Season Over, Empty Feeling Inside
June 5th, 2008 by sheashuI have been unable to bring myself to write anything about the last couple games or anything really and even as I sit here right now, I know that I’m still not ready. My main reasoning for even doing this right now is strictly therapeutic so bear with me.
I won’t stand to see or hear anyone even try and blame this loss on Marc-Andre Fleury. Does he probably want those 2 soft goals back? No question, but he’s got a free pass for life as far as I’m concerned with how he played down the stretch in the regular season and how he played in the playoffs. His performance in Game 5 was nothing short of legendary. That clinic he put on will make it’s way to instructional DVDs in no time.
I can’t remember the last time I was this jacked up about this team. That triple overtime win, despite the circumstances of staving off elimination may have been the pinnacle of my fanhood this season. I sat alone at work, hands shaking, stomach turning. I’ve never been that nervous in my life and then it happened. Max Talbot saves the day to send it to overtime and Petr Sykora calls his shot to send me into a state of euphoria. It was amazing is all I can say. Fleury was brilliant between the pipes and I really thought we would be sending it back to Detroit for a Game 7 at that point. Obviously that didn’t happen and an immense sense of sadness and an empty feeling has crept over me.
For the last two weeks, I’ve been having dreams of hearing “The Penguins are Stanley Cup Champions!” I woke up with a smile every day. There will be no smile tomorrow morning, not yet. I’m always sad to see the hockey season end, but to see it end with my boys hanging their heads and seeing the opposition hoist the Cup on our home ice will take a few days to get over.
By no means am I trying to take anything away from the Red Wings. They are a phenomenal squad and deserved very much to win the Cup. For as much as I wanted the Pens to win, I never really expected to win like I had for previous series. What I wanted was if we didn’t win, to at least make Detroit earn it. It is my firm belief that we accomplished that. We may not have shown up much or were just not ready for what the Finals brought in Games 1 and 2, but for the last 4 games of the series, we gave Detroit everything we had and the better team prevailed in the end. Simple as that. There was even a small glimmer of hope at the very end that Hossa had tied it with under a second left in the third period only to see that hope squashed by the oncoming rush of Red Wings players from the bench.
Eventually I will get over this and so will the guys on the team and realize the bigger picture. Five years prior this team was in shambles and going nowhere. Last in the league in standings, major stars heading for the hills and it all started to turn around last year. I didn’t expect them to even make the playoffs last season and they surprised me and did exactly what I expected against Ottawa. Nothing, but we gained the experience needed to make a strong Cup run.
Flash ahead to this season. Crosby and Fleury go down and the hopes of Pens nation rested squarely on the once shaky shoulders of Ty Conklin. Out of nowhere he has a career resurgence and Evgeni Malkin goes on a tear and suddenly we’re fighting for the conference lead in the standings without 2 key components.
We then get healthy and get Marian Hossa and the pieces for a championship run began to fall into place. They rip Ottawa a new one in the first round, dispatch the Rangers quickly, send our hated cross-state rivals home in 5 games and all of a sudden I’m sitting on top of the world. All the suffering over the past few years was actually worth it to get to this point. We sat just 4 wins from immortality and just got flat out beat by a much more experienced team who nobody was going to beat this year.
Eventually I’ll be ok with what just transpired over the last few days. Maybe I’ll feel better later this week when I’ve had a few days to digest this and realize how great the accomplishments these kids attained this season really are. Maybe I’ll feel better knowing that we have an excellent chance to get back here again very soon and actually win it, now that we know what it feels like to be on the losing end. Maybe I’ll feel better when I see this team back on the ice next season with a new attitude. Not a cocky one, but a confident one that expects nothing less than to win it all. You could see it in their eyes this season that it was going to be different this time around. Maybe I’ll feel better when we figure out what to do with Hossa and Ryan Malone and establish our roster for next season. By then the sting will have worn off and the excited giddy side of me will return. Until then I’m going to go shave off my playoff beard.
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2 Responses to “Season Over, Empty Feeling Inside”
By Troy on Jun 5, 2008
See, in that 3rd to last sentence with Hossa and Malone… there inlies your problem. With the salary cap at perhaps a projected $56 mil next year (that’s what I’ve heard from some people), right now you are locked in at 29,675,867 according to this site. Obviously, the concern is Hossa, Fleury, and Malone with expiring deals, and Malkin and Staal hitting the RFA market as it stands right now after 2008-09. I’d say that, with about 27 million to work with (not saying #66 will go that high, but just to work with), they can get Fleury a deal, Malone a deal (I’d say 6 mil for Fleury, 5 mil for Malone) to get up to 41 mil. The bigger problem is Malkin and Staal, who are up for extensions. The Malkinator broke out this year, and Staal honed his defensive skills when he dipped from 29 goals a year ago to 12 this year. Both NEED extensions this off-season. It will not affect your cap figure in 08-09, but that means nothing for this team. Other players with expiring deals are Laraque, Ruutu, Orpik, Dupuis, and Hall. Laraque was a healthy scratch in the Finals after game 1, he probably won’t be back. Ruutu, Orpik, and Hall will be re-signed, although Orpik will demand a lot more next year. Roughly, we’re at 47 million. Roberts is also an expiring deal, but he’ll probably retire. He can’t stay healthy and his production is going way down.
Here’s the good thing on Malkin and Staal - Sydor, Sykora, and Gill primarily hit the market after 09, opening up some cap space to be used on Malkin and Staal’s extensions. Sykora is the only person who would probably come back in 2010, but if he dips next year, even he won’t.
Hossa is conspicuously absent in what I’m saying here. He won’t be back unless he takes his salary from this year, 6 mil, and locks it up to a 6 year/36 mil deal.
Perhaps I’m not reading right, but it looks like Pittsburgh can keep this team together for the most part. Please correct me if I’m wrong
For convienience, here’s my source of information:
http://salaries.hockeyanalysis.com/teams/pittsburgh.php
By Troy on Jun 5, 2008
For the record on Hossa… I already said I seen cap projections at 56 million and for 08-09, I’ve already put it up at 47 million for Malone and Fleury. Then Ruutu re-signs, Hall re-signs, and that’s 48.5 million (assuming they re-sign for the same). Orpik is the wild-card, as I say he will demand more money (and rightfully so). Again, with a $56 mil projection, it will be interesting how much Orpik will want, because I’d honestly want Hossa over Orpik. So if Orpik would kill their chances at Hossa, I’d keep Hossa.