With regular season over and unique playoff looming, who was Penguins' MVP?
When defenseman Kris Letang looks at the Penguins roster and assesses the team’s chances of succeeding in a unique Stanley Cup playoff that will theoretically begin in about two months, he considers history.
Just not recent history.
Postseason pedigree is important. Momentum is not.
“We’re always going to bank on guys like (Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Matt Murray) that’s got tons of success in the playoffs, so obviously experience is a big factor,” Letang said.
“In this case, though, it’s so different,” he continued. “Guys are really starting from scratch. There’s no momentum going in. There’s no favorites. Everybody’s starting equal. I think it’s a great opportunity for every single team. I don’t think it’s a better one or worse one for any team. The fact that we’ll be in a stoppage for maybe four months before we start playing any games, there’s no real advantage for anyone.”
Even if Letang is right on the money and regular season performance has little bearing on postseason outcomes, that doesn’t mean the Penguins got nothing accomplished from October through early March.
First, they secured the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference. Their reward is a qualifying round matchup with a Montreal Canadiens team that won in regulation just 19 times in 71 tries in the regular season.
They also showed, especially while going 37-15-6 through the middle of February, that they were capable of playing the fast, relentless hockey that coach Mike Sullivan preaches. That was very much an open question after a lifeless playoff exit a year ago.
Finally, they might have given a glimpse into a future where they don’t have to “bank on” Crosby and Malkin as much as they have in the past. Crosby and Malkin combined for 41 goals this season, 18.3% of the team’s total. The only time Crosby and Malkin combined for a smaller percentage of the team’s goals in the last 14 years was when they scored 24 (14.5%) in the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season.
With all that in mind, beat writer Seth Rorabaugh and former beat writer Jonathan Bombulie identified some Penguins superlatives from the regular season.
BOMBULIE’S PICKS
Most Valuable Player - Evgeni Malkin
The 33-year-old Russian put a poor 2018-19 season behind him, hit the gym in the offseason, got himself a new right wing and turned in a bounce-back season to remember. He led the league in five-on-five points per 60 minutes. He had 11 points in the last five games before the pause.
Least Valuable Player — Matt Murray
Justin Schultz was a minus-13 in a contract year. After a solid start, Jack Johnson bottomed out. But Murray has shown the ability to be a game-changing star during his brief, Cup-studded NHL career, and he didn’t reach anywhere near those heights this season, not consistently anyway. His .899 save percentage was the worst of his career, and advanced stats show he wasn’t facing more difficult chances than the average NHL goalie.
Best Newcomer — John Marino
It’s difficult to overstate the impact Marino had on the Penguins’ blue line. He’s just one man out of six, but his smooth, precocious game made those around him better. Twenty-six points and a plus-17 rating in 56 games is one of the best stat lines for a rookie defenseman in Penguins history. And all it took to acquire him from Edmonton was a sixth-round pick.
Worst Newcomer — Alex Galchenyuk
Phil Kessel’s no-trade clause limited Jim Rutherford’s options last summer, so the GM had little choice but to accept Galchenyuk from Arizona and hope for the best. Those hopes didn’t materialize, to put it nicely. Galchenyuk sunk from the top six to the fourth line faster than you can say Sergei Plotnikov.
Best Breakout Season — Bryan Rust
The 28-year-old winger added some consistency to his game and it led to a team-leading 27 goals. Given their star-studded history, it’s really difficult to lead the Penguins in goals. Only 11 players have done it in the last 35 years and five of them are either in the Hall of Fame (Mario Lemieux, Mark Recchi) or are locks to be enshrined once they retire (Jaromir Jagr, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin).
Dedication to Hockey — Patric Hornqvist
By the end of last season, Hornqvist was 32 with at least four documented concussions in his past. He scored three goals in his last 35 games of the year. It was absolutely reasonable to predict he was done as an effective NHL player. It was also completely wrong. Playing the same hard-nosed game he always has, Hornqvist rebounded with 17 goals in 52 games and continued to play his role as the team’s emotional leader.
RORABAUGH’S PICKS
Most valuable player — Evgeni Malkin
This designation really looked like it could have gone to Jake Guentzel through the first three months of the season. But his severely injured right shoulder made him a spectator for the final three months of the regular season. Such was the story of the Penguins’ season with so many players missing time due to injuries. Malkin missed 14 games due to injuries or illnesses, but when he was upright, he was arguably the biggest reason the Penguins were able to navigate a season with a pockmarked lineup sheet most games.
Least valuable player — Nick Bjugstad
It feels rotten to tag him with this designation given how his season was essentially wrecked by various injuries. But management had big hopes for him as a third-line center. And if he could have stayed on the ice, he would have been in line for second-line center duties for most of the season given the injuries to Crosby and Malkin. Add in the fact that his $4.1 million salary cap hit is the seventh largest on the roster, it’s difficult to imagine a bigger disappointment for the Penguins in 2019-20.
Best newcomer — Brandon Tanev
After the Penguins were embarrassed by a sweep at the hands of the New York Islanders in the first round of last season’s playoffs, a fuming Rutherford openly questioned the desire of some of his more established players. After dealing away Kessel and defenseman Olli Maatta, Rutherford devoted the salary cap space gained by those transactions toward signing Tanev, a whirlwind of speed, tenacity and energy. The addition of Tanev has more than restored the hunger Rutherford felt his roster lacked.
Worst newcomer — Alex Galchenyuk
Under Rutherford, the Penguins have always been willing to extend a second chance to someone whose career has gone off course. It’s worked for guys like Justin Schultz or Trevor Daley or even Kessel. So kicking the tires on a player such as Galchenyuk, a former No. 3 overall pick in a draft and a one-time 30-goal scorer, was well worth the risk. But there ended up being little reward. After showing some promise in the preseason, Galchenyuk never fully recovered from a groin injury in September and labored through an unappetizing tenure with the Penguins.
Best breakout season — Tristan Jarry
It really shouldn’t come as a surprise that Jarry emerged as an All-Star in 2019-20. After all, he was a second-round pick back in 2013. Clearly, he has pedigree. But the circumstances are surprising. Don’t forget, management shopped him around to other teams this past offseason to avoid losing him or Casey DeSmith through waivers. After getting lukewarm interest, management held on to Jarry and watched him blossom. As a result, his success has forced management to contemplate cutting ties with incumbent starter Matt Murray, who could be due a big pay raise as an pending restricted free agent.
Dedication to hockey —Teddy Blueger
Blueger took the long way to the NHL. A second-round pick in 2012, Blueger spent four seasons in college then adjusted to the professional game over parts of four seasons in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. While the likes of Nick Bonino, Eric Fehr, Matt Cullen (twice), Carter Rowney, Greg McKegg, Riley Sheahan and Derick Brassard filled out the bottom two center roles, Blueger bided his time before finally opening a season at the NHL level in 2019-20. All that refinement led to Blueger emerging as a shutdown center who leads a fourth line with Zach Aston-Reese and Tanev that has been vital to the team’s success.
Jonathan Bombulie is assistant sports editor for the Tribune-Review. You can contact Jonathan at jbombulie@triblive.com or via Twitter @BombulieTrib. Seth Rorabaugh is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Seth by email at srorabaugh@triblive.com or via Twitter @sethrorabaugh.
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