By Antoine Mathieu, Staff Writer, All Habs Hockey Magazine

QUEBEC CITY, QC. — I’ve already revealed my top three in the Eastern Conference and today I will reveal who I think will finish 4th: the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Pens were one of the busiest teams this off-season and it will be interesting to follow their progress this season under a new management.

2014-15 EASTERN CONFERENCE predicted standings

1. Tampa Bay Lightning
2. Columbus Blue Jackets
3. Boston Bruins
4. Pittsburgh Penguins

2013-14 summary: Pittsburgh Penguins

Regular season record: 51 — 24 — 7, 109 points, 2nd in East, eliminated in the second round of the playoffs in seven games.

 

The Penguins’ journey has been a weird one as of late. After back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals in 2008 and 2009, the Penguins have been downright irrelevant in the post-season. Despite signs of potentially being the NHL’s next dynasty following their success after the lockout, the Penguins ran into an underdog: the Montreal Canadiens. Partly due to clutch scoring from forward Mike Cammalleri and outstanding goaltending from Jaroslav Halak, les Glorieux were able to eliminate the Penguins in the second round of the 2010 NHL playoffs.

The next year, the Penguins lost in the first round against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Pens badly missed Sidney Crosby in that series who still recovering from his first series of concussion problems at the NHL level.

Pittsburgh was again eliminated in the first round in 2012 after losing to the Flyers in an intense series. To Pittsburgh’s defense, it’s hard to win when your starting goaltender, Marc-André Fleury, has a .834 save percentage.

The 2013 edition of the Penguins saw them almost lose to the Islanders in the first round, which would have made it the third year in a row they didn’t make it past the opening round. The series was ultimately decided in overtime game 7 and an unlikely protagonist rose to the occasion: Brooks Orpik. Yes you read that right, Brooks freaking Orpik. The Pens then followed that success with a dominant win over the Senators (which brought a huge smile on the face of thousands of Habs fans.) It was the first time the Penguins made it beyond the second round since their Cup win in 2009. But alas it wasn’t meant to be since they were swept by the Bruins in the ECF and only managed to score two lousy goals during the whole series.

I believe that after that series, their coach, Dan Bylsma, should have been fired. You simply can’t lose in such a humiliating way, it’s unforgivable. Add that to the continuous failures in the playoffs, with a pretty stacked roster, and you have zero excuses. Ray Shero (Pittsburgh’s GM), who must be some sort of masochist, gave Bylsma one last chance and that ended up being the nail in the coffin for the two of them.

The Penguins came close to being upset again this year against the Blue Jackets in the first round and were eliminated by the Rangers in a back and forth series. After that elimination, the whole management was relieved of their functions. Bye bye Ray Shero and company, hello Jim Rutherford and Mike Johnston.

Dan Bylsma might have looked like a hero when he replaced Michel Therrien midway through the 2008-09 season and lead them to a Stanley Cup but he quickly turned to a villain for their fans. I’m still unsure on what caused it: it might have been his infamous love for scrubs like Craig Adams (he played 12:27 a game although he’s a fringe NHLer.) Or his complete inability to teach defense (the fact that Rob Scuderi looked out of place and so did Zbynek Michalek in his time there says a lot about Bylsma) or maybe it was his non-existent success in the playoffs that led to him being hated.

Barring a very bad fit à la John Tortorella in Vancouver, Pittsburgh should already be a much better team without Bylsma behind the bench. I don’t know a whole lot about Johnston other than the fact that he’s been coaching the Portland Winterhawks for the last five seasons. Also, based on the statistics of his team, he seems to favor an offensive system. Portland finished first in the league in ‘goals for’ this year and had two of the top three scorers in the league (Nicolas Petan and Oliver Bjorkstand.)

He was also an assistant coach in Vancouver back when they had the most dangerous line hockey: the West Coast Express line (Markus Naslund-Brendan Morrison-Todd Bertuzzi.) So he’s definitely no stranger when it comes to coaching elite players. Like most coaches, Mike Johnston will take some time to turn the Penguins into HIS team. Some coaches fit in right away and others take a while to get a good feel of their players. It depends on how open-minded the players are and tightness of the group.

A question mark about Johnston is how well his success from the WHL will translate to the NHL. The difference between coaching kids and professional athletes is massive. You can’t approach them the same way at all. When you’re coaching kids, you have to mentor them and guide them on the right path. With NHL players, this is what they do for a living, they should be able to act like adults! Although the jump from WHL straight to the NHL is quite rare, there are more success stories (Patrick Roy and Peter Deboer) than flops (Craig Hartsburg.) I’m sure his experience as an assistant in the NHL will come in handy when he’ll start coaching Pittsburgh.

The Penguins might have lost some big names on defense (Matt Niskanen and Brooks Orpik) but considering the ludicrous contracts they signed, they’re better off without them. I would have been curious to see Niskanen would have done without Malkin and Crosby on his team but considering he joined the Capitals and Alex Ovechkin, that becomes a moot point. Brooks Orpik’s contract is without a doubt the dumbest contract I’ve ever seen handed to a player and I wouldn’t be surprised if he enters Douglas Murray territory in the upcoming year. Orpik will turn 34 this fall for crying out loud and he’s signed for FIVE YEARS!

Rutherford decided instead to roll the dice by handing Christian Ehrhoff, who was recently bought out by Buffalo, a one year deal worth $4,000,000. I think adding the German defender is a great move which might turn out to be the deal of the summer. Ehrhoff has been a top pairing defenseman in the last five or six seasons and he will solidify Pittsburgh’s defense corps. If Ehrhoff plays well enough, the Pens’ GM will have the option to sign him to a contract extension. Ehrhoff adds a great mix of both offense and defense to a team who already has Paul Martin, Kris Letang and Rob Scuderi in their top four. Ehrhoff is also a good back up plan in case Letang’s health problems persist.

The Penguins will bank on Olli Maatta building off his very encouraging rookie season. They also have a lot of young defenders knocking at the door for a chance at the NHL level: Simon Despres (who’s waiver exempt), Derrick Pouliot (who’s familiar with Mike Johnston from his time in the WHL), Brian Dumoulin (who had a cup of coffee with the Penguins last season) and Scott Harrington (stay at home defenseman which could help him make the team considering the Penguins only have Scuderi and Martin for that purpose.)

Many fans on the Internet trashed the return for James Neal but I think this was a good deal for two reasons: 1) I’ve never been sold on Neal’s ability to produce on his own. Let’s be honest here, a lot of players look better than they actually are next to Malkin (see Jussi Jokinen.) I’ve always felt he was a glorified Michael Ryder. 2) I believe that Patric Hornqvist will be a great fit on Sidney Crosby’s wing. Hornqvist is not a flashy goal scorer but he gets the job done either by parking his butt up front or getting in the other team’s face to force turnovers. The Swedish forward is also a much better player in his own end than Neal.

It’s worth noting that Hornqvist scored 30 goals in 2009-10 playing mainly with Steve Sullivan and Jason Arnott; those are good players in their own right but they’re nowhere near the level of Sid the Kid. I’m aware that chemistry is one tricky lady and that Crosby has shown some difficulty to adjust with certain type of players (see Olympics) but with that being said, I’m confident that Hornqvist will score at least 30 goals next season.

If there’s one thing I didn’t like about the Penguins team as of late was how their bottom six was structured: too many skilled players and not enough grit. You can’t go deep in the playoffs with guys like Brian Gibbons, Taylor Pyatt or Jayson Megna playing on your 3^rd or 4^th line. You need warriors and quality bottom sixers like Brandon Prust, Dwight King or Maxime Talbot on your team to provide DEPTH. Brandon Sutter is a nice start but that’s only one sixth of your bottom 6.

Rutherford identified that need by re-signing Marcel Goc, acquiring Nick Spaling in the Neal trade and signing gritty guys like Steve Downie (great pest) and Blake Comeau (solid bodychecker). These guys all have the potential to score a dozen goals for them. It may not seem like big moves but at the end of the day it makes a big difference to have guys who know their roles on the team. Just take a look at Montreal’s situation before Marc Bergevin took over: they had Aaron Palushaj, Petteri Nokelainen and Yannick Weber seeing regular shifts on the 4^th line. Not the the cream of the crop in terms of intimidation or quality. Now they have Brandon Prust, Manny Malhotra and Dale Weise.

There’s definitely a solid nucleus of players with the likes of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Chris Kunitz, Kris Letang and Marc-Andre Fleury. It’s never been a question of lack of talent (hell they had Jarome Iginla playing on Crosby’s wing at one point!) in Pittsburgh but more of staying focused and sticking to the game plan. Crosby has to stop letting players get under his skin and get him off his game. Every time it happens (see any Montreal game vs Pittsburgh whenever Tomas Plekanec is on the ice or the Philadelphia series from 2012). If the Penguins’ players quickly buy in the system of their new head coach, I think they’ll be one of the biggest threat in the East.

Quick facts about Pittsburgh:

• They led the league in man games lost with 529 games. That number might have been influenced by Tomas Vokoun’s blood clot problems but the Penguins should be luckier in the health department next season, at least if Hockey Gods exist!
• Sidney Crosby played his first full season since 2009-10, is he done with his health problems?
• Chris Kunitz just came off the best season of his career with 68 pts, is it an anomaly or he’s simply a late bloomer à la Patrick Marleau?