The State of the Penguins 2

1. Evgeni Malkin is the MVP.
2. The trade for Chris Kunitz was a great decision.
3. Firing Michel Therrien took balls, but it needed to be done, and was a good decision.


With that said... this team has been a disappointment. Yeah yeah, I know, they aren't the team from last year. I get that. But with the, in my opinion, two best players in the NHL on their team, battling for a playoff spot is not acceptable.

I write this in the eve of the trade deadline, fully expecting to wake up to big news.

However, I am skeptical about what Ray Shero is thinking about doing here. The main talks have been about Staal leaving. Jordan Staal is a great two-way talent who is still very young and has his best years ahead of him. If he is traded, it NEEDS to be for a major talent winger who can be secured for at least a couple years.

Shero should not trade Petr Sykora at all. Do I even need to show the SCF Game 5 winner?

I really don't know if we should make too many moves here. This team is starting to click at the right time, and pulling the trigger on a shake-up may not be the right move. Although, it did work last year, and who the hell am I anyways.

In Shero We Trust... I think.


I am going to attempt writing tomorrow, as I will be hanging with my shoulder surgery-recovering friend all day.

-Right now though, I have some questions. I don't want to get bashed by anyone here, especially on The Pensblog, because I am a big fan of everything those guys do.

I am a huge Pens fan too. Even to the extent of spending many hours crafting a tin-foil Stanley Cup last Spring. I'm a former season-ticket holder as well, well my parents were. Wish they wouldn't have given those up... I love the Pens and always will.

But, I am having questions about our captain. Sidney Crosby is a great player, one of the top three in the NHL. But recently, he doesn't seem himself. He doesn't seem to have fun at all and appears to get annoyed easily. Also, his durability is coming into question for me. He has been missing a lot of games the last couple years, and I wonder if it's holding him back some. Sid doesn't seem to have that explosiveness with the flair of elusiveness that he used to. He doesn't go charging to the net while cutting through defenders, and has yet to have one of those "Wow!" plays that we have grown used to. A little more effort from Sid needs to be expected.

Hopefully I'm not criticized for this, but if so, oh well. It's how it is. I'm a huge Crosby fan, I think he's a great player, like I said. But he needs to show me more if he wants my vote as the best in the league, because right now he's being upstaged by a member of his own team, as well as his rival Alex Ovechkin.

I have a feeling that SId will prove me idiotic, as is usually the case and be big down this stretch into the playoffs.

-If the Penguins get the 8th seed or 7th seed, they will maybe be the dangerous team at those positions in NHL history and could even win the Cup. No joke. You know the NHL is wanting that Pens-Caps matchup in the first round.