Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan (left) stands behind the bench during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Washington Capitals on Thursday, March 7, 2024 in Pittsburgh. The Capitals won 6-0. (AP Photo/Jean J. Pasker)
on the ice
Saturday: Pittsburgh at Boston, 3 p.m. (ABC)
Sunday: Edmonton vs. Pittsburgh, 1 p.m. (TNT)
Radio: HANK-FM 96.1
Written by Will Graves
Associated Press
PITTSBURGH — Sidney Crosby has been through a lot in his nearly 20 years in the NHL. Championship. Obtained the title. MVP.
But the longtime Pittsburgh Penguins captain had never seen anything like this since his rookie season 18 years ago. His team was probably relegated to spoilers as the games wore on, and one by one the familiar faces he had relied on for years disappeared.
“It's definitely a new experience,” Crosby said Thursday night after a disappointing 6-0 loss at home to Washington.
As Crosby spoke, Jake Guentzel's nameplate was still on the stall next to Crosby in Pittsburgh's dressing room. By Friday morning it was gone.
So was Guentzel.
Penguins general manager and director of hockey operations Kyle Dubas has shifted his focus away from helping the NHL's oldest players, trading forward Michael Bunting and a handful of prospects for the ninth leading scorer in franchise history. overnight to Metropolitan Division rival Carolina. The final run of the postseason for the long-awaited youth movement.
The question is: Does Pittsburgh, which enters the weekend ranked 12th out of 16 teams in the Eastern Conference, have any chance of challenging for a playoff spot without one of the last remaining members of the franchise's fifth Stanley Cup champions? In 2018, Crosby shrugged.
“I hope,” Crosby said. “I mean, that would be great.”
Crosby's words sounded optimistic. His tone was not. It's a vestige of the nearly 20 years he spent chasing and sometimes grabbing the biggest prizes in sports.
One of the most competitive players in the league is putting together one of the best seasons in NHL history at age 36. But his 32 goals and trademark tenacity, combined with the incompetent power play and the one thing that has defined the Penguins from Mario Lemieux to Jaromir Jagr to the two-headed monster of Crosby and Evgeni, are It wasn't enough to overcome a roster that struggled to execute. Malkin — Score goals for a long time.
Six months after saying he was confident his team could prove doubters wrong, Dubas would rather not hit rock bottom and rebuild around the franchise icon. By trying, they found themselves trying to thread a needle that former league powerhouses Detroit, Chicago and Los Angeles were unable to do.
To make that happen, they'll need buy-in from Crosby, Malkin and Kris Letang. Crosby, who is eligible for a contract extension this summer, has no intention of pursuing a transfer opportunity. The same goes for Letang, who has four years left on his contract, and Malkin, who is nearing the halfway point of a four-year deal he signed in the summer of 2022.
“I want to be here, you know?” Malkin said Friday. “If I wanted to change teams, I probably would have done it two years ago. Again, this is my home, my second home. No matter the circumstances, I'm the happiest here. “I've been injured. Things are tough right now. I want to be here.”
But the short-term challenge will be finding the energy to fight through a daunting late game, starting with back-to-back games against Boston and Edmonton this weekend.
The Penguins didn't seem aggressive with Washington, perhaps distracted by the escalating trade negotiations surrounding Guentzel. Letang lamented that the team had “no energy, no passion.” As a group, we didn't show up. ”
Something that rarely happened during the Crosby-Malkin-Letang era. Entering this season, Pittsburgh has played exactly one game since the fall of 2006, when they were eliminated from playoff contention, and that was in last year's regular-season finale against Columbus.
That number could increase significantly this time around, as the club that Crosby has built around winning for nearly his entire career is now at a difficult crossroads.
There are still 21 games left. Still, the exhibition-like nature of Tuesday's sloppy win over Columbus and Thursday's no-show against the Capitals gives off the vibe of a team ready for the summer.
Malkin acknowledged that something needed to be done to change the feel of the room. A win would help. But the last month has been short on wins, one of the main reasons Dubas made a decision he acknowledged was unpopular with those inside and outside the organization.
“It can be lonely, and a lot of people can get angry with you if this continues,” Dubas says.
It comes with the job. So is finding a way to move forward with beloved teammates playing elsewhere and a quarter of the schedule still remaining.
That's going to be a challenging question. Crosby sat quietly in his stall Friday. Letang too. A few feet away, Malkin tried to appear upbeat, perhaps supporting forward Brian Rust's suggestion to take a “fake it 'til you make it” approach to turn things around.
“Maybe a new player will give us some energy, who knows?” Malkin said. “Now that we're past the trade deadline, maybe we're all playing better because there's less pressure and we can relax a little bit and play better. You know what? We have a big opportunity. I can't say that, but I believe we still have a chance to make the playoffs.”
Even if we know we might be the only ones.
