NHL Playoffs: Pittsburgh Penguins Will Bounce Back and Win Stanley Cup Next Year

Imagine the Tampa Bay Lightning losing Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis for the second half of the season. Imagine the Vancouver Canucks losing Daniel and Henrik Sedin. Finally, imagine the Washington Capitals losing Alexander Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom.

How would these three teams do without their respective stars for half of the season? The answer is simple: not as well as the Penguins did this year.

On top of all of that is the fact that they lost a bunch of players from a season ago. Sergei Gonchar and Bill Guerin headline those lost players.

The Penguins have gone through a decimating season of injury. There were only 10 players that played more than 70 games this season. Only two of those players played all 82 games.

Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal all missed more than 40 games due to injuries. Not many teams would have been in the playoffs, let alone the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference.

Marc-Andre Fleury got off to a slow start this season, but bounced back and really was the MVP of the team. He is ready to be in the Vezina hunt next year.

This Penguins defense was one of the best in the NHL. Add these defensive prowls to Fleury, and the defense should be equally good next season.

If we have learned anything from this season, it has been that Dan Bylsma is a great coach. It doesn’t matter what players he has on his bench, he gets the maximum out of them.

Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin should be back to 100 percent by the start of the year. I say this with a little bit of hesitation after the fallout from Crosby, but I am semi-confident he will return fully healthy. Crosby was having a career season this year; people seem to forget about that.

Adding pieces to the puzzle is something that GM Ray Shero is accustomed to doing. He also has a pretty good track record. I have no doubts that he will have this team ready when October comes around.

The Penguins had 106 points this season, which was tied for the third most in the NHL. Collecting 106 points after all of the adversity they have gone through is simply amazing. They will build off of this season.

If they get Crosby and Malkin back at full strength, I have no doubt the Penguins will be hoisting the Stanley Cup next season.