This surprises me in no way at all.

Posted by HockeyJoe from NY on 06/06/08 at 09:26 AM ET

I’m pretty sure this is being over-dramatized, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Therrien’s been rubbing some on his team the wrong way.  In particular, Therrien’s whining about the refs didn’t seem to go over well with some of his players—a few towed the line, others didn’t want any part in it.

Posted by Primis on 06/06/08 at 09:54 AM ET

We heard the same thing about Uncle Mike too.

Posted by MOWingsfan19 on 06/06/08 at 10:36 AM ET

We heard the same thing about Uncle Mike, but remember, the rumbles were always with veteran players that have either since left, retired, or bought in, a la Kirk Maltby and Chris Chelios.

While I appreciate and enjoyed watching this Pens team play together, I think that the articles and quotes pointing out their “bright future” aren’t really accurate. It might not be quite as bad as this article makes it sound, but they have some major problems on the horizon simply trying to keep players. Shero and the Pens front office will be truly tested now that they will have to draft late in the first round and find players to fill the gaps that will inevitably be left when Malone, Orpik, Hossa, and who knows—Fleury—leave the team.

Rather than competing for Cups I think the Pens should prepare to be mid-playoff team in the East. If anything saves them, it’s the weakness of the East.

Posted by Nathan from Jonny Ericsson's ice cream truck on 06/06/08 at 11:04 AM ET

YIKES you might have the SC, but you are woefully Ignorant when it comes to the Pens, Malone is a Garbageman, When Geno & Sykora aren’t doing their thing Malone disappears

Orpik was Playing wing for 2 weeks during the season & was a healthy scratch in another game

I think Hossa Stays

I am sick of all this Gary Roberts adulation too, He has had a very good career but his is toast, this year he was nothing more than a 4th liner

Posted by Evilpens on 06/06/08 at 12:11 PM ET

Must be some kind of obstruction in Therrien’s way to get back behind the Pens bench. Like anyone is surprised?

Posted by Kate from Pa. on 06/06/08 at 01:06 PM ET

Nathan: The Penguins traded their 1st rounder, along with Colby Armstrong, Erik Christensen, and prospect Angelo Esposito to Atlanta for Marian Hossa and Pascal Dupuis. They’ll be picking 121st, due to having also sending away their 2nd round to Toronto for Hal Gill, and 3rd round to Phoenix last year for Laraque.

Posted by Alan from Atlanta on 06/06/08 at 01:25 PM ET

Evil Pens, say all you want about the regular season performance of these Pens.  But, there is no doubt in my mind that without Malone or Orpik, the Pens would not have made it as far as they did. 

Additionally, the Pens have about $25 million in cap space for next year with 20 players to sign.  Do the math, it doesn’t work out very well. 

Part of the Pens problem is that they have over-paid for some of their guys.  They will pay Ryan Whitney $3 million next year, and his contract tops out at $5.5 million.  Does anyone really think he is worth that much?

Also, Gonchar is getting $6 million next year.  Now Gonchar is great on the power play, but he is not very good in his own end. I wouldn’t pay him more than $3.5 million.

One of the biggest problems the Pens have right now is Evgeni Malkin’s contract.  He made $984,000 last year, but could easily command $8.5 to $9 million when his contract expires at the end of next season.  Add into that mix Marion Hossa, who made $7 million this year, and will most likely ask for something around there to stay in Pittsburgh, and MAF, who will ask for a substantial raise over the $1.6 million he made this year, and you have yourself a cap problem.  Between Crosby, Hossa, Malkin, Gonchar, Fleury and Whitney, the Pens could conceivably have $37 million dollars tied up.

That leaves about $15 million for 18 players, not including any minor leaguers and prospects.  One of those guys will have to go, and it’s not going to be Malkin.  The Pens also won’t be able to move Whitney and Gonchar with their bloated contracts.  So the question is, how badly do the Pens want Hossa and how much are they willing to pay Fleury?

Posted by John from Pittsburgh, PA (Wings fan for life!) on 06/06/08 at 01:30 PM ET

Jeez, I forgot to mention Jordal Staal!  He is only making $850,000 this year and next.  He is worth way more than that, and he won’t take anything less than $6 million a season.

But this also highlights one of the hallmarks of bad management.  Ray Shero has Malkin and Staal’s contracts expiring at the same time, with both of them poised to ask for raises of around 1,000%.  He is going to be forced to pick one of them over the other, or over pay for both them and screw the rest of the 2nd line as well as the bottom two lines and the blue line.

If he is able to get some semblance of his core to stick around outside of Crosby and Malkin, it will be because of the good nature and charitable feelings of his players rather than his skill is a general manager.

Posted by John from Pittsburgh, PA (Wings fan for life!) on 06/06/08 at 01:35 PM ET

Also, Gonchar is getting $6 million next year.  Now Gonchar is great on the power play, but he is not very good in his own end. I wouldn’t pay him more than $3.5 million.

Wow, you’re really out of touch here.  Gonchar, no matter his partner, was always matched against the opposing teams top line, and performed admirably. 2002 Gonchar is not the same as the 2008 version.  Many, and not just those in the Pittsburgh MSM agreed that he would not have been out of place as a Norris candidate this year.

Also, Craig Patrick signed Gonchar, not Shero. 

As for the Staal/Malkin contract expiring at the same time...??? Would you suggest that he leave Jordan Staal in the minors (well, 1 junior/1minors) for two years? 

You obviously have some bias against Ray Shero, which is fine.  Need to come up with much better arguments and innuendos than you are doing now to convince me though.

Posted by dc from my kitchen on 06/06/08 at 02:20 PM ET

UUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

John you’re an Idiot

Jordan Staal will be INCREDIBLY lucky to get Half of that 6 million $ you blurted out

Go back to Junior High study hall O.K. Junior

Posted by Evilpens on 06/06/08 at 03:38 PM ET

Somehow, I don’t think that John is the one who needs to “go back to Junior High study hall”. Just a hunch.

Anyway:

Do I think that JStaal will ask for 6 bills per?  Probably not. But if he gets less than 4, I’ll be surprised--unless Therrien gets the boot, in which case he might be convinced to take less. Just my opinion.

Posted by The Acid Queen from Raleigh, NC on 06/06/08 at 08:44 PM ET

Therrien must have some redeeming qualities as a coach.  I doubt his team made it to Game 6 of the Finals in spite of him.

That being said, I was surprised and disappointed with his incessant “obstruction” complaints to the press, and astonished with the way I thought he threw his players under the bus after Game 2. If his players saw it the way I saw it, I’m not surprised that they don’t want to play for him.  And it won’t surprise me if he’s no longer the coach soon.

But who replaces him would obviously be a crucial decision for Shero.  This is a team with lots of potential (more or less, depending on who goes and who stays) and Shero would need somebody who can tap into that and maximize it.

Posted by BobTheZee on 06/07/08 at 12:37 AM ET

1. Jordan Staal doesn’t make $850k, he makes something around $2.2 mil.

2. Eric (two-time 40 goal-scorer) Staal makes $4.5 mil. Jordan (one-time 29 goal-scorer, one-time 12 goal-scorer) Staal isn’t about to make $1.5 million more than his older brother unless he waits until next offseason to sign and pots 55 goals in ‘08-’09. The latter conditional is not at all likely.

3. I do not believe “Not very good in his own end” describes Gonchar very well. For support, I would like to cite almost every edition of After 40 minutes with Kelly Hrudey in which the Penguins were the team under discussion.

Posted by Steve from pittsburgh on 06/07/08 at 03:46 AM ET

Therrien must have some redeeming qualities as a coach.  I doubt his team made it to Game 6 of the Finals in spite of him.

I don’t know how extensive his experience has been as a coach, but his team has improved over the last couple of years.  It isn’t as though they kept getting worse during the season.  It was a first time for him as for his team in this situation, and if he has any brains at all (which of course he does) he will learn from it and be a better coach next year for it.

That being said, I was surprised and disappointed with his incessant “obstruction” complaints to the press,

That was extremly tiresome.  I wanted to hear a lot more words from the Penguins’ players and a lot less jabber from the coach.

...and astonished with the way I thought he threw his players under the bus after Game 2. If his players saw it the way I saw it, I’m not surprised that they don’t want to play for him.  And it won’t surprise me if he’s no longer the coach soon.

I wondered as the series went on how much of that and the apparent refusal to give Detroit any credit was partly a language issue.  His answers to questions might have been a bit longer and more nuanced in French.  He’s obviously very competent in English, but probably not as inclined to give longer answers.  He might come across completely differently to the players themselves.

Of course, there was a lot of friction between Vincent Lecavalier and Tortorella before they figured out a way to work together.  It might be nothing more than a coach needing to adjust better to his team and the players needing to mature a little more and deal better and more professionally with the coach.

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 06/07/08 at 06:15 AM ET

Goody the AcidQueen from Hicksville thinks Staal is going to get 4 million a year or more

Go back to NASCAR O.K. You are making an ass of yourself He is a 3rd line Center who scored 12 goals this & compared with 29 his rookie season, Staal or as I call him Stevie Wonder Jr. Because he has NO Hand/Eye Coordination

Posted by Evilpens on 06/07/08 at 09:18 AM ET

Somehow Evilpens, I don’t think that I am the one making an ass of myself here.

Just sayin’.

Posted by The Acid Queen from Raleigh, NC on 06/07/08 at 01:21 PM ET

Bimbo you don’t know Hockey, I was watching hockey before you were born, Go Take a couple Midols, HELL YOU NEED THE WHOLE DAMN BOTTLE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just Sayin

What a Stupid Hipster Dufus comment

I guess that’s what all the “COOL CATS” are using huh??

Posted by Evilpens on 06/07/08 at 04:46 PM ET

Baroque:

Of course, there was a lot of friction between Vincent Lecavalier and Tortorella before they figured out a way to work together.

This is true, however: Tortorella has a tendency to only throw his goalies under the bus (from what I’ve seen), and if the players in Tampa were unhappy with their coach it managed to stay relatively quiet until last season.

Evilpens:

Thank you, I accept your surrender. You stay classy, OK?

Posted by The Acid Queen from Raleigh, NC on 06/07/08 at 06:29 PM ET

Another COOL saying huh?, Well at least you have all summer to come up with some more Snappy Repartee

Posted by Evilpens on 06/07/08 at 07:44 PM ET

I wondered as the series went on how much of that and the apparent refusal to give Detroit any credit was partly a language issue.

I wondered about that, too, for many of his press conference comments.  I don’t want to criticize the guy because English is a 2nd language for him.  I can’t claim a 2nd language—two years of high school Spanish and one semester of college Russian leave me far short of being able to meet a press conference and converse in either of those. I’m certainly willing to cut him some slack on that basis for much of what I saw or read about re his press conferences.

But after Game 2, he several times went back to the same topic… my players are so young… it’s a process and we’re still in the process… etc., etc., etc.  It wasn’t just a single answer to a single question, and I have a hard time attributing the entirety of those comments to just a language issue.

I could be wrong… I’m not in his head and, Lord knows, I’ve been wrong before.  But that’s the way I saw it.  More importantly than how I saw it, though, is how his team saw it.

Posted by BobTheZee on 06/08/08 at 12:38 AM ET

Honestly, I don’t think it’s a language issue.

When the Hurricanes came back from being down 2-1 in their second-round series with the Canadiens in 2002, Therrien wasted no time in blaming the officials, making excuses, and refusing to give any credit to the Hurricanes. It’s much the same thing that we saw in the Finals here--so I think that he’s really just a poor loser.

Posted by The Acid Queen from Raleigh, NC on 06/08/08 at 12:21 PM ET