And Ray Shero is not stupid.
If you follow Pittsburgh media at all, you'll know that Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Penguins beat writer Rob Rossi recently wrote a column saying that the Pens need to trade Evgeni Malkin this offseason if they hope to have a shot at the Stanley Cup beyond the next three years.
Can someone please tell me how the Pens only have a three-year window with their current plan of building around the middle of Crosby, Malkin and Staal, as Rossi stated in his column? They are all under 24 and have long-term deals. Seems to me Rossi has forgotten what Malkin has done the past couple seasons.
This is the same Evgeni Malkin who won the Art Ross and the Conn Smythe last season. The same Evgeni Malkin who's scored 77 points or more in every one of his professional seasons. The same Evgeni Malkin who is only 23 years old.
Suggesting that he needs to be traded to get Sidney Crosby a scoring winger is dumb. When Crosby was down with a bad ankle injury, it was Malkin who put the team on his shoulders and led them to the No. 2 seed in the East that year. This past season was an off year by Malkin's standards, but that is no reason to wave the white flag.
Another thing that bothers me is that everyone is crying for a scoring winger for Sid. They rarely ask for a scoring winger to help Malkin. He reached 77 points this year despite only playing 67 games and usually being on a line with Ruslan Fedotenko and a mixture of Pascal Dupuis, an injured Maxime Talbot, Mike Rupp and AHL call-ups. Looking to his left or right probably had Malkin begging for Petr Sykora on a nightly basis.
Here's an idea to get Crosby a scoring winger. Let Malkin play on his wing all season. Malkin is terrible at faceoffs and can get lazy on defense. Put him on the wing and he doesn't have as much responsibility. If the Pens think that limits their scoring to one line, then move Staal up to the second line and let Malkin play wing there. Talbot would then fill in nicely on the third line with his high-energy play and forechecking.
Or, now this is really crazy, you keep Crosby, Malkin and Staal all at center on their current lines. It won them a Cup last year, so it can't be that big of a problem.
Big Country - Where the Rose is Sown
Was Rossi the one who said we should trade Malkin during the 2008-2009 season when the playoffs were looking bleak for the Pens? Or was that another guy from the trib?
ReplyDeleteGood memory, as always. He said that on "Sports Showdown" or whatever that local sports roundtable thing is called. This was his idea to "salvage" the Pens over the next few years, let alone that season. To me, that column sounded like his rant, recycled into print form.
ReplyDeleteWow I have no idea how I posted under that name. Although, if I did Malkin-speak, that comment would be a lot more entertaining.
ReplyDeleteI got really excited when I saw Malkin. Then I saw that the english was way too good to be him. Pensblog made a great point about that video Rossi made. He made it sound like him getting Malkin to speak gave him the boost he needed to get the Conn Smythe. It angers me because it gives journalists a bad reputation.
ReplyDeleteI am for sure in the camp of why on earth is everyone panicking after losing one series? I was upset too but you don't just cast aside of the best players in the league just to do something or "get Crosby a winger." This is what happens when people jump on the bandwagon and then are like, wait? we don't every year? Panic!!!!
ReplyDeleteI dig your idea Rickel of having Geno play with Crosby, even just to start the season to see if it works and if not go get something at the trade deadline. Personally I would like to see them go after Patrick Marleau but that seems impossible financially but we can all dream.