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Penguins celebrating early 90's success tonight |
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Tonight the Pittsburgh Penguins will be celebrating and remembering the players from both the 1991 and the 1992 Stanley Cup champion teams. Many consider this time period to be the apex of Penguins hockey and I am probably among those as well. As a young kid I couldn't have asked for anything more than to see Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Ron Francis, Paul Coffey, Kevin Stevens, Mark Recchi, Joe Mullen etc... doing their thing on a nightly basis. Tonight they will once again get their due. I am very appreciative for the childhood memories.
The opponent will be a team that the Penguins faced in back to back Stanley Cup Final appearances. Those Detroit Red Wings teams are the best teams in the salary cap era for my money. They were a ridiculous juggernaut and owned the puck. Every game against them felt like you were playing in quick sand and every goal scored against them felt like it took every ounce of energy to earn it. On the flip side it seemed like everything came so easy for Detroit. I still can't believe the Penguins upset them in 2009. It is a testament to just how great Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin were when they were in their early twenties. Jordan Staal's shorthanded goal in Game 4 will go down as one of the biggest in franchise history.
That was then and this is now. The Detroit Red Wings aren't that team anymore. Their GM who used to have a leg up on European player development has seen a league adjust and catch up on that front. Instead of re-inventing himself Ken Holland has found himself in the habit of signing bottom six caliber players to term and money. The team has been poorly run the last few years and while they aren't quite Vancouver they aren't too far away from that kind of situation either. In 2007-09 the Red Wings were the best team in hockey with a Score-Adjusted Fenwick of 58.2%. That is an incredible number for an individual let alone a team. Today they rank 29th at 46.4%. Only the lowly Coyotes are worse at 46.4%. It just goes to show that there isn't much wiggle room for error in the cap era and if you don't navigate the twilight years of your star players appropriately the walls can cave in fast.
As for the lineup tonight it appears as though Chris Kunitz may be making his return.
I can already see the complaining now about how Chris Kunitz coming back will keep Guentzel out of the lineup. The fact is that evidence still points to Kunitz being a top six player. He should be in the lineup on a nightly basis with either Crosby or Malkin. The players taking a spot from Guentzel include Eric Fehr, Tom Kuhnhackl, Scott Wilson, and even Nick Bonino based on his play so far in this young season. Playing your 12 best forwards should always be the goal in roster construction. Guentzel is certainly one of those 12.
This isn't a problem unique to the Penguins. It plagues pretty much every NHL team in the league. One exception to the rule may be the New York Rangers who have gone all in on their four scoring line approach and it has resulted in a league most 91 goals.
It looks as though Marc-Andre Fleury will be rewarded for his strong start the other night. He was the first goalie off the ice today.
Thanks for reading!
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
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