The real stars of the show
Perhaps he was just trying to spin things after losing out on Marian Hossa. Or perhaps he was reflecting his true philosophy. Either way Ray Shero made it clear who really mattered to the Penguins during his press conference yesterday:
Sidney Crosby
Marc-Andre Fleury
Evgeni Malkin
Jordan Staal
We're kind of repeating ourselves from a post we made yesterday, but if the Penguins were a movie, these four are the stars. Everyone else is an extra.
If the Penguins were "Goodfellas," Crosby, Fleury, Malkin and Staal would be Robert DeNiro , Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci and Paul Sorvino. Colby Armstrong, Michel Ouellet, Marian Hossa, Gary Roberts, Georges Laraque, Ty Conklin and even Brooks Orpik, who signed a big deal yesterday, are bit players.
After what happened yesterday with Marian Hossa, it's hard to imagine Ray Shero ever investing long term into a scoring winger for Crosby or Malkin. We have a hard time believing these two will have their versions of Glenn Anderson or Jari Kurri for any serious length of time.
Obviously there will be a few players here for the long term such as Orpik and Ryan Whitney who have multi-year deals in place. But it seems to us there will be a revolving door of more than competent role players for as long as those four players we mentioned are the centerpieces of the franchise. Should the Penguins bring in someone like Jaromir Jagr or Markus Naslund, that player will surely be a capable first-line winger with Crosby or Malkin, but how long will that player be here? With apologies to the Red Wings, it's seemingly impossible to keep a core group larger than five or six players together for any lengthy period of time.
It's Sidney Crosby's, Marc-Andre Fleury's, Evgeni Malkin's and Jordan Staal's world. We're all just living in it.
(Photo: Associated Press)
COMMUNITY RELATIONS
If you e-mailed us yesterday, we apologize if you never got a response. We got a quite a few e-mails yesterday amid the madness of yesterday's signings. We will respond to you assuming your e-mail made it into our inbox. Just give us some time.
-EMPTY NETTER ASSISTS
Penguins
-A deal for Marc-Andre Fleury is in the works.
-Gene Collier is wondering what Marian Hossa found in Detroit.
-Some folks aren't taking this Hossa thing well:
[View:http://youtube.com/watch?v=CoJQcFab7Fk]
(Kudos to The Pensblog for the find.)
-Remember that new arena thing? They're going to start building it soon.
-With all of the Pittsburgh Penguins' defections, things are looking good for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins forwards Tim Brent, Jonathan Filewich and Ryan Stone.
Northeast Division
-Maple Leafs forward Mats Sundin is going all Teemu Selanne on his "retirement" plans.
Central Division
-Detroit general manager Ken Holland was caught off guard when Marian Hossa's agent called.
Pacific Division
-Anaheim general manager Brian Burke doesn't let things go. He blamed the absurd deals some free agents have received on his "buddy" Edmonton general manager Kevin Lowe. Burke also blamed him for gas prices. We think. Burke is still mad at Lowe for signing former Ducks restricted free agent Dustin Penner to a large deal last year.
Adams Division
-Random Google Image Search of the day: A Geoff Sanderson Hartford Whalers poster:
(Photo: Sports Poster Warehouse)