Entering this season, expectations around the Pittsburgh Penguins were at an all-time high, or, if nothing else, as high as they've been since Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr were suiting up for the team. Here we are in the middle of January, and the Penguins are closer to getting John Tavares or Victor Hedman in this summer's draft than they are to getting the top spot in the Eastern Conference. That's a problem.To say the team is falling shot of expectations would be a disservice to understatements everywhere. Simply put, this team stinks right now.
Naturally, when a team struggles, everyone looks to make any and all changes to right the ship, and it usually begins an ends with the man behind the bench, in this case, head coach Michel Therrien.
The seat Therrien currently occupies is steaming hot. Fans are tired of him, Bob McKenzie and Al Strachan are reporting the players despise him, and it's seemingly a matter of when and not if he gets fired at this point. After all, somebody has to pay for a Stanley Cup finalist that's currently the No. 10 team in the Eastern Conference only a year later.
Here's the problem: a coaching change, on its own, fixes nothing.
The biggest issue with the Penguins right now is in the locker room, and I'm not talking in a Colby Armstrong joke-telling, chemistry type of way. It's a matter of talent and the lack of it in several areas, not to mention a lack of performance in others.
Let's start with the most glaring weakness -- the wingers.
As it stands right now, the Penguins have the two best centers in the league in Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby. They're first and second in the league in scoring, and currently playing with a supporting cast that resembles something we would have seen in Pittsburgh five years ago.
After Crosby, the next closest Penguin in the scoring race is right winter Petr Sykora, who is currently 60th with 32 points. After him? you have to go all the way down to No. 115 to find Miroslav Satan with 26 points. Among right wingers, they rank 18th and 35th respectively.
Sykora is not a problem. He's signed at a bargain rate and is still a legitimate top-six forward. Satan, on the other hand, has been awful for the better part of the past three months. Since December 1, he's registered just eight points in 20 games, was recently demoted to the fourth line due to his lack of production, and is drawing the ire of fans for what appears to be a less-than-stellar work ethic along the boards and in the defensive zone. Marian Hossa he is not. And this is the guy that started the season skating on Crosby's right wing. Yikes.
On the left side, things are even worse. Ruslan Fedotenko is currently 40th among left wingers in scoring with 21 points, and he's going to miss the next six weeks after punching out Colby Armstrong in one of the season's most lopsided fights a week ago. After him? You have to go all the way down to No. 61 to find Matt Cooke with 15 points.
This has been general manager Ray Shero's biggest failings, and if anyone is to blame for at least some of the team's struggles to this point, it's him. Not that he hasn't done a fine job overall -- because he has -- but in his two-plus years on the job he's yet to find a long-term solution as a top-six winger, whether it be through the draft, trades, or free agency.
Sykora was an astute free agent signing, and the Hossa trade at last year's deadline was nothing short of brilliant -- in my opinion, anyway -- but these were nothing more than short-term fill-in's.
It's almost as if Shero is allergic to acquiring/drafting young wingers and is determined to build an entire team out of centers, to the point where he's now paying his No. 3 guy, Jordan Staal, $4 million a year.
Other Problems
... We're seeing how much Sergei Gonchar means to the Penguins. The unquestioned quarterback and leader of their power play, Gonchar suffered a shoulder injury in the preseason and has been out of the lineup since. Without him, the Penguins power play has gone from No. 4 in the league a year ago all the way down to No. 20 this season. An 0-for-32 slump didn't help things either. In his absence, the Penguins have tried Malkin at the point -- a position he struggled with in the postseason a year ago -- while also relying on rookie Alex Goligoski and second-year player Kris Letang. Goligoski and Letang are young, talented, and filled with potential, but they're not Gonchar.
... Malkin and Crosby, to this point, have combined for eight power play goals. There are 17 individual players in the NHL that have scored eight or more power play goals this season.
... The goaltending has been inconsistent at best, bad at worst. Marc-Andre Fleury was sensational a season ago and dominant at times in the playoffs. He missed a few weeks with a groin injury this season, and since his return has struggled. He's currently 29th in the league in save percentage. He was fifth a season ago. As a team, the Penguins goals against average is 25th in the league, down 15 spots from the No. 10 ranking they ended with a season ago. Their .894 save percentage? It's 24th. They were at .916 a season, No. 4 in the league.
Therrien may not be a great coach, and he'll probably be let go at some point, but bringing in one of the recycled names on the market right now (John Tortorella, Peter Laviolette, and Pat Quinn seem to be getting the most play) and continuing to have a revolving door of mediocrity on your wings, Gonchar on the shelf, and inconsistent play in goal is going to lead to the same results.
