Pens Effect on the Sabres
June 15th, 2009 at 5:25 pm by Paul Peck under News 4 Buffalo Sports
Its routine in the NHL to look at the Stanley Cup Champion and wonder how other teams will copy their style. What might the Sabres draw from Pittsburgh’s victory? The Penguins are a young, superstar-driven team that may be hard for others to emulate. First off, few other teams have superstar players like Crosby & Malkin. Those two, along with goalie Marc-Andre Fluery, were the Pens dominant players. Remember, the Penguins had to be really bad for a few years to be in position to use high picks on those guys. So the blueprint may be stink really bad for about five years, get two #1 picks and two #2 picks, wait three years for them to mature, then win a Cup.
Would you as a Sabres fan put up with the losing, even if the payoff was a Cup?
I did like how tough and gritty the Pens played, especially on defense. I’d take Orpik, Gill and Scuderi anytime.
Keep this in mind, amidst all the talk of how Pittsburgh is built for a long run on top. The salary cap is already an issue, with $26 million tied up next year for Crosby, Malkin, Staal and Fleury. They have $47 million tied up in 14 players. They do have a new arena coming, and that will help them generate revenues. But at some point, like we’ve seen with other teams, that many star players make it hard to built a complete team. How the Pens handle that may be their ultimate legacy.
What about the Penguins would you like to see the Sabres adapt?
Be tough on defense like Orpik and make sure all your forwards commit to playing both ends of the ice. Buffalo is a long way from that work ethic, though.
And Buffalo doesn’t need to stink for 3 years — look at Detroit, they draft well and develop players without having a Top 3 draft pick. THAT’S the model to follow.
let’s all not forget how the pens got sidney crosby. it was just plain luck and nothing else when, after the 2004 lockout, their number was randomly picked from a lottery of all 30 teams to decide who could have (draft) crosby when hockey resumed. so by this article’s logic we partly should just hope for good luck to have a superstar, future hall-of-famer, fall out of the sky and into hsbc arena.