Monday, September 14, 2009
Penguins Experience |
| Posted: 14 Sep 2009 07:41 AM PDT Blog: Penguins Experience We here at Penguins Experience hope you enjoyed your summer. The days seem a little bit brighter when reflected off of the glare of the Cup and it's hard not to feel a little bit happier while watching the tears flow from Detroit. In order to prepare for the upcoming season, we asked Penguins bloggers from around the Internet what they expect for the next season. What areas will be Pens be strongest and weakest? What players will you be watching? How will the Penguins do? They were encouraged to write as much or as little as you want in whatever style they wanted. This is what we got! Enjoy: I fully expect the Penguins to be one of the top three contenders in the Prince of Wales Conference. I think the defense is a perceived weakness after losing Hal Gill and Rob Scuderi, but I love Jay McKee's game and I think they'll once again work as a solid united. Obviously, the offense will be their strongest point. With Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin leading the way, along with full seasons of Bill Guerin and Chris Kunitz, Pens games should be fun to watch. Personally, I'll be watching McKee and Talbot. Was Game 7 a turning point in Talbot's career? When he's fully healthy, I'm interested to see how much his game changes, if any. Fans will fall in love with McKee everytime he drops to the ice to sacrifice the body on a shot. You need those heart and soul guys to win championships. The Pens have a great shot to repeat as Stanley Cup champions, but Dan Bylsma's system won't be a surprise to opposing coaches. Teams will break down how the Penguins succeeded last season and focus on shutting them down. Defending champions always have targets on their backs and the one of the Penguins might be a little bigger than usual. Is the Internet ready for a Pittsburgh-Detroit trilogy? I'm afraid to find out. It's certainly not going to be a cakewalk by any means, not only to repeat as Cup champs but just to make a decent run in the playoffs. Let's not forget that the Pens were down 0-2 to both the Caps and Wings, and were pushed to a Game 7 in both series. The Atlantic Division is just as strong if not stronger this season, while the Pens pretty much stayed status quo. The resigning of Guerin and Fedotenko were key, as was the signing of Jay McKee replacing Rob Scuderi. Barring any major injuries, the Pens should be well suited for another playoff run, and then after that, who knows. Obviously I expect the Pens to stay strong on offense. They didn't lose much and we'll finally see what a whole season of Guerin/Sid/Kunitz can do (if that line stays intact). I want to see Sid stay healthy and another dominant, insane year from Geno. I think the weakest area is, without a doubt, the defense. That's not to say the Pens will be limping on the blue line, but there are some questions heading into the season. Is Jay McKee the replacement Piece? Can Goligoski step in and fill some skates? I guess I shouldn't even say weak - maybe untested is a better word. I'm not entirely worried but I'm also not 100% convinced. Outside of the obvious players to watch (Sid, Malkin, Fleury) I'm keeping my eyes on McKee and Goligoski. McKee may have come on board after taking a significant pay cut (even though he was bought out - shh), but to me that's already an indication that he's hungry for a Cup. The day he signed the contract is the same day he already committed himself to laying his body out to block some shots. I want to see if his play can reflect his ambition. As for GoGo, I'm hoping he worked on his stick handling a bit. I wasn't entirely sold on his PP work last year, especially with kicks back to the point. But we've been a spoiled bunch with Sarge and Letang back there. I don't expect to be overly critical but I would like to see a slow progress, if anything. Maybe even a little boost to his defensive game. How will the Pens do? Well, can they really afford to do anything less than best? I mean, there's really only one way to follow up a Cup run. Repeat. We have March, April and May of last year standing as evidence that anything is possible with this team. Some would say the hangover will play a part, but I'm not buying it. They were allegedly suffering from that same hangover right around the all-star break last season. Criticism may be their best motivator. I'll take it. Strongest area for the Penguins will be down the middle at Center. With Jordan Staal coming into his own, and of course Malkin and Crosby on the first two lines, the Penguins undoubtedly have the best Centers in the NHL. You could even include Marc-Andre Fleury in that 'down the middle' category. Penguins are in great shape in this category for a long while: the first of the contracts to be up are Crosby and Staal after the 2012-1213 season, or four more years of the Penguins being dominant in this area. The biggest weakness for the Penguins? By far it is the wingers on the 2nd line. In eight seasons in the NHL, Ruslan Fedotenko (LW) has never scored more than 41 points in a campaign. The Penguins finished the season with Maxime Talbot on RW, and he has not scored more than 26 points in any given NHL year. Add to that fact that Max is on the shelf for the first two months of the season and will be tentatively replaced by Pascal Dupuis (27 and 28 pts. the past two years respectively), and it is clear that the Penguins are severely limited with scoring talent on their second line. I cannot imagine GM Ray Shero not making a move before the trade deadline that would remedy this situation. The three players I will be watching include Jordan Staal, Tyler Kennedy, and Alex Goligoski. Jordan Staal rebounded from his sophomore year with a very solid 3rd NHL season. He is primed to take it to the next level, and I am really curious to see if he can come close to a 70-point season (not saying he will, but I do think he will make it into the 60's), moving up from the 49 he scored during this past season. Tyler Kennedy managed to accrue 35pts in 67 games, along with a robust plus 15 +/- statistic. These are all really solid numbers for an 3rd liner, especially the +/-. Another year of growth should be really interesting. He flies under the radar a lot on this team of stars, but I think he could truly turn out to be better than anyone initially expected. Alex Goligoski is the last player to watch. He showed that he 'belonged' in the NHL last year (20pts and +5 in 45 games), and would have been in the discussion for the Rookie of the Year (Calder Trophy) had he remained with the Penguins for the duration. This next year will show if his frame can stand up to the rigors of a full season in the NHL. If he is paired with Jay McKee, the pairing could turn out to be a more than adequate replacement for Scuderi and Gill. This will not be a slumping kind of year for the Penguins. Head coach Dan Bylsma brought the enjoyment back to the game for these players, and the up-tempo practices and style further promote game time success. I think they'll be able to win 50 games this season (50-23-9) for 109 points for first place in the Atlantic Division and 2nd place in the Eastern Conference. I think they could definitely repeat as Stanley Cup Champions, but I do believe the Penguins need to add a big scoring winger on Malkin's line to really solidify their chances of defending the title. If they make a trade for a winger, I think the Penguins do win the Cup.
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