Pittsburgh Penguins' "Role Players" Earn Improved Label: Champions

(Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

Did you know that the Penguins only have three "real" players on the roster? 

They are the ones with the names Crosby, Malkin, and Fleury sewed on the back of their jerseys. 

Everyone else is some odd creature known as a "role player."

What the heck is a role player?  And how can a team have only a few people who aren't constantly called role players?

Based on the constant commentary that accompanied the Penguins' run to glory, I gathered that it was important that they "step up."

Based on the constant commentary that accompanied the Penguins' run to glory, we all became aware that the Penguins "role players" needed to "step up." 

That was one of the keys to just about every game.

Nothing is quite as inspiring as slinging together a bunch of nonsensical clichés to make a point. 

The "role players" had a lot of nerve hoisting the Cup so high over their head.  They should have shown an appreciation of their limited "roles" by lifting the Cup only half way.

What a slap in the face of the "real" players. Some guys just don't get it.

For that matter, why do they get to wear the same jerseys as the real players?  They should at least make them a different color so casual fans can tell the difference between who they should regard as real players, versus the role players. 

Maybe the Penguins' "role players" should have worn those powder blue outfits they wore in their outdoor matchup.  Then none of us would have made the mistake as regarding them as being above their station.

Maybe we should put a scarlet "R" on their jerseys in the same spirit as the "C" and the "A." 

To be fair, I'm sure most of the writers who have used the term meant no disrespect by it, but it really sells the contributions of every member of a team short.

It is the one term I wish we would banish from our hockey vocabulary. 

Calling someone a "role player" implies they are somehow less than a real player, being suited to fill a single role. 

Jay Caufield was a true Penguins' role player back in the day.  When he came out on the ice during the Super Mario years, chances are he was filling one distinct role, to throw his gloves on the ice and get his butt kicked by the other team's resident goon. 

I never quite understood why the Penguins couldn't find a better goon. 

Rob Scuderi, Max Talbott, Jordan Staal, Sergei Gonchar, Brooks Orpik, and the rest of the Stanley Cup swigging Penguins are definitely not "role players." 

It reminds me of the movie Sky High with Kurt Russell when students at the Superhero school are loudly broken into two groups, heroes and sidekicks, on their first day of class, defined for the rest of their lives. 

But, in this case, the hero class would be absurdly small, while the sidekick (aka role player) class would be overflowing with bodies.

I can even see the players standing before Don Cherry as he decided whether to deem them "heroes" or scream "sidekick" in their face.

"Max Talbott.  All you can do is grow a really impressive beard, fly around the ice, and score critical goals?  SIDEKICK!!!!"

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