Healthy Crosby cleans up at NHL Awards

Tuesday, 06.24.2014 / 11:03 PM / 2014 NHL Awards

By Dan Rosen - NHL.com Senior Writer

http://www.nhl.com/

LAS VEGAS -- First remember what Sidney Crosby was doing two and a half years ago. Now look at where he was and what he was doing Tuesday night.

It's an accomplishment so impressive it's worth three trophies.

Crosby went from waiting, wondering and hoping his concussion issues would subside so he could resume his career to standing on stage at Encore Theater in Wynn Las Vegas accepting the three trophies that represent overall individual excellence in a NHL season.

2013-14 HART TROPHY VOTING -- TOP 10

Player	Pts.	(1st-2nd-3rd-4th-5th)
Crosby, PIT	1,341	(128-8-1-0-0)
Getzlaf, ANA	877	(5-96-28-5-0)
Giroux, PHI	435	(2-15-42-27-19)
Varlamov, COL	256	(1-8-23-22-9)
Bergeron, BOS	137	(0-4-9-17-13)
Seguin, DAL	84	(0-1-6-12-11)
Pavelski, SJS	71	(0-0-3-11-23)
Kopitar, LAK	58	(0-0-4-9-11)
Toews, CHI	53	(0-2-4-4-7)
Bishop, TBL	52	(0-0-5-6-9)

The Pittsburgh Penguins captain won the Hart Memorial Trophy for the second time in his career, finishing with 128 of 137 first-place votes. He previously won the Hart in 2006-07, when he was 19 years old. Injuries derailed potential MVP seasons in 2010-11 and 2012-13.

He also took home the Ted Lindsay Award (formerly the Lester B. Pearson Award) for the second straight season and third time in his career. In addition, he was feted with the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL's leading scorer for the second time in his career.

Crosby finished with 104 points, 17 clear ofAnaheim Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf, who was second in the scoring race and in the Hart Trophy vote and a finalist for the Ted Lindsay Award.

"You look back at 19, I probably took it for granted a little bit," Crosby said. "When you win [the Hart Trophy] that young, you probably expect to win it maybe sooner and you might think it's a little easier than it actually is. You need a lot of things to go right. You need to play with a lot of good players. You need to stay healthy. I'm happy to be able to do that this year."

Crosby hadn't been able to stay healthy since the 2009-10 season, when he had 110 points in 81 games and finished as the runner-up to Vancouver Canucks captain Henrik Sedin in the Hart Trophy vote.

He looked like a runaway winner for the NHL's MVP award through the first half of the 2010-11 season, but Crosby couldn't play the second half because of a concussion. He finished with 66 points in 41 games, his last on Jan. 5, 2012.

Crosby didn't play another game until Nov. 21. His return was brief, eight games to be exact, before he had to go back on the shelf because of further issues related to his concussion. He didn't play again until March 15, 2013.

Through it all, Crosby wondered if he would ever be able to resume his career. He couldn't even imagine winning another individual award.

"Having gone through that and being on the other side of it, hopefully, I have a much greater appreciation for all this stuff," Crosby said. "Even though you're not playing for [individual awards] you definitely don't take it for granted and you try to enjoy it a little more."

Crosby's goals entering this season had nothing to do with individual awards. He simply wanted to play a full season. He hadn't done that since 2010-11.

He played in the first 36 games of 2012-13 and again looked like he would be a runaway League MVP with 56 points until his jaw was shattered by an errant shot, forcing him to miss the final 12 games and the first game of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Crosby missed two games in 2013-14, including the last game of the regular season, which was meaningless for the Penguins.

"This stuff [the awards] is kind of an added bonus," Crosby said. "I was happy to be able to [play a full season]."

That he overcame his injury woes to return to being the game's premier player is a testament to his competitiveness, said Detroit Red Wings coach Mike Babcock, who has won the past two Olympic gold medals with Crosby.

"He's a great competitor," Babcock said. "He's a committed, committed guy to getting better. He's a leader in that way and that's why he's been so successful."

Considering that competitiveness, it's no surprise that Crosby's next individual goal is to improve on what he did in 2013-14. He constantly sets the bar higher for himself, and in a way Crosby views this season as a new start for him after all the injury problems.

"There's still a level I can get to," Crosby said. "Before I got hurt was probably the best I felt and I'd like to get back to that point. I don't feel like I got to that point this year. I feel like I was consistent and that was a product of our team and the guys around me, but I still feel like I can improve and learn a lot more. That's exciting."

Penguins' Crosby takes home Hart, Art Ross and Ted Lindsay awards

By W.g. Ramirez 
http://triblive.com/sports/
Published: Tuesday, June 24, 2014, 10:27 p.m.

LAS VEGAS — Penguins star Sidney Crosby finally can bring closure the 2013-14 campaign.

Crosby collected three trophies, including his the Hart Memorial Trophy as league MVP, Tuesday night at the NHL Awards show at Encore Theater at Wynn Las Vegas.

It was Crosby's second league MVP as voted by hockey writers — he won after the 2006-07 season. He claimed 128 of the 137 first-place votes.

Crosby also won the Art Ross Trophy as the league's leading scorer, but he said winning the Ted Lindsay Award — given to the most outstanding player as voted by the players — for the second consecutive year carried special meaning.

“They're all special. I don't think you can put one ahead of the other,” Crosby said. “Not to take anything away from the writers, (but) seeing those (players) every night, competing against 'em, I think it definitely means a lot to kind of get that recognition amongst the guys you play against.”

Crosby also won the Art Ross Trophy in 2007.

“I think looking back at 19, I probably took it for granted,” said Crosby, now 26. “When you win (the Hart Trophy) that young, you probably expect to win it maybe sooner. You might think it's a little easier than it actually is. You need a lot things to go right. You need to play with some good players. ... I'm happy to be able to do that this year.”

Before the event, talk shifted to the state of the Penguins, Crosby's thoughts on a new coach and how new general manager Jim Rutherford has handled the search after three weeks on the job.

“I think it's something that hopefully will help us, give us a bit of a boost,” Crosby said of Rutherford's hiring. “Sometimes changes need to be made.

“It doesn't make it any easier, but at the end of the day, maybe this is something that hopefully we can build from.”

After the Penguins dropped to 2-7 all time at home in Game 7s — including three such losses in the past five seasons — while squandering a 3-1 series lead to the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference semifinals, the team fired GM Ray Shero. Three weeks later, Rutherford fired coach Dan Bylsma.

“I've only talked to Jim a little bit, but he seems like a guy who's ... he's been around a long time. He's won a Stanley Cup. He's got a ton of experience,” Crosby said.

Crosby said it's taken some time to move on from the team's disappointing exit from the playoffs.

“It stung, probably, the toughest after the season since probably the year we lost in the finals (in 2008), for different reasons obviously and probably even more than that,” Crosby said. “But those challenges and that adversity is sometimes what you have to go through to be better, and hopefully that's something we can learn from as a group and personally I can be better for it.”

W.G. Ramirez is a freelance writer.

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Bylsma, Shero left subpar legacy

By Mark Madden 

Special to the Beaver County Times 

http://www.timesonline.com/sports/

June 9, 2014

Fred Shero and Dan Bylsma (Reuters/QMI Agency)

How many assistant GMs does one team need?

How many future GMs is Jim Rutherford supposed to train?

Pierre McGuire might have been expected to mentor Dan Potash.

Rutherford, a Penguins goalie from 1971-74, gave me his autograph a bunch of times when I was a kid. His new appointment should increase their value. Check out eBay if you want one. A Rutherford autograph has to be worth more than Deryk Engelland. The player, not his signature.

The Penguins’ GM decision took the path less traveled.

How often is a GM openly considered a short-term hire?

If Jason Botterill isn’t ready to be a GM now, will a couple years under Rutherford elevate him? How? Botterill is 38 and has worked for the Penguins since 2006. Does he have to unlearn anything? Based on the last five years, the answer is yes.

Will the coach also be a short-term hire? Will, say, Jacques Martin coach for a season, then make way for Mike Babcock? Babcock has one year left on his contract with Detroit. Talk of him coming to Pittsburgh will not cease until he signs an extension. Babcock is still in the frame.

What do Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin think about all this?

Rutherford mentioned Crosby and Malkin in his opening remarks. He gets it.

Rutherford also seems to understand where the Penguins went wrong, and where ex-coach Dan Bylsma went wrong. Seems Bylsma didn’t adjust, not during games or during playoff series. Where did I hear that before?

Oh, yeah: EVERYWHERE. Bylsma masked his stubbornness/lack of coaching acumen with a nifty catchphrase – “Get to our game” – but his shortcomings were well-known everywhere besides Consol Energy Center, where the emperor was thought to be clad in a snappy ensemble.

Bylsma and deposed GM Ray Shero left a legacy of one Stanley Cup. That’s it.

Bylsma and Shero may ultimately be most remembered for taking a foolproof situation and letting it gradually and undeniably deteriorate.

Shero was an assistant GM at Nashville from 1998-2006, then came to Pittsburgh and drafted like he was still at Nashville.

Shero had hockey’s best 1-2 center punch, but chose to stockpile defensemen and roster subpar wings. Shero considered bottom-six forwards unimportant beyond the third-line center. He once called Colby Armstrong a “minor-leaguer,” but this past season’s Penguins could have desperately used a player of Armstrong’s character and influence. That was a soft, wimpy, quiet dressing room.

Bylsma got lucky. He replaced Michel Therrien at a time when Therrien had lost the locker room. Bylsma’s biggest qualification: He wasn’t Therrien.

There’s no denying Bylsma’s role in winning the Stanley Cup in 2009. There’s also no denying that the Penguins become less and less prolific at playoff hockey as they got further away from Therrien’s structure and accountability. Bylsma was beneficiary of a perfect storm. After 2009, he was a specialist at winning meaningless games. Nothing more.

Under Shero and Bylsma, there was too little everyday tension. That’s why the Penguins got so quickly frustrated in the uncompromising glare of the post-season. The get-along gang went from zero to badly rattled in mere seconds. That’s how you blow a three-games-to-one advantage twice in four years.

Shero and Bylsma preferred veterans to youth. That denied the Penguins the regular influx of hungry, enthusiastic kids that provides energy and keeps a team on its toes.

If those evaluations seem harsh, they’re no less accurate. Bylsma and Shero are both good guys, but who cares about that?

Rutherford could turn out to be a mean old man if things go bad. That might suit the Penguins best: A mean old man.

Rutherford’s track record at Carolina was checkered: Just five playoff berths in 20 years with the franchise. But Rutherford won a Stanley Cup, and got to another final. He never had the resources in Carolina that he’s got in Pittsburgh.

Mark Madden hosts a radio show 3-6 p.m. weekdays on WXDX-FM (105.9).

This won't be about Rutherford

By Dejan Kovacevic 
http://triblive.com/sports/
Published: Friday, June 6, 2014, 5:24 p.m

Does it matter, really, how the Penguins went about finally finding their general manager so long as they got the right result?

Guess time will tell, but at the least time is back on their side.

When Jim Rutherford was ushered Friday into Consol Energy Center's packed press room, introduced as the new GM by CEO David Morehouse, the man's file was filled with 20 years of tenure with the Hartford/Carolina franchise and a Stanley Cup in 2006. He's done it all. He hasn't been the best, and the Hurricanes missing the playoffs the past five years — partly due to poor decisions related to Jordan Staal, Jussi Jokinen and Alexander Semin — would indicate he lost his fastball a while back. But there's no substitute for experience, as they say.

What's more, it sounds like all that experience will be applied intelligently. Rutherford is 65. Let's not pretend he'll do this for long. So it might have been more meaningful than anything to hear — right from his lips — that he'll be tasked with grooming the next GM, as well. And he'll be doing so all along because, on this same day, the front office promoted Jason Botterill, the interim GM since Ray Shero's firing three weeks ago, from assistant to associate GM. Also promoted were Bill Guerin and Tom Fitzgerald from the development staff to assistant GMs. All three, Rutherford said, will be candidates.

Check out Rutherford's candor on that topic: “I would suspect this term for me is probably two or three years here. It's going to be up to ownership who replaces me, but certainly I'll get to know these guys better, and I'll recommend what goes on in the future. Especially Jason. He's a very bright guy. I know he's getting very close.”

What this plan does best is buy time while simultaneously building.

It doesn't thrust the promising but still green Botterill, 38, into a training-wheels position during the prime career points of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Sure, Botterill was Shero's understudy, too, but this will be more akin to a shadow. This, as Rutherford explained to me, was how he just groomed Ron Francis to succeed him in Carolina. Francis tailed Rutherford everywhere, asked questions, watched, learned and got involved.

Guerin, 43, and Fitzgerald, 45 will be there, too, Rutherford made clear: “I will give them big roles, a lot to say.”

Honestly, it's hard not to be excited about this part in particular. All three, I can attest, are hungry. All are deeply invested in the franchise. And all you'd need to see to believe that was Guerin on Friday, all suit-and-tied, smiling ear to ear, shaking hands like he'd won the Powerball. It was pure joy, the kind that's been missing with this franchise for too long. When he beamed, “We're all going to work together to get back to our winning ways,” you could almost see him pulling on that No. 13 sweater.

It'll be fun watching this group, kind of a Generation X front office, choose a head coach in its image, oversee a draft, decide on Matt Niskanen and Kris Letang, swing trades and whatever else.

Some think this is about Rutherford. It isn't. He's a steward. A “mentor,” as he labeled himself. He's here to steer the ship through a critical time while also setting it on the next course.

Hey, I'm no wilder about Rutherford's recent resume in Carolina than anyone else, but I also can't think of anyone in hockey more qualified for this specific task. And that includes Shero.

All that said, so much of what's transpired with the Penguins over the past month shouldn't get swept away.

This front office failed to show its face in public all through this. Again Friday, Morehouse was sent out to speak “on behalf” of Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle, even though it was the owners making the moves.

The Penguins should be better than that.

This front office fired Shero but let Dan Bylsma dangle until Friday. And any pretense that they were doing so to give the new GM a chance to keep him was blown up with Rutherford's uncomfortable admissions that he fired Bylsma basically sight unseen. Rutherford never should have been put in that position. It was a sham.

The Penguins should be better than that.

This front office invited ridicule — all justified — for pursuing player agent Pat Brisson, who had the audacity to go public with his rejection, and NBC commentator Pierre McGuire, who had the audacity to be … well, Pierre McGuire. There he was again Friday, all over the radio, slyly dodging comment on a Canadian report that he'd turned down a two-year offer from the Penguins because he demanded five years.

“Absolutely not,” Morehouse told me emphatically and somewhat angrily. He was hardly alone among the Penguins.

But that's dancing with the devil.

The Penguins should have been better than that.

Now, thanks to a series of sensible moves Friday, maybe they will be.

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Penguins' GM search becoming circus

By Dejan Kovacevic 
http://triblive.com/sports/
Published: Thursday, June 5, 2014, 9:00 p.m.

Pierre McGuire, as this is being typed, is a candidate to be the Penguins' next GM.

And man, that's no fun to type.

I think the world of Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle. Both are immensely successful, impeccably charitable and, most pertinent to this discussion, good stewards of Pittsburgh's beloved NHL franchise. It's easy to have faith in these gentlemen.

But come on, what is this?

What's going on with this GM search that's now dragged three full weeks since Ray Shero's firing and, in all bluntness, is taking on the feel of a full-blown fiasco?

Word's been scarce, but here's what's known:

• The Penguins themselves thought this would be done by now. Lemieux told me “a couple weeks” when I met with him and Burkle after the Shero firing. And late last week, I was informed by the team it would be done “early this week.” Both have passed without so much as a peep from Consol Energy Center.

• An original list of 30 candidates was trimmed to 22, then whacked down to nine. Best as can be determined, those still in the running with mutual interest after all of that are, um, interim GM Jason Botterill and McGuire. More on him in a bit.

• One target all along has been Pat Brisson, a player agent. Note the difference, please, between target and candidate. See, even though an agent should have been disqualified for being an agent, Brisson did his own disqualifying by declaring two weeks ago he'd remain an agent. In spite of that, the Penguins apparently still covet the guy.

• The Penguins are the only team in the league without a GM, and the reality is even more rudderless: The Trib's Rob Rossi has learned they've all but handcuffed Botterill, at least as far as major decisions. Which means it's all autopilot on Matt Niskanen and Kris Letang, the draft, free agency, you name it.

• Dan Bylsma and all his coaches still are in limbo. Don't forget that. They're good men. They don't deserve to be disrespected.

It's getting embarrassing, if it isn't there already.

And yet, none of the above touches the clearly intense involvement of McGuire in this process.

Set aside whatever you think about how he comes across as an NBC commentator ­— yes, “Brooks Or-PECK,” too — and isolate on his NHL resume: He began as a scout with the Penguins in 1990. A year later, he was an assistant coach and remained so for the Stanley Cups in 1991-92. The next year, he took the same job in Hartford. A year after that, he was assistant GM, then a month later head coach. It was a rapid ascent, but he flamed out just as quickly after going 23-37-7. Pat Verbeek, a winger on that team, famously called his coach's firing “the best thing that could ever have happened to the Whalers.” Moving on to Ottawa, McGuire scouted, then was assistant coach in 1995 until being fired within three months.

Shall I continue?

Sorry, can't. That's it.

McGuire had to bottom-feed with the ECHL for his next job, coaching the Baton Rouge Kingfish to seventh place, then tore up the rest of a three-year contract to try broadcasting.

He quit. He quit hockey. He never again coached, scouted or generally managed anything. He called games, learned names, memorized players' hometowns, dressed nice and shook a whole lot of hands.

I'm going to type this yet again: This could be your next GM, Pittsburgh.

Oh, for real. It isn't by accident that his name has gone public with no response from the Penguins, even behind the scenes. Trust me, given the laughingstock they've become over this across the continent, they'd have quashed this in a heartbeat if motivated. Nor is it by accident that McGuire has felt comfortable discussing the job in radio interviews. In one, he felt bold enough to say Shero “probably didn't deserve to get fired.”

Good stuff, huh?

I'll ask again: What's going on here?

Aren't there any qualified candidates interested in this wonderful opportunity to build around some of the world's top hockey talent?

For now, I'll keep faith in Lemieux, Burkle and Morehouse to see that the prime career points of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin shouldn't be subjected to an experimental, ooh-let's-try-this, Eddie Olczyk-type hire at the top hockey post.

I'll also keep faith that they appreciate the challenge of being a modern GM. He leads the entire hockey operation. He oversees coaches, scouts, salary-cap and transactions managers, team doctors, athletic trainers and more. He has to make decisions on the fly, some that can change the course of a franchise, in dealings with other GMs and agents and often with his own eyes.

The great broadcaster John Davidson left TV a decade ago to become St. Louis' president of hockey operations, the same post he now holds in Columbus. J.D. has enjoyed his share of success, including as an NHL player and evaluator, and he surely could carve any role he wishes. But he hasn't. He's had enough humility to employ a highly qualified GM.

Step into the circle, gentlemen, and do likewise.

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Searching for any reason McGuire would be good pick for Pens' GM

By Mark Madden 

Special to The Beaver County Times 

http://www.timesonline.com/sports/

June 2, 2014

Pierre McGuire (Getty Images)

Try as I might, I can’t come up with a single good reason to hire network hockey analyst Pierre McGuire as the Penguins’ new general manager.

McGuire is a great hockey mind. His work ethic is well known.

But he’s been in the media since 1997. He built a great reputation as a scout and assistant coach with the Penguins from 1990-92. But his stint as Hartford Whalers head coach in 1993-94 ended in chaos. McGuire replaced Paul Holmgren in November of that season, posted a 23-37-7 record and was fired immediately after.

Said Pat Verbeek, the Whalers’ captain, “His actions are the exact opposite of what he says. You just can’t believe anything he says. He was more wrapped up in himself and how he looked.” Verbeek called McGuire’s dismissal “the best thing that could happen to this hockey team right now.”

That was 20 years ago. Does it have any relevance now?

Maybe it does, especially when you consider than McGuire has, since then, barely built on his NHL resume. McGuire was an assistant coach for two months with Ottawa in 1995-96. He coached in the ECHL in 1996-97. His record was 31-33-6. That’s Class AA hockey.

McGuire has never worked in the NHL since the salary cap was adopted in 2005. Interim GM Jason Botterill is a cap wizard. But is he going to stick around Pittsburgh after being passed over for McGuire?

Why is McGuire even being considered? It’s almost mind-boggling.

But he’s definitely being considered. One inside source calls McGuire the frontrunner for the job. McGuire has visited Pittsburgh for two interviews. McGuire’s biggest strength is doubtless the interview process.

For the last 20 years, McGuire has made a good living projecting earnest credibility to millions of TV viewers. Being believed is his job. Transfer that to a job interview. “I will win you Stanley Cups. This team isn’t far away.” It’s easy to imagine McGuire saying that to CEO David Morehouse.

McGuire is close friends with ex-GM Ray Shero. It’s been said that McGuire would feel conflicted about replacing Shero. Not too conflicted, apparently.

Can McGuire ditch broadcasting and be a successful GM? It’s a difficult transition.

It’s one thing to analyze with no accountability via results. McGuire knows everything about the NHL, but has minimal experience dealing with a team’s moving parts, including none at all in almost two decades. It’s a different application of hockey knowledge, a different kind of hockey knowledge.

Barry Melrose left ESPN to become Tampa Bay’s coach in 2008. He got fired six weeks into the season. Eddie Olczyk left the Penguins’ broadcast booth to coach the club in 2003. He was terminated midway through his second campaign.

John Davidson, however, has done a good job as an NHL executive after stepping down as a TV analyst. Same with Dale Tallon, who did more than anyone to build the Blackhawks team that won Stanley Cups in 2010 and last season.

We don’t know McGuire can’t do the job. We just don’t know that he can.

McGuire isn’t the safe hire. Somebody like Botterill or Tampa Bay assistant GM Julien BriseBois would be the safe hire.

Is McGuire a showbiz hire? That will certainly be said if McGuire fails. His employment will grab headlines.

The Penguins must make the right choice. That’s never been more necessary. The franchise is entering the second half of the Sidney Crosby/Evgeni Malkin era. They wasted most of the first half. A quick, efficient fix is required.

McGuire can provide that. If he’s as smart as he seems to think he is.

Mark Madden hosts a radio show 3-6 p.m. weekdays on WXDX-FM (105.9).

Time ticking on Penguins' GM

By Dejan Kovacevic 
http://triblive.com/sports/
Published: Thursday, May 29, 2014, 9:55 p.m.

Chris Kreider #20 of the New York Rangers controls the puck against Kris Letang #58 of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second period during Game Six of the Second Round of the 2014 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Madison Square Garden on May 11, 2014 in New York City.

(May 10, 2014 - Source: Elsa/Getty Images North America)

Friday marks two full weeks since Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle fired Ray Shero, and if you'll recall, Lemieux told me at the time the Penguins' front office probably would take “a couple weeks” to have a new GM in place.

Well, that clock's ticking, to put it kindly. Because this poor soul, whoever it might be, will have basically a month to set the franchise's course for, oh, the next half-decade or so.

Consider this a checklist for Mr. Mythical New GM:

√ FIRE THE COACH

It's crazier now than then, but Dan Bylsma still holds the title. This, as well as the fate of the rest of Bylsma's staff, will have to come first. As in the very first morning on the job.

√ HIRE A COACH

The pool of retreads isn't deep, but maybe that's for the better. These Penguins need a tough coach. Not a cement-head but someone with a personality to handle this locker room, whether it's the unique needs of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin or the intimidating presences like Craig Adams. Bylsma couldn't. The new guy must.

Rick Tocchet, anyone?

I know he's interested, and we all know he's tough.

√ TRADE KRIS LETANG

I'm not kidding. Letang's limited no-trade clause kicks in July 1. After that, the Penguins will be hard-pressed to move his eight-year, $58 million contract, at least for fair value. I'll take Lemieux's word that the team “signed Kris to keep him,” but I'll also take his word that the new GM will make that call rather than the owners.

It's not just the trade return that would make a difference. The freed-up money would go a long way toward other concerns.

√ JAMES NEAL, TOO

I think a lot of Neal. Always have. And there's a good chance that, if traded, he'll run up another 40-goal season somewhere. But you have to give to get. And this is where you can give. The playoffs have laid bare that the Penguins have too many perimeter scorers rather than — repeat after me — grit-and-character types driving to the net. That's why their power play looks so pretty in the regular season but is reduced to a passing pentagon each spring.

Neal's 26, he's talented, and his remaining contract is attractive at four years, $20 million. He could bring back real quality.

√ SIGN MATT NISKANEN

This must get done. And after that, discuss with the coach sewing a letter on his sweater.

√ WISH BROOKS ORPIK AND JUSSI JOKINEN WELL

Orpik was one of the Penguins' most decorated defensemen, the all-time leader in games at the position. Jokinen was their only real playoff scoring threat. But they're unrestricted free agents like Niskanen, and they shouldn't be brought back. Orpik's place is best taken by a youngster, and Jokinen will be paid more than he's worth.

√ FIRE ALL THE SCOUTS

Wait, what's that?

The NHL Entry Draft is June 27-28?

OK, hold that. Work diligently with all the scouts who have mangled these past eight drafts, have everyone put forth their best effort at the table in Philadelphia … then fire everyone except those who recommended Olli Maatta.

√ HAVE A GREAT DRAFT

Yeah, good luck with that. Those scouts will be super-motivated to earn that severance pay.

√ PICK A NICE OFFICE

And by that I mean an office as far as possible from that of CEO David Morehouse. No disrespect to Morehouse, a superb businessman, but I don't like business overseeing sports decisions. I don't like it with Art Rooney II and the Steelers, nor with Frank Coonelly and the Pirates. The CEO should have input into major transactions such as multiyear extensions that can shake up the bottom line, but that's it.

√ CREATE A VISION

Between the GM and coach, there will be so much day-to-day work at hand it might happen without a broader scope in mind. That's dangerous.

What is the next generation of Pittsburgh Penguins?

How do they play?

What's the model?

The most successful versions of the Penguins have been supremely skilled. The franchise has been blessed with 15 of the past 26 NHL scoring champs. But there's also been a strong supporting cast of — repeat after me again — grit-and-character types. They were tough in protecting the stars but also in forging their own paths. They didn't just forecheck. They had Bob Errey, Troy Loney or Max Talbot skating through the far wall. They didn't just pokecheck. They had Ulf Samuelsson, Kevin Stevens and Orpik's legendary shift sending opponents into the next century.

So, Mr. Mythical New GM, paint a picture like that. Preferably with a single stroke.

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Crosby led Penguins down drain

[This column should draw some attention. - jtf]

Joe Starkey 
http://triblive.com/sports/
Published: Saturday, May 17, 2014, 10:51 p.m.

(Photo: Charles LeClaire/USA Today)

Don't let that little front-office earthquake distract you from the primary reason the Penguins are not participating in the Eastern Conference final.

The primary reason is Sidney Crosby, whose leadership never has been more in question.

If you didn't know better, you'd be looking for blood on Crosby's hands in the wake of Ray Shero's beheading and the pending demise of Dan Bylsma. You'd think he tried to orchestrate the palace coup.

Set aside, for a moment, Crosby's paltry playoff numbers. This is bigger than that. It's about the way he comported himself.

It's about the mysteriously early exits from power plays, the drifting to the bench in the middle of shifts, the uncharacteristic snapping at the coach and the perpetually blank look on his face.

If we find out he was badly injured, different story. But there is no evidence of that. The evidence suggests Crosby was unhappy and wanted the world to know it.

There are some who can't help but make excuses for Crosby. Sid's Sycophants. They have pitted him against Evgeni Malkin since the latter arrived, always favoring Sid.

You know what you'll get every night from Sid, they'd say. But Geno? Geno's too unpredictable. Geno at his worst evokes the shadowy side of Jaromir Jagr.

Yeah, that's it: Sid is Mario; Geno is Jagr.

Well, who looked like the moody, easily frustrated, coach-killer version of Jagr in these playoffs? And who looked more like Lemieux, laying it on the line in Game 7 and putting up a conference-leading point total through two series?

Imagine if Crosby were leading the conference in scoring and Malkin had one goal in his past 18 playoff games. Do you think the Sycophants would be finding excuses for Malkin?

More likely they'd be hanging him in effigy in Market Square.

One thing we never heard from Crosby during these playoffs was an unprompted, unqualified statement of personal responsibility.

A leader's first commandment is to personally and publicly accept blame even when he is not at fault but especially when he is. It tends to play well in locker rooms.

But in the midst of his hideous playoff, Crosby never said anything like this: “Put it on me. I'm the captain. I'm not getting it done.”

Instead, the best he could muster after his wretched Game 2 against Columbus was, “We've got to be better.”

We?

On locker clean-out day, a defensive Crosby said, “Obviously, I would have liked to score more and contribute more. But it wasn't from a lack of effort.”

OK. But when I watched Game 7, I couldn't help but notice that Malkin practically poured his soul onto the ice while Crosby often skirted the perimeter.

Did it look to you like Crosby brought every ounce of his hockey being to Game 7?

The captain also said, “I'd love to tear it up every series, but it doesn't always happen.”

Nobody's demanding that Crosby “tear it up every series.” How about just showing up as a leader of men?

The Sycophants' excuses never end. They'll tell you the Penguins have wasted the past four years of Crosby's career.

That's a lie. The Penguins had Cup-capable rosters in 2010, '12 and '13 and were certainly as good as the Rangers or Canadiens this year. If their best player hadn't failed them, they'd be playing another flawed team in the Canadiens right now.

The weak-wingers complaint needs to die, too. The Penguins offered Marian Hossa $50 million and a guaranteed spot next to Crosby for the prime of his career. Hossa couldn't get out of town fast enough. They brought in Jarome Iginla. Crosby preferred Pascal Dupuis.

The line of Crosby, Dupuis and Chris Kunitz was highly productive. Crosby enjoyed playing with them. So the Penguins shelled out $26.5 million to keep both.

Yeah, poor Sid.

In these playoffs, Bylsma often had Kunitz and Malkin on the top line. That's not a bad set of wingers. True, Brian Gibbons played there, too, and while he's far from an ideal choice, it's worth noting that he had twice as many goals in 54 seconds as Crosby has in his past 18 playoff games.

Crosby had one power-play shot in the entire Rangers series (a weak perimeter wrister in Game 6). How is that possible? He has one third-period goal in his past 41 playoff games (the one that made it 6-2 in a blowout of Ottawa last season).

Feel free to hide your eyes before we look at how Crosby has fared in his past four season-ending games” Montreal Game 7 in 2010, Philly Game 6 in '12, Boston Game 4 in '13 and Rangers Game 7.

In those four games, the Penguins' best player totaled zero goals, zero assists and a minus-6 (still checking on his Corsi rating).

So go ahead and be distracted by the ongoing palace coup at 1001 Fifth Ave. It's pretty riveting stuff.

Just know that the Penguins should still be playing.

Joe Starkey co-hosts a show 2 to 6 p.m. weekdays on 93.7 FM. Reach him at jraystarkey@gmail.com.

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