on 12 December, GMJR fired Mike Johnston and hired Mike Sullivan. Hilariously, Sid was accused of being a coach killer, and the reporter outright questioned the legitimacy of hiring Sully was MJ’s replacement in the same article.

JOKE’S ON YOU BRETT CYRGALIS.

The rest, as you say, is history. The Penguins finally found a coach who can wrangle Sid and Geno and Phil, and GMJR isn’t having any of your shit anymore NHL, so he went out and got Ryan Reaves to protect his star players from being abused. Which will probably be either really awesome or really awful. Time will tell.

[andrewuttaro]

New Look Sabres: GM 50 - DAL - Bullshit Rodeo

Every time the Buffalo Sabres face the Dallas Stars it’s like the NHL needs to show off its hottest new bullshit. 1999’s No Goal Stanley Cup Final is the frosting but let me tell you: there are a lot of calories in this cake. Last season’s matchup in Dallas saw a no goal call that I think most casual observers would probably call a goal, this time against the Sabres. For this go around I don’t feel compelled to pour it on a Stars team in the throes of the worst place you can be in Hockey: no man’s land. No, it’s not the basement that’s the worst because most clubs that find themselves there have hope and or a plan around being there. Obviously winning Stanley Cups can’t suck too bad so it’s the no-man’s land in the middle that’s the worst: if the Stars do make the playoffs whose picking them to survive the Central Division’s three headed monster of Nashville, Winnipeg and Colorado? When a club has the weapons to make the playoffs but not go deep, for several seasons on end, that is the worst kind of no-man’s land in the NHL. To make it worse the slow stretch the Stars went through apparently warranted a public roast of their two top talents by club President Jim Lights. Not only is that not how you talk about your team’s best players, it’s a real bad look when the circumstances point to an owner who agrees with the bullshit comments. Our owner Terry Pegula keeps his mouth shut most of the time… like a good owner. That’s all distraction at the end of the day anyway. What’s real is both these teams entered this game 4-5-0 in January. Another fact: the Sabres 0-6-0 record in Dallas going back a decade to January 2009. Buffalo hasn’t won in Dallas since the Ryan Miller Era… well excluding the 2018 Draft. What occurred last night in Dallas was a continuation of the bullshit rodeo we have come to expect with this matchup.

The first period of this game went over like a group of edgy cats getting spooked silly by an air horn. Both teams had axes to grind but neither looked all that cunning at the task of actually scoring goals. The Stars made a tactical choice early: check the big boys and keep them out of plays. Whether it was hits, manned coverage or just disrupting plays the Stars played desperate like a team chasing a two goal deficit. They weren’t, in fact, they scored first when Jamie Benn snuck the puck 5-hole on Linus Ullmark. Benn had gotten the puck from former Sabre Taylor Fedun whom Zach Bogosian threw a no-look back pass to in the high slot. That’s an unforced error and in this game those were going to be the only things leading to scoring plays. Speaking of Fedun, the guy who came to Buffalo in exchange for him, Remi Elie, played in this game. He had four shots in the first which is pretty good for Remi Elie. Nonetheless the visitors got pushed around in the first and it was 1-0 Stars to start the second period. The second period saw the Sabres calm down the game but not shoot enough and not score the equalizer. Captain Jack set up Reinhart for a positively wicked chance in front of Ben Bishop (who has not lost to the Sabres in regulation in his career) but it did not go. I want to complain about all the non-calls we saw through two period of play but this is the Sabres in Dallas we’re talking about after all: it’s the bullshit rodeo down there. One thing worth complaining about is the continued rise of the drop pass in the game plan. If 50% of these drop passes haven’t ended up in a turnover I’d be shocked. The positive balance to that: the Sabres are crashing the net again. Keep that up and a goal must be coming! Ugh.

The third period hurt in a few ways. No one scored. Yes, the Sabres got twice the shots the Stars did in this final frame and pushed real damn hard in the back ten but the bullshit rodeo just bucked on. I am certainly not going to defend the shot differential in a game that had so few shots but this game felt like a goalie duel as it went on. This bullshit is deeper than shots anyway: its voodoo! Marco Scandella got the puck behind Ben Bishop! MARCO SCANDELLA, you know the guy we’re all trying to run Housley out of town over? He got it past Bishop and the goal was immediately called back. Phil challenged it and lost because IT’S A BULLSHIT RODEO! The non-calls were mounting and reached a head in the third. Jamie Benn boarded Jack Eichel in the corner in a Captain-on-Captain crime that gets called in two thirds of the games this NHL season. The refs had their whistles away all game so I suppose they were consistent on that at least. Those last two or three minutes had my heart racing and my feet pacing but the comeback machine didn’t wake up and the Sabres lose their first 1-0 loss of the season. The Sabres ended up getting narrowly bucked off this bull in this edition of the bullshit rodeo. One night they score five, the next night they scored 0. The will to win was there if not the shots to prove it. It sucks because the Sabres don’t need this bullshit rodeo right now; they got to string some W’s together at some point here.

The Good News is that the next seven games are all at home back in snowy Buffalo where the Sabres are 14-6-3 this season. It’s a vital stretch you need ten points out of if not more. There is a separation in the standings growing with Pittsburgh’s win last night between the wildcards and the first team out (Buffalo). The Columbus win made up some ground but the wins got to start coming together here. Tomorrow at home against Chicago is a fun matchup to get something started with. I look forward to ignoring all the “Trade for Kane” takes during my anniversary dinner with my wife. Another take I’ll be gleefully ignoring after this Stars game: “the Sabres need an enforcer.” No, you Neanderthal they need to get a little bit tougher against teams like the Stars who will box them out of games defensively. The tactical problem with last night’s loss isn’t that no one punched Jamie Benn in the face, although it sure looked like Jeff Skinner was ready to, it was that this team’s scorers didn’t convert on their chances. One total goal games are weird, I don’t like them. Let’s not do this again, ok, Sabres?

I have something more important to dedicate the P.S. to today so I’m going to just let you know here that there is a positively awful clip from Pierre McGuire from the NBCSN broadcast of the Penguins game last night. In it he belittles American Gold Medalist Kendall Coyne Schofield before her first broadcast appearance between the benches. It’s real bad and it’s everywhere now. If it materializes a campaign to get Pierre off the NBCSN team than hop on that bandwagon, he’s one of a couple embarrassing guys us Americans need to hear from during most National broadcasts in this country. I know we have better options out there somewhere… say Kendall Coyne Schofield for one. I know I am not your best option for a Sabres fan blog but share this with your internet friends anyway. Drop me a like and a comment if you feel so compelled, I’d love to hear from you. Stay safe out there if you’re reading from the 40% of the country under blizzard and extreme cold conditions. Let’s Go Sabres!

Thanks for reading.

P.S. Bell Let’s Talk is circulating hockey twitter right now and I want to pass the message along that no matter what it is: you can talk to someone about it. If you need to talk to someone about a mental health issue or anything roughing you up right now, talk to me if nothing else.  

[yahoo-puck-daddy-blog]

Bad NHL refs, P.K. Subban and ‘Super Teams' (Puck Daddy Countdown)

(In which Ryan Lambert takes a look at some of the biggest issues and stories in the NHL, and counts them down.)

7 – Officiating

We’ve known for a long, long time that the refereeing in the NHL leaves a lot to be desired. Part of that is the rulebook, which is weirdly vague in too many spots, but which simultaneously leaves way too much leeway for dumb stuff to happen.

Take for example, oh I don’t know, the goal Nashville didn’t score in Game 6. Look what happened on that play. Happens all the time. There’s a shot from a low angle, and it looks like Matt Murray has it. Referee Kevin Pollock straight-up stops skating, because it’s a judgment call and Murray’s a good goalie and all that. But because Pollock stopped skating, he didn’t see the puck trickle loose. It was awful positioning and a no-effort play from the ref.

But the league also has the ability to review plays of exactly this type — on the basis that a ref may have blown a whistle despite a “continuous play” — but didn’t use it. Why? My theory, unfounded by probably right, is that the league didn’t want to undermine one of its officials in so public a setting. That kind of thing happens with shocking regularity.

And you can’t say the refs didn’t know they blew it, because they gave the Preds four power plays — including a kinda-long 5-on-3 — to the Penguins’ zero. Didn’t help because the Nashville power play was horrible for most of the playoffs. It’s like that time several years ago the umpire blew an out call at first base in the ninth inning of a perfect game: The refs “kicked the [crap]” out of this one, and all the apologizing or make-up calls in the world don’t make up for the what-ifs that one dumb, wrong whistle.

Unfortunately there’s no real way to fix the issue. The “ref blows the play dead when he can’t see the puck” call is one where creating any wiggle room is tricky. Make it a two-whistle system? That’s weird. Would be tough to make work. Let play continue even after a goalie has it covered? That’s bad. Will get someone killed.

So the NHL’s official stance on this kind of has to be: “It sucks, but here we are.” Same as it ever was. Classic NHL.

6 – Copycats

One of the best things in the wake of any Stanley Cup Final that always makes me laugh is the 29 — soon-to-be-30 — other teams’ various media members asking something along the lines of, “How close is our team to doing this?”

The reason it’s so funny is you get a lot of deluded-ass people who clearly have no idea what teams actually need, even if they cover them every day. Take the Bruins as an example. I read something yesterday that they need a few defensemen, a good coach, a backup goalie, and Kris Versteeg, and they’re in the conversation. Like, come on. Tuukka Rask is gonna be 30 next year. Patrice Bergeron 32. David Krejci 31. Zdeno Chara 40. Look at their contracts. Look at their coach. Look at their GM. In what universe is this team a few minor roster tweaks away from being Cup-competitive?

The sad reality is that there are probably like four teams in the league that are truly elite, and maybe four or five more that can get deep in the playoffs if a few bounces go their way. That’s almost a third of the league, fair enough. Then another third or so is in decline (this includes the Bruins), a little less than that are in the middle of rebuilds. A few are mired in the basement for other reasons, mostly “dumb management.”

People can’t to evaluate their teams properly, or can’t objectively. I get that, it’s fine. But the number of teams that are “close” to replicating the Penguins can be counted on one hand. That’s the reality.

5 – Hiding Subban

Honestly the whole kerfuffle about PK Subban not talking before Game 6 is the dumbest thing in the world. Honestly, who cares? No one was going to ask him any sort of question that was going to illuminate literally anything we didn’t already know about Game 6 and the battle the Preds were facing and all that.

And it’s not like he begged out. Subban, to his credit, never saw an interview he didn’t want to give. It wasn’t a distraction. It didn’t matter. Who cares. Shut up.

4 – The Top 100 players

I love love love love love that even after winning his second straight Stanley Cup, Jim Rutherford was still like, “Can you [expletive]ing believe Evgeni Malkin isn’t one of the top 100 players in NHL history?”

The extent to which Malkin is undervalued is truly incredible. You hear occasionally that Sid Crosby is fourth all-time in era-adjusted points per game, but Malkin honestly isn’t that far behind and if we’re being honest he’s spent basically all of his career as a top-five player in the league. The fact that the Penguins have both of them at the same time is a tribute to how lucky the Pens got in their tanking days — not that they were necessarily trying to tank at the time — but also how good both Crosby and Malkin are and have been forever.

What a blessing to have one of them. Most GMs would push their own mothers in front of a bus to acquire either. But to have both? It’s impossible to underscore how truly lucky Pittsburgh is.

(We’ll get to more on this a little deeper down the list here.)

3 – The Predators

Speaking of which, the Predators have the makings of a team that’s going to be pretty damn good for years to come. The only guys currently on the roster who will be 30-plus next season are James Neal, Cody McLeod, Matt Irwin, and Pekka Rinne. Maybe they re-up Mike Fisher, too.

But other than that? This is a young team. And it’s damn good. It was sunk by poor goaltending, injuries, and bad luck in the Final. Maybe Juuse Saros is the starter next season. That’d be a smart play.

But the thing is, there also aren’t a lot of bad contracts on this team at all, and there’s a decent amount of cap space. Rinne’s is bad. Craig Smith makes too much money. Neal’s is a problem but not a huge one.

Obviously Ryan Johansen needs a big, expensive extension and he’s earned it. Same for Viktor Arvidsson. Pontus Aberg might get a nice chunk of change. Maybe David Poile needs to figure out a way to jettison Neal. But probably not.

Maybe they trade a defenseman for a little more offensive pop. (And it should be Josi if they do.)

But this is a smart club that’s well-positioned for success in a division in decline. Gotta like their chances to go deep next spring too.

2 – Expansion draft prep

The other cool this about this offseason, now that the Cup Final is over, is that word of various deals Vegas is making ahead of the expansion draft is leaking out.

We knew for a while what their deal with Chicago probably would be, but now Anaheim and maybe Ottawa have deals in place too (as of this writing). I love it. The speculation is fun.

I was telling someone the other day, I hope there are like 50 trades in the next week as everyone gets their ducks in a row.

This is chaos. It’s awesome. I wish there were an expansion draft every summer.

1 – Super teams

It occurred to me while watching the Warriors not-blow a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals for once that the Penguins are probably the closest thing we’re going to have to a super team in the NHL.

Crosby and Malkin are both among the top-five players in the world. Depending on your feelings on Phil Kessel, he’s probably in the top 30 to 50. If Kris Letang had been healthy, that’s another top-30 guy no problem. Matt Murray’s probably an upper-tier goalie as well, though the body of work is obviously tough to judge so far.

And just given the nature of the two sports, the ability of any NHL team to add even a few players to make the kind of impact Kevin Durant did for Golden State is difficult, especially given the salary cap differences between the NHL and NBA.

But I gotta tell ya: It would be pretty fun to see the Penguins somehow find a way to add, like, Connor McDavid, Brad Marchand, Vladimir Tarasenko, Erik Karlsson, Hampus Lindholm, PK Subban, and Carey Price. Just to see what would happen. What do you think? Like 150 points?

The NHL’s regular season is already irrelevant in a lot of ways, so why not just create like two or three super teams and let them have a clash-of-the-titans-type Final? Maybe just for one year. It would rule.

(Not ranked this week: Not going to Lowell.

Three guys who went to my college won a Stanley Cup on Sunday. Add in the fact that the school also produced a hockey genius like me, and I gotta tell ya: No one is better or smarter. Bless you, Ron Hainsey. Bless you, Scott Wilson. Bless you, Chad Ruhwedel.

If you didn’t go to UMass Lowell, well, I feel sorry for you. Your life must be so empty.)

— 

Ryan Lambert is a Puck Daddy columnist. His email is here and his Twitter is here.

(All statistics via Corsica unless otherwise noted.)