Still giddy about Pens

By Jeff

OK, so a few weeks ago I shared my excitement with the idea that the Pittsburgh Penguins were going to maybe sign Zach Parise and/or Ryan Suter. Well, you have probably heard by now that Parise and Suter decided to take their talents to the Minnesota Wild.

I'm not upset, and Pens fans shouldn't be either. The team has the two best players in the world in Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, James Neal is realizing his potential and Kris Letang is really good when he's not losing his mind and hurting his team (See Game 3 in the Flyers series for an example of this). This is still a championship caliber team if the defense and Marc-Andrew Fleury can right the ship. And there is no reason to think they can't. Fluery sucked in 2009-2010 playoffs, and then he and the defense carried the team in 2010-2011 when Crosby and Malkin went down.

Enough about the crying about a stud winger for Crosby. Before the concussion, he had Pascual Dupuis and Chris Kunitz on the line and was still running away with the scoring title and MVP trophy. That't not a knock on Kunitz or Dupuis. That just shows you how good Crosby is when healthy.

The defense does need a boost, and Suter would have been a hell of boost! Will the young guys step in or will the team swing a trade? Neither is certain but it will be hard to be worse than the defensive unit was in the playoffs.

Paul Martin was the whipping boy last season. Everyone seems to hate him something fierce right now. The guy has a history of being a solid defenseman, though. He was great his first year in Pittsburgh. I think he rounds back into form after an offseason of working his ass off in order to silence critics even attack him in baseball columns (I'm talking to you, Dejan).

While I was really pumped for Parise and/or Suter to be wearing flightless birds on their chests, this is still a team to be crazy excited about. After a disappointing playoffs and missing over a year, can you imagine how crazy Crosby has probably been with his offseason training? The man is going to come out and set the league on fire. He is going to score goals by the bunches, and when he does, he's going to pump that fist and shout "Fuck yeah!" To which we will all be screaming in unison with him.

The team doesn't need Rick Nash, Bobby Ryan or Alexander Semin. The Pens just need to play like they are capable of, and Dan Bylsma needs to get better at adjusting strategies during the game. Those two things happen, this is a Stanley Cup favorite.

Europe - Final Countdown