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A Total Team Effort

June 13, 2016, 9:03 PM ET [205 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Winning the Stanley Cup is a team effort more so than some of the other team sports. To become a champion you need a ton of people pulling in the same direction. In football you can hide a lot of weaknesses with a great quarterback. In basketball the two superstar approach can make up for a lot of other shortcomings. In baseball you normally go as your pitching goes.

In hockey you have a setup where the rules do not favor the skilled players. They aren’t capable of being a consistent offensive force. At some point you need contributions from depth players to make it all the way to June. In 2016 the Pittsburgh Penguins received contributions from every single player on the roster at some point during the season.

This seems like as good of a time as any to reflect back on those contributions.

Sidney Crosby



What else is there to say about the world's best player? During Mike Johnston's tenure as coach Crosby saw the lowest offensive output of his career but he didn't complain. He complied to the systems that were in place and kept playing. His game was on the rebound before Mike Sullivan took over but it exploded with the team's newfound approach of pressing their offensive attack. Sid was responsible for an unreal stretch of play while Malkin was out injured which kept the team in the thick of the playoff chase. On top of all of his responsibilities on the ice he was one of the most sought after players off the ice. He has a very demanding job as one of the main faces of the NHL and he takes that job in stride and does his best with it. Giving the Stanley Cup to Trevor Daley first because his ailing mother wanted to see him with it is just one of the public things you hear about with Sidney Crosby. Pittsburgh is so fortunate to have him.



Evgeni Malkin

There is a lot of talk about how Marc-Andre Fleury was the team MVP at the beginning of the season, but for my money it was Evgeni Malkin. His 5v5 points per 60 early in the year when nobody else was producing was 2.04. The next best was Crosby at 1.67 He was the only player producing at a top six level on a team hurting for offense. People shouldn't forget what an animal he was at the beginning of the year when he was healthy. He was severely injured on a fluke play against Columbus and probably never returned to full strength. He still managed to come back sooner than he was scheduled to and played at a high level throughout playoffs. His ability to anchor a line contributed to the Penguins ability to run three top scoring lines. Malkin turns 30 this summer and is a new father, but he has plenty of great hockey left in the tank.





Kris Letang

Kris Letang is the straw that stirs the Penguins drink. They would be nowhere without him and fortunately they had him this year when it mattered most. Letang is an endurance freak and is the man that drives all of the Penguins transition. If a defenseman gets injured or benched during a game Kris Letang is there to absorb all the minutes so other players don't have to play above their ceiling. He doesn't get the credit he deserves for what he does in Pittsburgh. Letang is a true #1 defenseman in the league. When he’s not able to go for the Penguins you know it because it doesn’t look like the same team. After dealing with multiple concussions and a stroke Letang was able to celebrate scoring the game winning goal in the Stanley Cup Final on a remarkable sequence initiated by him.

Phil Kessel

Phil! There was no better individual Penguins story in the 2015-16 season than Phil Kessel's first year with the team. The much maligned and unfairly criticized Kessel did what he's always done, play great hockey. The only difference was that he happened to play on a really good team this time around. Phil fit right in with teammates from the very beginning. His work ethic cannot be questioned. His impact on the Penguins can't be questioned. The joy in his smile lifting the Stanley Cup can't be questioned.



Chris Kunitz

The cagey old vet isn't quite the goal scorer he used to be but there is no question that he is still a positive influence on puck possession. He still sees the ice great and consistently looks for controlled plays. This is why he is always glued to either Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin at even-strength. Chris Kunitz is now a three-time Stanley Cup Champion and each time he played in the top six. You could still do a lot worse for 3.875M per year.


Trevor Daley

Daley for Scuderi. If you want to point to the turning point in the season that is a logical one to look at. Daley isn’t a perfect player but he had the skillset that Pittsburgh’s transition game desperately needed. He can skate and isn’t afraid to handle the puck. It goes to show that if you find enough players that can do both of those things it is a lot easier to cover up the flaws that the players on the team have.

Brian Dumoulin

Pittsburgh lost a lot of puck moving talent from their blue line in the offseason. To the point where Mike Johnston was afraid to let his team play like they did in 2014-15. It led to bad hockey and ultimately cost Johnston his job. The emergence of Brian Dumoulin cannot be overstated. What the Penguins have is a 24 year old Paul Martin that can log huge minutes with Kris Letang for the foreseeable future. He was snake bit all season long in the goal department, but found a way to score in the biggest game of the year. He can play in all situations and excel. Who knew that he would be the biggest piece in the Jordan Staal trade a few years ago?




Patric Hornqvist

The guy took a beating all playoffs. He also continued to go to the same areas where he took that beating. There weren’t too many Penguins happier on the ice last night than the grizzled Swede. He started off the playoffs hot, perhaps finished a little cold, but he was the player who scored the goal that iced Stanley Cup for the Penguins late in the third period of Game 6.



Carl Hagelin

Another season changing moment was when the Penguins acquired Carl Hagelin from the Anaheim Ducks in return for the struggling David Perron. The commitment to speed was in full affect. Nobody in the NHL has played more playoff games the past four years than Carl Hagelin. He’s the kind of middle six forward that is a pain in the ass to play against because you never know when he’s going to leave you in the dust. Hagelin is under contract for another three years.

Nick Bonino

Bonino Bonino Bonino Bonino Bonino Bonino Bonino Bonino Bonino Bonino BONINO!

For the first time since Jordan Staal the Penguins had a third line center that could hold his own. Nick Bonino was the brains of the HBK operation. He certainly can’t keep up with the other two skaters on that line but he is so smart with the puck and is able to create even more time and space for those speedsters. His ability to handle the puck in tight areas was a skill that the last guy just didn’t have. Nick Bonino put up first line level offense on a team that already had a good chunk of guys who could do that. Depth wins championships in this league and Bonino is a prime example of that.



Matt Cullen

Matt Cullen was seriously contemplating retirement until Jim Rutherford gave his former player a call over the summer. Cullen had a remarkable season with the Penguins anchoring down the Penguins fourth line. A lot of times people are hesitant to give older players a contract, but Cullen reminds us that age is only an issue when a player’s effectiveness does not last as long as his term. Matt Cullen could retire on top and nobody would bat an eye, except of course for his son who told him on national TV to come back for another season



Conor Sheary

Here is a player that wouldn’t have been given a chance at the NHL level not too long ago. A shift in how teams are viewing players allowed Sheary his opportunity to make a mark at the NHL level. He made the most of his opportunity playing with Sidney Crosby scoring some big goals along the way highlighted by his overtime winner off a set faceoff play in the Stanley Cup Final. Cheap effective depth that can skate is a wonderful thing to have.



Bryan Rust

Another speed demon with a high work rate. Bryan Rust won’t have to buy a drink in Pittsburgh for the rest of his life after his Game 7 performance against the Tampa Bay Lightning. He followed that up with yet another goal in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final. In my estimation he isn’t going to be a long term option for a top six role, but he stepped up and allowed Mike Sullivan the option to spread out his three superstars on three different lines.

Eric Fehr

On the same day that Nick Bonino was acquired from Vancouver the Penguins added even more center depth with Eric Fehr. That was the plan before Matt Cullen showed up. Fehr was able to slide over to the right wing and provide improved bottom six play from year’s past. He may have scored the most relieving goal of the season by putting the Penguins up two against the Sharks late in Game 4 when San Jose was pressing hard.

Tom Kuhnhackl

An afterthought in the Penguins farm system due to frequent injuries Kuhnhackl was given a chance to play in the NHL when injuries hit for Pittsburgh. He earned that chance and never looked back. He didn’t play a very complex game, but on a few occasions he would pull some incredibly good passes out of nowhere which highlighted the benefits of a four line scoring team.



Olli Maatta

This young man has already been through more things than some people go through during their entire lifetime. He has had incredibly poor luck on the injury front and on top of that had to battle through cancer. Despite all that he has an Olympic Bronze Medal and now has his name on the Stanley Cup. Not playing hockey will be the best thing for him so he can fully heal and return to the level of play he showed during his rookie year when he was healthy.



Ben Lovejoy

Acquired in a very unpopular trade Ben Lovejoy was able to find his niche with the Penguins. He doesn’t make as many controlled plays as you’d like to see but for 1.1M you can find a lot worse value around the league. He was having a marvelous playoff run before Trevor Daley got hurt. He was then elevated into a role that was perhaps out of his league. He didn’t totally drown in it and him surviving that role allowed the Penguins to keep winning games.



Ian Cole

Ian Cole had a horrendous start to the year playing on the top pairing with Kris Letang. Cole was a healthy scratch for a large chunk of the season. He was given an opportunity to get back into the lineup and remained there until the end of the season. He and Justin Schultz were able to put up some impressive possession numbers during the Stanley Cup Final in a sheltered role.



Justin Schultz

Everything was given to Justin Schultz on a platter early in his career. He was thrust into a top pairing role on a bad hockey team. Over time the pressure and losing beat him down. After being traded to the Penguins you could see the life return to him as a hockey player. Schultz was able to add some puck skills to the Penguins back end and earned power play time which highlighted those puck skills. He is a player who was able to leave Edmonton and still live to tell about it. He’s now a Stanley Cup Champion.



Matt Murray

It isn’t easy to jump into the NHL and it certainly isn’t easy to jump into the league and have the majorty of the games you play come in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The 22 year old netminder gave the Penguins everything they needed in net and then some. His name was bandied about as a Conn Smythe candidate due to his consistent play. When he screwed up he bounced back. He was 6-0 after a loss with a ~.937 save percentage. Murray has more than likely locked up the Penguins starting gig and will have an opportunity to pull a Ken Dryden, win the Stanley Cup and then the Calder Trophy.



Marc-Andre Fleury

The Flower had a very good season for the Penguins. Early in the year when the offense wasn’t clicking he was. The 2015-16 season had the makings of one of Fleury’s better campaigns. Unfortunately for Fleury a concussion stole the season from him and he was never able to regain the net in 2015-16. The odds are high that he has played his last game as a Pittsburgh Penguin. Instead of moping around and pouting about his situation he remained the great teammate he has been throughout the years. He was a true professional in the situation and did not become a distraction during the Stanley Cup run. Teammates love him and it wasn’t very surprising to see him get the Cup handed to him so early on.



Jeff Zatkoff

When his number was called he stepped up to the plate. There was a lot of drama heading into Game 1 against the New York Rangers. Fleury was practicing in the starter’s net during the morning skate and it wasn’t until game time we found out that it would be Zatkoff who was the starter for Game 1. He played a great game and the Penguins got off on the right foot in their playoff run. He also provided great insight with his blog on NHL.com which was a must read throughout the playoffs.


Mike Sullivan

Mike Sullivan came in at exactly the right time. The team desperately needed to be let loose and he was the man with the right message and the right mindset to let it happen. He let his hockey players play hockey. He becomes the second consecutive Cup winning coach for the Penguins to be promoted from the AHL midseason.




Jim Rutherford

Jim Rutherford's first year with the Penguins was very bumpy. For every step forward there was an equal step backwards. After watching his team flounder for the first quarter of the 2015-16 season he put his stamp on the team that would lead to a championship. He stopped looking for physical players and went with the all speed lineup that dusted the NHL for the last half of the season. He found the coach that would get the most out of his players and provided that coach with the proper players to do just that.



Pascal Dupuis

One of the most beloved Penguins of the Crosby and Malkin era Pascal Dupuis was able to ride off into the sunset with the Stanley Cup. Players love him, coaches love him, front office loves him, fans love him, everybody loves him.



Mario Lemieux

The big guy will have his name on the Stanley Cup for the fourth time. He is the Pittsburgh Penguins. Thank you Mario.




To win a Stanley Cup you need everybody to contribute. Everybody did.

Thanks for reading!
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