The Pittsburgh Penguins and the Philadelphia Professional Hockey Club played 11 meaningful games this season. Philadelphia won 8 of those games.
Honestly, I’m not sure much more needs to be said.
There will be a predictable amount of emotional overreaction to the Pens first round playoff demolition and understandably so. The Pens got their rear ends kicked by their most hated rival and their execution and focus in the series was questionable at best (horrendous at worst).
I still believe the Penguins were the deepest and most talented team in the National Hockey League when the playoffs started. This was a team whose radar should have been locked on one goal, the Stanley Cup. A first round exit was completely unacceptable, no matter how unfair the seeds that forced the Pens to play Philly while New Jersey got Florida.
Which is to say that championship teams do not make excuses, they just get it done. I said this in my ill-fated predictions blog; if the Pens were truly a championship team they would overcome an unfortunate first round match-up. To say the least, they did not.
Which brings us right back to losing 8 of 11 meaningful games to Philly and the inevitable conclusion one must come to given that fact. Simply put, Philadelphia was better than the Penguins all year long. We can break down and micro-analyze the series 1,000 different ways. The overriding theme simply does not change.
That should not have been the case. Not with Pronger and Maszaros out of the line-up. Not with so many rookies having to play key minutes for the Orange and Black. Not with a goaltender who struggles to find peace in his sole and harmony with universe as much as he struggles with 30 foot wrist shots. The Penguins with this roster should have been better than Philly.
They were not; not even close.
Some of it may have been psychological a point I made in my last blog. It just seems that between the overriding animosity and Philly’s remarkable penitent for comebacks this season that they got inside the Penguins collective head. Anybody watching game 3 would conclude that the Penguins had completely lost their emotional focus.
Most of it however was physical and/or technical.
The Penguins had no answers for Claude Giroux who was far and away the best player in this series. Much of the credit for that goes to Giroux; the man just had an incredible series. They had no answers for the Philly power play which flat out annihilated a penalty killing unit that was amongst the league’s best for two years straight. Sean Coulturier got so close to Geno Malkin in this series, they could have shared the same pants.
I do not subscribe to the reactionary, fire the coach approach that many fans resort to after a bad loss. At the same time Dan Bylsma will have to answer some serious questions. At the top of the list, why have players like Giroux, Ovechkin, and Mike Cammalleri utilized the Penguins as a launching pad to historic post season performances in the last four years?
That of course is only part of the story.
I’ve never been more inspired by a Penguin team than I was late last season. Undermanned without their two superstars, the Pens battled and fought harder than they ever have, refusing to give up when every reasonable consideration said they should. It was ultimately futile, they simply could not overcome the talent disparity caused by their injuries, but they never quit. And they carried that same work ethic throughout this season, even with the added benefit of Malkin and James Neal at their best.
They continued to battle with passion, fury, and focus, right up to the moment that Crosby returned. And then something clearly and obviously changed. Almost to the day that 87 reentered the line-up, the Pens became a run and gun team trying to overwhelm everyone with superior offensive talent. From there until the final moments of yesterday’s game they never reined it in, never got back to playing the kind of hockey that wins in the post season.
I’m not blaming Crosby for this or even Crosby’s return. I still believe this team was not good enough without him to win the cup. I do believe the entire club let out a collective exhale when Crosby returned. It was almost like they felt they no longer needed that superior work ethic and structure to win hockey games. With a fully loaded roster they were finally just be better than everyone else.
That’s an approach that NEVER succeeds in the NHL post season. Crosby need only ask his landlord for confirmation. The last time a superior talented Penguin team tried to win on skill alone was 1993. The end result was the terrible, awful loss to the Islanders that should never be spoken of. I saw parallels to that team heading in to the post season and wrote about it in the aforementioned predictions blog. There was just something unnerving about how this club played down the stretch, especially against their rivals to the east.
I’m not sure how else you explain what may be the worst defensive and penalty killing performance I have ever seen in the post season. Marc-Andre Fleury will take a lot of blame for this series, and deservedly so but I’m not sure any goaltender could have survived behind this abomination of defensive hockey. Yes Philly is a talented offensive team but I’ll give you pretty good odds they don’t come close to this level of offensive production in their next series.
How else do you explain the complete breakdown of discipline in this series, most notably in game 3? The Penguins faced some ridiculous and irrational criticism as arrogant, cheap shot, whiners down the stretch, criticism that was pure fiction before this series. And then in stunning and embarrassing fashion they lived up to it in game 3.
The entire Penguin club needs to take a hard look at their effort, their focus, and their execution in light of that reality.
And yet with all that we should not forget this: the Penguins lost several games to Philly before Crosby’s return. They lost several games when their work ethic, focus, and defensive play was exactly where it should be. They lost several games when Fleury was on top of his game, Malkin was dominating the league and the club was playing tight defensive hockey.
Simply put, when it’s all said and done, the Philadelphia Professional Hockey club was just better than every incarnation of the Pittsburgh Penguins this year. I will understand if that causes severe intestinal disturbance to Penguin fans. Rest assured it does for me. It should cause similar or worse distress for the players. A legitimate Stanley Cup favorite was crushed in the first round by its most bitter rival. More than anything else, that should sting for a long time.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Thursday, April 12, 2012
A Brutal, Perspective Challenging Penguin Loss
A significant part of my maturation as a sports fan has been the development of what the more enlightened among us might call, “perspective.” Which is to say I’ve learned, with all due respect to Ilya Bryzgolav to view sports in the proper context of its overall importance to the universe.
To be clear, I’m not one who says you can’t be upset about sports simply because there are terrorists or starving people in the world. Those are horrible things; far worse than what happens on an any athletic field. At the same time if you love your teams and they are important to you, it’s okay to hurt after a difficult loss. Nowhere is it written that you cannot feel sadness simply because there is greater sadness in the world.
The difference between Adam 2012 versus say, Adam 1992 is how much I let those losses affect me. It took me days to shake off the horrible, awful, loss that should never be spoken of to the Islanders in 1993. Some would say I’m still not totally over it. In contrast, I was for the most part able to put the Steelers’ most recent Super Bowl loss behind me 24 hours later after a therapeutic lunch with Doug (Doug?).
I take great pride and comfort in my maturation and new found perspective on sports. No matter how bad a loss is, I like to get up the next day and move on with life. There are just too many other things that are FAR more important.
So I’ll be the first to admit, I’m more than a bit shaken by how much last night's Penguin loss is disturbing me. Honestly, I cannot remember a Pittsburgh sporting event that upset me this much since the Steelers lost the 2001 AFC Championship game at home to New England. The loss was the last thing I thought of before going to bed and the first thing I thought of when I woke up this morning. The former is okay for Adam 2012, the latter is much more Adam 1992.
Simply put, I cannot fathom a more brutal start to a playoff series than blowing a 3-0 lead at home, to your most bitter rival. Losing game 1 of a series is not that big a deal. Losing it in this fashion absolutely is. A game like this can feel like two losses in a best of seven series, given the magnitude of the emotional swing. And the most disconcerting thing, beyond the obvious, is that is the third time in a month the Pens have blown a 2 goal plus lead against the Eastern Pennsylvania Orange and Black Goon Squad.
There are a combination of factors driving the anger and frustration of me and most of the Penguin fan base this morning. One is the pattern, the fact that the Pens keep losing these games to Philly and keep losing them in the same way. They dominate early, and then Philly just takes the game away from them. This pattern includes an alarming disparity in special teams play. The Pens power play continues to blow opportunities to put games away and the Goon Squad is carving up their vaunted penalty killing unit with shocking ease.
The second factor is Philly’s shocking dominance at the New Energy Barn. It’s getting to the point where the Pens almost have home ice disadvantage. It’s bad enough for a team to have an unfettered belief in their ability to beat you. To have it in your barn is even worse. This is compounded by the fact that there was a Stanley Cup caliber atmosphere in the building last night. Word is the Goons were chanting “this is our house” after the game. Can any Penguin fan hear that and not be physically nauseous?
Finally there are expectations. Simply put, when a team has as much depth and talent as the Pens do the only reasonable expectation is the Stanley Cup. It’s just inconceivable that such a team could crash and burn like the Penguins did last night. To say it was not a championship caliber performance understates this issue. The real issue is that championship caliber teams rarely allow such thing to happen.
Throw all these factors together and you’ve got one seriously unhappy Habe this morning.
What bothers me the most is that the Penguins clearly took their foot off the gas with a three goal lead. The all-powerful, all knowing hockey savant Pierre McGuire pointed this out while the Pens were still leading by two goals. He made it clear that the Pens had gone in to a defensive shell; pulled back on their forecheck and stopped attacking. He also made it clear that this was happening, in his opinion, far too early.
Reasonable people can debate Mr. McGuire’s abilities as an announcer (or whether Brooks OrPECK should run him through the glass) but the man does know his hockey. And when he points something out that clear and obvious, moments before the house comes crashing down you have to take notice. This is not simply a factor of the Goons grabbing some momentum and turning the game around. This is about the Pens making what appears to be a disastrous strategic decision that could impact their entire season.
There are plenty of more micro issues to fret from last night’s game which I will not rehash here. The reality of hockey, or any sport, is that you can find good and bad in virtually every game, win or lose. Great teams balance this and find a way to win. When its all said and done, the Penguins had a tailor made opportunity to put the game away with an early third period power play and failed (a point I made to Emily just after it ended). As noted above that’s been a disturbing, season long trend against Philly. And the Pens cannot win this series unless they AT LEAST even this out.
My wife has reminded me repeatedly this morning that it is only one game. And she’s 1,000% right. We learned in 2009 that even after the worst of moments (game 5 in Detroit); a team can turn things around in spectacular fashion. That said, there is a disturbing quality to this loss. This is far more reminiscent to me of the Pens comeback in game 1 of the 1992 Stanley Cup finals against Chicago. The Hawks had won 11 straight playoff games coming in to that series. After that comeback win, the Pens just seemed to be inside their heads. The series was competitive after that but you never got the sense that the outcome was in doubt.
That’s what bothers me most. The Pens most hated and bitter rival seems to be very much in their heads. Championship teams begin with talent, but there is so much more to the equation. A big part of that is the mental edge; a a certainty of belief that you can overcome any obstacle and win any game. The Goon squad seems to have that belief right now, especially in regards to the Pens. And unless they turn things around quickly, meaning in game 2, I have concerns about whether the Pens can change that.
The Pens had Philly and their skittish goaltender on the ropes last night. In the span of 30 minutes they not only let them off but got knocked to the canvas themselves. That is a monumentAL emotional swing. If they are truly a championship team, they will dig deep and overcome. If they are not, it could be a stunningly short post season in the Burgh.
To be clear, I’m not one who says you can’t be upset about sports simply because there are terrorists or starving people in the world. Those are horrible things; far worse than what happens on an any athletic field. At the same time if you love your teams and they are important to you, it’s okay to hurt after a difficult loss. Nowhere is it written that you cannot feel sadness simply because there is greater sadness in the world.
The difference between Adam 2012 versus say, Adam 1992 is how much I let those losses affect me. It took me days to shake off the horrible, awful, loss that should never be spoken of to the Islanders in 1993. Some would say I’m still not totally over it. In contrast, I was for the most part able to put the Steelers’ most recent Super Bowl loss behind me 24 hours later after a therapeutic lunch with Doug (Doug?).
I take great pride and comfort in my maturation and new found perspective on sports. No matter how bad a loss is, I like to get up the next day and move on with life. There are just too many other things that are FAR more important.
So I’ll be the first to admit, I’m more than a bit shaken by how much last night's Penguin loss is disturbing me. Honestly, I cannot remember a Pittsburgh sporting event that upset me this much since the Steelers lost the 2001 AFC Championship game at home to New England. The loss was the last thing I thought of before going to bed and the first thing I thought of when I woke up this morning. The former is okay for Adam 2012, the latter is much more Adam 1992.
Simply put, I cannot fathom a more brutal start to a playoff series than blowing a 3-0 lead at home, to your most bitter rival. Losing game 1 of a series is not that big a deal. Losing it in this fashion absolutely is. A game like this can feel like two losses in a best of seven series, given the magnitude of the emotional swing. And the most disconcerting thing, beyond the obvious, is that is the third time in a month the Pens have blown a 2 goal plus lead against the Eastern Pennsylvania Orange and Black Goon Squad.
There are a combination of factors driving the anger and frustration of me and most of the Penguin fan base this morning. One is the pattern, the fact that the Pens keep losing these games to Philly and keep losing them in the same way. They dominate early, and then Philly just takes the game away from them. This pattern includes an alarming disparity in special teams play. The Pens power play continues to blow opportunities to put games away and the Goon Squad is carving up their vaunted penalty killing unit with shocking ease.
The second factor is Philly’s shocking dominance at the New Energy Barn. It’s getting to the point where the Pens almost have home ice disadvantage. It’s bad enough for a team to have an unfettered belief in their ability to beat you. To have it in your barn is even worse. This is compounded by the fact that there was a Stanley Cup caliber atmosphere in the building last night. Word is the Goons were chanting “this is our house” after the game. Can any Penguin fan hear that and not be physically nauseous?
Finally there are expectations. Simply put, when a team has as much depth and talent as the Pens do the only reasonable expectation is the Stanley Cup. It’s just inconceivable that such a team could crash and burn like the Penguins did last night. To say it was not a championship caliber performance understates this issue. The real issue is that championship caliber teams rarely allow such thing to happen.
Throw all these factors together and you’ve got one seriously unhappy Habe this morning.
What bothers me the most is that the Penguins clearly took their foot off the gas with a three goal lead. The all-powerful, all knowing hockey savant Pierre McGuire pointed this out while the Pens were still leading by two goals. He made it clear that the Pens had gone in to a defensive shell; pulled back on their forecheck and stopped attacking. He also made it clear that this was happening, in his opinion, far too early.
Reasonable people can debate Mr. McGuire’s abilities as an announcer (or whether Brooks OrPECK should run him through the glass) but the man does know his hockey. And when he points something out that clear and obvious, moments before the house comes crashing down you have to take notice. This is not simply a factor of the Goons grabbing some momentum and turning the game around. This is about the Pens making what appears to be a disastrous strategic decision that could impact their entire season.
There are plenty of more micro issues to fret from last night’s game which I will not rehash here. The reality of hockey, or any sport, is that you can find good and bad in virtually every game, win or lose. Great teams balance this and find a way to win. When its all said and done, the Penguins had a tailor made opportunity to put the game away with an early third period power play and failed (a point I made to Emily just after it ended). As noted above that’s been a disturbing, season long trend against Philly. And the Pens cannot win this series unless they AT LEAST even this out.
My wife has reminded me repeatedly this morning that it is only one game. And she’s 1,000% right. We learned in 2009 that even after the worst of moments (game 5 in Detroit); a team can turn things around in spectacular fashion. That said, there is a disturbing quality to this loss. This is far more reminiscent to me of the Pens comeback in game 1 of the 1992 Stanley Cup finals against Chicago. The Hawks had won 11 straight playoff games coming in to that series. After that comeback win, the Pens just seemed to be inside their heads. The series was competitive after that but you never got the sense that the outcome was in doubt.
That’s what bothers me most. The Pens most hated and bitter rival seems to be very much in their heads. Championship teams begin with talent, but there is so much more to the equation. A big part of that is the mental edge; a a certainty of belief that you can overcome any obstacle and win any game. The Goon squad seems to have that belief right now, especially in regards to the Pens. And unless they turn things around quickly, meaning in game 2, I have concerns about whether the Pens can change that.
The Pens had Philly and their skittish goaltender on the ropes last night. In the span of 30 minutes they not only let them off but got knocked to the canvas themselves. That is a monumentAL emotional swing. If they are truly a championship team, they will dig deep and overcome. If they are not, it could be a stunningly short post season in the Burgh.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
A TRAVESTY OF SEEDS…FIRST ROUND NHL PLAYOFF PREDICTIONS
It’s been 13 seasons since the NHL converted to a conference style playoff format, with guaranteed top 3 seeds for division winners. I’m a huge fan of the conference format; but the latter stipulation has caused a fair bit of controversy over the years. This year it has made a flat-out mockery of post season match-ups.
At the crux of this injustice are the Pittsburgh Penguins; owners of the NHL’s 4th best record overall. Their reward for such excellence, an opening round match-up with the team finishing 5th. In a system that made any sense at all this match-up would not occur until AT LEAST the second round. Honestly this is the most ridiculous miscarriage of post season justice since…three months ago when a 12-4 Steeler team was forced to play on the road against 8-8 Denver.
And such is life.
Champions do not make excuses; champions just find a way to win. If the Penguins are truly championship caliber, they will overcome what is an unfortunate break of seeding. If they are not, they will not. Consider that the Pens got a huge break two years ago, facing two inferior opponents in Ottawa and Montreal. They lost in the second round anyway because the 2009-10 Penguins were not playing at a championship level.
Here is the straight dirt for hockey fans; there is no team in the NHL that is deeper or more talented than your Pittsburgh Penguins. The top three center group of Malkin, Crosby, and Staal is far and away the best in the NHL. For the first time since 2008 (the first cup year), the Pens have enough quality scoring wingers to compliment both Crosby and Malkin. The team has an elite goaltender in Marc-Andre Fleury, a Norris Trophy caliber defensemen in Kris Letang and a solid if unspectacular group of D-men around him.
If this team plays to its full capabilities, nobody should be able to beat them. Not even a deep and talented Goon Squad that has given them problems all season long. Keep in mind that I have not even mentioned the intangible qualities which are Stanley Cup experience (including Coach Dan Byslma), and a hunger built on two consecutive post season flame outs.
A first round match-up against a bitter rival can be a mixed blessing. This is obviously the most difficult first round match-up in this year’s playoffs. That will force the Pens to be at their best from game 1 on with little margin for error. A series against Ottawa would obviously be easier than dealing with Claude Giroux, Bozo the Hartnell, Mr. Universe (Ilya Bryzgolav) and the man Penguin fans love to hate, Jaromir Jagr. And it could get brutally physical at times which is a concern for subsequent series.
At the same time, the Penguins parlayed a first round victory over Philly in 2009 to a Stanley Cup championship. And rest assured there was no less bitterness and hatred between the teams then, no matter how ugly things got two weeks ago.
Playoff analysts (including me) like to critique match-ups, rate strengths and weaknesses, and come up with clever insights as to who will win a series. Well I’m not doing that here because there is no point. The Pens are the best team in the league if they want to be. That means if they play with the requisite heart, grit, determination, physicality and intelligence necessary in the post season. It means showing that immeasurable determination that championship hockey teams possess.
If the Pens do all that they will win this series. If they try and win on talent alone, as they did at times down the stretch, they will replicate the horrible, awful loss that is never spoken of to the Islanders in 1993.
I’m betting on the former; as is my beautiful wife Emily…Pens in 6.
As for my remaining picks I find myself in a painful situation. Namely I’m picking no fewer than five teams that I hate to win their first round series. My wife in contrast sticks to her guns and backs only teams she likes. Here’s hoping her predictions blow mine away. Historically speaking, they likely will. Both are noted below.
HENRICK LUNDQVIST (1) VS OTTAWA SENATORS (8)
Why New York will win in 6 games (Adam and Emily)
Both teams are trending in the wrong direction at season’s end and John Torterella is popping off about arrogant organizations and conspiracies. The Rangers are ripe to be upset, but Ottawa just is not the team to do it. In case you have any doubt say this to yourself ten times…Lundqvist versus Craig Anderson. Besides, Jason Spezza is Joe Thornton soft come playoff time and the Rangers actually have a few guys who can score this year.
BOSTON BRUINS (2) VS WASHINGTON CRAPITALS (7)
Why Washington will win in 7 games (picked with GREAT RELUCTANCE by Adam)
The Craps played up to their moniker all season long and were in serious danger of missing the post season ten days ago. Alas, playing in a dreadful division doth have its perks and thus Washington stayed alive. Now suddenly Nicklas Backstrom is back, Ovie is on fire, and the Craps are peaking at the perfect time.
The Bruins in contrast are trending very much the wrong direction. They started the season in brilliant fashion, seemingly determined to defeat the dreaded Stanley Cup hangover. Somewhere along the way however the hangover caught up (a la Chicago and Pittsburgh the last two years). The B’s just have not been that good in the second half of the season. They rely too much on Tim Thomas who seems to be wearing down. Injuries may prevent Thomas from having to pump either Michael Neuvirth or Tomas Vokun’s tires; but I foresee some bizarre 2009 Varlomov reprisal if Braden Holtby is in nets for Washington.
Why Boston will in 7 games (Emily)
Because Thomas has enough money to pay his cab fare even if Peggy won’t get him a new credit card. And the closest Ovechkin will ever get to the Stanly Cup is X Box.
FLORIDA PANTHERS (3) VS NEW JERSEY DEVILS (6)
Why New Jersey will win (Adam, 6 games, Emily 5)
Because somebody has to.
Prop bet for the series; higher number, total goals scored or total television viewers? The only excitement for me is how long it takes Kevin Dineen to yank Jose Theordore after publically declaring him “the man” in goal. This series is a hockey travesty and a singular case study for blowing up the current seed structure.
BOBBY LU AND THE FREAK TWINS (1) VS LOS ANGELES KINGS (8)
Why Vancouver will win in 6 games (Adam)
Because your typical World Cup soccer match features more goals than the LA Kings score for Vezina candidate Jonathan Quick. If the Kings had any offense, ANY, I would say an upset is possible. Alas, given their struggles and Jeff Carter’s annual foot injury I cannot see it happening. Besides, Vancouver's abudant nightlife will likely consume a fair amount of Carter and Mike Richards' free time. The Slash and Run Pansies are going down…just not here.
Why Los Angeles will win in 7 games (Emily)
No self-respecting Blackhawks fan (or any true NHL hockey fan) thinks that Vancouver will win. Ever! And even a terrible team can score goals when Roberto Luongo is flailing at pucks from his stomach.
ST. LOUIS BLUES (2) VS SAN JOSE SHARKS (7)
Why St. Louis will win in 5 games (Adam)
Because Ken Hitchcock is back behind the bench, fighting with all his might to drag the NHL back to the dead puck era. The Blues have done so much damage to offensive hockey that noted goaltending sieve Brian Elliott allowed barely 1.50 goals per game this year. Brian Elliott. Seriously. And the Sharks, who usually wait until the post season to choke, appeared to pack it in for the season about two months ago.
Why San Jose will win in 6 games (Emily)
Antti Niemi is her favorite goalie of all-time. The Blues play a ridiculously cheesy opening video at their home games, their fans do a dorky power play dance, and they openly condone hand-to-hand violence against opposing-team’s mascots. Antti Niemi is tried, true, and tested. I can’t stand the grinding style of play that St. Louis utilizes – no team should ever be able to win a playoff series playing like that. Also, St. Louis has minimal playoff experience. By the way, did I mention how much she likes Antti Niemi?
THE HOCKY TEAM FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE WINNIPEG JETS (3) VS CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS (6)
Why the Hawks will win in 7 (Adam)
The Hawks are deeper and more talented and that is without Jonathan Toews who appears likely to return. Keep in mind that in spite of the seeds, the Hawks finished 4 points ahead of Phoenix during the season. I’m a little uneasy with Corey Crawford between the pipes but he’s been stronger of late. And Mike Smith reminds me way to much of his current goalie coach Sean Burke, invincible in March, invisible in April.
Why the Hawks will win in 5 (Emily)…DUH (cue Chelsea Dagger)!
NASHVILLE PREDATORS (4) VS DETROIT DEAD WINGS (5)
Why Detroit will win in 7
(Adam)
This will unnerve the Pekka Rinne admiration society going on around the NHL but I see this series much as I see the Hawks and Yotes. I expect Nashville to battle like crazy…and lose. Great talent beats hard work when great talent is willing to work hard. I think Detroit will do just that. Bad break for Nashville, another team that deserved a better first round match-up than the league’s ridiculous seeding policy gave them.
(Emily)
Hatred of hockey teams south of the Mason Dixon line > Hatred of Detroit…though just barely.
At the crux of this injustice are the Pittsburgh Penguins; owners of the NHL’s 4th best record overall. Their reward for such excellence, an opening round match-up with the team finishing 5th. In a system that made any sense at all this match-up would not occur until AT LEAST the second round. Honestly this is the most ridiculous miscarriage of post season justice since…three months ago when a 12-4 Steeler team was forced to play on the road against 8-8 Denver.
And such is life.
Champions do not make excuses; champions just find a way to win. If the Penguins are truly championship caliber, they will overcome what is an unfortunate break of seeding. If they are not, they will not. Consider that the Pens got a huge break two years ago, facing two inferior opponents in Ottawa and Montreal. They lost in the second round anyway because the 2009-10 Penguins were not playing at a championship level.
Here is the straight dirt for hockey fans; there is no team in the NHL that is deeper or more talented than your Pittsburgh Penguins. The top three center group of Malkin, Crosby, and Staal is far and away the best in the NHL. For the first time since 2008 (the first cup year), the Pens have enough quality scoring wingers to compliment both Crosby and Malkin. The team has an elite goaltender in Marc-Andre Fleury, a Norris Trophy caliber defensemen in Kris Letang and a solid if unspectacular group of D-men around him.
If this team plays to its full capabilities, nobody should be able to beat them. Not even a deep and talented Goon Squad that has given them problems all season long. Keep in mind that I have not even mentioned the intangible qualities which are Stanley Cup experience (including Coach Dan Byslma), and a hunger built on two consecutive post season flame outs.
A first round match-up against a bitter rival can be a mixed blessing. This is obviously the most difficult first round match-up in this year’s playoffs. That will force the Pens to be at their best from game 1 on with little margin for error. A series against Ottawa would obviously be easier than dealing with Claude Giroux, Bozo the Hartnell, Mr. Universe (Ilya Bryzgolav) and the man Penguin fans love to hate, Jaromir Jagr. And it could get brutally physical at times which is a concern for subsequent series.
At the same time, the Penguins parlayed a first round victory over Philly in 2009 to a Stanley Cup championship. And rest assured there was no less bitterness and hatred between the teams then, no matter how ugly things got two weeks ago.
Playoff analysts (including me) like to critique match-ups, rate strengths and weaknesses, and come up with clever insights as to who will win a series. Well I’m not doing that here because there is no point. The Pens are the best team in the league if they want to be. That means if they play with the requisite heart, grit, determination, physicality and intelligence necessary in the post season. It means showing that immeasurable determination that championship hockey teams possess.
If the Pens do all that they will win this series. If they try and win on talent alone, as they did at times down the stretch, they will replicate the horrible, awful loss that is never spoken of to the Islanders in 1993.
I’m betting on the former; as is my beautiful wife Emily…Pens in 6.
As for my remaining picks I find myself in a painful situation. Namely I’m picking no fewer than five teams that I hate to win their first round series. My wife in contrast sticks to her guns and backs only teams she likes. Here’s hoping her predictions blow mine away. Historically speaking, they likely will. Both are noted below.
HENRICK LUNDQVIST (1) VS OTTAWA SENATORS (8)
Why New York will win in 6 games (Adam and Emily)
Both teams are trending in the wrong direction at season’s end and John Torterella is popping off about arrogant organizations and conspiracies. The Rangers are ripe to be upset, but Ottawa just is not the team to do it. In case you have any doubt say this to yourself ten times…Lundqvist versus Craig Anderson. Besides, Jason Spezza is Joe Thornton soft come playoff time and the Rangers actually have a few guys who can score this year.
BOSTON BRUINS (2) VS WASHINGTON CRAPITALS (7)
Why Washington will win in 7 games (picked with GREAT RELUCTANCE by Adam)
The Craps played up to their moniker all season long and were in serious danger of missing the post season ten days ago. Alas, playing in a dreadful division doth have its perks and thus Washington stayed alive. Now suddenly Nicklas Backstrom is back, Ovie is on fire, and the Craps are peaking at the perfect time.
The Bruins in contrast are trending very much the wrong direction. They started the season in brilliant fashion, seemingly determined to defeat the dreaded Stanley Cup hangover. Somewhere along the way however the hangover caught up (a la Chicago and Pittsburgh the last two years). The B’s just have not been that good in the second half of the season. They rely too much on Tim Thomas who seems to be wearing down. Injuries may prevent Thomas from having to pump either Michael Neuvirth or Tomas Vokun’s tires; but I foresee some bizarre 2009 Varlomov reprisal if Braden Holtby is in nets for Washington.
Why Boston will in 7 games (Emily)
Because Thomas has enough money to pay his cab fare even if Peggy won’t get him a new credit card. And the closest Ovechkin will ever get to the Stanly Cup is X Box.
FLORIDA PANTHERS (3) VS NEW JERSEY DEVILS (6)
Why New Jersey will win (Adam, 6 games, Emily 5)
Because somebody has to.
Prop bet for the series; higher number, total goals scored or total television viewers? The only excitement for me is how long it takes Kevin Dineen to yank Jose Theordore after publically declaring him “the man” in goal. This series is a hockey travesty and a singular case study for blowing up the current seed structure.
BOBBY LU AND THE FREAK TWINS (1) VS LOS ANGELES KINGS (8)
Why Vancouver will win in 6 games (Adam)
Because your typical World Cup soccer match features more goals than the LA Kings score for Vezina candidate Jonathan Quick. If the Kings had any offense, ANY, I would say an upset is possible. Alas, given their struggles and Jeff Carter’s annual foot injury I cannot see it happening. Besides, Vancouver's abudant nightlife will likely consume a fair amount of Carter and Mike Richards' free time. The Slash and Run Pansies are going down…just not here.
Why Los Angeles will win in 7 games (Emily)
No self-respecting Blackhawks fan (or any true NHL hockey fan) thinks that Vancouver will win. Ever! And even a terrible team can score goals when Roberto Luongo is flailing at pucks from his stomach.
ST. LOUIS BLUES (2) VS SAN JOSE SHARKS (7)
Why St. Louis will win in 5 games (Adam)
Because Ken Hitchcock is back behind the bench, fighting with all his might to drag the NHL back to the dead puck era. The Blues have done so much damage to offensive hockey that noted goaltending sieve Brian Elliott allowed barely 1.50 goals per game this year. Brian Elliott. Seriously. And the Sharks, who usually wait until the post season to choke, appeared to pack it in for the season about two months ago.
Why San Jose will win in 6 games (Emily)
Antti Niemi is her favorite goalie of all-time. The Blues play a ridiculously cheesy opening video at their home games, their fans do a dorky power play dance, and they openly condone hand-to-hand violence against opposing-team’s mascots. Antti Niemi is tried, true, and tested. I can’t stand the grinding style of play that St. Louis utilizes – no team should ever be able to win a playoff series playing like that. Also, St. Louis has minimal playoff experience. By the way, did I mention how much she likes Antti Niemi?
THE HOCKY TEAM FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE WINNIPEG JETS (3) VS CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS (6)
Why the Hawks will win in 7 (Adam)
The Hawks are deeper and more talented and that is without Jonathan Toews who appears likely to return. Keep in mind that in spite of the seeds, the Hawks finished 4 points ahead of Phoenix during the season. I’m a little uneasy with Corey Crawford between the pipes but he’s been stronger of late. And Mike Smith reminds me way to much of his current goalie coach Sean Burke, invincible in March, invisible in April.
Why the Hawks will win in 5 (Emily)…DUH (cue Chelsea Dagger)!
NASHVILLE PREDATORS (4) VS DETROIT DEAD WINGS (5)
Why Detroit will win in 7
(Adam)
This will unnerve the Pekka Rinne admiration society going on around the NHL but I see this series much as I see the Hawks and Yotes. I expect Nashville to battle like crazy…and lose. Great talent beats hard work when great talent is willing to work hard. I think Detroit will do just that. Bad break for Nashville, another team that deserved a better first round match-up than the league’s ridiculous seeding policy gave them.
(Emily)
Hatred of hockey teams south of the Mason Dixon line > Hatred of Detroit…though just barely.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
The Risk/Reward Battle with Sidney Crosby
There was fantastic news emerging from the new energy barn on Tuesday. Sidney Crosby is, in his own words, symptom free for the last few days and feeling significantly better. There is no timetable for his return although Sid greased the skids a bit by suggesting Sunday as a possibility.
Needless to say, this is creating quite the buzz in Penguin nation. I freely admit to being shocked by this news. I had all but committed to the reality that Sid was done for the season. In case there was any doubt of my convictions, I’ve created a permanent written record of them on the World Wide Web.
http://habersp0rtsblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/time-to-embrace-life-after-crosbyfor.html
For the record, I am more than happy to be wrong on this issue. As a Penguin fan nothing would make me happier than a healthy Sidney Crosby returning for the 2012 playoffs. I may have been wrong about Sid’s health prospects but I stand behind my other comment in the article. The Pens with Sidney Crosby are a legitimate Stanley Cup favorite. Without him they are at best a long shot. That point was amplified by Ray Shero’s inability to improve the team at the trade deadline.
To be clear, I don’t blame Shero for that result. It’s pretty obvious that there was a limited supply of players available and the asking prices were exorbitant. Paul Gaustad would look great in a Penguin uniform for two months but absolutely not at the cost of a first round draft pick. I stand by my belief that additional pieces were needed but at some point you have to deal in reality.
In the end, Shero made the right decision. If he did so with full knowledge of Crosby’s expected return it was a brilliant display of prudence in a non-existent trade market. If he did so only on blind faith, so be it. The simple fact is this. If Crosby is healthy, the Penguins have the best top three centers in the NHL bar none. That’s easy to forget given they’ve played only 10 of the last 154 games together.
The key phrase being of course, “If Crosby gets healthy.” And that is where this gets tricky.
You see nobody really knows if Crosby is healthy. Nobody knows if he’s 100% healed or if he’s simply survived a few days without symptoms. Nobody knows if he’s set for a decade of dominance or if another innocuous hit will sideline him for six months. Nobody by the way includes the Penguins, their doctors, the fans, the media, and most of all, Sid.
What’s even more clear is that there is limited if any ability to put a time line on this uncertainty. Crosby sat out 10 ½ months last year before returning. Eight games later he was back on the shelf suffering three months of symptoms. That means that the risk of him getting injured might be every bit the same if he returns tomorrow as if he returns next October.
That’s a fairly significant uncertainty when you are talking about a face of the franchise superstar. One who just happens to be one year away from unrestricted free agency.
I’ve made this point repeatedly; the Penguins are 15 months away from having to offer Crosby what figures to be a 7 year (or longer) contract for $10 Million per year (or more). If Crosby is healthy, that’s a bargain price. If he’s constantly out of the line-up with debilitating concussion issues, it’s a franchise killing deal. And just imagine if the price of keeping Crosby is losing Evgeni Malkin? Then it only gets worse.
Which means it’s fully in the best interest of the Penguins to make sure Crosby is healthy. If they cannot get comfortable with his long-term health they must let him go, no matter how painful that would be. And for my money the Pens are one more Crosby concussion from that happening.
Given all this uncertainty what do they do? For my money you get quantitative and play the risk reward game. Simply put, there will ALWAYS be uncertainty and risk surrounding Crosby’s cranium. It is now a permanent part of his profile. The question is thus, when does the reward for playing him outweigh that risk of further injury?
Last March I published a blog suggesting the Pens shut Crosby down for the year.
http://habersp0rtsblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/short-term-pain-for-long-term-gain.html
My reasoning was very much based on the risk/reward premise. Clearly he had a significant head injury that was taking a long-time to heal. Nobody knew for sure how much time that would take. The offseason provided between 4 and 6 months of free healing time, meaning time for Crosby to get better without the pressure of missing games.
The caveat of course was scuttling what appeared on January 1st of that year to be a clear cut Stanley Cup favorite. So be it. The Pens had already lost Malkin to a season ending knee injury. Without Geno, their chances of winning the cup were significantly reduced, even with a healthy Crosby. And by all accounts Crosby was not going to be 100% healthy. In the end, it did not seem worth risking Crosby’s long-term health when there was minimal (if any) chance of winning the cup if he returned.
This year my views are in categorical opposition.
Not only is Malkin healthy, he has regained his form as arguably the most dominant offensive player in the game. As ridiculous as this sounds, Crosby might be the second line center when he returns. Put Crosby and Malkin (in whatever order) and Jordan Staal on your top three lines and you are talking about a no brainer Stanley Cup favorite.
On top of that, championship windows are short. You never know when they will come crashing down; a point crystallized to Penguin fans by Crosby’s recent trials and tribulations. The Pens sacrificed a tailor made championship opportunity last year. I have no wish to see them repeat this act in 2012, especially given Sid's uncertain future.
The most critical point is this. Having watched the development of this issue for a year, I can now confidently say we have absolutely no idea how long Crosby truly needs to get healthy. Last year we speculated that Sid would get healthy over the offseason. Now we know it is not that simple. Crosby might return today and be 100% healthy, especially if his neck injury really was the primary issue. Or he could sit out until October and immediately suffer another trauma. There is simply no way to know.
What it comes down to is this. If Sidney Crosby wants to continue as an NHL hockey player, he must at some point prove that he stay healthy and perform at the highest level. Given what I’ve described above, there is no time like the present; assuming the Pens get comfortable that he truly is symptom free.
Almost.
Which leads to my final point on the risk/reward matrix. The playoffs start on or about April 11th. The risk of playing Crosby now seems pretty much equivalent to the risk of playing him then. The major difference is the reward. The Penguins get no reward for Sid playing Sunday in Boston. They have nothing to gain and everything to lose. The opportunities for reward exist only come playoff time.
In short, there is zero upside to rushing Crosby back during the regular season. The Pens have survived, even thrived without 87 all season long. Another few weeks will not change anything.
I’m not advocating needlessly holding him out, just to hold him out. I am saying make sure that “symptom free” sticks before he comes back. Any game he plays before April 11th is gravy in my opinion. Nobody knows how long is long enough. That said, 3 ½ months of symptoms compared to “a few days” of symptom free is too tight a tolerance for what is at stake.
There is precedent in for players returning from a long absence at the start of the playoffs and performing well. Gary Roberts did it in 2008 and was still fully capable of terrorizing Ottawa. Peter Forsberg did it in or around 2001. Sid has already shown this season that he needs only about two shifts to get back to top speed.
Here’s hoping for a healthy return of Sid the Kid as soon as possible, but not a minute before.
Needless to say, this is creating quite the buzz in Penguin nation. I freely admit to being shocked by this news. I had all but committed to the reality that Sid was done for the season. In case there was any doubt of my convictions, I’ve created a permanent written record of them on the World Wide Web.
http://habersp0rtsblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/time-to-embrace-life-after-crosbyfor.html
For the record, I am more than happy to be wrong on this issue. As a Penguin fan nothing would make me happier than a healthy Sidney Crosby returning for the 2012 playoffs. I may have been wrong about Sid’s health prospects but I stand behind my other comment in the article. The Pens with Sidney Crosby are a legitimate Stanley Cup favorite. Without him they are at best a long shot. That point was amplified by Ray Shero’s inability to improve the team at the trade deadline.
To be clear, I don’t blame Shero for that result. It’s pretty obvious that there was a limited supply of players available and the asking prices were exorbitant. Paul Gaustad would look great in a Penguin uniform for two months but absolutely not at the cost of a first round draft pick. I stand by my belief that additional pieces were needed but at some point you have to deal in reality.
In the end, Shero made the right decision. If he did so with full knowledge of Crosby’s expected return it was a brilliant display of prudence in a non-existent trade market. If he did so only on blind faith, so be it. The simple fact is this. If Crosby is healthy, the Penguins have the best top three centers in the NHL bar none. That’s easy to forget given they’ve played only 10 of the last 154 games together.
The key phrase being of course, “If Crosby gets healthy.” And that is where this gets tricky.
You see nobody really knows if Crosby is healthy. Nobody knows if he’s 100% healed or if he’s simply survived a few days without symptoms. Nobody knows if he’s set for a decade of dominance or if another innocuous hit will sideline him for six months. Nobody by the way includes the Penguins, their doctors, the fans, the media, and most of all, Sid.
What’s even more clear is that there is limited if any ability to put a time line on this uncertainty. Crosby sat out 10 ½ months last year before returning. Eight games later he was back on the shelf suffering three months of symptoms. That means that the risk of him getting injured might be every bit the same if he returns tomorrow as if he returns next October.
That’s a fairly significant uncertainty when you are talking about a face of the franchise superstar. One who just happens to be one year away from unrestricted free agency.
I’ve made this point repeatedly; the Penguins are 15 months away from having to offer Crosby what figures to be a 7 year (or longer) contract for $10 Million per year (or more). If Crosby is healthy, that’s a bargain price. If he’s constantly out of the line-up with debilitating concussion issues, it’s a franchise killing deal. And just imagine if the price of keeping Crosby is losing Evgeni Malkin? Then it only gets worse.
Which means it’s fully in the best interest of the Penguins to make sure Crosby is healthy. If they cannot get comfortable with his long-term health they must let him go, no matter how painful that would be. And for my money the Pens are one more Crosby concussion from that happening.
Given all this uncertainty what do they do? For my money you get quantitative and play the risk reward game. Simply put, there will ALWAYS be uncertainty and risk surrounding Crosby’s cranium. It is now a permanent part of his profile. The question is thus, when does the reward for playing him outweigh that risk of further injury?
Last March I published a blog suggesting the Pens shut Crosby down for the year.
http://habersp0rtsblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/short-term-pain-for-long-term-gain.html
My reasoning was very much based on the risk/reward premise. Clearly he had a significant head injury that was taking a long-time to heal. Nobody knew for sure how much time that would take. The offseason provided between 4 and 6 months of free healing time, meaning time for Crosby to get better without the pressure of missing games.
The caveat of course was scuttling what appeared on January 1st of that year to be a clear cut Stanley Cup favorite. So be it. The Pens had already lost Malkin to a season ending knee injury. Without Geno, their chances of winning the cup were significantly reduced, even with a healthy Crosby. And by all accounts Crosby was not going to be 100% healthy. In the end, it did not seem worth risking Crosby’s long-term health when there was minimal (if any) chance of winning the cup if he returned.
This year my views are in categorical opposition.
Not only is Malkin healthy, he has regained his form as arguably the most dominant offensive player in the game. As ridiculous as this sounds, Crosby might be the second line center when he returns. Put Crosby and Malkin (in whatever order) and Jordan Staal on your top three lines and you are talking about a no brainer Stanley Cup favorite.
On top of that, championship windows are short. You never know when they will come crashing down; a point crystallized to Penguin fans by Crosby’s recent trials and tribulations. The Pens sacrificed a tailor made championship opportunity last year. I have no wish to see them repeat this act in 2012, especially given Sid's uncertain future.
The most critical point is this. Having watched the development of this issue for a year, I can now confidently say we have absolutely no idea how long Crosby truly needs to get healthy. Last year we speculated that Sid would get healthy over the offseason. Now we know it is not that simple. Crosby might return today and be 100% healthy, especially if his neck injury really was the primary issue. Or he could sit out until October and immediately suffer another trauma. There is simply no way to know.
What it comes down to is this. If Sidney Crosby wants to continue as an NHL hockey player, he must at some point prove that he stay healthy and perform at the highest level. Given what I’ve described above, there is no time like the present; assuming the Pens get comfortable that he truly is symptom free.
Almost.
Which leads to my final point on the risk/reward matrix. The playoffs start on or about April 11th. The risk of playing Crosby now seems pretty much equivalent to the risk of playing him then. The major difference is the reward. The Penguins get no reward for Sid playing Sunday in Boston. They have nothing to gain and everything to lose. The opportunities for reward exist only come playoff time.
In short, there is zero upside to rushing Crosby back during the regular season. The Pens have survived, even thrived without 87 all season long. Another few weeks will not change anything.
I’m not advocating needlessly holding him out, just to hold him out. I am saying make sure that “symptom free” sticks before he comes back. Any game he plays before April 11th is gravy in my opinion. Nobody knows how long is long enough. That said, 3 ½ months of symptoms compared to “a few days” of symptom free is too tight a tolerance for what is at stake.
There is precedent in for players returning from a long absence at the start of the playoffs and performing well. Gary Roberts did it in 2008 and was still fully capable of terrorizing Ottawa. Peter Forsberg did it in or around 2001. Sid has already shown this season that he needs only about two shifts to get back to top speed.
Here’s hoping for a healthy return of Sid the Kid as soon as possible, but not a minute before.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Time to Embrace Life After Crosby…for Now
The most significant on ice decision of the Mario Lemieux ownership era is less than 17 months away. That’s when your Pittsburgh Penguins must decide whether to lavish what figures to be an eight figure annual salary on the NHL’s preeminent superstar (when healthy), one Sidney Crosby.
Before Sid the Kid became the poster child for the NHL’s recent concussion epidemic, such a deal was academic. The question was not IF the Pens would keep Crosby, just how much it would cost. The only legitimate concern regarding Crosby’s future was whether he would stay in the Burgh or head back to the mother ship in Canada.
Oh how we Penguin fans long for the days when the picture was that simple.
Now of course there is a legitimate question of whether the Pens can afford to keep Crosby. With Crosby healthy, an eight figure contract is a bargain. With Crosby beset by concussion issues and regularly unable to play, it’s a potentially franchise killing contract. Especially given Evgeni Malkin’s return to prominence as arguably the best offensive player in the NHL.
I do not envy Lemieux or Ray Shero the decision they may face in June 2013.
Alas, that decision is well off in the distance. Beyond even the clouds of the NHL’s uncertain labor situation which could potentially confuse the issue further. In short, there is still time, albeit a rapidly decreasing amount to deal with Crosby’s long-term future In contrast, the more pressing issue is less than ten days away.
The 2012 trade deadline arrives a week from Monday. That is the hard deadline for the Penguins to accept if they are willing to concede a second lost season for Crosby. And to my way of thinking, this is exactly what they must do.
I do not know a single Penguin fan who wants anything less than a healthy Sidney Crosby in the line-up before the post season starts. I also do not know a single Penguin fan who did not want to win last week’s $350 Million Power Ball either.
As much as we don’t want to accept it, reality is setting in. And that reality is that Sidney Crosby is unlikely to play again this season.
There is a déjà vu aspect to this situation; we lived the same scenario last spring. We watched the Penguins battle heroically night after night without the two headed monster of Crosby and Malkin in the line-up. And even as we knew that Malkin’s season was over, we hoped beyond hope that somehow, someway, Crosby would return in time to save the team’s Stanley Cup dreams. We hoped as we would in any season but especially last year when the Pens looked darn near invincible, until their apocalyptic post New Year’s injury run.
It never happened. No matter how good Crosby looked skating in practice, no matter how many reports were issued on his “improvement” he could not shake the concussion symptoms. The wait became an exercise in utter futility and the Pens eventually succumbed to superior talent in the Tampa Bay Lightning. The series exposed the most basic lesson in sports; great talent beats hard work when great talent is willing to work hard.
Championship opportunities in sports are precious and rare. They do not come along very often.
And in a strictly sports sense, true championship opportunities lost are a travesty.
The 2011 Penguins lost such an opportunity. They cannot afford to let another slip way while desperately hoping Crosby will return. Quite simply, it’s time to move on and accept the unpleasant reality of Sid’s short-term future.
A year ago I was more resigned to the team’s fate, what with Crosby and Malkin both out of the line-up. I refuse to make such concessions this year; especially with Malkin dominating the league in Crosby like fashion. Most teams in the league would dream of having a Malkin type superstar leading their club. Only in Pittsburgh would we suggest that it takes two such players to win a cup. In point of fact, it does not.
It takes one such player, healthy of course, with the right supporting cast. The Penguins are close but not quite there. Simply put the team as comprised is not Stanley Cup caliber without Crosby…but it can be. And thus Ray Shero MUST act.
The Pens to my way of thinking needs a top six forward, a checking line center, and possibly a depth defenseman. Crosby alone would solve the first two concerns. His return to health would allow the Pens to add arguably the game’s best player to their top six and push Jordan Staal back to the third line. There is no better group of centers in the league…when healthy…than Crosby, Malkin and Staal.
Crosby is so dominant that he can elevate a Pascal Dupuis to top 6 forward status. Staal, for all his strengths cannot. Jordan Staal is the game’s preeminent third line center. As a second line center he needs help. A second line of Staal with Cooke and Dupuis (or Sullivan or Kennedy) is acceptable in February, not in May. Especially given the likes of Cal O’Reilly and/or Dustin Jeffrey are centering the third line.
On the contrary, a line of Staal, Cooke, and say Teemu Selanne is a championship caliber option.
The Penguins’ answer may or may not be the Finish Flash but it needs to be a legitimate top 6 forward (Jaromir Jagr would have been nice solution but alas that's revisionist history now). Shero should be willing part with anybody in the organization short Simon Despres to make that happen. That includes the likes of Jeffrey, Ben Lovejoy, Kennedy and the rapidly fading prospect that is Eric Tangradi.
The Penguins also need a legitimate third line center if Crosby does not return. Stanley Cups are not won with waiver wire cast-offs like O’Reilly or Richard Park, or even Joe Vitale in that role.
Such acquisitions will almost certainly put the Pens over the salary cap with Crosby on the ledger. This accepts as unlikely the miracle that would be adequately replacing Paul Martin’s bloated contract. Which means quite simply that Crosby must come off the ledger until the end of the regular season. That calculation does not even contemplate adding another defensemen which may be a consideration with or without Martin in black and gold.
In the event Sid the Kid performs a miraculous recovery by season’s end, the Pens can still exploit the NHL’s ridiculous cap loophole and bring him back for the post season. There is precedent for this in Penguins’ Stanley Cup history and I’m willing to go way out on a limb and suggest that Sid might add a bit more to the line-up than Miroslav Satan.
That scenario presumes of course that Crosby is healthy and ready to play by mid-April. That is not a presumption I am willing to make with Sid still experiencing concussion symptoms as of today.
It’s time for a harsh, in your face reality check for all Penguin fans. We are now well in to year two of the Crosby concussion battle and there is little evidence that this issue is going to resolve itself any time soon. Even as we cling to the “soft tissue injury” as our Crosby lifeline, the reality is that Sid’s career right now is very much in jeopardy. I continue to hope beyond hope that Crosby returns healthy but I’m simply no longer willing to bank on it, not at the cost of another lost Stanley Cup.
In the pre salary cap days, such concerns were not mutually exclusive. Today they are. The Pens must bite the bullet and upgrade to championship supporting cast around Malkin. That means moving beyond Crosby…at least for now.
Before Sid the Kid became the poster child for the NHL’s recent concussion epidemic, such a deal was academic. The question was not IF the Pens would keep Crosby, just how much it would cost. The only legitimate concern regarding Crosby’s future was whether he would stay in the Burgh or head back to the mother ship in Canada.
Oh how we Penguin fans long for the days when the picture was that simple.
Now of course there is a legitimate question of whether the Pens can afford to keep Crosby. With Crosby healthy, an eight figure contract is a bargain. With Crosby beset by concussion issues and regularly unable to play, it’s a potentially franchise killing contract. Especially given Evgeni Malkin’s return to prominence as arguably the best offensive player in the NHL.
I do not envy Lemieux or Ray Shero the decision they may face in June 2013.
Alas, that decision is well off in the distance. Beyond even the clouds of the NHL’s uncertain labor situation which could potentially confuse the issue further. In short, there is still time, albeit a rapidly decreasing amount to deal with Crosby’s long-term future In contrast, the more pressing issue is less than ten days away.
The 2012 trade deadline arrives a week from Monday. That is the hard deadline for the Penguins to accept if they are willing to concede a second lost season for Crosby. And to my way of thinking, this is exactly what they must do.
I do not know a single Penguin fan who wants anything less than a healthy Sidney Crosby in the line-up before the post season starts. I also do not know a single Penguin fan who did not want to win last week’s $350 Million Power Ball either.
As much as we don’t want to accept it, reality is setting in. And that reality is that Sidney Crosby is unlikely to play again this season.
There is a déjà vu aspect to this situation; we lived the same scenario last spring. We watched the Penguins battle heroically night after night without the two headed monster of Crosby and Malkin in the line-up. And even as we knew that Malkin’s season was over, we hoped beyond hope that somehow, someway, Crosby would return in time to save the team’s Stanley Cup dreams. We hoped as we would in any season but especially last year when the Pens looked darn near invincible, until their apocalyptic post New Year’s injury run.
It never happened. No matter how good Crosby looked skating in practice, no matter how many reports were issued on his “improvement” he could not shake the concussion symptoms. The wait became an exercise in utter futility and the Pens eventually succumbed to superior talent in the Tampa Bay Lightning. The series exposed the most basic lesson in sports; great talent beats hard work when great talent is willing to work hard.
Championship opportunities in sports are precious and rare. They do not come along very often.
And in a strictly sports sense, true championship opportunities lost are a travesty.
The 2011 Penguins lost such an opportunity. They cannot afford to let another slip way while desperately hoping Crosby will return. Quite simply, it’s time to move on and accept the unpleasant reality of Sid’s short-term future.
A year ago I was more resigned to the team’s fate, what with Crosby and Malkin both out of the line-up. I refuse to make such concessions this year; especially with Malkin dominating the league in Crosby like fashion. Most teams in the league would dream of having a Malkin type superstar leading their club. Only in Pittsburgh would we suggest that it takes two such players to win a cup. In point of fact, it does not.
It takes one such player, healthy of course, with the right supporting cast. The Penguins are close but not quite there. Simply put the team as comprised is not Stanley Cup caliber without Crosby…but it can be. And thus Ray Shero MUST act.
The Pens to my way of thinking needs a top six forward, a checking line center, and possibly a depth defenseman. Crosby alone would solve the first two concerns. His return to health would allow the Pens to add arguably the game’s best player to their top six and push Jordan Staal back to the third line. There is no better group of centers in the league…when healthy…than Crosby, Malkin and Staal.
Crosby is so dominant that he can elevate a Pascal Dupuis to top 6 forward status. Staal, for all his strengths cannot. Jordan Staal is the game’s preeminent third line center. As a second line center he needs help. A second line of Staal with Cooke and Dupuis (or Sullivan or Kennedy) is acceptable in February, not in May. Especially given the likes of Cal O’Reilly and/or Dustin Jeffrey are centering the third line.
On the contrary, a line of Staal, Cooke, and say Teemu Selanne is a championship caliber option.
The Penguins’ answer may or may not be the Finish Flash but it needs to be a legitimate top 6 forward (Jaromir Jagr would have been nice solution but alas that's revisionist history now). Shero should be willing part with anybody in the organization short Simon Despres to make that happen. That includes the likes of Jeffrey, Ben Lovejoy, Kennedy and the rapidly fading prospect that is Eric Tangradi.
The Penguins also need a legitimate third line center if Crosby does not return. Stanley Cups are not won with waiver wire cast-offs like O’Reilly or Richard Park, or even Joe Vitale in that role.
Such acquisitions will almost certainly put the Pens over the salary cap with Crosby on the ledger. This accepts as unlikely the miracle that would be adequately replacing Paul Martin’s bloated contract. Which means quite simply that Crosby must come off the ledger until the end of the regular season. That calculation does not even contemplate adding another defensemen which may be a consideration with or without Martin in black and gold.
In the event Sid the Kid performs a miraculous recovery by season’s end, the Pens can still exploit the NHL’s ridiculous cap loophole and bring him back for the post season. There is precedent for this in Penguins’ Stanley Cup history and I’m willing to go way out on a limb and suggest that Sid might add a bit more to the line-up than Miroslav Satan.
That scenario presumes of course that Crosby is healthy and ready to play by mid-April. That is not a presumption I am willing to make with Sid still experiencing concussion symptoms as of today.
It’s time for a harsh, in your face reality check for all Penguin fans. We are now well in to year two of the Crosby concussion battle and there is little evidence that this issue is going to resolve itself any time soon. Even as we cling to the “soft tissue injury” as our Crosby lifeline, the reality is that Sid’s career right now is very much in jeopardy. I continue to hope beyond hope that Crosby returns healthy but I’m simply no longer willing to bank on it, not at the cost of another lost Stanley Cup.
In the pre salary cap days, such concerns were not mutually exclusive. Today they are. The Pens must bite the bullet and upgrade to championship supporting cast around Malkin. That means moving beyond Crosby…at least for now.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Déjà vu all over Again
I love hockey. That’s not exactly breaking news to those who know me well.
In fact one might say I have a cult like devotion to the sport. Die hard hockey fans tend to be that way; a product of both our genuine passion for the game and the constant uphill battle it faces for mainstream acceptance.
I’ve come to grips with hockey’s place in the sports pantheon, which is to say I’ve stopped trying to convert non-believers to the NHL like some kind of skating Jehovah’s Witness. At the same time I am fiercely protective of the game. And yes I will concede that can result in overreactions on my part to short term concerns. However…
There is a fundamental problem that comes with being an NHL fan; one that is nearly impossible to overcome. Simply put, the people who run the sport we love seem hell bent on its destruction. With the possible exception of major league baseball owners, there is no group that consistently works harder to destroy its own product than those who run the National Hockey League.
Every once in awhile, say after a season ending lockout they have an epiphany about doing the right by their game. The epiphany lasts some length of time but eventually the NHL guardians regress back to the mean. The mean in this case is the boring, defensive minded, clutch and grab hockey which caused Mario Lemieux to famously coin the term, “garage league” for the NHL.
And in case you have not been paying attention the league is regressing again.
I noticed last year a shocking decrease in the number of power plays per game. At first I attributed this to players getting comfortable with the post lockout rules and fully adapting their games. Alas, the trend has gone in to overdrive since calendar flipped to 2012. The Penguin stats were posted during their game in Montreal the other night and they were an eye opener; less than 5 power plays per game, TOTAL, between both teams since January 1st. Which means for once Steigy and Errey are not simply blowing homer smoke when they complain about the Pens not getting calls.
Lest you think this is an aberration I’m seeing the same trend in Blackhawks games as well. And it’s starting to affect results such as Anaheim beating Carolina last night after a blatant trip that was not called. I’ve also noticed a subtle increase in the number of sticks around mid-sections that are suddenly being ignored, especially in New Jersey.
In short, the NHL is once again prioritizing grit, tenacity, clutching, and grabbing over skill. That’s wonderful news for the Max Talbot’s of the world but a disaster for the league as a whole.
Lest you think I’m overreacting here are some simple numbers for you:
• In 2003-04, the last year before the lockout the average total goals scored in an NHL game was 5.14.
• In 2005-06, the liberated first year after the lockout the average goals score in an NHL game was 6.16, a 20% increase.
• In 2011-12, through last Sunday the average goals scored have dropped to 5.48 per game; an 11% decrease from the first year post lockout.
That of course is only part of the story; the quantifiable part, which I as a certified numbers geek tend to cling to when presenting an argument. There is also what we see and feel when watching the game. And there is an unmistakable sense that once again offense is slowly being siphoned from the sport.
It’s early of course and the evidence is for now is primarily circumstantial. And yet I feel like I’m having a déjà vu, to the early days of the dead puck era. In those days I found myself apologizing every time I took a non hockey fan to a game. It was a period that chased away all but the most ardent supporters of the NHL.
I understand the league cannot cater solely to the peripheral fans who want 10-8 scores every night. That said, when the NHL threatens to scare me off it has a SEROIUS problem. My memory is not what it used to be but did they not cancel an entire season in part to address this problem?
There may be no better barometer of the NHL’s problem than the Devils who, in spite of breaking the bank for Ilya Kovalchuk are back to destroying any semblance of excitement in the game. Worse yet they now have disciples. After 1,562 NHL games this season, there were four teams whose games feature an average of less than 5 goals, led by Los Angeles at an embarrassing 4.36 goals per game. All four teams, LA, the NY Rangers, Minnesota, and St’Louis are in serious playoff contention right now.
You may also have noticed a bevy of goaltenders once again allowing less than 2 goals per game; lead by such luminaries as Brian Elliott in St’Louis. That’s the same Elliott who was so bad against the Penguins two years ago that Ottawa started the ghost of Pascal Leclaire in two playoff games. Before we start polishing Elliott’s hall of fame bust, let’s remember that the dead puck era was so awful it made Jocelyn Thibault in to a superstar. If that’s not a serious indictment of the game at that time, I don’t know what is.
Thankfully we’re not there…yet. That said, the trend is disconcerting, at least since the refs stopped calling penalties in January. It’s simply too obvious to be an accident or coincidence.
It’s possible the NHL is looking to slow down the game in lieu of the shocking increase in concussions over the last 12 months. If this is the case than the league can at least be somewhat lauded for its motives if not its actions. Addressing the distributing head injury trend is absolutely a necessity; but there has to be a better way than by removing speed and excitement from the sport.
That said, I think there is more to the story. The NHL power base is still dominated by thick minded, “old school” hockey guys whose first love seems to be 4th line grinders and goons. These folks have been decrying the so called “new rules” as an abomination almost from the moment they were introduced. They worship at the altar of Don Cheery, a man who continues to preach this as gospel of “old school” hockey at the expense of skill, excitement or sanity in the sport.
I’m reminded of Tom Barrasso’s famous refusal to have a battle of wits with Cherry because Cherry was unarmed. And yet I still believe the Cherry mentality dominates the NHL’s direction (read Colin Campbell’s mockery of disciplinary action throughout last season). Those who feel different, like for example a certain hall of fame, French Canadian superstar who runs the Penguins get shouted down and decried as whiners when they protest.
Make no mistake; the game is at it best when played with speed, skill, and physicality. I don’t care how great Tim Thomas and Henrik Lundqvist are; something is seriously wrong when goaltenders are approaching a 94% save percentage. Check out how many 1-0 games have been played in the NHL since January 1st, several of which were actually 0 – 0 but for the shootout.
For now there are only signs of distress. Understand though that there were similar such signs in 1998. The league ignored them and tacitly endorsed the horrific clutching and grabbing in some misguided attempt to smooth out economic disparity. Such disparities were supposedly solved after the lockout.
The simple solution is enforce the rules as written. That has always been the solution and it has always worked. The alternative is a gradual decent to another dead puck era. That issue is bad enough at face value, worse with impending labor pains on the horizon.
If you think you can live with that I urge you to go back and watch the 2003 Stanley Cup final between New Jersey and Anaheim. It was the singular low point for NHL hockey in my lifetime; two teams that would just assume the puck never leave the neutral zone playing for the sport's most cherished prize. Compare that to either Pens/Detroit final or the Hawks and Philly. The difference is staggering.
The NHL can stop this trend immediately if they want to. I’m not sure they do.
In fact one might say I have a cult like devotion to the sport. Die hard hockey fans tend to be that way; a product of both our genuine passion for the game and the constant uphill battle it faces for mainstream acceptance.
I’ve come to grips with hockey’s place in the sports pantheon, which is to say I’ve stopped trying to convert non-believers to the NHL like some kind of skating Jehovah’s Witness. At the same time I am fiercely protective of the game. And yes I will concede that can result in overreactions on my part to short term concerns. However…
There is a fundamental problem that comes with being an NHL fan; one that is nearly impossible to overcome. Simply put, the people who run the sport we love seem hell bent on its destruction. With the possible exception of major league baseball owners, there is no group that consistently works harder to destroy its own product than those who run the National Hockey League.
Every once in awhile, say after a season ending lockout they have an epiphany about doing the right by their game. The epiphany lasts some length of time but eventually the NHL guardians regress back to the mean. The mean in this case is the boring, defensive minded, clutch and grab hockey which caused Mario Lemieux to famously coin the term, “garage league” for the NHL.
And in case you have not been paying attention the league is regressing again.
I noticed last year a shocking decrease in the number of power plays per game. At first I attributed this to players getting comfortable with the post lockout rules and fully adapting their games. Alas, the trend has gone in to overdrive since calendar flipped to 2012. The Penguin stats were posted during their game in Montreal the other night and they were an eye opener; less than 5 power plays per game, TOTAL, between both teams since January 1st. Which means for once Steigy and Errey are not simply blowing homer smoke when they complain about the Pens not getting calls.
Lest you think this is an aberration I’m seeing the same trend in Blackhawks games as well. And it’s starting to affect results such as Anaheim beating Carolina last night after a blatant trip that was not called. I’ve also noticed a subtle increase in the number of sticks around mid-sections that are suddenly being ignored, especially in New Jersey.
In short, the NHL is once again prioritizing grit, tenacity, clutching, and grabbing over skill. That’s wonderful news for the Max Talbot’s of the world but a disaster for the league as a whole.
Lest you think I’m overreacting here are some simple numbers for you:
• In 2003-04, the last year before the lockout the average total goals scored in an NHL game was 5.14.
• In 2005-06, the liberated first year after the lockout the average goals score in an NHL game was 6.16, a 20% increase.
• In 2011-12, through last Sunday the average goals scored have dropped to 5.48 per game; an 11% decrease from the first year post lockout.
That of course is only part of the story; the quantifiable part, which I as a certified numbers geek tend to cling to when presenting an argument. There is also what we see and feel when watching the game. And there is an unmistakable sense that once again offense is slowly being siphoned from the sport.
It’s early of course and the evidence is for now is primarily circumstantial. And yet I feel like I’m having a déjà vu, to the early days of the dead puck era. In those days I found myself apologizing every time I took a non hockey fan to a game. It was a period that chased away all but the most ardent supporters of the NHL.
I understand the league cannot cater solely to the peripheral fans who want 10-8 scores every night. That said, when the NHL threatens to scare me off it has a SEROIUS problem. My memory is not what it used to be but did they not cancel an entire season in part to address this problem?
There may be no better barometer of the NHL’s problem than the Devils who, in spite of breaking the bank for Ilya Kovalchuk are back to destroying any semblance of excitement in the game. Worse yet they now have disciples. After 1,562 NHL games this season, there were four teams whose games feature an average of less than 5 goals, led by Los Angeles at an embarrassing 4.36 goals per game. All four teams, LA, the NY Rangers, Minnesota, and St’Louis are in serious playoff contention right now.
You may also have noticed a bevy of goaltenders once again allowing less than 2 goals per game; lead by such luminaries as Brian Elliott in St’Louis. That’s the same Elliott who was so bad against the Penguins two years ago that Ottawa started the ghost of Pascal Leclaire in two playoff games. Before we start polishing Elliott’s hall of fame bust, let’s remember that the dead puck era was so awful it made Jocelyn Thibault in to a superstar. If that’s not a serious indictment of the game at that time, I don’t know what is.
Thankfully we’re not there…yet. That said, the trend is disconcerting, at least since the refs stopped calling penalties in January. It’s simply too obvious to be an accident or coincidence.
It’s possible the NHL is looking to slow down the game in lieu of the shocking increase in concussions over the last 12 months. If this is the case than the league can at least be somewhat lauded for its motives if not its actions. Addressing the distributing head injury trend is absolutely a necessity; but there has to be a better way than by removing speed and excitement from the sport.
That said, I think there is more to the story. The NHL power base is still dominated by thick minded, “old school” hockey guys whose first love seems to be 4th line grinders and goons. These folks have been decrying the so called “new rules” as an abomination almost from the moment they were introduced. They worship at the altar of Don Cheery, a man who continues to preach this as gospel of “old school” hockey at the expense of skill, excitement or sanity in the sport.
I’m reminded of Tom Barrasso’s famous refusal to have a battle of wits with Cherry because Cherry was unarmed. And yet I still believe the Cherry mentality dominates the NHL’s direction (read Colin Campbell’s mockery of disciplinary action throughout last season). Those who feel different, like for example a certain hall of fame, French Canadian superstar who runs the Penguins get shouted down and decried as whiners when they protest.
Make no mistake; the game is at it best when played with speed, skill, and physicality. I don’t care how great Tim Thomas and Henrik Lundqvist are; something is seriously wrong when goaltenders are approaching a 94% save percentage. Check out how many 1-0 games have been played in the NHL since January 1st, several of which were actually 0 – 0 but for the shootout.
For now there are only signs of distress. Understand though that there were similar such signs in 1998. The league ignored them and tacitly endorsed the horrific clutching and grabbing in some misguided attempt to smooth out economic disparity. Such disparities were supposedly solved after the lockout.
The simple solution is enforce the rules as written. That has always been the solution and it has always worked. The alternative is a gradual decent to another dead puck era. That issue is bad enough at face value, worse with impending labor pains on the horizon.
If you think you can live with that I urge you to go back and watch the 2003 Stanley Cup final between New Jersey and Anaheim. It was the singular low point for NHL hockey in my lifetime; two teams that would just assume the puck never leave the neutral zone playing for the sport's most cherished prize. Compare that to either Pens/Detroit final or the Hawks and Philly. The difference is staggering.
The NHL can stop this trend immediately if they want to. I’m not sure they do.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Rest in Peace
The Penn State community once again finds itself united; united in profound sorrow and despair.
A ten week surreal nightmare, the likes of which we dared never imagine has dealt its cruelest blow yet. The untimely death of the man we affectionately call JoePa, Coach Joseph Vincent Paterno.
The doctors say he died of lung cancer and clinically speaking that’s likely true. And yet most who truly knew him believe he died of a broken heart. The exact reasons for that heartbreak are now between Paterno and his creator and I will not debate them in this blog.
Ten weeks ago we mourned a spiritual death; the death of Paterno’s legacy. Today we mourn his actual passing. Both seemed indestructible; a rare constant in an ever changing universe, before November 10th, 2011.
Let me start with this; if you believe that Paterno engaged in a carefully orchestrated cover-up of sexual assault against children you should probably stop reading this column. If that truly is your belief than you likely are unwilling to see beyond it; notwithstanding a lack of any facts to collaborate that position. As the great Walter Payton said upon announcing his terminal illness, “For those who will say what they are going to say, may G-d have mercy on your soul.”
If you believe that Paterno was a good and decent person; a man who spent six decades trying to do right and likely made one horribly flawed decision than by all means read on. If you believe that good people can make terrible mistakes when put in situations beyond their comprehension, you may understand my grief and that of hundreds of thousands of proud Penn Staters.
Excepting a five second, passing conversation in 1991, I never met Joe Paterno. And yet I mourn for him as I would a member of my own family. The emotions are real and undeniable. And I assure you I’m not alone.
As former Nittany Lion Adam Taliferro so eloquently stated yesterday, Penn State has lost its heart. Joe Paterno was quite simply the heart and soul of our community. And with his death, our hearts are truly broken. There will never be another Paterno or anyone like him. There will never be another relationship like the one between Paterno and Penn State. I do not expect those outside of that relationship to understand it. I hope they have the decency to at least respect it.
I wrote this a few weeks back and it bears repeating. Penn State is a massive extended family. Our family has hundreds of thousands of members. It stretches across years and decades and thousands of miles. We are incredibly broad and diverse, different in so many ways. The one thing that binds us is an undying love of The Pennsylvania State University.
Understand this, whatever you may think of him right now, Joe Paterno was the patriarch of our family. He was quite literally the physical embodiment of this place we hold so sacred. His death is a death to our entire family. For that we mourn.
Some people cannot fathom Penn State football without Paterno. I cannot fathom Penn State University without him. As I sit here today I cannot believe he is gone any more than I can accept the callous indifference with which he was discarded. As his wife so simply and accurately stated, after 61 years he deserved better.
There is nothing more than I can add about the horrific scandal that ended his career and perhaps his life. It’s been analyzed, debated, and scrutinized. Questions have been asked and for the most part not answered. We may never know the whole truth. We may never truly know if Paterno enabled these horrific crimes or was served up as a sacrificial lamb to a blood thirsty public and media. As always the truth is likely somewhere in between.
History will ultimately pass judgment on the life of Joe Paterno. That history is still being written, for better or sadly for worse.
And it is irrelevant today.
Today we mourn the loss of a good man. Not a perfect man by any means but then he never claimed to be. I believe in my heart that this man tried to live a profoundly decent life. As I listen to the overwhelming tributes from virtually everyone who knew him, I am more and more convinced this is true.
We do not really know what he knew or did not know in 2002. And sadly now we may never know. We do not know what motivated his action or worse perhaps his inaction. All I can say is what I said last week; the idea that Joe Paterno willfully ignored the sexual abuse of children is in categorical opposition to the way he lived his entire life. I simply refuse to accept it without proof; not with this man’s track record.
If that makes me naïve or an enabler I will live with the charge. It is easy to rise upon a pedestal and pass sanctimonious judgments without facts. It is harder to open your heart, to try and truly understand. To ask the question of why virtually everyone whose life has been touched by this man so reveres and respects him. Perhaps because real life is complex; perhaps because the story is not so simple as many choose to believe.
I am remiss to use the word tragedy in the context of sports. Tragedy is about life and death; not about athletic competition. But it is absolutely a tragedy if a man who gave so much of himself to so many, is remembered first and foremost for crimes he neither perpetrated nor witnessed. It is a tragedy if this scandal, to whatever extent he is culpable caused his death. And you can add me to the long list of people who believe that is exactly what happened.
It just seems far too much a coincidence that such a strong and vibrant human being succumbed to death only ten weeks after his life was torn asunder. I cannot even fathom how painful it would be to devote your entire life to building something; a program, an image, and ideal, and then having it irrevocably destroyed in the span of four days. I know how devastating this has been for me; for all of us in the Penn State community. It terrifies me to think how painful this must have been for Paterno.
I understand that this scandal made his position untenable. That does not make it right that a man who spent 60 years of his life coaching, teaching, mentoring, and impacting young people was sacrificed to a blood thirsty public. Not when so many others bare as much or great burden in this terrible tragedy. Not when the ultimate villain in this horror appears less reviled publically than Paterno.
Unless and until somebody proves to me that Joe Paterno deliberately covered up sexual abuse of children I will stand behind this belief; a person with his track record deserves and in fact demands the presumption of innocence. At the very least he deserved his day in court, a day he now will never get.
If and when it is proven that he participated in an orchestrated cover-up of child sexual abuse, his legacy will be indefensible at any level. Until that happens, I will maintain that a good and decent human was taken down for a terrible mistake. I will never believe without proof otherwise that he acted with malice at the expense of innocent children, because his entire life stands for just the opposite.
I am truly saddened by the passing of this man whose influence was so profound for so many. And I am angry that I have to justify my emotions. That is the greatest tragedy here. If not for this scandal we would without hesitation celebrate his life while mourning his death. Instead we are forced to temper our emotions lest they be construed as empathizing with the abuse of children. For what seems the thousandth time, we all recognize the horror of what occurred here. The children are the only real victims of the scandal. At least until yesterday.
I hope that even Paterno’s staunchest critics will take a moment to mourn his passing. Even those who believe the worst of him in this situation must recognize who this man was and what he lived for. If you are so sure of his guilt that forgiveness is impossible, at least take a moment to grieve for his soul. He’s earned that much from all of us.
I hope the rest of us will grieve a remarkable yet simple man whose primarily goal in life seemed to be as simple as “make an impact.” He impacted more lives than most of us dare dream
Rest in peace coach Paterno. We will never see another like you.
A ten week surreal nightmare, the likes of which we dared never imagine has dealt its cruelest blow yet. The untimely death of the man we affectionately call JoePa, Coach Joseph Vincent Paterno.
The doctors say he died of lung cancer and clinically speaking that’s likely true. And yet most who truly knew him believe he died of a broken heart. The exact reasons for that heartbreak are now between Paterno and his creator and I will not debate them in this blog.
Ten weeks ago we mourned a spiritual death; the death of Paterno’s legacy. Today we mourn his actual passing. Both seemed indestructible; a rare constant in an ever changing universe, before November 10th, 2011.
Let me start with this; if you believe that Paterno engaged in a carefully orchestrated cover-up of sexual assault against children you should probably stop reading this column. If that truly is your belief than you likely are unwilling to see beyond it; notwithstanding a lack of any facts to collaborate that position. As the great Walter Payton said upon announcing his terminal illness, “For those who will say what they are going to say, may G-d have mercy on your soul.”
If you believe that Paterno was a good and decent person; a man who spent six decades trying to do right and likely made one horribly flawed decision than by all means read on. If you believe that good people can make terrible mistakes when put in situations beyond their comprehension, you may understand my grief and that of hundreds of thousands of proud Penn Staters.
Excepting a five second, passing conversation in 1991, I never met Joe Paterno. And yet I mourn for him as I would a member of my own family. The emotions are real and undeniable. And I assure you I’m not alone.
As former Nittany Lion Adam Taliferro so eloquently stated yesterday, Penn State has lost its heart. Joe Paterno was quite simply the heart and soul of our community. And with his death, our hearts are truly broken. There will never be another Paterno or anyone like him. There will never be another relationship like the one between Paterno and Penn State. I do not expect those outside of that relationship to understand it. I hope they have the decency to at least respect it.
I wrote this a few weeks back and it bears repeating. Penn State is a massive extended family. Our family has hundreds of thousands of members. It stretches across years and decades and thousands of miles. We are incredibly broad and diverse, different in so many ways. The one thing that binds us is an undying love of The Pennsylvania State University.
Understand this, whatever you may think of him right now, Joe Paterno was the patriarch of our family. He was quite literally the physical embodiment of this place we hold so sacred. His death is a death to our entire family. For that we mourn.
Some people cannot fathom Penn State football without Paterno. I cannot fathom Penn State University without him. As I sit here today I cannot believe he is gone any more than I can accept the callous indifference with which he was discarded. As his wife so simply and accurately stated, after 61 years he deserved better.
There is nothing more than I can add about the horrific scandal that ended his career and perhaps his life. It’s been analyzed, debated, and scrutinized. Questions have been asked and for the most part not answered. We may never know the whole truth. We may never truly know if Paterno enabled these horrific crimes or was served up as a sacrificial lamb to a blood thirsty public and media. As always the truth is likely somewhere in between.
History will ultimately pass judgment on the life of Joe Paterno. That history is still being written, for better or sadly for worse.
And it is irrelevant today.
Today we mourn the loss of a good man. Not a perfect man by any means but then he never claimed to be. I believe in my heart that this man tried to live a profoundly decent life. As I listen to the overwhelming tributes from virtually everyone who knew him, I am more and more convinced this is true.
We do not really know what he knew or did not know in 2002. And sadly now we may never know. We do not know what motivated his action or worse perhaps his inaction. All I can say is what I said last week; the idea that Joe Paterno willfully ignored the sexual abuse of children is in categorical opposition to the way he lived his entire life. I simply refuse to accept it without proof; not with this man’s track record.
If that makes me naïve or an enabler I will live with the charge. It is easy to rise upon a pedestal and pass sanctimonious judgments without facts. It is harder to open your heart, to try and truly understand. To ask the question of why virtually everyone whose life has been touched by this man so reveres and respects him. Perhaps because real life is complex; perhaps because the story is not so simple as many choose to believe.
I am remiss to use the word tragedy in the context of sports. Tragedy is about life and death; not about athletic competition. But it is absolutely a tragedy if a man who gave so much of himself to so many, is remembered first and foremost for crimes he neither perpetrated nor witnessed. It is a tragedy if this scandal, to whatever extent he is culpable caused his death. And you can add me to the long list of people who believe that is exactly what happened.
It just seems far too much a coincidence that such a strong and vibrant human being succumbed to death only ten weeks after his life was torn asunder. I cannot even fathom how painful it would be to devote your entire life to building something; a program, an image, and ideal, and then having it irrevocably destroyed in the span of four days. I know how devastating this has been for me; for all of us in the Penn State community. It terrifies me to think how painful this must have been for Paterno.
I understand that this scandal made his position untenable. That does not make it right that a man who spent 60 years of his life coaching, teaching, mentoring, and impacting young people was sacrificed to a blood thirsty public. Not when so many others bare as much or great burden in this terrible tragedy. Not when the ultimate villain in this horror appears less reviled publically than Paterno.
Unless and until somebody proves to me that Joe Paterno deliberately covered up sexual abuse of children I will stand behind this belief; a person with his track record deserves and in fact demands the presumption of innocence. At the very least he deserved his day in court, a day he now will never get.
If and when it is proven that he participated in an orchestrated cover-up of child sexual abuse, his legacy will be indefensible at any level. Until that happens, I will maintain that a good and decent human was taken down for a terrible mistake. I will never believe without proof otherwise that he acted with malice at the expense of innocent children, because his entire life stands for just the opposite.
I am truly saddened by the passing of this man whose influence was so profound for so many. And I am angry that I have to justify my emotions. That is the greatest tragedy here. If not for this scandal we would without hesitation celebrate his life while mourning his death. Instead we are forced to temper our emotions lest they be construed as empathizing with the abuse of children. For what seems the thousandth time, we all recognize the horror of what occurred here. The children are the only real victims of the scandal. At least until yesterday.
I hope that even Paterno’s staunchest critics will take a moment to mourn his passing. Even those who believe the worst of him in this situation must recognize who this man was and what he lived for. If you are so sure of his guilt that forgiveness is impossible, at least take a moment to grieve for his soul. He’s earned that much from all of us.
I hope the rest of us will grieve a remarkable yet simple man whose primarily goal in life seemed to be as simple as “make an impact.” He impacted more lives than most of us dare dream
Rest in peace coach Paterno. We will never see another like you.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Joe Paterno’s Best Case Legacy
In the two months plus since the horrifying Jerry Sandusky accusations became front page news, I have pleaded with the masses to withhold judgment on Penn State until all of the facts were made public.
To be clear, I have excluded Sandusky himself from that request. Legally he is entitled to the presumption of innocence until proven guilty and as an unabashed believer in the American system of jurisprudence I hope he gets it...in the courtroom only. Personally I am not willing to offer such open minded leniency to a man currently facing no fewer than ten unrelated charges of vile sexual acts against children.
I recognized that it is at best inconsistent and at worst hypocritical to condemn Sandusky while pleading for patience in regards to others. So be it. We live in a world of shades of gray, no matter how much people demand black and white perspectives and solutions. And I remain steadfast in my belief that we must have irrefutable proof before we condemn those peripheral to the crimes in a conspiracy to cover-up and defraud.
I put at the top of this list Mr. Joseph Vincent Paterno.
I do so not out of some blind loyalty to the man we call JoePa or out of divine worship or deification of a football coach. I do so because a man who spent 60 years of his life teaching, mentoring, and coaching young people; a man who gave back to his university and his community with shocking generosity; a man who by all accounts has lived a profoundly decently life deserves and in fact demands the presumption of innocence.
The idea that Joe Paterno turned a blind eye to the sexual abuse of children in order to protect his football program is in categorical opposition to how he lived his life. This is the issue I have struggled to reconcile from day one and I’m simply not willing to accept it at face value. That does not mean he did not do so; right now we simply do not know. It does mean that he has earned some benefit of the doubt and the right to have such charges proven; especially given that at least two people above him are facing prosecution for perjury.
So I’ve waited patiently for Joe’s side of the story. I’ve hoped beyond hope that he would say something to change or clarify the prevailing sentiment that he was a full out enabler of this horrific scandal. To be clear; I had little or no idea of what that might be, although an honest bearing of his soul would be a start.
Well Paterno has now spoken and this is what we are left with: The best case scenario seems to be a grievous error in judgment and/or horrific inaction with tragic consequences. The worst case scenario…well I still don’t want to think about it. There is nothing in Joe’s statements that can or will change the prevailing sentiment that he did the minimum required; in a situation that demanded the maximum.
I’ve tried over the last two months to divorce myself emotionally and look at this situation with some degree of objectivity. And I have failed, miserably. I find myself even to this moment desperately mapping a path to Joe’s exoneration. My mind is willing to throw anyone else involved under the bus to reach this conclusion; Curley, Schultz, McQuearry, Spanier, even the board of trustees. All are likely complicit to some degree but I feel no overriding need to defend them as I do Paterno and Penn State. That point in and of itself calls my objectivity thoroughly in to question.
I want so much to say that one bad, even horrific lapse in judgment should not outweigh 60 years of good. I want to believe that others around Paterno failed him more than he failed them. To me it seems perfectly rational that Paterno was forced in to a situation beyond his comprehension and he took what he considered to be a suitable course; letting others around him take responsibility.
Just as it seemed perfectly reasonable to San Francisco baseball fans that Barry Bonds becoming a human steroid freak should not impugn his legacy or his home run record. I labeled their defiant defense of Bonds with one word…denial.
I do not doubt that most of the world sees the Penn State community as being very much in denial. I don’t have to doubt it, the media and blogosphere crystalize it in every related story. The phrase, “They just don’t get it,” is all but required prose for anybody viewing this scandal outside the blue and white veil.
Let me make this as clear as possible; we do get it. From day one I have said that the children are the only true victims of this scandal. They and only they deserve your sympathy, prayers and support. They and only they deserve full accountability from anybody who directly or tacitly enabled this tragedy.
Yes we are biased; perhaps to such a degree that we are incapable of rending an honest judgment. At the same time, we are not willing to concede the high ground to those who consider themselves morally superior; lash out with hyperbole, or condemn with a broad brush. I simply cannot abide those who rise upon their pedestal to blame an entire university, alumni base, or even its football team for the heinous actions of one man and the poor decisions or inaction of a few others.
It’s been driven home repeatedly that Penn State or “the Penn State way” (whatever that is) enabled Sandusky; a perspective I staunchly denounce. Penn State or “the Penn State way” reflects millions of people; most of whom live their lives with honor and integrity. I will concede only that a few people in power failed miserably in their obligation to act. Why they did so is between them and their creator.
Penn State is much greater than those few people. And that includes, to whatever degree he’s ultimately complicit, Joe Paterno.
For now, I’ve made peace with the following short-term compromise. I accept that a decent human being made a terrible mistake. I do not believe he did so with direct intention or malice but that is irrelevant in consideration of the consequences.
I will accept that this is undeniably part of his legacy and that he must answer for his action or worse yet inaction. At the same time, I refuse to directly offset six decades of good; 60 years of giving more of himself than most of us could ever imagine by one awful decision. Not when he neither witnessed nor perpetrated the crime. I still maintain that Jerry Sandusky is the ultimate criminal and demon in this situation; a fact that far too many have willfully forgotten.
That’s my compromise, at least as of today. It’s flawed, biased, perhaps even irrational. I’m in no position to deny that. I’m far too close to this situation emotionally to remain objective.
My position however remains very much fluid. And what frightens me most after Paterno’s statements is that I can now conceive only of my perspective getting worse, not better. Paterno has officially set the “best case scenario” boundary for him and quite frankly it’s not all that great. Given his failing health and the magnitude of the scandal, it’s possible he will offer no greater defense.
The worst case scenario remains very much in play; he participated in a carefully orchestrated cover up to protect Penn State or his football program. When or if that is proven to be correct, the compromise I described above will be irrevocably destroyed, as will the entirety of Paterno’s legacy. At that point all those involved will be indefensible on any level. I cling to the hope, however thin that no such conspiracy exists; for the good of both Paterno and Penn State as a whole.
There is a significant defining lesson here; one I fear too many will miss in the crusade for blood lust. There is nothing worth compromising your ethics or integrity. There are often daunting short-term consequences for standing firmly behind your principles. Such consequences pail compared to the price of ignoring them
Joe Paterno has taught many lessons in the last 60 years. I hope this is not remembered as his last.
To be clear, I have excluded Sandusky himself from that request. Legally he is entitled to the presumption of innocence until proven guilty and as an unabashed believer in the American system of jurisprudence I hope he gets it...in the courtroom only. Personally I am not willing to offer such open minded leniency to a man currently facing no fewer than ten unrelated charges of vile sexual acts against children.
I recognized that it is at best inconsistent and at worst hypocritical to condemn Sandusky while pleading for patience in regards to others. So be it. We live in a world of shades of gray, no matter how much people demand black and white perspectives and solutions. And I remain steadfast in my belief that we must have irrefutable proof before we condemn those peripheral to the crimes in a conspiracy to cover-up and defraud.
I put at the top of this list Mr. Joseph Vincent Paterno.
I do so not out of some blind loyalty to the man we call JoePa or out of divine worship or deification of a football coach. I do so because a man who spent 60 years of his life teaching, mentoring, and coaching young people; a man who gave back to his university and his community with shocking generosity; a man who by all accounts has lived a profoundly decently life deserves and in fact demands the presumption of innocence.
The idea that Joe Paterno turned a blind eye to the sexual abuse of children in order to protect his football program is in categorical opposition to how he lived his life. This is the issue I have struggled to reconcile from day one and I’m simply not willing to accept it at face value. That does not mean he did not do so; right now we simply do not know. It does mean that he has earned some benefit of the doubt and the right to have such charges proven; especially given that at least two people above him are facing prosecution for perjury.
So I’ve waited patiently for Joe’s side of the story. I’ve hoped beyond hope that he would say something to change or clarify the prevailing sentiment that he was a full out enabler of this horrific scandal. To be clear; I had little or no idea of what that might be, although an honest bearing of his soul would be a start.
Well Paterno has now spoken and this is what we are left with: The best case scenario seems to be a grievous error in judgment and/or horrific inaction with tragic consequences. The worst case scenario…well I still don’t want to think about it. There is nothing in Joe’s statements that can or will change the prevailing sentiment that he did the minimum required; in a situation that demanded the maximum.
I’ve tried over the last two months to divorce myself emotionally and look at this situation with some degree of objectivity. And I have failed, miserably. I find myself even to this moment desperately mapping a path to Joe’s exoneration. My mind is willing to throw anyone else involved under the bus to reach this conclusion; Curley, Schultz, McQuearry, Spanier, even the board of trustees. All are likely complicit to some degree but I feel no overriding need to defend them as I do Paterno and Penn State. That point in and of itself calls my objectivity thoroughly in to question.
I want so much to say that one bad, even horrific lapse in judgment should not outweigh 60 years of good. I want to believe that others around Paterno failed him more than he failed them. To me it seems perfectly rational that Paterno was forced in to a situation beyond his comprehension and he took what he considered to be a suitable course; letting others around him take responsibility.
Just as it seemed perfectly reasonable to San Francisco baseball fans that Barry Bonds becoming a human steroid freak should not impugn his legacy or his home run record. I labeled their defiant defense of Bonds with one word…denial.
I do not doubt that most of the world sees the Penn State community as being very much in denial. I don’t have to doubt it, the media and blogosphere crystalize it in every related story. The phrase, “They just don’t get it,” is all but required prose for anybody viewing this scandal outside the blue and white veil.
Let me make this as clear as possible; we do get it. From day one I have said that the children are the only true victims of this scandal. They and only they deserve your sympathy, prayers and support. They and only they deserve full accountability from anybody who directly or tacitly enabled this tragedy.
Yes we are biased; perhaps to such a degree that we are incapable of rending an honest judgment. At the same time, we are not willing to concede the high ground to those who consider themselves morally superior; lash out with hyperbole, or condemn with a broad brush. I simply cannot abide those who rise upon their pedestal to blame an entire university, alumni base, or even its football team for the heinous actions of one man and the poor decisions or inaction of a few others.
It’s been driven home repeatedly that Penn State or “the Penn State way” (whatever that is) enabled Sandusky; a perspective I staunchly denounce. Penn State or “the Penn State way” reflects millions of people; most of whom live their lives with honor and integrity. I will concede only that a few people in power failed miserably in their obligation to act. Why they did so is between them and their creator.
Penn State is much greater than those few people. And that includes, to whatever degree he’s ultimately complicit, Joe Paterno.
For now, I’ve made peace with the following short-term compromise. I accept that a decent human being made a terrible mistake. I do not believe he did so with direct intention or malice but that is irrelevant in consideration of the consequences.
I will accept that this is undeniably part of his legacy and that he must answer for his action or worse yet inaction. At the same time, I refuse to directly offset six decades of good; 60 years of giving more of himself than most of us could ever imagine by one awful decision. Not when he neither witnessed nor perpetrated the crime. I still maintain that Jerry Sandusky is the ultimate criminal and demon in this situation; a fact that far too many have willfully forgotten.
That’s my compromise, at least as of today. It’s flawed, biased, perhaps even irrational. I’m in no position to deny that. I’m far too close to this situation emotionally to remain objective.
My position however remains very much fluid. And what frightens me most after Paterno’s statements is that I can now conceive only of my perspective getting worse, not better. Paterno has officially set the “best case scenario” boundary for him and quite frankly it’s not all that great. Given his failing health and the magnitude of the scandal, it’s possible he will offer no greater defense.
The worst case scenario remains very much in play; he participated in a carefully orchestrated cover up to protect Penn State or his football program. When or if that is proven to be correct, the compromise I described above will be irrevocably destroyed, as will the entirety of Paterno’s legacy. At that point all those involved will be indefensible on any level. I cling to the hope, however thin that no such conspiracy exists; for the good of both Paterno and Penn State as a whole.
There is a significant defining lesson here; one I fear too many will miss in the crusade for blood lust. There is nothing worth compromising your ethics or integrity. There are often daunting short-term consequences for standing firmly behind your principles. Such consequences pail compared to the price of ignoring them
Joe Paterno has taught many lessons in the last 60 years. I hope this is not remembered as his last.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
One Day – Two Seasons End
With all due respect to David Volek and Alfred Pupunu, Sunday January 8th, 2012 may very well go down as one of the worst days in Pittsburgh sports history. In one day, two championship dreams came crashing down.
The painfully obvious, in your face case was the Steelers who lost on a stunning 80 yard touchdown pass in overtime to the woefully mediocre Denver Broncos. The more subtle case was the Pittsburgh Penguins who accumulated two more critical long-term injury losses to their already decimated line-up.
The common denominator in both cases is injuries; to an almost unfathomable degree.
In the case of the Penguins, we are now in season two of the most crushing rash of injuries I’ve ever seen in sports. As I write, the Pens are without the best player in the world, one of the best offensive defensemen in the game, their leading goal scorer, the best third line center in the game and several key depth players. The truly frightening part is that I cannot say definitively whether this is worse than the injuries that cost them Crosby and Malkin last spring.
The Steelers injuries were nearly as significant by the time they reached halftime in Denver. They played without their leading rusher, their all pro center, two starting defensive linemen and their starting free safety. Add to that an obviously hobbled Ben Roethlisberger behind center and Lamar Woodley on defense. The losses on the defensive line were particularly daunting and resulted in little or no pass rush against the living legend that is Tim Tebow.
Truth be told if the Steelers played any other team in football we might be lauding them for a heroic effort, especially in their 4th quarter comeback. Alas, since they played potentially the worst NFL team to ever make the post season (or a close second to Seattle last year) there will be quite a bit of offseason angst in the Burgh.
The Steelers are officially done. There will be no return trip to the Super Bowl; no chance to avenge either Baltimore or Green Bay this post season. We will not see them play a meaningful game again until September and the team will likely look a fair bit different. Several veterans including the venerable Hines Ward are likely to be gone due to age, salary cap or both.
The Penguins maintain some hope but are very much in survival mode. They need to revert to last spring’s agonizing philosophy of grinding out low scoring wins (or pathetic as it is overtime losses) in any way possible. The lone positive consideration on that front is a healthy Geno Malkin (although it’s hard to take health as a given at the New Energy Barn these days). The bad news is the Pens grinders are a step down from last year and the team is missing at least one critical defensive piece in Kris Letang.
Right now it is perfectly reasonable to suggest that the Penguins will be spectators when the NHL playoffs start in April. Their current line-up is simply not good enough to compete with the better teams in the eastern conference. And if today’s injury update is to be believed, there is no real help coming for at least a month, if not longer.
The reversal of fortune for Pittsburgh’s two signature sports teams is absolutely stunning, especially when you consider where we were at this time a year ago.
The Steelers had just wrapped up another 12 win season with division title and first round bye. They were on their way to a third Super Bowl in six years and were absolutely capable of winning. The Penguins were coming off a 12 game win streak, a record setting performance by Sidney Crosby, and an awe inspiring 8-1 rout of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Our only hockey concern, and it was minor, was a “mild concussion” Crosby suffered that was expected to keep him out a week or two.
By the end of the day February 5th the Steelers had handed Green Bay the Super Bowl and the Pens were a rudderless ship without their two signature superstars. And it’s been all downhill since.
I make no bones that Pittsburgh sports fans have been spoiled rotten, at least if you ignore the abomination that plays all summer at PNC Park. Since 2004 the Steelers have arguably been the best team in football. Similar arguments could be made for the Penguins since about 2007. Both teams have delivered championships in stirring fashion.
We’ve benefitted from great organizations, superstar players, and an abundance of leadership and heart. The Penguins and Steelers earned their success and made their own breaks. But let’s be honest, there is always an element of luck when you win a championship. Whether it’s a missed field goal by normally reliable kicker or a lucky ping pong ball in a draft lottery, the black and gold in both sports have definitely gotten a break or two.
And right now I cannot help but wonder if that luck is finally changing. How can I not when Penguins and Steelers are being dragged off their respective playing fields in record numbers?
In the case of the Steelers it is at least somewhat explainable.
The quarterback acts weekly as a human target. I have unwavering respect for Ben’s ability and his toughness but it seems only a matter of time before he breaks down from the pounding he takes. The fact is the Steelers’ championship window lasts only as long as Big Ben’s prime and his prime gets shortened every time he gets creamed.
The defense is clearly showing its age. I give these guys immense credit for being warriors and true professionals. I’ve been bemoaning their aging for three years and they’ve done a phenomenal job of holding off father time. Alas it was bound to catch up to them eventually. It was hard not to notice both the inability to create turnovers this year and the increasing number of injuries to key defensive players; culminating with Hampton and Keisel suffering non-contact injuries today.
Losing today, in combination with significant oncoming salary cap issues may finally force changes on the defensive side of the ball. That may even include Dick Lebeau’s retirement. Of course cutting ties with the older guys is the easy part. Finding adequate replacements for players of this caliber is a whole different story.
On the Penguins’ side the injury bug is simply dumbfounding. There is no logical or reasonable explanation for it. And the ramifications are impossible to overlook.
The Sidney Crosby situation is untenable and cannot continue in perpetuity. The team cannot continue to operate having no idea when or if its best player will return; especially at $8.7 Million per year (and soon to increase). The Pens showed remarkable character and resiliency without Sid and Geno last year but I really believe the uncertainty of Crosby’s situation is starting to drag them down. The players just seemed to lose their edge when Sid bowed out for a second time. And Ray Shero has no cap room or free cash flow to address the resulting deficiencies.
I stated this over the summer and I know its absolute blasphemy but the Penguins need to determine whether Sidney Crosby can continue to be part of their future. The idea of trading Crosby may seem inconceivable on every level; but that ideal is based on Sid the healthy superstar. We are getting a free preview right now of how bad it could get if Sid struggles with concussion issues the remainder of his career.
That’s what is so disturbing about this. A year ago the Penguins’ future was as sure a bet as anything in professional sports. Now it is a perfectly logical consideration that the greatest player of this generation may be on the Eric Lindros road to career annihilation. The Pens have built every aspect of their organization around the idea of having a perfect one-two combination of superstars for the next decade. Right now that once certain ideal is very much in doubt.
I did not expect the Steelers’ season would end in Denver but I did not dismiss the possibility. There has been since opening day a troubling uncertainty around this club, even after a 12 win season. I freely admit I had doubts they were truly championship caliber.
Still, I figured even in the worst case scenario I could at least transfer my hopes to the Penguins. Now I’m not even sure of that. The calendar says January but it’s quite possible their season also ended today.
The painfully obvious, in your face case was the Steelers who lost on a stunning 80 yard touchdown pass in overtime to the woefully mediocre Denver Broncos. The more subtle case was the Pittsburgh Penguins who accumulated two more critical long-term injury losses to their already decimated line-up.
The common denominator in both cases is injuries; to an almost unfathomable degree.
In the case of the Penguins, we are now in season two of the most crushing rash of injuries I’ve ever seen in sports. As I write, the Pens are without the best player in the world, one of the best offensive defensemen in the game, their leading goal scorer, the best third line center in the game and several key depth players. The truly frightening part is that I cannot say definitively whether this is worse than the injuries that cost them Crosby and Malkin last spring.
The Steelers injuries were nearly as significant by the time they reached halftime in Denver. They played without their leading rusher, their all pro center, two starting defensive linemen and their starting free safety. Add to that an obviously hobbled Ben Roethlisberger behind center and Lamar Woodley on defense. The losses on the defensive line were particularly daunting and resulted in little or no pass rush against the living legend that is Tim Tebow.
Truth be told if the Steelers played any other team in football we might be lauding them for a heroic effort, especially in their 4th quarter comeback. Alas, since they played potentially the worst NFL team to ever make the post season (or a close second to Seattle last year) there will be quite a bit of offseason angst in the Burgh.
The Steelers are officially done. There will be no return trip to the Super Bowl; no chance to avenge either Baltimore or Green Bay this post season. We will not see them play a meaningful game again until September and the team will likely look a fair bit different. Several veterans including the venerable Hines Ward are likely to be gone due to age, salary cap or both.
The Penguins maintain some hope but are very much in survival mode. They need to revert to last spring’s agonizing philosophy of grinding out low scoring wins (or pathetic as it is overtime losses) in any way possible. The lone positive consideration on that front is a healthy Geno Malkin (although it’s hard to take health as a given at the New Energy Barn these days). The bad news is the Pens grinders are a step down from last year and the team is missing at least one critical defensive piece in Kris Letang.
Right now it is perfectly reasonable to suggest that the Penguins will be spectators when the NHL playoffs start in April. Their current line-up is simply not good enough to compete with the better teams in the eastern conference. And if today’s injury update is to be believed, there is no real help coming for at least a month, if not longer.
The reversal of fortune for Pittsburgh’s two signature sports teams is absolutely stunning, especially when you consider where we were at this time a year ago.
The Steelers had just wrapped up another 12 win season with division title and first round bye. They were on their way to a third Super Bowl in six years and were absolutely capable of winning. The Penguins were coming off a 12 game win streak, a record setting performance by Sidney Crosby, and an awe inspiring 8-1 rout of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Our only hockey concern, and it was minor, was a “mild concussion” Crosby suffered that was expected to keep him out a week or two.
By the end of the day February 5th the Steelers had handed Green Bay the Super Bowl and the Pens were a rudderless ship without their two signature superstars. And it’s been all downhill since.
I make no bones that Pittsburgh sports fans have been spoiled rotten, at least if you ignore the abomination that plays all summer at PNC Park. Since 2004 the Steelers have arguably been the best team in football. Similar arguments could be made for the Penguins since about 2007. Both teams have delivered championships in stirring fashion.
We’ve benefitted from great organizations, superstar players, and an abundance of leadership and heart. The Penguins and Steelers earned their success and made their own breaks. But let’s be honest, there is always an element of luck when you win a championship. Whether it’s a missed field goal by normally reliable kicker or a lucky ping pong ball in a draft lottery, the black and gold in both sports have definitely gotten a break or two.
And right now I cannot help but wonder if that luck is finally changing. How can I not when Penguins and Steelers are being dragged off their respective playing fields in record numbers?
In the case of the Steelers it is at least somewhat explainable.
The quarterback acts weekly as a human target. I have unwavering respect for Ben’s ability and his toughness but it seems only a matter of time before he breaks down from the pounding he takes. The fact is the Steelers’ championship window lasts only as long as Big Ben’s prime and his prime gets shortened every time he gets creamed.
The defense is clearly showing its age. I give these guys immense credit for being warriors and true professionals. I’ve been bemoaning their aging for three years and they’ve done a phenomenal job of holding off father time. Alas it was bound to catch up to them eventually. It was hard not to notice both the inability to create turnovers this year and the increasing number of injuries to key defensive players; culminating with Hampton and Keisel suffering non-contact injuries today.
Losing today, in combination with significant oncoming salary cap issues may finally force changes on the defensive side of the ball. That may even include Dick Lebeau’s retirement. Of course cutting ties with the older guys is the easy part. Finding adequate replacements for players of this caliber is a whole different story.
On the Penguins’ side the injury bug is simply dumbfounding. There is no logical or reasonable explanation for it. And the ramifications are impossible to overlook.
The Sidney Crosby situation is untenable and cannot continue in perpetuity. The team cannot continue to operate having no idea when or if its best player will return; especially at $8.7 Million per year (and soon to increase). The Pens showed remarkable character and resiliency without Sid and Geno last year but I really believe the uncertainty of Crosby’s situation is starting to drag them down. The players just seemed to lose their edge when Sid bowed out for a second time. And Ray Shero has no cap room or free cash flow to address the resulting deficiencies.
I stated this over the summer and I know its absolute blasphemy but the Penguins need to determine whether Sidney Crosby can continue to be part of their future. The idea of trading Crosby may seem inconceivable on every level; but that ideal is based on Sid the healthy superstar. We are getting a free preview right now of how bad it could get if Sid struggles with concussion issues the remainder of his career.
That’s what is so disturbing about this. A year ago the Penguins’ future was as sure a bet as anything in professional sports. Now it is a perfectly logical consideration that the greatest player of this generation may be on the Eric Lindros road to career annihilation. The Pens have built every aspect of their organization around the idea of having a perfect one-two combination of superstars for the next decade. Right now that once certain ideal is very much in doubt.
I did not expect the Steelers’ season would end in Denver but I did not dismiss the possibility. There has been since opening day a troubling uncertainty around this club, even after a 12 win season. I freely admit I had doubts they were truly championship caliber.
Still, I figured even in the worst case scenario I could at least transfer my hopes to the Penguins. Now I’m not even sure of that. The calendar says January but it’s quite possible their season also ended today.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Steelers Lose Focus on Big Ben’s Injury
Whatever you might think of Ben Roethlisberger as a quarterback, or a human being, you cannot question or deny his toughness.
I don’t have statistics to back this but I'm fairly sure Ben takes more hits than any quarterback in the NFL today (and maybe ever). He plays through injuries that would keep many players off the field and most human beings in the hospital for months. Broken bones, sprained ankles, concussions, even appendectomies cannot sideline Big Ben for long.
It’s a trait that rightfully earns him admiration and respect from me and throughout the Steeler Nation. Steeler fans like their players tough and nasty. There is a certain perverse pride we take in watching Ben beat down Baltimore, the same night his nose was massacred by Haloti Ngata. That is leadership in its purest form; leaving it all on the field when by all accounts he should be sitting in an ice bath.
Leadership is also knowing when to step aside. And it’s just as clear to me that Ben does not.
I have no issue with Ben’s blind spot; I just assume my star quarterback is a warrior and wants to play whenever it’s remotely possible. That makes it incumbent on those above him to take that decision out of his hands when necessary. For whatever reason, Mike Tomlin elected not to do so in two of the last three games. And the Steelers may ultimately pay for that decision this post season.
I understood, with some degree of reluctance, Tomlin’s decision to play Roethlisberger in San Francisco a few weeks back. The Steelers had a chance to move ahead of Baltimore and put themselves in position for a critical first round bye. Tomlin presumed the best way to accomplish that; against one of the best defenses in football, was with Big Ben behind center. I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on this even though hall of fame quarterback Steve Young clearly did not.
That said, once the Steelers fell behind 20-3 in the 4th quarter, keeping Ben in the game as an immobile human target was simply asinine. I’m a huge Tomlin fan and I can say it was bar none his worst decision as head coach of the Steelers. There was absolutely no conceivable reason for keeping Ben in that game at that point. The decision was a product of typical NFL bravado between coach and quarterback.
Big Ben survived the Monday night beat down, no worse but certainly no better for ware. After that, I genuinely hoped he would not see the field again until the playoffs and maybe not even the second round (presuming they Steelers could overcome the force of will and hope that apparently is Tim Tebow). No games, no practice, no nothing except healing his injury as much as possible. To me this is not even debatable. Not after watching Ben’s inability to walk down steps in week 16 or push off his foot in week 17, when he deemed himself 60% healthy.
This was not about conceding the division title to Baltimore and accepting life as a wild card. The Steelers are and were absolutely capable of beating both St ’Louis and Cleveland with Charlie Batch behind center. Batch is hardly a superstar but he’s an experienced quarterback and solid game manager with a reliable track record. He’s more than good enough to beat two of the worst teams in football. In fact, I think at 100% healthy he is a better option than Roethlisberger at 60%.
In contrast, the Steelers have little or no chance of winning at Baltimore or New England, let alone in the Super Bowl without a reasonably healthy Big Ben.
Given that reality, the entire focus of the organization should have been getting Roethlisberger as healthy as possible for the playoffs. There was no upside to playing Ben last weekend and as we now know, plenty of downside risk.
For whatever reason the Steelers have their own blind spot when it comes to Big Ben. They seem willing to let him play in almost all circumstances. Or perhaps Ben yields too much power over the organization and he ultimately dictates whether or not to play. There is enough historical evidence to make this a reasonable inference.
I was harshly critical of Bill Cowher for starting Roethlisberger twice in 2006 when he had no business being on the field. One could argue that he should have sat out half the season to recuperate from his motorcycle accident. Accepting that he did not, he certainly was nowhere near ready to play in week two against Jacksonville after an emergency appendectomy ten days earlier (on top of everything else). The Steelers were shut out in that game and Ben looked terrible.
A few weeks later Cowher trotted Roethlisberger out against Oakland seven days after his second concussion in five months (and other severe injuries from the crash). Roethlisberger was flat out awful in that game throwing five interceptions. He was the primary reason the Steelers lost to a terrible Raiders team.
Is it a coincidence that two extremely successful, secure, and hard nose coaches have both given in to Ben’s desire to play even when he clearly should not? Or was it ultimately not their decision.
Such considerations are hardly unprecedented in Pittsburgh sports. In 1993 the Penguins skated the best team in their history and quite possibly one of the best of the post expansion era. They were making a mockery of the National Hockey League right up to the day Mario Lemieux was shockingly diagnosed with cancer.
Le Magnifique spent six weeks enduring radiation treatments and heroically returned to the line-up the day of his last session. He and the Pens then went full throttle over the remainder of the season both to set regular season win records and get Lemieux an incomprehensible scoring title. That decision yielded some of the greatest and most exciting hockey any of us have or ever will see. Lemieux blew past Pat Lafontaine to win the scoring title and MVP; one of the most remarkable achievements in NHL history.
Remarkable, misguided, and short sighted.
Lemieux was coming back from CANCER TREATMENTS. His primary focus as an athlete should have been getting healthy for the playoffs. He could not or did not want to accept his limitations in that moment; hardly a shocking revelation given an athlete who often appeared superhuman on the ice. It was up to the Penguins to have a broader perspective.
I believe to this day that Lemieux ran out of gas in those playoffs; a consideration supported by Lemieux barely playing the next two years. The net result was a horrific defeat to a vastly inferior New York Islander squad. It cost the Pens a third straight cup and rightful recognition as a dynasty.
The entire organization, including legendary head coach Scotty Bowman took its eye off the ball. They caved in to Lemieux’s short-term desire to play much as Tomlin and Cowher did with Ben. And let’s not kid ourselves; they did so because Mario Lemieux called the shots at the Igloo long before he became a shareholder of the Pittsburgh Penguins. In that case, it was to the ultimate detriment of his team.
I fear we are reliving that scenario with Ben Roethlisberger. This Steeler team is not, relatively speaking, as good as the ’93 Pens but they are absolutely a Super Bowl contender. A Super Bowl championship should be the unquestioned goal and that is highly unlikely in Roethlisberger’s current state of health.
Look, Ben’s health issues may be inevitable this post season. He suffered a severe ankle sprain which will likely take weeks or longer to heal. There is a better than average chance even under the full rest scenario that he is hampered throughout the playoffs. I get that. And I understand the rust from inactivity argument as well.
And I don’t care.
It was a bad decision plain and simple, by an organization that gets it right far more often than not. It was a loss of focus on the ultimate goal; a loss of focus might very well cost the black and gold a shot at a 7th Lombardi Trophy.
I don’t have statistics to back this but I'm fairly sure Ben takes more hits than any quarterback in the NFL today (and maybe ever). He plays through injuries that would keep many players off the field and most human beings in the hospital for months. Broken bones, sprained ankles, concussions, even appendectomies cannot sideline Big Ben for long.
It’s a trait that rightfully earns him admiration and respect from me and throughout the Steeler Nation. Steeler fans like their players tough and nasty. There is a certain perverse pride we take in watching Ben beat down Baltimore, the same night his nose was massacred by Haloti Ngata. That is leadership in its purest form; leaving it all on the field when by all accounts he should be sitting in an ice bath.
Leadership is also knowing when to step aside. And it’s just as clear to me that Ben does not.
I have no issue with Ben’s blind spot; I just assume my star quarterback is a warrior and wants to play whenever it’s remotely possible. That makes it incumbent on those above him to take that decision out of his hands when necessary. For whatever reason, Mike Tomlin elected not to do so in two of the last three games. And the Steelers may ultimately pay for that decision this post season.
I understood, with some degree of reluctance, Tomlin’s decision to play Roethlisberger in San Francisco a few weeks back. The Steelers had a chance to move ahead of Baltimore and put themselves in position for a critical first round bye. Tomlin presumed the best way to accomplish that; against one of the best defenses in football, was with Big Ben behind center. I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on this even though hall of fame quarterback Steve Young clearly did not.
That said, once the Steelers fell behind 20-3 in the 4th quarter, keeping Ben in the game as an immobile human target was simply asinine. I’m a huge Tomlin fan and I can say it was bar none his worst decision as head coach of the Steelers. There was absolutely no conceivable reason for keeping Ben in that game at that point. The decision was a product of typical NFL bravado between coach and quarterback.
Big Ben survived the Monday night beat down, no worse but certainly no better for ware. After that, I genuinely hoped he would not see the field again until the playoffs and maybe not even the second round (presuming they Steelers could overcome the force of will and hope that apparently is Tim Tebow). No games, no practice, no nothing except healing his injury as much as possible. To me this is not even debatable. Not after watching Ben’s inability to walk down steps in week 16 or push off his foot in week 17, when he deemed himself 60% healthy.
This was not about conceding the division title to Baltimore and accepting life as a wild card. The Steelers are and were absolutely capable of beating both St ’Louis and Cleveland with Charlie Batch behind center. Batch is hardly a superstar but he’s an experienced quarterback and solid game manager with a reliable track record. He’s more than good enough to beat two of the worst teams in football. In fact, I think at 100% healthy he is a better option than Roethlisberger at 60%.
In contrast, the Steelers have little or no chance of winning at Baltimore or New England, let alone in the Super Bowl without a reasonably healthy Big Ben.
Given that reality, the entire focus of the organization should have been getting Roethlisberger as healthy as possible for the playoffs. There was no upside to playing Ben last weekend and as we now know, plenty of downside risk.
For whatever reason the Steelers have their own blind spot when it comes to Big Ben. They seem willing to let him play in almost all circumstances. Or perhaps Ben yields too much power over the organization and he ultimately dictates whether or not to play. There is enough historical evidence to make this a reasonable inference.
I was harshly critical of Bill Cowher for starting Roethlisberger twice in 2006 when he had no business being on the field. One could argue that he should have sat out half the season to recuperate from his motorcycle accident. Accepting that he did not, he certainly was nowhere near ready to play in week two against Jacksonville after an emergency appendectomy ten days earlier (on top of everything else). The Steelers were shut out in that game and Ben looked terrible.
A few weeks later Cowher trotted Roethlisberger out against Oakland seven days after his second concussion in five months (and other severe injuries from the crash). Roethlisberger was flat out awful in that game throwing five interceptions. He was the primary reason the Steelers lost to a terrible Raiders team.
Is it a coincidence that two extremely successful, secure, and hard nose coaches have both given in to Ben’s desire to play even when he clearly should not? Or was it ultimately not their decision.
Such considerations are hardly unprecedented in Pittsburgh sports. In 1993 the Penguins skated the best team in their history and quite possibly one of the best of the post expansion era. They were making a mockery of the National Hockey League right up to the day Mario Lemieux was shockingly diagnosed with cancer.
Le Magnifique spent six weeks enduring radiation treatments and heroically returned to the line-up the day of his last session. He and the Pens then went full throttle over the remainder of the season both to set regular season win records and get Lemieux an incomprehensible scoring title. That decision yielded some of the greatest and most exciting hockey any of us have or ever will see. Lemieux blew past Pat Lafontaine to win the scoring title and MVP; one of the most remarkable achievements in NHL history.
Remarkable, misguided, and short sighted.
Lemieux was coming back from CANCER TREATMENTS. His primary focus as an athlete should have been getting healthy for the playoffs. He could not or did not want to accept his limitations in that moment; hardly a shocking revelation given an athlete who often appeared superhuman on the ice. It was up to the Penguins to have a broader perspective.
I believe to this day that Lemieux ran out of gas in those playoffs; a consideration supported by Lemieux barely playing the next two years. The net result was a horrific defeat to a vastly inferior New York Islander squad. It cost the Pens a third straight cup and rightful recognition as a dynasty.
The entire organization, including legendary head coach Scotty Bowman took its eye off the ball. They caved in to Lemieux’s short-term desire to play much as Tomlin and Cowher did with Ben. And let’s not kid ourselves; they did so because Mario Lemieux called the shots at the Igloo long before he became a shareholder of the Pittsburgh Penguins. In that case, it was to the ultimate detriment of his team.
I fear we are reliving that scenario with Ben Roethlisberger. This Steeler team is not, relatively speaking, as good as the ’93 Pens but they are absolutely a Super Bowl contender. A Super Bowl championship should be the unquestioned goal and that is highly unlikely in Roethlisberger’s current state of health.
Look, Ben’s health issues may be inevitable this post season. He suffered a severe ankle sprain which will likely take weeks or longer to heal. There is a better than average chance even under the full rest scenario that he is hampered throughout the playoffs. I get that. And I understand the rust from inactivity argument as well.
And I don’t care.
It was a bad decision plain and simple, by an organization that gets it right far more often than not. It was a loss of focus on the ultimate goal; a loss of focus might very well cost the black and gold a shot at a 7th Lombardi Trophy.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
This Just in…Crosby is Good
I maintain to this day that the most amazing thing I’ve seen in a quarter century plus of watching hockey is Mario Lemieux’s comeback in 2000-01.
Le Magnifique took a three year hiatus from the game, returned during the heart of the appalling dead puck era and promptly tallied 76 points in 43 games. That remarkable average of 1.77 points per game extrapolates to a 145 point season; assuming you could suspend disbelief enough to think Lemieux could ever suit up for all 82 games.
Taken in context of the era, the scoring championship was won that year by Jaromir Jagr, who just happened to be Lemieux’s line-mate with 121 points. The highest scoring player not sharing a locker room with Big 66 was Joe Sakic with 118 points. No other player scored more than 96.
And I left out the part about Lemieux scoring three points in his first game back including setting up a goal in the game’s opening minute. Which is to say in the immortal words of Marc Liverant, he was back to making a mockery of the game…on his first shift.
It is blatantly unfair to measure Sidney Crosby’s comeback against such lofty standards. At least that’s what I told myself as Emily and I entered the new energy barn last Monday night. As indescribably exciting as it was to luck in to attending that game (and I assure you it was just that), I told myself all the way to faceoff that there was no conceivable way that Crosby could match Lemieux’s prowess and to keep my expectations in check.
So much for that theory.
Crosby did not just match Lemieux’s performance, he beat it; four points to three. That included two breathtakingly spectacular goals, the first of which was as impressive as any I’ve seen in the NHL this season. Even more impressive, Crosby was far and away the best player on the ice, a surface he was sharing with the rejuvenated Geno Malkin and the Islanders lost wunderkind John Tavares. It was eerily similar to Lemieux doing the same thing that magical December night in 2000 while sharing the ice with Jagr.
Which is to say the game, heck the event was frighteningly reminiscent of the Mario’s return. It started with a positively electric atmosphere, one completely disproportionate to an early season week night game. It ended with an identical 5 to 0 Penguin rout. It was one of those rare sporting events that you simply did not want to end.
There were differences as well. Crosby’s unexcused absence was 11 months, in comparison to Lemieux’s 3.5 years. In addition, Lemieux was retired which means his conditioning was likely “suspect“ (and I’m being charitable) during his time off. Crosby in contrast has been skating hard for months and dominating practices while waiting for “clearance for contact.”
Morover, Le Magnifique returned against a Toronto team that ultimately earned a playoff spot. Crosby returned against a team that might miss the post season if it were relegated to the ECHL. The Leafs started a borderline hall of famer in goal in Curtis Joseph, the Islanders started 4th stringer Anders Nilsson.
[As an aside, did anybody else find it funny that on a stage of this magnitude the Isles choose to start Nilsson rather than their $65 Million supposed franchise goaltender Rick DiPietro? Enjoy writing those checks for another decade…party on Garth (Snow)!]
Given those differences I can afford Mario the slight edge on impressive comebacks; with the caveat that I am quite literally splitting hairs to make that assessment. At the end of the day we are still talking about a brilliant four point performance that most players dare not dream of. Even that does not fully reflect Crosby’s dominance; his mastery of the faceoff circle or how many scoring chances he created. It was other worldly or dare I say Lemieux-esque.
When Crosby suffered his concussion(s) last season he was putting on the most dominant offensive performance the NHL had witnessed since that fabulous Lemieux comeback season. And when he returned to the ice on Monday night, he picked up right where he left off. That in and of itself is perhaps the most amazing part of the story. If I went that long without typing I would lose 20% of my speed.
For a more realistic comparison consider Jordan Staal struggling throughout last season to regain form after an 8 month absence. I expected Crosby would find his game faster than Staal but I still thought it would take some time. It took one shift.
It continued on Friday night when Crosby added three points against overwhelmed Ottawa and showed a renewed feistiness as well. Even his scoreless performance against St’Louis resulted in a tying goal with him on the ice.
The truth of the matter is this; Crosby is right now exactly what he was supposed to be when he entered the league. Not just the best player in the game bar none but one of the truly great players to ever play. Statistically it may be a tad early to make that assessment. Realistically it is not. We got previews of this ability in both the 2009 playoffs against Washington and the first part of last season. Watching him now after ten months in the post-concussion wilderness merely reinforces the obvious.
Keep in mind that Crosby can be measured almost every night against Malkin, who has resumed his place as one of the most dominant offensive forces in the game. Malkin’s return alone spurred the Penguins beyond where they were last spring when consistently hard work rarely translated in to goals. That’s the same Malkin who for my money out performed Sid in both 2007-08 and 2008-09 (an opinion which is permanently archived in writing through the miracle of the internet…for better or for worse).
Those days are now behind us. Malkin is a truly elite hockey player; Crosby is just one step better. For reference, think Lemieux versus Steve Yzerman when both were in their heyday.
What’s truly amazing about Crosby is he continues to improve while many other superstars around him plateau of even fade. Is there anybody outside the 301 area code for example that still thinks Alex Ovechkin is Sid’s equal, let alone the better player? And keep in mind that Sid remains eminently coachable while the great 8 is, in the definition of irony, cursing out Bruce Boudreau.
I still consider Lemieux the most supremely dominant hockey player I’ve ever seen. I remain reluctant to suggest any current player as his equal. As recently as the start of last season I considered any such comparisons utter blasphemy.
I’m not quite ready to renege on that position, but Sid the Kid is putting a real dent in my convictions.
There is unfortunately one other comparison to Lemieux that we cannot ignore. Just as we lived in perpetual fear of Mario’s balky back, we will fear future Crosby concussions. We will swallow hard and hold our collective breath every time he takes a rough hit. We will seize up in terror when the David Backus’ of the world take a swipe at Crosby’s cranium. Those concerns will be multiplied when and if Sid signs what figures to be a 7 year plus deal for $10 Million a year; before July of 2013.
So be it. Such things are out of our control. We can no more control Sid’s health than Nilsson can stop his high speed backhand roof job. We just have to hope that Crosby like many others (Ben Roethlisberger for example) can shake the concussion issues and remain dominant and healthy. I always felt that Lemieux’s health issues cheated the Pens out of several more Stanley Cups. I hope the same is not true of Sid. The Penguins are a very good team without him. They are very likely the best team in the NHL with him.
There is a lot of hockey to be played between now and June. And as we learned last season, a lot of things can happen in that span, for better or for worse. There are no guarantees that the Pens will carry the cup in June just because Sid the Kid is back in the line-up.
No guarantees…but the odds look a whole lot better.
ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY PENGUIN…BLESSED BE THE PENGUIN, FOR IT IS GOOD.
Le Magnifique took a three year hiatus from the game, returned during the heart of the appalling dead puck era and promptly tallied 76 points in 43 games. That remarkable average of 1.77 points per game extrapolates to a 145 point season; assuming you could suspend disbelief enough to think Lemieux could ever suit up for all 82 games.
Taken in context of the era, the scoring championship was won that year by Jaromir Jagr, who just happened to be Lemieux’s line-mate with 121 points. The highest scoring player not sharing a locker room with Big 66 was Joe Sakic with 118 points. No other player scored more than 96.
And I left out the part about Lemieux scoring three points in his first game back including setting up a goal in the game’s opening minute. Which is to say in the immortal words of Marc Liverant, he was back to making a mockery of the game…on his first shift.
It is blatantly unfair to measure Sidney Crosby’s comeback against such lofty standards. At least that’s what I told myself as Emily and I entered the new energy barn last Monday night. As indescribably exciting as it was to luck in to attending that game (and I assure you it was just that), I told myself all the way to faceoff that there was no conceivable way that Crosby could match Lemieux’s prowess and to keep my expectations in check.
So much for that theory.
Crosby did not just match Lemieux’s performance, he beat it; four points to three. That included two breathtakingly spectacular goals, the first of which was as impressive as any I’ve seen in the NHL this season. Even more impressive, Crosby was far and away the best player on the ice, a surface he was sharing with the rejuvenated Geno Malkin and the Islanders lost wunderkind John Tavares. It was eerily similar to Lemieux doing the same thing that magical December night in 2000 while sharing the ice with Jagr.
Which is to say the game, heck the event was frighteningly reminiscent of the Mario’s return. It started with a positively electric atmosphere, one completely disproportionate to an early season week night game. It ended with an identical 5 to 0 Penguin rout. It was one of those rare sporting events that you simply did not want to end.
There were differences as well. Crosby’s unexcused absence was 11 months, in comparison to Lemieux’s 3.5 years. In addition, Lemieux was retired which means his conditioning was likely “suspect“ (and I’m being charitable) during his time off. Crosby in contrast has been skating hard for months and dominating practices while waiting for “clearance for contact.”
Morover, Le Magnifique returned against a Toronto team that ultimately earned a playoff spot. Crosby returned against a team that might miss the post season if it were relegated to the ECHL. The Leafs started a borderline hall of famer in goal in Curtis Joseph, the Islanders started 4th stringer Anders Nilsson.
[As an aside, did anybody else find it funny that on a stage of this magnitude the Isles choose to start Nilsson rather than their $65 Million supposed franchise goaltender Rick DiPietro? Enjoy writing those checks for another decade…party on Garth (Snow)!]
Given those differences I can afford Mario the slight edge on impressive comebacks; with the caveat that I am quite literally splitting hairs to make that assessment. At the end of the day we are still talking about a brilliant four point performance that most players dare not dream of. Even that does not fully reflect Crosby’s dominance; his mastery of the faceoff circle or how many scoring chances he created. It was other worldly or dare I say Lemieux-esque.
When Crosby suffered his concussion(s) last season he was putting on the most dominant offensive performance the NHL had witnessed since that fabulous Lemieux comeback season. And when he returned to the ice on Monday night, he picked up right where he left off. That in and of itself is perhaps the most amazing part of the story. If I went that long without typing I would lose 20% of my speed.
For a more realistic comparison consider Jordan Staal struggling throughout last season to regain form after an 8 month absence. I expected Crosby would find his game faster than Staal but I still thought it would take some time. It took one shift.
It continued on Friday night when Crosby added three points against overwhelmed Ottawa and showed a renewed feistiness as well. Even his scoreless performance against St’Louis resulted in a tying goal with him on the ice.
The truth of the matter is this; Crosby is right now exactly what he was supposed to be when he entered the league. Not just the best player in the game bar none but one of the truly great players to ever play. Statistically it may be a tad early to make that assessment. Realistically it is not. We got previews of this ability in both the 2009 playoffs against Washington and the first part of last season. Watching him now after ten months in the post-concussion wilderness merely reinforces the obvious.
Keep in mind that Crosby can be measured almost every night against Malkin, who has resumed his place as one of the most dominant offensive forces in the game. Malkin’s return alone spurred the Penguins beyond where they were last spring when consistently hard work rarely translated in to goals. That’s the same Malkin who for my money out performed Sid in both 2007-08 and 2008-09 (an opinion which is permanently archived in writing through the miracle of the internet…for better or for worse).
Those days are now behind us. Malkin is a truly elite hockey player; Crosby is just one step better. For reference, think Lemieux versus Steve Yzerman when both were in their heyday.
What’s truly amazing about Crosby is he continues to improve while many other superstars around him plateau of even fade. Is there anybody outside the 301 area code for example that still thinks Alex Ovechkin is Sid’s equal, let alone the better player? And keep in mind that Sid remains eminently coachable while the great 8 is, in the definition of irony, cursing out Bruce Boudreau.
I still consider Lemieux the most supremely dominant hockey player I’ve ever seen. I remain reluctant to suggest any current player as his equal. As recently as the start of last season I considered any such comparisons utter blasphemy.
I’m not quite ready to renege on that position, but Sid the Kid is putting a real dent in my convictions.
There is unfortunately one other comparison to Lemieux that we cannot ignore. Just as we lived in perpetual fear of Mario’s balky back, we will fear future Crosby concussions. We will swallow hard and hold our collective breath every time he takes a rough hit. We will seize up in terror when the David Backus’ of the world take a swipe at Crosby’s cranium. Those concerns will be multiplied when and if Sid signs what figures to be a 7 year plus deal for $10 Million a year; before July of 2013.
So be it. Such things are out of our control. We can no more control Sid’s health than Nilsson can stop his high speed backhand roof job. We just have to hope that Crosby like many others (Ben Roethlisberger for example) can shake the concussion issues and remain dominant and healthy. I always felt that Lemieux’s health issues cheated the Pens out of several more Stanley Cups. I hope the same is not true of Sid. The Penguins are a very good team without him. They are very likely the best team in the NHL with him.
There is a lot of hockey to be played between now and June. And as we learned last season, a lot of things can happen in that span, for better or for worse. There are no guarantees that the Pens will carry the cup in June just because Sid the Kid is back in the line-up.
No guarantees…but the odds look a whole lot better.
ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY PENGUIN…BLESSED BE THE PENGUIN, FOR IT IS GOOD.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
A Sad and Shocking End
This cannot be how it ends. And yet it is.
One sick, depraved human being has taken down an icon, bringing a proud university to its knees in the process.
Not alone of course; he had several unwilling accomplices. Whatever you may feel about the Penn State administration right now I can guarantee this; none of them wanted to be in this position. If they covered for Jerry Sandusky for whatever reason; to save the school or to save him, I assure you it was not by choice. It was because right or wrong, and it’s most likely wrong, they felt they had to.
To what extent Joseph Vincent Paterno was involved in that collaboration remains a mystery. It may never be fully understood. And it’s now irrelevant. The die has been cast and barring a dramatic change in facts or circumstances, he will be deemed fully complicit in these horrific events.
A significant majority believe that Paterno, either through negligent inaction or a conspiracy to defraud enabled a horrific scandal with devastating consequences. A small minority believe he is a high powered scapegoat, served up to satisfy public bloodlust. I honestly don’t know what to believe.
I cannot recall an event that has shaken my core convictions to this degree.
I do not expect those who are not part of the Penn State family to understand our grief. How can I expect others to understand it when I can't explain it myself? All I know is what I felt when the announcement was made official, profound sadness.
This is a DEVASTATING time for all of us in the Penn State community.
It’s not the act of JoePa's firing in and of itself that saddens me. It’s what it represents. This surreal nightmare is now undeniable on every level. Until this week any notion of Penn State football without Paterno was inconceivable, let along Paterno being fired. That it happened and happened so suddenly crystalizes on every level the monumental nature of this scandal.
Many have called JoePa's dismissal the end of an era. You cannot fathom how inadequate that description is to the events at hand.
You must understand Penn State is a massive extended family. Our family has hundreds of thousands of members. It stretches across years and decades and thousands of miles. We are incredibly broad and diverse, different in so many ways. The one thing that binds us is an undying love of The Pennsylvania State University. And yes part of that is represented in our love and respect for Penn State football.
Understand this, whatever you may think of him right now, Joe Paterno was the patriarch of our family. He was quite literally the physical embodiment of this place we hold so sacred. His termination represents a spiritual death to our family, to our school, and to our beliefs. For that we mourn.
We mourn for the man we knew, and we mourn in fear of the man we may not have known.
We mourn for the destruction of a great man and that man’s reputation. We mourn the systematic annihilation of six decades of our history.
And we mourn our fear that perhaps the great man was not so great after all. At least not when it mattered the most.
Do not interpret our grief as an endorsement of his action or lack thereof. We all understand that gravity of this situation. I have opinions on Paterno’s culpability but I’m unwilling to share them. For one thing I don’t trust my feelings and convictions. I’m not sure I can see clearly through my emotions or bias. For another, I quite literally dread the next development that might make things worse.
Part of me cannot fathom that 60 plus years of dedicated service to one university is being wiped away. That’s 60 plus years, a lifetime of coaching, teaching, and mentoring young men. Some coaches are associated with a school or program. Joe Paterno literally is Penn State football. He is the universal constant for every Penn Stater past and present.
The other part of me cannot fathom that he may have played some role, however peripheral in these horrific crimes. He neither perpetrated nor witnesses these acts. And to whatever extent he enabled them he was not alone. It does not matter. Anyone involved in this appalling tragedy must be held accountable.
In my perfect world a man with a six decade track record of excellence would have been given the benefit of the doubt. We would have allowed for due process, for ALL of the facts to be known before such drastic action was taken.
Alas that was not realistic. I knew by Tuesday that JoePa would never coach another game. This scandal became too big, too fast. His position became untenable as did so many others. I knew this with absolute certainty.
And still I cried when the announcement was made. The raw emotion of the moment was more powerful than I ever expected. Even now I can’t grasp the non-stop “Paterno fired” headline that’s living in perpetuity on cable TV.
Jerry Sandusky is the ultimate bad guy here. Everyone who suffers for this does so ultimately because of him. Others made bad decisions, horrible perhaps but he and only he committed these heinous crimes. I will never back off of that belief.
That does not absolve the actions of our leaders. We entrusted them with something we hold sacred and they betrayed that trust. Their actions and decisions have brought shame to the entire Penn State community. Any and all who were involved must pay with nothing less than their jobs. If that includes Joe Paterno then so be it.
It’s just so hard to believe.
Let me be clear on this point, we are NOT the victims here. The kids that Sandusky abused AND ONLY those kids deserve your thoughts, sympathy and prayers. The entire Penn State community however is collateral damage.
The damage to the university is incalculable; as is the pain and sadness felt by its students and alumni. We’ve been stripped of our dignity, turned in to a nationwide object of scorn and ridicule. Hundreds of thousands are suffering because of the heinous actions of one man, and the subsequent action or inaction of several others.
We suffer twice, once for the kids and once for our school. And we suffer in silence. Nobody wants to hear our pain. Our betrayal pales in comparison to the betrayal of those kids, and we all know it. If we suffer out loud we are called apologists, enablers, or worse. We are not any of those things; just hurt, confused, and profoundly sad.
We cannot defend the indefensible; nor have we tried. It is stunning how many lives have been negatively affected by the actions of one deeply disturbed human being.
I don’t know that we will ever fully come to grips with that. And frankly we're not ready to do so. Right now we are dealing with profound changes to our reality; a reality we've taken as a given our entire lives.
It’s ironic that so many of us were calling for Paterno’s retirement before this happened. There was endless debate as to whether he stayed too long. Many felt, in spite of all he had done, that it was time for the Paterno era to end.
None of us wanted it to end like this.
One sick, depraved human being has taken down an icon, bringing a proud university to its knees in the process.
Not alone of course; he had several unwilling accomplices. Whatever you may feel about the Penn State administration right now I can guarantee this; none of them wanted to be in this position. If they covered for Jerry Sandusky for whatever reason; to save the school or to save him, I assure you it was not by choice. It was because right or wrong, and it’s most likely wrong, they felt they had to.
To what extent Joseph Vincent Paterno was involved in that collaboration remains a mystery. It may never be fully understood. And it’s now irrelevant. The die has been cast and barring a dramatic change in facts or circumstances, he will be deemed fully complicit in these horrific events.
A significant majority believe that Paterno, either through negligent inaction or a conspiracy to defraud enabled a horrific scandal with devastating consequences. A small minority believe he is a high powered scapegoat, served up to satisfy public bloodlust. I honestly don’t know what to believe.
I cannot recall an event that has shaken my core convictions to this degree.
I do not expect those who are not part of the Penn State family to understand our grief. How can I expect others to understand it when I can't explain it myself? All I know is what I felt when the announcement was made official, profound sadness.
This is a DEVASTATING time for all of us in the Penn State community.
It’s not the act of JoePa's firing in and of itself that saddens me. It’s what it represents. This surreal nightmare is now undeniable on every level. Until this week any notion of Penn State football without Paterno was inconceivable, let along Paterno being fired. That it happened and happened so suddenly crystalizes on every level the monumental nature of this scandal.
Many have called JoePa's dismissal the end of an era. You cannot fathom how inadequate that description is to the events at hand.
You must understand Penn State is a massive extended family. Our family has hundreds of thousands of members. It stretches across years and decades and thousands of miles. We are incredibly broad and diverse, different in so many ways. The one thing that binds us is an undying love of The Pennsylvania State University. And yes part of that is represented in our love and respect for Penn State football.
Understand this, whatever you may think of him right now, Joe Paterno was the patriarch of our family. He was quite literally the physical embodiment of this place we hold so sacred. His termination represents a spiritual death to our family, to our school, and to our beliefs. For that we mourn.
We mourn for the man we knew, and we mourn in fear of the man we may not have known.
We mourn for the destruction of a great man and that man’s reputation. We mourn the systematic annihilation of six decades of our history.
And we mourn our fear that perhaps the great man was not so great after all. At least not when it mattered the most.
Do not interpret our grief as an endorsement of his action or lack thereof. We all understand that gravity of this situation. I have opinions on Paterno’s culpability but I’m unwilling to share them. For one thing I don’t trust my feelings and convictions. I’m not sure I can see clearly through my emotions or bias. For another, I quite literally dread the next development that might make things worse.
Part of me cannot fathom that 60 plus years of dedicated service to one university is being wiped away. That’s 60 plus years, a lifetime of coaching, teaching, and mentoring young men. Some coaches are associated with a school or program. Joe Paterno literally is Penn State football. He is the universal constant for every Penn Stater past and present.
The other part of me cannot fathom that he may have played some role, however peripheral in these horrific crimes. He neither perpetrated nor witnesses these acts. And to whatever extent he enabled them he was not alone. It does not matter. Anyone involved in this appalling tragedy must be held accountable.
In my perfect world a man with a six decade track record of excellence would have been given the benefit of the doubt. We would have allowed for due process, for ALL of the facts to be known before such drastic action was taken.
Alas that was not realistic. I knew by Tuesday that JoePa would never coach another game. This scandal became too big, too fast. His position became untenable as did so many others. I knew this with absolute certainty.
And still I cried when the announcement was made. The raw emotion of the moment was more powerful than I ever expected. Even now I can’t grasp the non-stop “Paterno fired” headline that’s living in perpetuity on cable TV.
Jerry Sandusky is the ultimate bad guy here. Everyone who suffers for this does so ultimately because of him. Others made bad decisions, horrible perhaps but he and only he committed these heinous crimes. I will never back off of that belief.
That does not absolve the actions of our leaders. We entrusted them with something we hold sacred and they betrayed that trust. Their actions and decisions have brought shame to the entire Penn State community. Any and all who were involved must pay with nothing less than their jobs. If that includes Joe Paterno then so be it.
It’s just so hard to believe.
Let me be clear on this point, we are NOT the victims here. The kids that Sandusky abused AND ONLY those kids deserve your thoughts, sympathy and prayers. The entire Penn State community however is collateral damage.
The damage to the university is incalculable; as is the pain and sadness felt by its students and alumni. We’ve been stripped of our dignity, turned in to a nationwide object of scorn and ridicule. Hundreds of thousands are suffering because of the heinous actions of one man, and the subsequent action or inaction of several others.
We suffer twice, once for the kids and once for our school. And we suffer in silence. Nobody wants to hear our pain. Our betrayal pales in comparison to the betrayal of those kids, and we all know it. If we suffer out loud we are called apologists, enablers, or worse. We are not any of those things; just hurt, confused, and profoundly sad.
We cannot defend the indefensible; nor have we tried. It is stunning how many lives have been negatively affected by the actions of one deeply disturbed human being.
I don’t know that we will ever fully come to grips with that. And frankly we're not ready to do so. Right now we are dealing with profound changes to our reality; a reality we've taken as a given our entire lives.
It’s ironic that so many of us were calling for Paterno’s retirement before this happened. There was endless debate as to whether he stayed too long. Many felt, in spite of all he had done, that it was time for the Paterno era to end.
None of us wanted it to end like this.
Monday, November 7, 2011
The End of the Innocence in Happy Valley
Ask me what were the best years of my life, at least to the point where my beloved wife walked down the aisle at our wedding and I will answer without a moment’s hesitation. The four years I spent at the Pennsylvania State University.
It may sound like a cliché to call college the best years of my life but I don’t care. It was. That’s no slight to any other part of my childhood. It’s simply in deference to how much I enjoyed those four years in the place we affectionately call Happy Valley.
College is first and foremost about education but it’s so much more than that. It’s about growing up, establishing your independence and discovering who you really are as a person. It’s about having the freedom to believe unequivocally in your dreams and ideals, before such ideals are stripped from you by the harsh realities of life. It’s about the stunning metamorphosis from child to adult.
To me there was no better place for this than Happy Valley.
When I left Penn State I did so with more than a diploma. I left with a lifetime supply of experiences, memories and friends. I left with an emotional attachment that defies simple description. In those four years the University and everything it represents became more than just my Alma mater. It became part of my heart and my soul. Penn State does not define me, but it’s absolutely part of my identity. One need only inventory my clothing to understand that.
That is why I was so determined to bring my wife there last summer; cost and time commitment be damned. I wanted her to see at least once, what was so critically important to me.
To me, it was the last innocent place on earth; untouched by the noise, traffic, politics, or corruption of life. And right now that innocence is shattered, irrevocably I fear.
I never defined my Penn State experience by our football team; or by our legendary coach Joe Paterno. That was a part of it; one of many to be sure. At the same time, as I got further and further from my college years, in time and distance the football team and Paterno were the most tangible symbols I could cling to. And whether we like it or not, that team and that coach represent and define us nationally.
For as long as I can remember, that was something to be truly proud of. Sadly I doubt that will ever be the case again.
What transpired at Penn State in the last 72 hours to 13 years is a tragedy of unspeakable proportions. It involves (allegedly) a sick sexual deviant who for reasons only he can explain performed repeated acts that would disgust any sane person. It likely involves to some degree a cover up and thus the enabling of these horrific acts. Exactly how deep that cover up goes and who is ultimately involved is beyond the scope of my knowledge. And for purposes of this blog, it’s irrelevant.
Those who are responsible will pay; at minimum with their jobs, at maximum with their freedom. Jerry Sandusky will likely spend the rest of his life as a guest of the state of Pennsylvania. That is the minimum he deserves for the lives he has (allegedly) ruined. And in the end, that’s going to be a long list.
The list will include countless young men; likely far more than is reported and far more than we will ever know. It will include university personnel who dedicated significant portions of their lives to the betterment of the school. It involves Mike McQueary who undoubtedly wanted no part of this. And it very well may include the legendary coach who devoted 60 plus years of his life to that school; 60 plus years to coaching and mentoring young men.
For that I will very much mourn. In the end, Joe Paterno’s legacy may die at the hands of a man he trusted for over 30 years. It will not matter that he was neither the perpetrator of nor witness to these horrific events. He will be viewed as an enabler ostensibly because he was deemed to have not done enough to prevent it.
I hope and pray that is not the case. Not out of some misguided sense of loyalty to Paterno or Penn State mind you. I hope this because I simply do not want to believe a man who did so much good, a man who is literally the embodiment of Penn State University was in any way responsible for this.
Sadly with each passing news story my doubts grow stronger.
A lot will happen in the next few weeks, months, and years. I don’t think any of us can even begin to imagine the breadth of it. A University and its football program that has operated with unparalleled consistency for 45 some years will likely be torn apart brick by brick and rebuilt from scratch. It’s the only thing that can be done.
This is about more than that though. This is about the death of something I hold precious and dear in my heart. This is in some ways the death of a part of me. Call that over dramatization or extreme hyperbole if you like but it’s my truth. I doubt I’m alone amongst Penn State alumni.
This is a place that I love, my Alma mater; an institution that is rightfully an immense source of pride in my life. And it has suddenly become an object of nationwide scorn and ridicule. It’s about a school that has done so much for so many for so long being painted with a broad brush because of the heinous actions of a select few.
It’s about the words “for the glory of old state,” which have always meant so much to me now being used as a punch line.
And yes to some very small degree it’s about football. Understand that is the least important thing in this tragedy. At the same time it’s something that connects tens of thousands of alumni over five decades. I’ve always taken Penn State’s football history as a given. More than that, I took its future as a given. Now I’m not sure there is a future. I'm not sure I can even watch the Nebraska game this Saturday.
I would hope even the most cynical observers can understand how painful this is to us as alumni. So much so that I cannot read the endless barrage of news stories or even draft this blog without a tear in my eyes. I’m overwhelmed with so many conflicting emotions. And worst of all, I honestly don’t trust my own instincts and convictions to evaluate what's happening.
Like most PSU alums, I’m going through the four stages of grief on this. Right now I’m on the back edge of stage one, denial, at least in regards to JoePa. I want so much to believe he’s not the bad guy in this. I want to believe I will wake up tomorrow and find this was all just an awful nightmare.
The second stage is supposed to be anger but I fear that I’ll hit depression first. I’m not a trained psychologist so I honestly don’t know if you are required to hit these stages in order. I just know how I feel. I don’t foresee acceptance and hope in the near future, not on this issue.
I understand that some might read this and infer a lack of perspective on my part. I assure you this is not the case. I understand with absolute certainty here that the greatest victims are these children. And I can assure you my sadness and grief mirrors the magnitude of the event. Life offers far greater tragedies than the spiritual death of a university and the reputation of its football coach. Trust me I understand this.
That does not diminish my sadness today. Nowhere is it written that we cannot mourn a loss, simply because there are other losses of greater magnitude. Loss is loss, hurt is hurt. I can fully appreciate the gravity of Sandusky’s alleged offenses while mourning the collateral damage to my beloved Alma mater. Such emotions are not mutually exclusive.
The last 72 hours have been awful. I doubt the next few weeks, months, or even years will be much better. Honestly I don’t know what will transpire, but I know what has so far. It’s the end of the innocence in Happy Valley. Perhaps the end of my innocence as well
It may sound like a cliché to call college the best years of my life but I don’t care. It was. That’s no slight to any other part of my childhood. It’s simply in deference to how much I enjoyed those four years in the place we affectionately call Happy Valley.
College is first and foremost about education but it’s so much more than that. It’s about growing up, establishing your independence and discovering who you really are as a person. It’s about having the freedom to believe unequivocally in your dreams and ideals, before such ideals are stripped from you by the harsh realities of life. It’s about the stunning metamorphosis from child to adult.
To me there was no better place for this than Happy Valley.
When I left Penn State I did so with more than a diploma. I left with a lifetime supply of experiences, memories and friends. I left with an emotional attachment that defies simple description. In those four years the University and everything it represents became more than just my Alma mater. It became part of my heart and my soul. Penn State does not define me, but it’s absolutely part of my identity. One need only inventory my clothing to understand that.
That is why I was so determined to bring my wife there last summer; cost and time commitment be damned. I wanted her to see at least once, what was so critically important to me.
To me, it was the last innocent place on earth; untouched by the noise, traffic, politics, or corruption of life. And right now that innocence is shattered, irrevocably I fear.
I never defined my Penn State experience by our football team; or by our legendary coach Joe Paterno. That was a part of it; one of many to be sure. At the same time, as I got further and further from my college years, in time and distance the football team and Paterno were the most tangible symbols I could cling to. And whether we like it or not, that team and that coach represent and define us nationally.
For as long as I can remember, that was something to be truly proud of. Sadly I doubt that will ever be the case again.
What transpired at Penn State in the last 72 hours to 13 years is a tragedy of unspeakable proportions. It involves (allegedly) a sick sexual deviant who for reasons only he can explain performed repeated acts that would disgust any sane person. It likely involves to some degree a cover up and thus the enabling of these horrific acts. Exactly how deep that cover up goes and who is ultimately involved is beyond the scope of my knowledge. And for purposes of this blog, it’s irrelevant.
Those who are responsible will pay; at minimum with their jobs, at maximum with their freedom. Jerry Sandusky will likely spend the rest of his life as a guest of the state of Pennsylvania. That is the minimum he deserves for the lives he has (allegedly) ruined. And in the end, that’s going to be a long list.
The list will include countless young men; likely far more than is reported and far more than we will ever know. It will include university personnel who dedicated significant portions of their lives to the betterment of the school. It involves Mike McQueary who undoubtedly wanted no part of this. And it very well may include the legendary coach who devoted 60 plus years of his life to that school; 60 plus years to coaching and mentoring young men.
For that I will very much mourn. In the end, Joe Paterno’s legacy may die at the hands of a man he trusted for over 30 years. It will not matter that he was neither the perpetrator of nor witness to these horrific events. He will be viewed as an enabler ostensibly because he was deemed to have not done enough to prevent it.
I hope and pray that is not the case. Not out of some misguided sense of loyalty to Paterno or Penn State mind you. I hope this because I simply do not want to believe a man who did so much good, a man who is literally the embodiment of Penn State University was in any way responsible for this.
Sadly with each passing news story my doubts grow stronger.
A lot will happen in the next few weeks, months, and years. I don’t think any of us can even begin to imagine the breadth of it. A University and its football program that has operated with unparalleled consistency for 45 some years will likely be torn apart brick by brick and rebuilt from scratch. It’s the only thing that can be done.
This is about more than that though. This is about the death of something I hold precious and dear in my heart. This is in some ways the death of a part of me. Call that over dramatization or extreme hyperbole if you like but it’s my truth. I doubt I’m alone amongst Penn State alumni.
This is a place that I love, my Alma mater; an institution that is rightfully an immense source of pride in my life. And it has suddenly become an object of nationwide scorn and ridicule. It’s about a school that has done so much for so many for so long being painted with a broad brush because of the heinous actions of a select few.
It’s about the words “for the glory of old state,” which have always meant so much to me now being used as a punch line.
And yes to some very small degree it’s about football. Understand that is the least important thing in this tragedy. At the same time it’s something that connects tens of thousands of alumni over five decades. I’ve always taken Penn State’s football history as a given. More than that, I took its future as a given. Now I’m not sure there is a future. I'm not sure I can even watch the Nebraska game this Saturday.
I would hope even the most cynical observers can understand how painful this is to us as alumni. So much so that I cannot read the endless barrage of news stories or even draft this blog without a tear in my eyes. I’m overwhelmed with so many conflicting emotions. And worst of all, I honestly don’t trust my own instincts and convictions to evaluate what's happening.
Like most PSU alums, I’m going through the four stages of grief on this. Right now I’m on the back edge of stage one, denial, at least in regards to JoePa. I want so much to believe he’s not the bad guy in this. I want to believe I will wake up tomorrow and find this was all just an awful nightmare.
The second stage is supposed to be anger but I fear that I’ll hit depression first. I’m not a trained psychologist so I honestly don’t know if you are required to hit these stages in order. I just know how I feel. I don’t foresee acceptance and hope in the near future, not on this issue.
I understand that some might read this and infer a lack of perspective on my part. I assure you this is not the case. I understand with absolute certainty here that the greatest victims are these children. And I can assure you my sadness and grief mirrors the magnitude of the event. Life offers far greater tragedies than the spiritual death of a university and the reputation of its football coach. Trust me I understand this.
That does not diminish my sadness today. Nowhere is it written that we cannot mourn a loss, simply because there are other losses of greater magnitude. Loss is loss, hurt is hurt. I can fully appreciate the gravity of Sandusky’s alleged offenses while mourning the collateral damage to my beloved Alma mater. Such emotions are not mutually exclusive.
The last 72 hours have been awful. I doubt the next few weeks, months, or even years will be much better. Honestly I don’t know what will transpire, but I know what has so far. It’s the end of the innocence in Happy Valley. Perhaps the end of my innocence as well
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)