Stunning....Hossa to the Pens

"As with anything, it depends on the cost. It's like when you go shopping for a car. You might like something, but it's way out of your price range, or if you have a family budget, sometimes it's not going to fit into what you want to do." --Ray Shero (yesterday afternoon)

First thought:

• Wow

Second thought:

• Well, this changes things.

Let's look at what the Penguins gave up:

• Colby Armstrong: The best thing he had going for him was that he was Sidney Crosby's best friend and road roommate. Armstrong seemed to find his stride, notching 40 points in 47 games just a couple of seasons ago and throwing several devasting checks last season. But this year he hasn't produced as much and those huge open ice hits have been absent. Army's a great guy and a good locker-room guy, but his NHL ceiling is a 3rd line winger.
• Erik Christensen: Shootout specialist but with the Pens depth chart he never really could get quality minutes and couldn't fit in on the wing.
• Angelo Esposito: Excellent prospect who dropped in the draft and the second person to ever be cut from Team Canada's WJC team three times in a row.

And the Penguins get:

• Marian Hossa. Marian freakin Hossa.
• Pascal Dupuis. I saw Atlanta play in Washington a couple of weeks ago and I thought Dupuis was the Tbombs best forward that night, FWIW.

And perhaps just as important, here's who didn't get Marian Hossa:

• The Ottawa Senators
• The Montreal Canadiens

The East is wide open and the Penguins, out of all the competitive teams were the only ones to drastically improve themselves. Heck, they were the only ones to really improve themselves at all (excusing the Lapointe to Ottawa deal).

For now who cares about whether this will backfire in the long run or whether or not the Pens gave up too much or if it will all work. The great thing about being a fan is the excitement the game gives you. The Penguins just got a dynamic, offensive skilled winger. For the time being we'll let the Penguins front office (who probably knows better than any talking head you head opine) deal with the details.

They must have a plan. But at least it's starting with hopefully a lengthy playoff run.

Son-of-a-Beech

Right before the All-Star break the Penguins demoted a trio of young forwards they had recently recalled (Ryan Stone, Tim Brent and Chris Minard). We thought it interesting that they leave Jonathan Filewich on the NHL roster and also interesting that it left them with just 11 healthy forwards. But with visions of Gary dancing in our head, we were stunned to see Kris Beech back as a Pittsburgh Penguin.

Allow us to repeat that sentence; we were stunned to see Kris Beech back as a Pittsburgh Penguin.

It’s kind of ironic that this weekend we were watching the “Chasing the Dream” DVD that was a documentary of the 2002-03 Wilkes-Barre Baby Penguins and were thinking about how some of the most promising players on that team (Beech, Milan Kraft, Michal Sivek) didn’t pan out in the NHL but more unheralded guys like Rob Scuderi and Tom Kostopolous are in the show this year.

It’s also kind of ironic that the Pens grabbed him from Washington (who had grabbed him from Vancouver less than a week ago). We were going to do a post saying how Beech came full circle by returning to the organ-eye-zation that drafted him, but it didn’t seem right since Washington intended to keep him in the AHL where he is a difference making center. And, in the back of the minds here, we always thought Beech would come full circle, to us, if he ever ended up back with the black and Vegas gold.

Well shit.

Well, this sucks

Sidney Crosby hurt. Oh boy. What's initially been diagnosed as a dreaded "high ankle sprain" took Crosby out of the game and probably a lot longer.

Dagger

But before declaring all to be lost, let's try to focus on the good:

1)The Penguins have a center (Evgeni Malkin) to plug into the #1 spot on the depth chart who would probably be a #1 center on 25+ teams in the NHL.
2)When Marc-Andre Fleury went down to the very same injury, everyone and their brother pronounced the season to be lost. Out of the absolute shadow stepped in Ty Conklin who hadn't lost in regulation until tonight!


All this instant diagnosis of Crosby being out 4+ weeks seems a little premature. In our experience of seeing this injuries this year though (namely the Caps Alex Semin and the Pens Max Talbot) in both occasions the players thought they could heal faster than they really could, both came back too early (Semin did numerous times) and both paid the price of having the nagging injury take it's toll.

Crosby prides himself at being a professional and taking care of his body. He's not going to rush anything and knows what he can and can't play through. Plus the Pens medical staff has now dealt with three of these sprains (the aforementioned Talbot and Fleury) so they should be very familiar about rehabbing this.

When one goes down, someone else must take his place. No matter how important, Crosby is a cog in the machine. A very, very important part, to be sure, but the great thing about hockey is it's a team sport. The best players, and more often the best collection of players, often do not win it all. Rather, it's the best collection of talent that bonds together; picks up the slack and refuses to lose (and gets the requisite amount luck and bounces along the way) that usually carries off the Cup.

In that sense, losing your best player will test the whole club. For starters obviously Malkin is going to have to bring his A game as the new #1 center. But when Crosby was out last season for a few games with a groin injury Malkin was flat out sensational and took games over--almost as if he knew he was not only out of Sid's shadow but had to carry the mail for the team.

Secondary scoring is now a must. Players like Jordan Staal and Ryan Malone are now going to be in a bigger role and have to pick up the slack and capitalize on their opportunities. Both have been inconsistent offensively for stretches but with the big dog out of the lineup, their contributions are necessarily and neither need to be told that.

Further it's going to test the coaching staff. Memo to Michel Therrien: now is not the time to play the only elite winger sniper you have (Petr Sykora) with glorified grinders and role players like Jarrko Ruutu and Talbot. You have to consolidate your skill, and in a hurry.

Here's how we'd work the lines, as of now:

Malone-Malkin-Sykora
Christensen-Staal-Kennedy
Ruutu-Talbot-Armstrong
Stone-Hall-Laraque

Second line is a huge question mark, given how EC hasn't played well on the wing and Staal hasn't produced, but we think TK's energy gives it a boost. Even though they're young; they're responsible enough defensively and hustle enough to negate that....Malkin and Sykora worked well together in Russia during the lockout season and need to play together. Period. Malone's done a good job taking the body and opening up space and we think will thrive knowing that he's now a leader of this team and has to come through.

Stay tuned for the next prognosis on Crosby. God willing it will turn out better than it looked tonight.

If not, just time to make some lemonade (and vodka) out of these lemons.

As for the game....we hear Andre Roy had a part in all the goals, scoring one and assisting two more. And the Penguins didn't score. And Brooks Orpik was -3. And Ty Conklin lost. And Crosby got hurt? If you'll excuse us we're either drunk or in the midst of a nightmare.