Within the salary-cap period of the NHL, no staff will get to exit on their protect, actually. The Datsyuk-and-Zetterberg period of the Wings fled to the Jap Convention, took a pair first-round beatdowns, after which slipped into the playoff-less ooze that the group solely would possibly simply be rising from. Ovechkin’s Capitals have been spiky sufficient this season, however are unlikely to get again to the playoffs both and haven’t been anyplace close to a parade since they gained in 2018. The Hawks haven’t gained a playoff recreation in eight years and needed to flip the entire thing over for numerous causes.
That the Penguins have outlasted their contemporaries is a testomony to them, however it additionally seems over. The Pens launched into a Western swing that they actually wanted to ace to maintain their season alive. As an alternative, they had been blanked in Seattle on Thursday, blew a two-goal result in the white flag-waving Flames on Saturday evening, after which obtained fustigated by the Oilers, 6-1, Sunday evening. The Pens are 9 factors out of a playoff spot with 23 video games to go, and except they go 23-0 to complete the season. they’ll spend a second consecutive spring watching the playoffs from the nineteenth gap.
It wasn’t presupposed to be like this when GM Kyle Dubas walked into his new workplace final summer time, determined to cinch up his huge boy pants once more, and swing for all of it by buying and selling for Erik Karlsson. Karlsson has largely been high-quality, however the energy play issues that had been teased in preseason by no means rectified themselves, and the Pens have spent the entire season unable to get some freebies with the additional man. Karlsson additionally wasn’t in a position to make up for the truth that Ryan Graves spends his time on the ice performing his personal prostate examination along with his stick, and is hardly an alternative to John Marino, whom they needed to toss overboard earlier than final season. No coincidence they’ve been a multitude since.
The Penguins can also’t purchase a win after 60 minutes, dropping out on the gimmick factors that their opponents can discover. However the principle issues are what they’re for a star-laden staff on this NHL, which is that the Penguins are top-heavy. The highest six produces, however the backside six is tumbleweed-infested. Jeff Carter is a corpse, Rickard Rakell can’t hit a bull within the ass with a snow shovel this season, and Reilly Smith hasn’t actually produced the identical magic he did in Vegas. All of that is sufficient to undo one other sensible season from Sidney Crosby, which is saying one thing.
The rapid path for the Pens is apparent. Jake Guentzel might be flogged on the deadline, even when he’s on the injured record for the time being. Crosby’s working buddy for his or her back-to-back champs is out the door. Dropping Geuntzel’s contract, and at last burying Jeff Carter within the yard so the scent stops bothering the neighbors, together with the enhance within the wage cap, will give the Pens some wiggle room in the summertime.
However they’ll even be coming into the final season of Crosby’s contract, although there’s no approach they may probably let him stroll. The underside six wants an excessive amount of development, and Crosby, Malkin, Letang, and Karlsson will solely be a yr older when October rolls round.
The Pens are additionally being undone by the truth that they stayed related, or across the playoffs, longer than most multi-Cup successful groups, upping the stress to gather a subsequent one because the final one pale over the horizon. Their final triumph was seven years in the past. The Hawks had been accomplished three years after their final Cup. The Kings missed the playoffs after their second Cup and had been by no means contenders once more till just lately. The Caps went right into a shell nearly instantly as properly.
The Penguins lasted longer than all of them, which colours what they had been. It will get more durable to recollect for followers and pundits alike, however 12 or 13 years of rivalry actually isn’t regular.
The Pens drew out their demise, which doesn’t actually put their precise life into the correct gentle. That is the way it goes for each nice staff, that is how the league needs it, even when the Pens had been in a position to combat off the reaper longer than most.
