As if right now, the Pittsburgh Penguins are without top players such as Sergei Gonchar, Brooks Orpik, Kristopher Letang, Evgeni Malkin, Maxime Talbot and Tyler Kennedy. These players combined last season for 80 goals and over 200 points. Gonchar, Letang and Malkin are all key players whenever it comes to the power play. The fall of such key parts to a Stanley Cup team leads to the replacements Ruslan Fedotenko, Alex Goligoski and Jordan Staal. However, with these three players taking over the power play in the absence of our power play quarterback (Sergei Gonchar) and setup men Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin, the Pittsburgh Penguins are stuck in an 0-23 slump over the last six games. So missing these players seems to be a bit of an underestimation. The Pittsburgh Penguins coaching staff and ownership seems to believe that the lack of scoring without marquee players such as Evgeni Malkin, Tyler Kennedy, Kris Letang and Sergei Gonchar will soon right itself, and the team will begin scoring. But if you recall during last years Stanley Cup playoffs, Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby combined for 29 goals. The next leading scorer was C/LW Maxime Talbot. After that, the top goal scorers Guerin (7), Fedotenko (7), Kennedy (5), Letang and Staal (4). Gonchar and Craig Adams had 3 goals a piece and the rest of the team had 1 or no goals at all.
With the team being decimated with injuries, the Penguins cannot ask for Sidney Crosby to carry the team on his back. The last time Sidney Crosby played without Evgeni Malkin, which was in 2005-2006, were a ridiculously terrible team. They finished 5th in the Atlantic with a 22-46-14 record. Thats only 58 points. So to ask Sidney Crosby to carry the team and keep winning is absolutely ridiculous. You know that your team has problems whenever Ruslan Fedotenko is on the point during the powerplay and that Alex Goligoski highlights your defense. My only problem with Alex is that he has yet to establish himself as the premiere Defensemen who can lead the pack. Martin Skoula took over for Sergei Gonchar. In over 730 games, Skoula has scored only 41 goals -16 of them being on the powerplay. Not the type of player I'd want to come in and take over. As a matter of fact, in only 200 more games, Sergei Gonchar has scored 142 more goals than Skoula.
So what are we supposed to do? Luckily for us, the injuries that have caused this recent skid on the powerplay and on the west coast road trip, are not significantly bad ones. Within the next month, the Penguins should have most of their power back. But it still doesn't excuse the question. Can the Penguins maintain a couple players who can score at least somewhat frequently should the Penguins reach the playoffs and lose Evgeni Malkin or Sidney Crosby.
Unfortunately with the NHL Salary Cap, the Penguins can't afford to take on much more salary. Bill Guerin, Chris Kunitz and Ruslan Fedotenko have never really established themselves as actual goal scorers. All three in fact have more gritty styles, which is more fit for a 3 or 4th line. But in order to make a deal for a goal scorer, someone has to go. Kunitz could stay with the Penguins, but Guerin, should his production not increase, could be making his way out the door. Alexander Frolov and Nathan Horton, both Wingers have upset their clubs. Alexander Frolov, who was once a 30-goal scorer, has upset his club due to lack of bounce in his step, and lack of leadership. Another factor seems to be his lack of production which has increase over the last 5 games. Nathan Horton is another face the Penguins know because he was a big force in last years Florida Win 7-1. So could either be making their way to the Penguins? Everyone agrees that when a player becomes disgruntled with a losing team, or does not fit in to a coaches scheme and strategy (Horton and Frolov respectably), the best thing for him seems to be a change of scenery. Horton and Frolov would be welcomed by Pens fans with open arms right now, because the rest of the team is just not getting it done. The Penguins need to take their time, and acquire a nice goal scorer, despite what they may have to give up. Crosby has two Mediocre at BEST wingers, and Malkin has the combinations of Fedotenko, Cooke, Kennedy and Staal. Crosby and Malkin are too good to not be surrounded by talent. I know the NHL Salary Cap makes this hard, but its possible. Goal scorers can come cheap to come to a team to play next to two of the top three players in the league. And those players are lucky enough to play on our beloved Pittsburgh Penguins.
No comments:
Post a Comment