The Penguins limp into an early offseason with an uncertain future
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Sidney Crosby detests free time.
He abhors it almost as much as a clingy opposing third-line center hassling him for a puck or yapping personal insults.
So, given the Pittsburgh Penguins’ failure to qualify for the NHL’s postseason that begins Monday, this won’t be an enjoyable summer for the team’s captain.
“I just hope that we learn from this,” Crosby said at the team’s facility in Cranberry on Saturday as the team held its exit interviews and scattered for the offseason. “I think that’s the biggest thing is, regardless of the situation, whether you win or lose in the first round, second round, whatever, you’ve got to learn from it, and I think that’s something that we’ll have a lot of time to dissect it and learn from it.
“Hopefully we’re a motivated group because of going through this.”
To encapsulate “this,” that would include a rough final week of the season that involved being formally eliminated from postseason contention thanks in part to a devastating 5-2 home loss to a poor Chicago Blackhawks team Tuesday, a meaningless 3-2 come-from-ahead overtime road loss to the almost as squalid Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday and culminating with the firings of general manager Ron Hextall and president of hockey operations Brian Burke on Friday.
“We didn’t want to be in this position, and obviously we’ve had a few days after the Chicago loss and knowing before the Columbus game that we weren’t going to play in the playoffs, it’s disappointing,” said Crosby, whose team is missing out on the postseason for the first time since his rookie campaign of 2005-06. “Everything that happened (Friday), nobody feels good. I think we all feel responsible, and it’s not a great feeling.”
One of those feelings is uncertainty as the team’s owners, Fenway Sports Group, initiated a search Friday to find a new leader of the hockey operations department. That person(s) will have final say on what the composition of the roster will look like when the team gathers for training camp in approximately five months.
“We don’t know who’s going to be in charge here,” defenseman Marcus Pettersson said. “So, we’ll see what happens within the next few weeks or however long it’s going to take. … I don’t really want to speculate on things to come.”
Others certainly will speculate on the future of the Penguins, particularly their most prominent pending unrestricted free agents such as goaltender Tristan Jarry, defenseman Brian Dumoulin and forward Jason Zucker.
Not surprisingly, there appears to be a universal sentiment among this mostly chummy group of wanting to remain as intact as possible.
“I just try to focus on what’s in front of me, what tomorrow looks like,” Dumoulin said. “I’m a very day-to-day person. Obviously … I know our group is not going to be the same no matter what. It’s obviously the end of the year. It’s always a tough time.”
Given that the core components of this team — namely, Crosby, forward Evgeni Malkin and defenseman Kris Letang — are still capable of being dominant players and, more importantly, still under contract, the Penguins profess faith that they are still capable of being a Stanley Cup contender.
“I believe this team has the makings of being a very competitive hockey team,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “Our core players have the ability to play at an elite level. We have the makings of a very competitive team. That’s what I think makes today difficult. And it stings. Because we all felt as though we had a team that was a playoff-caliber team.”
How close are the Penguins to once again being worthy of meaningful games in the spring?
“It’s hard to say,” Crosby said. “That’s something you earn and you go through things during the year. It’s easy to sit here and say it on the outside and look in. But we didn’t earn it. I don’t think we’re far by any means, but we didn’t find a way to get in there and it’s tough because there’s not a lot of separation.
“So, it’s a matter of getting in there and then seeing what happens. Just to not be able to get in there, that’s tough. … That’s something that you have to earn the right to be in that conversation, and unfortunately, we didn’t do that.”