Penguins CEO says GM, coach, Crosby and Malkin all safe
After the Pegnuins were eliminated by the New York Rangers on Friday night, Evgeni Malkin held court with reporters and Mike Johnston spoke at the podium. In both case, for whatever reason, my mindset was the same: Is this the last time I’m seeing these guys with Pittsburgh?
Johnston was brought in to make the Penguins a better playoff team; instead, they existed more quickly than they ever did under Dan Bylsma. Malkin went pointless in the Rangers series, and if the Penguins were really going to shake up the team, it might have been the end of an era for him.
But David Morehouse, CEO and president of the Penguins, said Johnston and Malkin are safe. So is Sidney Crosby, quelling any of that bizarre speculation. And above all, GM Jim Rutherford, the Band-Aid applied to the team after Ray Shero was fired last summer, is back as well.
From Jason Mackey of the Tribune-Review:
“I know there’s been a lot of speculation out there, but (co-owners) Ron (Burkle) and Mario (Lemieux) never once considered a change,” Morehouse said. “Jim Rutherford’s our general manager, and Mike Johnston’s our coach.”
Morehouse also quashed trade talk surrounding franchise centers Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
“We’re not looking at major changes,” Morehouse said. “Jim and ownership believe the core players we have are the core players to build around. That’s what we’re going to try to do.”
So there you go.
Obviously, Morehouse and ownership feel the three key loses on defense – Kris Letang and Christian Ehrhoff to concussions, and Olli Maata to a shoulder injury – contributed mightily to their playoff flop. From Morehouse:
“We had a new coach who almost never had a chance to coach his full team because of injuries. I don’t know if there’s a team in the league that could have succeeded in the playoffs without three of its top four defensemen. That’s the situation we faced.”
(This is where we note that Bylsma’s calling card was his ability to shepherd the Penguins through massive man-games-lost in the regular season to the top of the division.)
Surprised? A bit. With the quality of coaches that might be available in the offseason, it’s interesting to hear a hasty endorsement of Johnston.
Rutherford, however, is more complicated. There’s no way the Penguins would fire him – too much respect for a hockey lifer. There might still be a chance he wants to step away after a challenging season; heck, he’s only going to be there 2-3 years anyway.
Consistency can breed success; there were times when teams like Claude Julien’s Bruins looked like they would have been imploded before they eventually won the Cup. The question is whether this mix of Penguin still have a window in which to win, or if the team would be better off transitioning into something different.
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