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The Olympics are over and the focus returns to the NHL and specifically for this blog the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The good news returning from the Olympic break is that the Penguins still have an enormous lead in the NHL standings for the Metropolitan Division.
Olli Maatta’s play for Finland can also be thrown into the good news department. The young Finnish defenseman made his country proud and was able to showcase what a great young player he is in front of the world. Maatta elevated himself to Finland’s best defenseman by the time the tournament was over. We have seen it all year in Pittsburgh, the world was able to appreciate his fine talents as well due to the Olympic exposure.
This was tremendous to see because Maatta will need to be ready to carry a huge load for the Penguins moving forward.
Because in the bad news department, it is what it always is with the Penguins, injuries. The Penguins did not get through the Olympic break unscathed by the injury bug. Paul Martin will be out of action for what is thought to be a month’s time. Martin will be reevaluated by the Penguins doctors before a definitive time table is released. Initial reports have Martin coming back in time before the playoffs but nothing is certain at this point in time.
Martin’s loss massively complicates Ray Shero’s job at the trade deadline. The Penguins are already without Kris Letang because of his stroke and the scuttlebutt surrounding his situation is that the Penguins are moving forward under the assumption that he will not return this season.
What was a strength for the Penguins has now turned into a question mark moving forward. The Penguins do not have a ton of assets at their disposal to move with Martin and Letang out. Simon Despres will more than likely be a regular in the lineup instead of trade bait, at least for the time being.
Pens announce recalls of Brian Gibbons and Simon Despres. The AHL Pens have a game Tuesday. Probably didn't want to risk them getting hurt.
— Seth Rorabaugh (@emptynetters) February 24, 2014The idea of trading Despres might not have been popular, but at least it was a realistic and potentially fruitful option. It is no longer a prime option.
Also complicating things is the status of Beau Bennett. It appears that Bennett’s progress from his latest injury is taking longer than expected. It doesn’t look like he is all that close to game action:
Beau Bennett is alternating between handling and shooting the puck with both hands and with just his right hand. All soft wrist shots.
— Dave Molinari (@MolinariPG) February 24, 2014I don’t think there is enough magic in Shero’s bag of tricks to make up for all these injuries. The only option is mortgaging their future by trading a guy like Pouliot and I don’t think that is the prudent course of action. It is what it is with the injuries, the Penguins postseason potential may have gone up in flames.
Thank god for Olli Maatta and Matt Niskanen, two players who have played great and weren’t thought to be a part of the puzzle for the Penguins this year. Maatta was labeled to be returned to the London Knights and Niskanen was thought to be a cap casualty before the season started. They will now more than likely be the Penguins best defensive pairing for the rest of the year.
I have to imagine that the Penguins will be trading their 1st round pick for some deadline help this year. I don’t really think they have a choice. The bottom 6 forward group is still a mess and now with the defense holes Shero will have to do something for sure, the status quo will not result in a Stanley Cup championship.
As far as the fallout from the Olympics, will it affect Dan Bylsma and the players who participated, should it?
I don’t believe that the Olympics should have any fallout as it pertains to the Penguins outside of the Paul Martin injury.
Some people will predict Evgeni Malkin sulking and shutting down because of how Russia did in the tournament, that is complete rubbish.
When Russia was waxed by Canada in 2010 Malkin came back to the Penguins and was still a point per game player for the rest of the season. In the 12 games back after the break he had 7 goals.
Malkin also had 4 goals and 8 points against the Senators in their 1st round series.
His offense did disappear against the Canadiens, just like everybody else on the team. Trying to connect Malkin’s 2nd round offensive output against Montreal to the Olympics would be a stretch and that is putting it kindly.
Dan Bylsma is going to get a lot of heat for how the Olympics finished up for the Americans, but only some of that criticism is warranted.
The reality of the situation is that Team USA was “rewarded… with the 2nd seed by being placed in the same bracket as the best team in the tournament. This put a severe damper on their medal chances.
The Americans lost 1-0 to one of the best defensive teams Olympic hockey has ever seen. Canada did not trail once the entire tournament, which is mind-blowingly good.
The blame for the Canada game deserves to be placed at the footsteps of the power play. Bylsma stressed how important special teams would be and he was correct. I already detailed why I thought their power play failed earlier in the week .
Given how great Canada’s defensemen were and the willingness of their forwards to play 2 way hockey, it was always going to be an uphill battle to beat Canada. The goaltending was good enough, only allowing 1 goal was good enough, taking advantage of offensive opportunity on the power play wasn’t even close to good enough. The game was there for the taking even though the Americans were outmatched, it just didn’t happen.
One of Bylsma’s biggest decisions in the tournament was proven to be the correct one. Choosing Jonathan Quick as the Team USA’s starting goaltender paid dividends. Quick was outstanding for the entire tournament, especially against Canada.
Bylsma will face his harshest criticism from the Bronze Medal game result. The Americans played one good period of hockey and then shut it down after finding themselves trailing 2-0. Finland scored twice in a matter of 11 seconds and that was that as far as American effort went.
The effort against Finland is not on Bylsma, it is on the players themselves. If the players can’t get up for a medal game on their own then there isn’t really much a coach can do. He can try to yell at them on the bench, but it is the players that ultimately have to take ownership of their compete level and their willingness to not give up.
In my own personal experiences it has been up to the players to ultimately find that extra gear to compete at a high level. I played for a team that lost in the national semi-finals in overtime; it was a crushing defeat and left a sour taste with the entire team. Our national championship goal/dream was over.
The next day we had to play in a consolation game against the other semi-final loser. Our coach didn’t come at us with some rah rah nonsense; he said that the game would follow the path that we would choose. As players we decided we valued our pride and how we represented our school. We blew out the opposition that day and I am proud of the fact we did not quit. The USA players for whatever reason followed a different path. By all accounts Bylsma tried his best to get the team to compete in that game:
Healy: "Dan Bylsma, up and down the bench, screaming, begging his team to play."
— George Malik (@georgemalik) February 22, 2014The players should be ashamed of themselves; it begins and ends with them.
Matt Niskanen stepped up to defend his coach:
Niskanen: "There are a lot of experts out there who think they can coach the Penguins better than Dan. He's a pretty smart guy."
— Josh Yohe (@JoshYohe_Trib) February 23, 2014Ultimately people can read into what they want about the Olympics but I share the same view point that Jesse Marshall of the Faceoff Factor does:
"What happens in this tournament affects my view of the NHL in no way whatsoever."
The Penguins do not have the same personnel as Team USA, they will not be running similar systems as Team USA, what happened with Team USA will stay with Team USA.
Things will start to pick up with both in game action and trade related rumors in the coming days. Good to have the Penguins back as the central focus.
Thanks for reading!
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