Sidney Crosby and the Penguins Are at a Crossroads After Playoff Elimination

UNIONDALE, Original York — Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin cemented their legacies prolonged sooner than the 2021 postseason. That occurred support in 2009 when they won their first of three Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins. 

However there became unexcited something unsettling about the diagram in which they had been eliminated from the 2021 postseason Wednesday night with a 5-3 loss to the Original York Islanders in Sport 6 of their first-round Stanley Cup Playoff sequence. 

The Penguins doubtlessly contain adequate firepower to take one other Cup. They’ve the center depth and the blue line. It is no longer the deepest roster, but they hold adequate weapons to supplement Sid and Geno. They’ve the scoring, they most often’ve the stifling defense to kind it stand up…Maybe. 

Pittsburgh had one of primarily the most straightforward records over the closing two months of the the season no matter injuries to key gamers—Malkin integrated—but then became eliminated sooner than the Convention Finals for the fourth straight One year. The video games had been discontinuance, including one time beyond legislation sport, one double-time beyond legislation sport and two others decided by one design.

Either nobody appears to know exactly what went disagreeable, or nobody is ready to level any fingers. 

“I construct no longer know if it be one part,” Crosby talked about in his postgame Zoom press conference. “I realizing we bought higher because the sequence went on and I mediate you perceive at two time beyond legislation video games that we lost, having the flexibility to take one of those would contain been mammoth. However I mediate we did moderately quite lots of factual issues the final couple video games we played actually successfully.”

It is no longer great of a solution, and it begs the question of whether or no longer or no longer this neighborhood has completed all it’ll together. We’re going to be seeing the end of an skills in Pittsburgh, or possibly the muse of the end.

Malkin and Kris Letang every contain a One year closing on their contracts, so there might be talks of extensions this summer season. However the club is factual up against the salary cap, and with a contemporary regime accountable it be sparkling to impeach whether or no longer or no longer contemporary long-established supervisor Ron Hextall and contemporary crew president Brian Burke can also desire to kind changes to the roster or on the support of the bench. 

If they might be able to no longer extend Malkin or Letang, is it price keeping them? Is it time for a roster shakeup?

“They’ve been announcing that for four years, factual, so I construct no longer know if I will replace any one’s thoughts,” Crosby talked about. “I mediate we did moderately quite lots of factual issues this One year. It is probably you’ll perchance have the flexibility to perceive at every One year and analyze it otherwise. We had a factual neighborhood and we with out lisp might perchance contain made a flee. I contain moderately assured about this neighborhood … with the diagram in which that we had been trending and the diagram in which we completed the One year. However it be a sexy line in the playoffs.”

All attractive issue this core has one other deep flee left in them, but they’re running out of time to present an clarification for it. 

“I feel in this core. Here’s primarily the most straightforward core groups of gamers I contain ever been round, bar none,” coach Mike Sullivan talked about. “They’re a passionate neighborhood, they’re generational skills, they unexcited can compete at an extremely high stage they most often’ve confirmed it sport-in and sport-out.”

So if the core is no longer the lisp, then what’s it?

It is probably you’ll perchance veil a lack of roster depth, which is what occurs in a flat-cap league when a crew’s money is tied up in its stars. The Penguins bought vintage performances from Jeff Carter, who they obtained in a replace with the Los Angeles Kings on the closing date. He turned out to be a driver in this sequence with four dreams and an succor.

However what’s going to he have the flexibility to subsequent One year at 37 years old skool? What does the depth perceive like with one of the proficient young role gamers probably headed to Seattle subsequent season thru the growth draft? 

Of course, it might perchance probably probably perchance be very no longer prone to perceive at this sequence and no longer mediate that the goaltending became a controversy. 

When the Penguins won support-to-support Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017, they had a franchise goalie in Marc-Andre Fleury and a 1-A backup in Matt Murray. They had been both cleared out to kind room for Tristan Jarry. 

Whilst you didn’t know Jarry’s name sooner than this first-round sequence, you completely abolish now. How might perchance you no longer after the diagram in which the packed Coliseum crowd chanted his final name? It is no longer his fault his final name is exceptionally easy to chant, and with a neighborhood of followers at prolonged final reveling in stay hockey, you had to comprehend it became coming with even the slightest of miscues. 

And unfortunately for Jarry, there contain been miscues. And in addition to they had been costly. One in every of them particularly fee the crew Monday night in double-time beyond legislation, gifting the Islanders and Josh Bailey the sport-a success design with a poorly timed turnover in Sport 5.

A 5-design Sport 6 did minute to encourage self perception. 

Sullivan chose to supply protection to his embattled goalie, declining to define on any conversations he can also need had with coaches about the exhaust of Maxime Lagace to originate the third interval after the Islanders scored four times in the 2d. 

“You take video games as a crew and you lose video games as a crew,” Sullivan talked about. “It is no longer someone person’s fault.” 

There might be minute design to throw him beneath the bus after the final sport of the sequence. Moreover, he’s no longer disagreeable. Whereas many followers will blame Jarry for this sequence, it became no longer the goaltending on my own that bounced Pittsburgh out of the playoffs in the key round.

The vaunted top-line became noticeably absent. Crosby became on the ice for three of the Isles’ 5 dreams and acquired burned in an irregular-man streak on the 2d one.

Letang and others took some snide penalties that resulted in energy performs and discipline became a blueprint thru just a few of the center video games because the Islanders had been with out lisp in a position to bait the Pens into skirmishes that resulted in their top gamers going to the penalty field. A player is ineffective if he can no longer keep on with it the ice. 

And, for certain, there became Barry Trotz’s traumatic system. All people knows it, yet a technique or the other few can rep round it. 

“They’ve completed it for years, they play a actually structured sport, a moderately straightforward sport, a affected person sport,” Carter talked about. “After they rep alternatives, they capitalize on them.”

It is probably you’ll perchance have the flexibility to’t blame Jarry on my own for this playoff exit, and you completely can no longer blame him for the final three. It is probably you’ll perchance have the flexibility to blame the of us that made the resolution to let Fleury toddle to the Las Vegas Golden Knights and traded Murray to the Ottawa Senators contemplating Jarry might perchance be factual adequate to supplant both of them. However that long-established supervisor, Jim Rutherford, is no longer even in Pittsburgh anymore, having left the crew in the midst of the season for “private causes.”

So, the put abolish the Penguins toddle from here? What will they perceive like subsequent season? The front office already must be preparing for existence after their heralded core, on the opposite hand it be complex to abolish that with out any first-round draft picks. With Pittsburgh consistently in take-now mode, they have not had moderately quite lots of those—handiest six since 2009. 

It is a annoying balancing act to take a glimpse at and take now whereas additionally building for the future, but as prolonged as Crosby is round they construct no longer contain any replacement but to take a glimpse at. There is no such thing as a damage completed to his legacy, however the expectation in Pittsburgh is he and the Penguins will proceed to take a glimpse at to plan upon it.