Time to take a look at the outlook for the 2007-2008 season for the Pittsburgh Penguins. After reading several stories and reports written recently by magazines, newspapers and the usual suspects, opinions vary as to what the Pens will accomplish in this upcoming season. Projections range from making brief playoff appearance, to winning the whole enchilada. One magazine, The Sporting News, actually picked the Pens to win the Cup, the Art Ross Trophy (Sidney Crosby), the Hart Trophy (Evgeni Malkin), and the Conn Smythe Trophy (Marc-Andre Fleury). These are lofty goals indeed. And they are extremely unlikely.Crosby winning the Art Ross and the team winning the Stanley Cup are possible goals this season. There will be strong challenges in both categories and odds are they may not win both or either for that matter. As far as Malkin and the Hart, and Fleury and the Conn Smythe, there would have to be some extreme changes from last year’s play from both players, certainly not impossible but a stretch to be sure.
Here’s how the team shapes up:
Forwards
This team has the best young talent on paper to say the least. They are strong down the middle with Crosby, Malkin and Jordan Staal, and with veterans like Mark Recchi, Gary Roberts and Petr Sykora working the wings, this team should have no problems scoring goals. Toss in Erik Christensen and hopefully Ryan Malone, three very good lines emerge. Defensively, Colby Armstrong and Maxime Talbot will keep delivering hits, with Jarkko Ruutu agitating and Georges Laraque enforcing, the forwards look to be ready for the long haul.Defensemen
Ryan Whitney, Sergei Gonchar, and newly acquired Darryl Sydor will provide the offensive punch from the blueliners. They will be running the point on the power play, which should be one of the best in the league. Brooks Orpik, Rob Scuderi, and Mark Eaton will supply steady defense, with the hope that they are better in positioning and overall play than last year. Kris Letang and Alain Nasreddine are not bad players either when or if they are asked to fill in.
Goaltending
Marc-Andre Fleury has the most to prove this year. He has now had the experience of
being the number one go to guy on an NHL team for a year and after improving his goals against average by over half a point, he needs to improve the rest of his game to become a top five or ten goalie in the league. His rebound control, puck handling and overall focus need to improve for him to take his place among the games elite. Any goalie on a Pens team has in the past has had to play big because they will face more shots than most other teams’ goalies do, but hopefully this will change a little this year. Dany Sabourin is an adequate backup but only if Fleury is the big time goalie he needs to be.Overall
The entire division went through some major changes and it won’t be as easy this time around. Don’t expect the Pens to get 16 points off of the Philadelphia Flyers like they did last year. The New Jersey Devils have lost some glitter but they are still the Devils. The New York Rangers spent big and have an all-star team, and that sometimes backfires, but don’t figure on them being too far from the top. And the NY Islanders may be the worst team in the division, but they are no cupcake. Expect the Penguins to be in the top three in this division, make the playoffs and win a series or two. It wouldn’t be a big surprise for them to win it all, but probably not this season.
We all expect the best and are disappointed in anything less, but this team should be good for many years to come. Let’s get this season started and make a run for another date with the Stanley Cup!!
