Do we really miss Marian Hossa and Ryan Malone that much? According to John Buccigross of ESPN, "This team is in desperate need of a scoring winger. The Pens' scorers are adequate, but they don't look to have enough to advance far in the postseason. Marian Hossa would have made all the difference."
First of all, we didn't have Hossa until after the trade deadline and we would have made the playoffs without him. Having said that, he certainly helped us in the Playoffs. It only seems like we miss him because of the personal attachment that Penguins fans have with their players, especially players that greatly assist us in our dreams of capturing the Cup.
Second of all, it is really painful to write that. Consider that Pirate fans are used to good players leaving either in free agency or through trade deadline deals. Steelers fans are comfortable with the fact that the Rooneys will pay no one a penny over what their market value is and even then they barely pay that.
Either way Pittsburgh fans trust that the Pirates will be awful because management makes poor decision and the Steelers will always be in contention because the front office makes great choices.
A few years removed from almost leaving the city, the Penguins arrived at the Stanley Cup finals this spring and faced the Red Wings, a team whose roster miraculously fits under the salary cap. Of course we lost in Game 6, and the talk immediately switched to free agency signings and the prospects of next year.
Here's where it gets sad. A player took slightly less money to go a team he thought had a better chance to win a Stanley Cup. That player was Marian Hossa. And, while I usually am more than happy to condemn players for seeking more money, Hossa supposedly is seeking a championship as well. So much so that he signed a one-year deal.
Not only has Hossa hurt my feelings by not returning to the Penguins, not only has he hurt my feelings by playing very well for the Wings, but he may very well be right. The Red Wings are giving up a ton of goals, not completely surprising since they have an eighty year old man in net.
The Penguins aren't scoring goals and Coach Therrien is juggling lines like a circus clown who chugged a fifth of LSD. And yet despite not having the services of two top defenders including our power play quarterback, the Penguins are in seventh place in the Eastern Conference. Hossa and the Wings are in second place in the West.
I miss Hossa. I miss our dominating run through the Eastern Conference playoffs. I miss his tinted visor and Warrior gloves. But Hossa isn't coming back so I will continue to play Dashboard Confessional and lock myself in my room. Malone isn't coming back either. Sure he is, was, a native son of Pittsburgh, but if you know anything about Upper St. Clair then you aren't surprised he left for more money.
Gone are talented scoring wingers. In comes Miroslav Satan. I must confess he strikes me as someone the Pirates might sign, a veteran who used to be considered talented—though God knows what that means—and has character issues.
8 comments Last one added 8 months ago — Leave a Comment
Eric K 8 months ago
Great read here, Pete. Gonna add my two cents...
1) Bucci is a joke, furthermore, anything that invloves ESPN and hockey in the same sentence should be immediately thrown out for irrelevancy.
2) I agree that Satan is lethargic and looks unmotivated on the ice, BUT, he could skate out on the ice in his street clothes and a pair of flip-flops as long as he's leading the team in goals
3) Where's Sykora????
4) I'm personally looking forward to, no, I'm salivating at the thought of the opportunity to watch Orpik throw one of those board-rattling shoulder checks into Hossa next week.
Nice job again, Let's Go Pens
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Sebastien Tremblay 8 months ago
Indeed...where is Sykora?! Its funny how all those "older" players have one great year with Crosby and Malkin then slump. See Mark Recchi for another example.
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Peter Tumbas 8 months ago
Buccigross certainly isn't a hockey mastermind, his bio speaks of no playing career. However he has done his part to keep hockey alive on ESPN despite their refusal to cover it. Even though card tournaments, bowling etc are on ESPN.
The stuff that he writes I don't really read it, but the fact that he's writing it respect it. (homage to Hansel from Zoolander)
Sykora and Satan both decided to score two goals tonight, both were in the right place at the right time and the puck arrived at their stick. Some might say anyone can do that, some might say a better player creates for himself and I would agree but it is their job to finish what Crosby and Malkin start and they did that tonight. Satan's first goal will make the bottom half of SC's top 10.
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Sebastien Tremblay 8 months ago
I think Hossa does make a difference but for Pittsburg, the problem is not not having Hossa anymore. In my opinion, they have 2 problems: they gave up too much already to get Hossa and go deep in the playoffs last year and are desperatly missing Gonchar and Whitney at the blueline. Pittsburg had a nice group before the Hossa tradeand they all worked well together as a whole. Now...they are no longer a whole...but a HOLE. They have holes everywhere and filled them up with quick fixes (Satan, Fedotenko...). They have too much talent not to make the playoffs but once there, thats when their "quick fixes" will make the team suffer.
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Nick Giarrusso 8 months ago
I'm a NYI fan who watched Satan for years. Two things: I think it's unfair to say he has character issues...unless something has happened in Pitt that I don't know about, he was nothing less than a perfect teammate on Long Island. He never had a single issue with the Isles and developed into a team leader on an average to poor team at best. Two, the knock on Satan is that he scores in bunches. He'll carry the team for a 3-4 games and then wo't score for a while. However, the one thing that I always LOVED about his game was his backchecking and overall defensive awareness. Even when he wasn't scoring he was useful on the ice...Allowing Hossa to leave was truly an awful move, Hossa was developing into Crosby's Kurri...I know it's hard to fit everybody under the cap, but they did offered him 7.5 million so it appear that the $$$ might have been there. Finally, let me conclude by saying that this was a fun read and I really enjoyed it!
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Peter Tumbas 8 months ago
Satan does seem to be riding the wave of one his point bunches. We'll see how long it lasts.
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Eric K 8 months ago
Welcome back, Mr. Sykora.
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Peter Tumbas 8 months ago
I wouldn't say they are desperately missing Gonchar and Whitney at the blue line. The power play has been on fire as of late and Matt Cooke, Hal Gill, Eric Godard, Tyler Kennedy all seem to be picking up the slack, willing to do the grunt work, the blue collar work that Ryan Whitney does. Who gets sent down when both return? Doesn't matter because we are months away from the occurring. More than likely Eaton, Whitney, maybe Letang but I hope not will be trade bait.
The Penguins traded Erik Christensen and Colby Armstrong for Hossa. Erik Christensen was talented in the shootout, now Letang does that. Not a problem. Colby Armstrong was an energy guy who couldn't score on Crosby's line. Several players Talbot, Kennedy, Dupuis are proving to be capable replacements for Armstrong as well as Malone who like an Upper St. Clair native would sell out for more money during free agency.
Big Georges is gone. He couldn't skate and seemed bored by the prospect of fighting. Eric Godard is fighting aka protecting his team, once a game it seems like. I believe the number is over 50% for the season. The Penguins have 3 players on the ice than are paid a combined $21 million someone has to protect them. Godard is more than happy to do so whereas Laraque did not.
Ruutu was a fan favorite and opponents despised him. Matt Cooke has made everyone forget about Ruutu. If you don't believe me you haven't watched the Penguins play.
Having said all that the Penguins are now 7-4-2 and were only outplayed in the San Jose game, maybe the Phoenix game. If they were 4-7-2 I'd say there were some issues to solve but again its early November there's plenty of time. But the fact is they are 7-4-2 and playing without their top two blue liners.
As I said without two of their top defenders they won't have another 102 point season but they will make the playoffs and no one will want to play this team. It's up to Ray Shero to make a deadline deal for another talented winger to boost us over the edge of where we will be come early March.
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