It’s time to accept the glaring truth: the Pens just aren’t good. Our goaltending is still an issue, and it will be for a while. Blomqvist is very green right now and we can’t put it all on him. If we’re accepting that this season is cooked (and it is), then it’s time to see what we have there. What was once a strength of this team not that long ago is now a glaring weakness. Gustavsson was dealt to the Wild and now has MAF as his backup. Looking back, we should have kept them both. I’ve never seen a team give up so many goals on the first shot of the game. We’re simply cooked. WE need a goalie coach that is competent.

We kicked the can down the road trying to win Cups during the primes of the core three. We won back-to-back Cups, which took the core from underachieving to becoming legends in Pittsburgh sports lore. The wheels started coming off at the end of FGMJR’s time with the team. Then Hextall came in, took what little we had left, and just crapped all over it. Dubas was brought in to fix this mess, and it’s not going to be an easy job. We’re seeing that now. We have nobody of worth to call up. The only goalie worth anything has already been called up, and that’s all we’ve got. So what do we do at the trade deadline?

We sell. We sell anything we can, except the core. I’d be fine with Letang going to Montreal—they can deal with the horrible turnovers, lackluster offense, and poorly timed pinches. Crosby will do what Crosby wants. If he wants to stay, great. If he wants to go and bring the Pens some draft capital and prospects, then that needs to happen. Malkin is on the penultimate year of his contract, and I expect him to finish out as a Penguin. The only reason I could see him leaving is if he wants that elusive fourth Cup. But let’s be real: in a few seasons, he’ll probably be in the KHL, enjoying that sweet, tax-free Russian money. The end is near—very near.

So what about the Sharks tonight? Well, let me tell you how this sounds.
The Pens are the second-worst team in the East with 48 points, sitting about seven points out of a playoff spot (lol). The Sharks are the worst in the West with 36 points. This game is primed for the Pens to get another win and fool themselves into thinking they can make a run. But this is the 24-25 Pens. They’ll lose 4–2 and say they played better than the result. Crosby will get a few points, Geno has a lower-body injury, Rust has a lower-body injury, and everyone else will crap the bed. So let’s look at the lineup for tonight:

This team is maddening. They can play the best teams in the league and hang with them. They even beat them often enough to make you think they’re close and just need a few pieces to make the playoffs. But the reality is, they don’t have the talent on this roster to make any noise. Look at Geno’s line, I would include their names, but they change daily and they are mostly third- and fourth-liners. Rakell, Rust, Hayes (I guess), O’Connor, and my boy Lizotte are NHL-level players. The rest? You could swap them out with any other no-name players, and nothing would change. We have a team of NPCs.

Watch the game tonight and enjoy the twilight of the core’s career. We can only hope that next year brings a team like the one in 1996—the end of Mario’s first run, with a surprise Conference Finals appearance. That would be a great sendoff for Geno and Letang. One last shot at a ring. But this team needs a lot of work.

Dubas will earn his paycheck starting now through puck drop in Game 1 next year. He needs to use what little we have and get some prospects who are close. He’ll need to sign a few players coming off bad seasons and hope they turn things around. The key is rebuilding the AHL team and giving us something to build on.

You know… we just need to “play the right way.” That phrase is starting to sound like “The standard is the standard.” Platitudes that mean nothing anymore.

Let’s Go Pens?!