Tuesday, April 23, 2019

Half-empty PNC Park tells real tale of Pirates this season


By Mark Madden
April 22, 2019
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Joe Musgrove pitches in front of a crowd of 9,233 on Monday night in Pittsburgh. (Christopher Horner/Tribune-Review)
Pirates fans are going ga-ga over rookie shortstop Cole Tucker, and they should.
Tucker marked his big league debut Saturday with a home run and a curtain call. Fellow call-up Bryan Reynolds got lost in the shuffle, and understandably so: Reynolds’ hair isn’t as cool as Tucker’s. But Reynolds went 4 for 6 on the weekend.
The Pirates’ stooge media and the true believers among the citizens overreact badly to every sliver of hope.
That goes for starting 12-7. It’s only been 19 games.
That goes for Tucker. He just got here.
Tucker does have charisma. He’s the proverbial cool dude.
But baseball is the longest of long runs.
Let’s see what the Pirates decide with Tucker when shortstops Erik Gonzalez and Kevin Newman return from injury. Can Tucker earn the shortstop job for keeps, or will management manipulate Tucker’s service time? (The same applies with Reynolds, though options in the outfield are better.)
It’s never too early to realize that if Tucker does become a star, he eventually goes elsewhere for more money.
The realest thing about the Pirates is their rotation. It is as advertised. Even Jordan Lyles is 2-0 with a 0.53 ERA. Do they give a Cy Young Award for April?
But the Pirates may be good enough to stay in contention for a wild card, and at least finish over .500 for a second straight campaign. Given payroll, that would be amazing.
But, despite the early results and accompanying hype, the weekend’s attendance was indifferent. The series with San Francisco drew crowds of 15,049, 17,663, and 12,396. The Pirates are playing to just 47 percent of capacity despite leading the NL Central.
The usual excuses get used: Bad weather, “wait til school’s out,” etc.
But that’s all they are, is excuses.
Perhaps some customers have been permanently turned off by ownership emphasizing profit over winning to such a greedy, penny-pinching degree.
Winning creates a bandwagon effect. (Duh.) But after last season’s winning record and a good start to this campaign, it might take more than a good April to get those disenfranchised to jump back on said bandwagon.
Attendance figures listed for the weekend are tickets sold. Walk-up sales are minimal for every game and every sport. Advance purchases tell the tale. The weather has little impact.
It’s about interest. It’s about trust. Enthusiasm can be tempered by skepticism. Good results can be diluted by bad recent memories.
Attendance at PNC Park dropped by over a million from 2015 to ‘18. That’s after the Pirates dismantled 2015’s 98-win team in the name of increased profit.
The Pirates can undo that damage. But better than a 12-7 start might be required. What happens in the interim when owner Bob Nutting sees revenue shrinking? Nutting loves an excuse to further curtail expenditures.
The situation got summed up via a striking visual in the fourth inning of Sunday’s 3-2 loss to San Francisco: Josh Bell hit a mammoth home run. As the ball left the park, the nearly empty right-field grandstand couldn’t help but be noticed.
The Steelers missed the playoffs. The Penguins were eliminated in the post-season’s first round. The Pirates’ more radical boosters proclaim there’s a new sheriff in town.
But the Steelers sell out every game. The Penguins sell out every game. Paying customers is the primary measure of a team’s popularity, especially in the context of that market. Baseball plays a lot more games, true. But admission costs less money. Playing to 47 percent of capacity despite a 12-7 start is not a good look.
As for that “new sheriff” talk, try winning something first. Until then, nobody should dare compare the picayune Pirates to Pittsburgh’s championship franchises.
Categories: Sports | Pirates | Mark Madden Columns | Top Stories
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Monday, April 22, 2019

Are Penguins’ Mike Sullivan, Jim Rutherford really on same page?


By Tim Benz
April 21, 2019
Mike Sullivan and Jim Rutherford speak to the media April 18, 2019
It had to be on purpose, right? Head coach Mike Sullivan and general manager Jim Rutherford standing side-by-side during the Penguins’ season-ending media availability. Sharing the podium. Answering questions in the presence of each other.
There must have been intent behind the execution of the 2019 season-ending news conference last week. It was a unified front with joint themes in the wake of the club’s embarrassing sweep at the hands of the New York Islanders.
That’s opposed to last May when Sullivan and Rutherford had divergent messages on the way out of 2018 following a playoff series loss to Washington. They seemed to have a different view as to how much injury impacted Phil Kessel’s rotten postseason.
They also weren’t exactly on the same page when it came to explaining why Derick Brassard didn’t pan out after he was acquired midseason. Rutherford pinned most of Brassard’s failures on injury. Sullivan pointed at Brassard’s struggles to fit into that role after being more of a top-two-line player in Ottawa.
That day, Rutherford also declared Daniel Sprong would be “a regular” with the Penguins in 2018-19. Sullivan obviously didn’t share that opinion based on how little Sprong was elevated before Rutherford eventually traded him to Anaheim in December.
All of that isn’t to mention some other disconnects between Sullivan and Rutherford that had nothing to do with breakup day 2018.
For instance, remember the acquisition of Ryan Reaves the previous offseason? The bulky, fighting forward was a player Rutherford wanted as protection for the Penguins’ star players in the wake of physical beatings they endured at the hands of playoff opponents in the Stanley Cup run of 2017. But that was completely counter to Sullivan’s speed-oriented attack and “just play” mantra that had worked so well en route to back-to-back championships.
Reaves never seemed to find a steady spot in Sullivan’s rotation and was eventually moved to Las Vegas as a way to help facilitate the Brassard trade.
There has never been any public discord between Sullivan and Rutherford. No signs of discontent between the two. At all times in front of the media, Rutherford defers to Sullivan’s role as coach to deploy the lineup as he sees fit.
Meanwhile, Sullivan never misses a chance to praise Rutherford’s attempts to make the roster better.
During Thursday’s news conference, though, the attempt to present the optics of those two men tugging on the same rope was brought into question. They were asked about the state of their working relationship in terms of talent evaluation.
Rutherford characterized the give-and-take between the two as “extremely good,” and he claimed, “I don’t make any trades on my own and say ‘Hey, Mike, there are going to be a couple of new guys in the room tomorrow. Figure it out.’ Our staff is always together and 100-percent in on any final decision I make on players that are brought in.”
Predictably, Sullivan echoed Rutherford’s comments when he answered the same question, referring to his working relationship with Rutherford as “great” and calling Rutherford “a good communicator.” Sullivan also elaborated to the point of insisting that he and his general manager “share the same vision on how to play stylistically in order to maximize the group.”
“He encourages our input and feedback,” Sullivan said. “In all the discussions that we’ve had since we have been together, we tend to see the game a similar way.”
Big picture, sure. But those examples cited above suggest Sullivan and Rutherford aren’t hand-in-glove 100 percent of the time, as Rutherford stated.
They did, however, seem to be in sync with their message Thursday: The players were to blame for that Islanders sweep.
Not the roster construction. Rutherford vigorously defended that angle by pointing to how he thought acquisitions of Nick Bjugstad, Jared McCann, Marcus Pettersson and Erik Gudbranson helped the team this year.
Rutherford also torched some in uniform — without naming names — for getting too comfortable after Stanley Cup success and not coming together enough from a chemistry standpoint.
Meanwhile, Sullivan put the team on blast for a missing commitment to “playing the game the right way.” Specifically, the coach pointed to the players having a “lack of discipline on both sides of the puck.” And he faulted the skaters for being unable to understand “it’s not all about scoring goals.”
Hey, don’t look at me for an argument. I agree on all fronts.
But if that’s all true, then it’s time for Rutherford to trade away some of those undisciplined, fat-and-happy players, while getting proper return. Or Sullivan needs to implement a structure that doesn’t allow those players to freelance, and he needs to bench them when they do. Sullivan used to draw wild praise from fans and media for “always pushing the right buttons” with his roster and reaching this talented, but stubborn, group in ways other coaches haven’t been able to do.
Where did that trait go this year?
Whether Sullivan and Rutherford are two peas in a pod as much as the team wants us to think is up for debate. What isn’t arguable is that they both agree the shortcomings of 2019 are to be pinned on the players.
Now their task is to fix the players. Or change the roster. Or both.
Otherwise, ownership may look at them if this team doesn’t have a deeper playoff run next year.
Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@tribweb.com or viaTwitter. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.
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Sunday, April 21, 2019

Cole Tucker captures Pittsburgh’s heart, just when Pirates needed it


by Kevin Gorman
April 20, 2019
PITTSBURGH, PA - APRIL 20: Cole Tucker #3 of the Pittsburgh Pirates reacts after hitting a two run home run for his first Major League hit in the fifth inning during the game against the San Francisco Giants at PNC Park on April 20, 2019 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin Berl/Getty Images)
Hearts dropped when Starling Marte and Erik Gonzalez collided at full speed Friday night at PNC Park, a play that left both players injured and the Pittsburgh Pirates seriously short-handed.
Their corresponding move had Cole Tucker’s chest pounding Saturday as the shortstop was ecstatic about joining outfielder Bryan Reynolds in making their major league debuts.
That’s the problem with trying to put your finger on the pulse of these Pirates: Every time it looks like they are left for dead, they give us palpitations. Conversely, it seems every time they capture this city’s hearts, it is only until their next catastrophe.
Instead of curtains, we got a curtain call.
Tucker didn’t just get his first major league hit against Derek Holland and the San Francisco Giants. With two outs in the fifth inning, Tucker crushed a 2-2 pitch for a two-run homer to straightaway center that proved to be the game-winner in a 3-1 rain-shortened victory. The shot sailed over Kevin Pillar and into the shrubs that spell PIRATES. Tucker let out a primal scream after rounding third and headed home with his right arm extended.
Tucker didn’t just emerge from the home dugout to tip his batting helmet. He reveled in the celebration before a crowd of 17,663, raising his arms and pumping them before pounding his left hand on his chest. Tucker didn’t just give the Pirates fans at PNC Park something for which to cheer but, more importantly, someone.
“I was so excited to do it that I got out there and just was floored with emotion, man,” Tucker said. “It was loud. People were screaming. It was really, really, really cool.”
It was perfect timing, and not just because his homer was the thunder that followed a flash of lightning to beat a three-hour rain delay. It also provided perfect symmetry to the storyline, as the last Pirate to homer in his major league debut was none other than Marte.
It was exactly what this town and this team needed, at just the right moment. The Pirates had returned home with the best winning percentage in the National League, just days after the Penguins had been swept out of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
So it only made sense on the same night the Pirates moved into first place in the NL Central they lost their starting shortstop and center fielder on one play. Where Marte was placed on the 10-day injured list with contusions to his abdominal wall and quadriceps, Gonzalez was placed on the 60-day injured list with a fractured left clavicle.
“That was cool. I didn’t show up thinking, ‘Oh, I’m stressed because Marte got hurt or Erik got hurt or whatever,’ but it definitely felt like we needed a pick-me-up,” Tucker said. “It was sweet to go out and do that.”
Manager Clint Hurdle didn’t mince words when asked what prompted the call-ups of Tucker and Reynolds. This was no time for subtlety, and he made it clear it wasn’t because of their impressive slash lines in two weeks at Triple-A Indianapolis.
“The need for center field and shortstop, quite frankly,” Hurdle said. “Next man up, absolutely.”
That goes against any plans the Pirates had to bring both players along methodically. Opportunity knocked down the door, leaving them no choice but to answer. This wasn’t about service time or years of control. The Pirates were in survival mode.
That brought Reynolds full circle, as he was part of the package the Pirates got from the Giants in return for trading Andrew McCutchen in January 2018. That his first major league start was in center against San Francisco was delicious irony for Reynolds, who got his first hit on a two-out single through shortstop in the fourth inning and made a nice over-the-shoulder catch in deep center to end the inning.
Tucker, on the other hand, was the Pirates’ 2014 first-round pick. They had hopes he was the future at a position that remained unsettled despite the presence of another former first-rounder, Kevin Newman, and the offseason trade with the Cleveland Indians for Gonzalez.
Tucker spent the past two spring trainings with the Pirates, so Hurdle had an idea of what to expect of a skill set that includes defensive dependability and clubhouse charisma. That’s what Hurdle was looking for from the remaining Pirates veterans.
“There’s times like this,” Hurdle said before the game, “when there could be some anxiety, there could be some uneasiness that a voice of reason or somebody with experience can hopefully help or be of benefit.”
Little did the Pirates know that the voice of reason was the one telling them to let the kids play, or that Tucker would be the one to circumvent catastrophe and capture the city’s hearts.
If not make them skip a beat again.
Kevin Gorman is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Kevin by email atkgorman@tribweb.com or via Twitter .
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Pirates get rain-shortened win over Giants - 4/20/19

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Saturday, April 20, 2019

Coach Mike Sullivan must steer Penguins in new direction


By Mark Madden
April 19, 2019
Mike Sullivan of the Pittsburgh Penguins handles bench duties against the New York Islanders in Game One of the Eastern Conference First Round during the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at NYCB Live's Nassau Coliseum on April 10, 2019 in Uniondale, New York. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

In 1997, Mario Lemieux retired for the first time. The 1996-97 Penguins had finished second in the Northeast Division at 38-36-8.
Eddie Johnston had been dismissed as coach with 20 games remaining and replaced on an interim basis by general manager Craig Patrick. When the 1997-98 season dawned, Kevin Constantine was the new coach. Constantine was structured and systematic to the point of blunt force trauma. His video sessions didn’t dissect, they humiliated.
It worked.
The Penguins won the Northeast Division that season, going 40-24-18. They scored 57 fewer goals but allowed 92 fewer. In the midst of all that system and structure, Jaromir Jagr collected 102 points and won the scoring titlBye by 11 points.
Jagr bought in. There were anxious moments. Jagr’s hand needed held every step of the way. But Jagr recognized the path to success, even if he didn’t lovingly embrace it.
That could work again.
I don’t want to replace Mike Sullivan, let alone with Constantine or any facsimile of his tyranny. He got fired by the Penguins early in his third season, coaching only briefly in the NHL after that. Constantine’s style wasn’t made for the long haul.
But, having won Stanley Cups with speed in 2016 and ’17, the Penguins find themselves aging and slower. Not old and slow, but aging and slower.
The Penguins still have a ton of talent. But it needs steered in a different direction. Sullivan has to see that. Then he needs to make his players see it. He also needs to make his stars see they can be productive within context, like Jagr in ’97-98.
Would today’s Penguins buy in?
Early returns suggest not, courtesy of defenseman Kris Letang.
Letang got testy when asked about adjusting his style to take less risk: “You don’t want me to make mistakes? I’ll try that. Next year, I’ll try to make no mistakes at all.
“Maybe next year, you’re going to say, ‘Hey, (Letang) doesn’t do anything offensively.’ So now you’re going to rip me apart because I don’t produce anything.”
There’s sense to what Letang says. The fans and media (ahem) always will find something to complain about. Unless Letang makes no mistakes at all.
Letang shouldn’t change his game. He’s needed to lug the puck out of danger when the Penguins are bottled up. He’s needed to get the puck to Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin quickly and precisely. He’s needed to make plays offensively.
You want exactly what Letang does 95 percent of the time. He will err, sure. But there is no replacing him. Trading Letang shouldn’t be even a remote thought.
But it’s reasonable to ask Letang to be judicious.
Focus has been put on a play Letang failed to make in Game 4 of the first-round series against the New York Islanders.
Jake Guentzel staked the Penguins to a 1-0 lead just 35 seconds into the game. But the Islanders tied the score 94 seconds later when the Islanders got the puck past a pinching Letang, then Jordan Eberle converted a two-on-one break.
Before criticizing Letang, realize he did exactly what Sullivan wants. The Penguins’ system mandates the defensemen pinch. The mistake wasn’t pinching, it was letting the puck by. It was compounded by no forward rotating back to cover.
The Penguins should have played it safe for a few shifts after their dream start. Making the Islanders finally play at a deficit for a while would have been interesting. Their system is better when they lead. (Find one that isn’t.)
But the Penguins pressed for another goal. That’s their way. It went bad. That, too, was very often their way. That’s why they got swept.
Asking offensively talented players on a team that’s won championships to be judicious won’t work. They won’t err on the side of caution. They will err on the side of what’s worked and what they always have done. They won’t address their limitations.
So don’t provide options. Be rigid. Install a tighter system. If it works, you can build in more leeway at a later date. (Or promise to do so, anyway.)
Sullivan and GM Jim Rutherford’s post-elimination comments suggest the Penguins never found their identity. That’s because their old identity died of natural causes. Positive change can happen organically. In this case, it won’t.
Don’t ask. Demand.
Don’t replicate Constantine. But learn from what he did. It worked.
Categories: Sports | Penguins | Top Stories
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Lyles, Cervelli lead Pirates to 4-1 win - 4/19/19

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Friday, April 19, 2019

Penguins better listen to themselves after ‘self-inflicted’ playoff exit


By Tim Benz
April 19, 2019
Phil Kessel talks with reporters in the practice facility locker room before leaving for the off season two days after being swept by the New York Islanders in the first round of the NHL hockey playoffs, Thursday, April 18, 2019, at their practice facility in Cranberry Township. (Keith Srakocic/AP)
If the Penguins showed this much pushback against the New York Islanders, maybe they’d still be playing.
Locker cleanout day got a little testy at times Thursday at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry. The 2019 Penguins team was packing up for the last time in the wake of their four-game sweep at the hands of the Islanders in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Defenseman Kris Letang didn’t like a suggestion that he needed to take fewer offensive chances. General manager Jim Rutherford got snippy when asked if his team needed to get faster before next season.
By comparison, my exchange with winger Phil Kessel was borderline jovial.
But Kessel still got his point across. I asked him what was missing — well, aside from pucks actually getting by the opposing goalie on occasion — from this year’s team as opposed to the two Penguins clubs that won Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017.
“You think this is easy to win?” Kessel asked with a grin.
OK. Half a grin.
“Every team is good,” Kessel continued. “There are a lot of great players. It’s not as easy as the outside world projects to win games.”
Kessel came back to that point a few times during a 3 minute, 15 second exchange with reporters. That’s a veritable State of the Union by Kessel’s standards. One in which he was engaged, conversational and reflective.
Those words aren’t often used to describe the average interaction between Kessel and the media. I followed up by asking Kessel whether the Penguins could rediscover their magic touch from the Cup-winning seasons.
“Who is to say it can’t?” Kessel responded. “The year before, we lost in the second round and Washington won (the Stanley Cup). The two previous years, we won the Cup. There is always a chance to win, and I’m sure the team will improve. And we’ll see what happens over the summer.”
The point about Washington last season is fair one. After winning nine straight playoff series, the Penguins lost in overtime of Game 6 to the eventual Stanley Cup champions.
Stuff happens.
But others in the locker room had a hard time compartmentalizing this defeat in that same manner.
“It was definitely different,” winger Bryan Rust said. “This year was a little bit more self-inflicted than last year. I definitely think we could’ve done better and we had more. I definitely think we shot ourselves in the foot in certain situations.”
Penguins captain Sidney Crosby summed up the reasons for that result.
“It was frustrating because we knew what to expect and they were successful at doing what we knew they were going to do,” Crosby said.
So the question for coach Mike Sullivan had to be, “Why?” If the diagnosis was obvious, why couldn’t the Penguins fix their own symptoms?
“To win in the playoffs, you can’t be a high-risk team,” Sullivan said. “You have to have a certain discipline to your game on both sides of the puck. It’s not always about scoring goals.”
And Sullivan insisted that pressing to score, when it was a struggle to do so against the Islanders, made matters worse.
“There was a lot of talk about the fact that we didn’t score,” Sullivan continued. “When I look at the way the series played out, it wasn’t so much that we didn’t score as it was about the opportunities we gave our opponent were of high quality. And we didn’t force them to work for it.”
Kessel and Crosby are certainly two of those players who look to score goals. They make high-risk plays. So do Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and Jake Guentzel.
Are they all going to be traded? Of course not. Especially not Crosby, who often does a lot of things to prevent goals, too. But even he was a minus-4 in that Islanders series.
Should some be traded? Probably.
Although, Rutherford said Tuesday he wants the emotion of a season-ending sweep to dissipate before he makes any rash decisions.
In the end, expect most of those players to be back.
Rumors cropped up about Kessel being moved last offseason, though. Maybe they didn’t manifest into much more than that because emotions calmed for Rutherford and Sullivan in the summer of 2018, too.
However, when Kessel dragged his sticks out of the locker room Thursday, it had the look of maybe being something more permanent. As if he may be one of the players moved, so the team could start evolving into a more structured, less freewheeling unit.
If Kessel is back with the rest of the core Penguins, they’ll act like they are going to practice what they preach.
Maybe this time they’ll actually listen to themselves instead of arguing when people point out what the team knows to be true.
Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@tribweb.com or viaTwitter. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.
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Thursday, April 18, 2019

4/17/19: Moran's go-ahead single leads Bucs to win

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PENGUINS MUST GO BACKWARD TO GO FORWARD – JUST LIKE THE BLACKHAWKS HAVE


By 
https://thehockeynews.com/news/article/penguins-must-go-backward-to-go-forward-just-like-the-blackhawks-have
April 17, 2019
The Pittsburgh Penguins acknowledge the crowd after a 3-1 loss to the New York Islanders in Game Four of the Eastern Conference First Round during the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at PPG Paints Arena on April 16, 2019 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Joe Sargent/NHLI via Getty Images)

The Pittsburgh Penguins fought off the aging process for as long as they could, but this highly successful incarnation of the franchise might finally be decaying.
It arguably started last year, when the Penguins fell in the second round of the playoffs to the team they used to own, the Washington Capitals. It was an obvious regression after consecutive Stanley Cups, but it didn’t necessarily signal the downfall of an empire. The Penguins still had their superstar core, led by Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. They had ascending goal-scorer Jake Guentzel, a do-it-all blueliner in Kris Letang and a talented if inconsistent netminder in Matt Murray. The pieces might have been in place to sustain the team’s dominance. At least, that was the glass-half-full idea, one I admittedly endorsed after their exit a year ago.
If we squinted closer, though, we understood that GM Jim Rutherford had very little cap space with which to work last summer. His biggest move was the widely criticized Jack Johnson trade. On paper, the team really didn’t improve, and there wasn’t significant help coming from within. Because they surrendered futures in the name of Cup chases, the Pens didn’t pick in the first round of the 2018 draft. Or the 2017 draft. Or 2016. Or 2015. And they traded away Kasperi Kapanen, the player they picked in 2014’s first round. As I’ve said many times before, all that was 100 percent worth it. The franchise landed two championships. Rutherford absolutely did the right thing. You keep taking your shots while you have Crosby and Malkin in their primes.
We always knew how the story would end, of course. The top-heavy roster model takes you so far before collapsing under its own weight because so few high-impact youngsters arrive to support the stars and there isn’t sufficient cap space to bring in any top-end veterans. The Chicago Blackhawks previewed the Penguins’ fate perfectly. Chicago won the Stanley Cup in 2015, lost in seven games in 2016’s first round, got swept by the bottom-seed Nashville Predators in 2017’s first round and missed the playoffs the next two seasons.
That’s a five-step map, and the Penguins just completed step three, by the looks of it, getting swept by the New York Islanders in Round 1. A closer look at the analytical numbers suggests the Pens did a good job generating shot attempts only to be thwarted by hot goaltender Robin Lehner, but there’s no denying Pittsburgh had more holes than a Connect Four grid on defense. The Pens held a clear advantage in shot attempts at 5-on-5, but scoring chances were even, and the Isles did a much better job creating high-danger shot attempts. Even though, playoffs aside, Crosby just finished one of the best seasons of his career, it’s apparent the star power isn’t enough to carry the Penguins anymore. This team just doesn’t have enough depth at forward or talent on the defensive side of the puck.
So what should we expect from the Penguins and, more specifically, Rutherford now? Speaking for a long time after the series-ending Game 4, Malkin expressed a desire not overhaul the team structure. But it’s possible the Penguins are best off making a few major moves in the name of going backward to go forward.
If the Penguins deny that their empire is crumbling and try to reload, it won’t be easy. Guentzel’s new contract kicks in for 2019-20, spiking his cap hit from $734,167 to $6 million, so the Penguins have virtually no cap space. The cap’s probable increase from $79.5 to $83 million should buy enough breathing room to re-sign RFAs Zach Aston-Reese and Teddy Blueger. That’s about it. Pittsburgh thus finds itself in a similar position to last summer, unable to add much in free agency, with the only path to cap space being a trade of a big-money player. If you execute such a deal – and, say, move Phil Kessel for a defenseman – is the tradeoff worth it? Does the team improve at all if it must sacrifice one excellent player for another?
The Penguins, then, might be smarter to continue along Chicago’s path, for better or worse. The Hawks got to rejoin the first round of the draft in 2017 after sitting it out for two years and scored a good young blueliner in Henri Jokiharju at 29th overall. The Pens will pick in Round 1 for the first time since 2014 and can add their first high-pedigree draftee since Kapanen. In 2017-18, Chicago bombed out of the playoffs, traded Ryan Hartman for a first-rounder at the deadline and picked twice in the first round. Missing the playoffs meant selecting in the top 10 of the draft for the first time since they nabbed Patrick Kane first overall in 2007, and the Hawks landed an A-grade prospect in puck-moving defenseman Adam Boqvist eighth overall. The second first-rounder scored them another defensemen, Nicolas Beaudin, 27th overall. In two drafts, Chicago rebuilt its defense pipeline.
Hawks GM Stan Bowman also understood the need to score some additional young NHL talent for his team. He turned one young, underachieving scoring forward into two, sending Nick Schmaltz to Arizona for Dylan Strome and Brendan Perlini. Strome in particular experienced the long-anticipated breakout and formed an excellent second line with Perlini and Alex DeBrincat. That trio’s ascension allowed Chicago to reunite its stars, Kane and Jonathan Toews, together on the first line. Both posted their best numbers in years.
So Chicago, in a matter of two years, has repaired or at least begun repairing two glaring problems: a weak D-corps and a lack of forward depth behind its stars. More importantly, the Blackhawks have done it quickly enough that their new generation of youngsters, led by DeBrincat, Strome and Boqvist, has a chance to peak before Kane and Toews stop playing good hockey. The Hawks’ pillars could experience a useful career renaissance as key contributors on a relatively young team. Chicago even flirted with a playoff berth this spring and, depending on what it does this summer, has a chance to climb back into the tournament by next year. The key was GM Stan Bowman’s willingness to go backward to go forward.
Now the Penguins have an opportunity to do the same thing. They can use this year’s first-round pick. They can seek young, controllable players in trades – which Rutherford already started doing by acquiring Jared McCann and Nick Bjugstad from the Florida Panthers in February. Maybe, by trading someone like Kessel, they can land some futures in the form of picks and/or prospects, though it’s worth noting they’d need some co-operation from Kessel, whose contract carries a list of eight teams to which he’d accept a trade. Moving him for pieces that would help more in the future than the present would decrease Pittsburgh’s odds of making the playoffs next year. That would surely be a bitter pill for Crosby and Malkin to swallow, but it would increase the chances of Pittsburgh bouncing back toward real contention before Crosby and Malkin’s primes end.
By sacrificing two years, maybe even just one, the Pens have a better chance at winning another Cup rather than toiling in mediocrity – and can set up a succession plan for the years after Crosby and Malkin begin fading. The Hawks have DeBrincat, Strome and Boqvist to get excited about as the next generation. Whom does Pittsburgh have?
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Wednesday, April 17, 2019

4/16/19: Marte's 2-run smash in 10th leads Pirates

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Islanders’ sweep provides painful ending for Penguins


By Kevin Gorman
https://triblive.com/sports/kevin-gorman-islanders-sweep-in-perfect-storm-provides-painful-ending-for-penguins/
April 17, 2019


Jordan Eberle #7 of the New York Islanders scores a goal past Matt Murray #30 of the Pittsburgh Penguins during the first period in Game Four of the Eastern Conference First Round at PPG PAINTS Arena on April 16, 2019 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin Berl/Getty Images)

It was a sorry scene, seeing the Pittsburgh Penguins skate off their home ice Tuesday night after being swept by the New York Islanders in this Stanley Cup playoffs first-round series.
Don’t blame the Penguins for being in a state of disbelief after being swept into a perfect storm. Only two years ago, they were celebrating back-to-back Cup championships in June. Now, after a 3-1 Game 4 loss Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena, their season has ended before Easter.
“It hurts,” said Penguins winger Jake Guentzel, whose goal 35 seconds into the first period brought the sellout crowd to a crescendo. “These fans have been here for us all year. To lose these two on home ice in front of them, we wanted to thank them for all they done but it doesn’t feel good.”
As painful as it was for the Penguins, it also was merciful.
If not for the Penguins, then it was for us. We don’t have to watch them pound their heads against a brick wall anymore, repeatedly trying the same tactics to beat an Islanders team that played better together, with more conviction, stronger defense, greater goaltending and able to capitalize on every chance.
Give the Islanders a stick tap for solving the Penguins with a strategy as simple as it was sound: Play the percentages, wait for them to make mistakes and then pounce.
That’s why it was only going to end this way, with the Islanders winning a close game to clinch the series. I’m convinced the Penguins and Islanders could have continued playing — for five, seven or 10 games — and they all would have ended in the same fashion. That’s how much the Islanders were in control.
If that wasn’t clear after the overtime loss in Game 1, it became more obvious after the second game at Nassau Coliseum. Nothing about home-ice advantage helped the Penguins avoid falling into the trap set by the Islanders time and time again. Not swapping Jack Johnson for Olli Maatta on defense. Not switching sticks in practice. Not taking a day off from skating. Not shuffling the lines. Not shaking up the power play.
“We knew what to expect,” Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said. “They were going to try to force us into making mistakes and capitalize. We knew they were comfortable playing low-scoring games.
“It was a combination of us not (scoring on) some of those chances — usually automatic for us — and that’s the kind of game that allows them to hang around. They get a couple odd-man rushes and bury some of those. That’s how fine the line is in the playoffs. Unfortunately, we were on the wrong side of those.”
Members of the Pittsburgh Penguins look on from the bench in the final seconds of the third period in Game Four of the Eastern Conference First Round against the New York Islanders at PPG PAINTS Arena on April 16, 2019 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin Berl/Getty Images)

Crosby took this loss hard. And he took it personal, after scoring his only point by assisting on Guentzel’s lone goal. Crosby knew the Penguins had their chances, whether it was his shot that ricocheted off the left post on a second-period power play or Phil Kessel’s shot that skipped off the shin of sliding Islanders defenseman Scott Mayfield in the crease in the third.
“When you look at the nature of the way the games were played, it was a whole lot closer than the optics,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “Every game, for that matter, was a one-goal game. We might have given up a second goal late in the game because we were pressing but, for the most part, it was a fairly even game. It boils down to critical moments and making sure you make the right plays at the right time.”
The Islanders did, repeatedly, especially after the Penguins took a lead. The Islanders scored minutes after Erik Gudbranson’s goal in Game 2, after Garrett Wilson’s goal in Game 3 and after Guentzel’s goal in Game 4. That those three leads lasted a combined 4 minutes, 51 seconds is astounding. The Islanders responded to adversity with an answer.
The Penguins had none.
They were grasping at straws to explain it and will spend the rest of spring and into the summer wondering why.
“It’s disappointing because it seemed like that was the case the whole series,” Sullivan said. “Every time we scored, we’d get some momentum and we’d give it back shortly thereafter. It’s such a game of momentum. When you can hang on to it, it certainly helps your team.”
When you can’t, the ending is inevitable.
Kevin Gorman is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Kevin by email atkgorman@tribweb.com or via Twitter .
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