Season Review: Pittsburgh Penguins

Well, mow we're gearing toward the conference finals of the playoffs, we will be reviewing the seasons of teams as they're eliminated from the playoffs. Obviously, the last team reviewed will be the one that wins the Cup.

Now the first team to be eliminated from the Eastern Conference Semifinals: The Pittsburgh Penguins.

Season expectations: The defending Stanley Cup Champions, this team was finally starting to see it's young talent show why they were the best in the league. From worst to first, the team boasted young stars like Marc-Andre Fleury, Jordan Staal, Evgeni Malkin, and of course, Sidney Crosby. Now, GM Ray Shero wasn't able to keep the entire band together, as Miro Satan and Rob Scuderi ended up finding work elsewhere, but players like Mike Rupp and Brent Johnson were brought in to complement an already strong roster that was the best in the league for 2009. While parity is the new word in the NHL, many believed Pittsburgh could repeat as the first back-to-back champions in the salary-cap era NHL.

My prediction: I predicted they would finish second in the Atlantic Division and fourth overall in the Eastern Conference.

The truth: I was on the money. They were eliminated in an exciting seven game series in the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the surprising Montreal Canadiens

What went right?: Crosby set himself apart from the pack, putting up over 50 goals and 50 assists each and probably would have won the Art Ross trophy if it weren't for that pesky Hendrik Sedin. Malkin wasn't nearly as dominant, but still averaged over a point per game in 67 games played while Sergei Gonchar managed to put up 50 points. Rupp and the controversial Matt Cooke managed to supply the team with toughness that could skate the regular shift and each broke the century mark in PIM. Pittsburgh's secondary scoring was bountiful and the depth lines were excellent in scoring by committee while paying fine attention to the details of sound two-way hockey. Neither Fleury or Johnson were particulary dominant in the crease, but both managed to put up respectable numbers for a club that has two of the leagues best forwards skating for them.

What went wrong?: Besides this being Jaroslav Halak's year? While Crosby was a dominant playoff performer, he was not the entire team and was the only player who could still keep up the production that was consistent with his regular season. Malkin performed admirably, but started to quiet down in the offensive department as the postseason went on (Jordan Staal may not have been as prolific himself, but he was a very hard competitor in his role as a third-line center; he'd be higher on the depth chart in any other organization.) Fleury in particular managed to struggle as the postseason progressed, finishing with a .891 save percentage that was absolutely affected by his performance in Game 7, which he was pulled halfway through for Johnson.

So what's next?: Expect some drastic changes. Now that the honeymoon is over, the team has $45.108M committed in salaries next season. That wouldn't be so bad if they didn't have to go shopping for two or three scoring wingers and a defense corp that's only seeing three players return for certain. The rumors of Evgeni Malkin being traded are starting to heat up and with a lot of talented players available at the draft, it's not inconceivable to think that a weaker team would jettison some NHL ready players, prospects, and high draft picks for a center that has the ability to turn the game around. Of course, Pittsburgh doesn't have to make those types of moves, but that's going to leave a big hole between the crease and the red line; a hole that the two current goaltenders could do an average job (at best) of containing.