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I’m not really sure what else there is to say about this team. I’m supposed to come up with words and try to have unique takes or angles on things, but I got nothing. The Penguins as currently constructed have big weaknesses and they will not overcome them. This isn’t something that crept up on the team and is a surprise. These were obvious issues that were diagnosed in the summertime.
I believe this is the tenth season I’ve covered the team and it has by far been one of the most boring. The same issues for months and months. There are only so many ways you can say the same things. This bottom six is an embarrassment. The goaltending can very rarely be relied on for both skill and injury reasons. The money wasted on bad depth players is appalling.
The team has lost nine divisional games in a row and ten out of their last 11. They’ve scored 17 goals with only three coming from the bottom six. Any successful playoff run has depth scoring. The Penguins have none. Remember when Brock McGinn was shooting around 20%? Yeah, he doesn’t have a point in like 23 games
Jeff Carter is Jeff Carter.
Teddy Blueger has two goals in his last 69 games.
Kasperi Kapanen’s season has played out exactly like you would think a Kasperi Kapanen season would play out.
When Drew O’Connor and Josh Archibald are the more reliable bottom six players, and are on pace for single digit goals, you know you’re sunk.
There are forwards on the market. The Penguins front office doesn’t appear to have any urgency. They’ve let this atrocity play out this long.
Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin have both played in every game this season and they are both point per game players. Jake Guentzel is on pace for 38 goals and 80 points, Rickard Rakell is on pace to score 31 goals. Jason Zucker has bounced back in a big way and is on pace for 52 points with the majority coming at 5v5. Bryan Rust is the one guy in the top six who has had a rougher go of things and even he is on pace for 20 goals and 48 points. The top six is a true strength. They have the hard to get pieces. The top six only accounts for 36.425M. It is great value. It really shouldn’t have been difficult to allocate the other ~45M of cap space in an efficient and productive way, yet here we are.
It is absolutely shameful to waste the kinds of years both Crosby and Malkin are having, utterly shameful.
Sidney Crosby said they’re going to find out what they are made of down the stretch. Unfortunately for the Captain it doesn’t really matter how well he plays. His team is made of front office malpractice and barring a miracle run of moves from a GM who doesn’t make them. This is who they are and who they will be in 2022-23.
What a joke.
Thanks for reading!
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