When the Penguins emit their death rattle following an ownership decision to become hockey’s cracked version of the Sunshine Boys, I as a student of modern history just wonder how long the arena will become a ghost town like it has been every other time the club was bottoming out, and how long it will before we hear accommodations have to be made to keep the franchise where it is?
Too cynical? Maybe, but I’ve seen it all play out before. Twice. There was Hamilton, Ontario, talk around the days of Mario Lemieux slipping into No. 66, and there was Kansas City talk around the days of Lemieux slipping into the owner’s suite. There was the 1984 tank for Lemieux, and, after stripping the franchise for parts, there were the 2005 Sidney Crosby sweepstakes in which the Penguins won despite going into the drawing with a 6.25 percent chance of success.
The Penguins faced the Rangers in Pittsburgh on Saturday with a five-point deficit needing to pass five teams in order to avoid a second straight playoff miss following ownership’s decision to sign seniors Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang to multi-year contracts after they had reached unrestricted free agency.
The Penguins had not won a playoff series since 2018, following their back-to-back Cups in 2016 and 2017 that elevated the Crosby Era. They’d since lost twice to the Islanders, once to Montreal under the bubble and to the Rangers in the seven-game first-round in 2022. The organization was bereft of high-end prospects. They had a chance for a reset. They didn’t take it. They doubled down, with Crosby’s blessing, if not urging, and with what appeared to be the overwhelming popular support.
Malkin, who would start the next season at age 36, signed a four-year deal for $24.4 million. Letang, who was sidelined for the entire 2017 Cup run and had just turned 35, signed a six-year deal for $36.6 million.
When the Penguins failed to qualify for last year’s playoffs, GM Ron Hextall was brought to the public square, and was shamed and stoned. Oh, and fired, too. Kyle Dubas, a star-power guy despite his roots in junior hockey, absconded from Toronto to take the job and immediately tripled down by trading for Erik Karlsson, age 33, with three years left on his contract for an annual $10M cap hit.
The team has been lousy, and now the organization is facing carnage. Crosby, having a marvelous season at age 36, has only one more year to go on his contract. No. 87 sounded about as unhappy after the trade deadline at which favorite winger Jake Guentzel was shipped away for futures as Henrik Lundqvist did when the Rangers went into their rebuild/reset mode in 2018.
The King, of course, chose to stay. There is no telling what Crosby will do, even as folks seem to believe it will be automatic for him to sign an extension this summer. It is not about loyalty, and certainly not in a triple-cap business. Joe Sakic played his entire decorated 20-season career with one franchise and never left Colorado — but he would have if the Avalanche hadn’t matched the Rangers’ 1997 offer sheet.
As No. 87 decompresses after the season, he is going to have to decide what he loves most — Pittsburgh or competing for Stanley Cup championships. Either way, the franchise is facing years of distress. I’m just wondering how the league is going to fix it.
I mean, correct it.
OK, so the GMs are meeting in Florida this week instead of usually congregating in Winnipeg — no, I’m fibbing on the second part — and the topic of video review is likely to be raised.
Here’s a fix to the offside review that I would add to the agenda:
If a delayed penalty is whistled once the offending team gains possession, why not apply the same guideline to the offside review so that a challenge can not be made if the scored-upon team gained possession once the puck had gone into the zone?
The fact that the cap does not apply to the playoffs is a collective-bargaining issue, so it is not as if the NHL can effect a unilateral change even if the hint of LTI-connected shenanigans riles everyone up.
There’d be an easy fix if the NHLPA were amenable to it, though without a quid-pro-quo giveback I can’t imagine why the union would agree to clamping a cap on the playoffs that theoretically would deprive players of competing in the tournament.
That fix would be to apply the cap to the 20-man lineup for any specific game rather than the roster.
Yes, there’d still be some inequity attached to it, but not nearly as much inequity as exists in a league in which six teams — Golden Knights, Lightning, Panthers, Stars, Kraken and Predators — annually benefit from being located in no-tax states.
In recognition of Jack Roslovic pulling on Blueshirt No. 96, a top-10 ranking of our players who have worn sweater numbers in the 90s:
1. Wayne Gretzky, No. 99, NYR
2. Butch Goring, No. 91, NYI
3. John Tavares, No. 91, NYI
4. Mika Zibanejad, No. 93, NYR
5. Michael Nylander, No. 92, NYR
6. Doug Gilmour, No. 93, NJD
7. Petr Nedved, No. 93, NYR
8. Keith Yandle, No. 93, NYR
9. Dawson Mercer, No. 91, NJD
10. Matt Gilroy, No. 97, NYR
Honorable Mention: Ryan Smyth, No. 94, NYI. Mention: Justin Richards, No. 90, NYR