The Confluence
It’s Shero’s turn to face Penguins fans wrath
by Tony on 02/10/09 at 09:08 AM ET
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There’s plenty of blame to go around for the Penguins’ disappointing season to date.
The loss of several significant players due to free agency, led by Marian Hossa, sure as hell didn’t help.
The major injury to Sergei Gonchar in the preseason certainly exacerbated the Pens’ plight.
My personal favorite, Head Coach Michel Therrien, and his trusty powerplay sidekick, Mike Yeo, are continually bashed. [ And well deserved… ]
Now that the FIRE THERRIEN !! talk has died down to a soft roar, Penguins fans have now turned their attention to the architect of this year’s roster: Blame it on Ray Shero.
In my book, I feel that Shero is definitely not without any share of the blame for this year’s disappointments. However, let’s look at Shero’s performance a little bit closer, and you’ll see that I don’t agree to so much of a degree as some fans do.
The one major thing that needs to be understood is that once Marian Hossa made his decision to go to Detroit, he basically screwed Shero. Shero was stuck. NOTE: Relax Wings fans, I’m not bashing Hossa. Obviously, his decision is looking smarter every day.
Shero, as well as most Penguins fans and most members of the hockey media, felt that he had a very good chance to sign Hossa for a multi-year contract. Hossa gave some pretty strong hints that he wanted to stay. In fact, Hossa’s agent asked the Penguins to raise their offer in terms of years from 5 to 7, which Shero did.
So going into free agency on July 1st, with that confidence that he could sign Hossa in his back pocket, obviously he had to have Hossa’s big salary tied up and put to the side.
July 1st comes, and some of the wingers start to go by the wayside. Brian Rolston signs with the Devils. Michael Ryder goes to Boston. So even though the list of available decent wingers are starting to dwindle, Shero still thinks that he can bag Hossa. And because of that, along with Hossa’s potential salary, he HAS to put his cards on Hossa.
That plan went to hell around noon on the 2nd, when Hossa informed Shero that he was signing with Detroit. As Shero and Penguins fans worldwide said one big collective “shit !!!” (putting it lightly), Shero was now in big-time scramble mode.
At the time of Hossa’s signing with the Wings, the only significant wingers remaining were former Penguin Markus Naslund, Miro Satan and Ruslan Fedotenko. Reports around that time were that Shero was pretty close to signing Naslund, but he ended up going to the Rangers on July 3rd.
Shero was left with signing the two former Islanders in Satan and Fedotenko. Satan obviously was nowhere near the talent of Hossa, but he’s had some decent years, so there was a glimmer of hope that he might be able to thrive on Sidney Crosby’s wing. Fedotenko was a semi-rugged winger that could get dirty on the boards, and just maybe replace the presence in front of the net that now Tampa Bay Lightning Ryan Malone provided.
Thud.
What I’m saying is that after Hossa bolted for Detroit, and after he failed to sign Naslund, he was left basically with Plan C. So in that regard, yes, that hasn’t worked out.
To Shero’s defense, however, it should be noted that both Satan and Fedotenko were only signed for one year. Satan is as good as gone after this year, if not before the trade deadline. I would think Fedotenko’s chances of staying are better, but who knows what’ll happen until that time comes. With Satan’s 3.5 mil deal and Fedotenko’s 2.5 mil deal, that’s 6 million clams available after this year, if they’re both gone, of course.
But not all of Shero’s moves this year have been that bad. The October 9th trade to acquire Mike Zigomanis for future considerations was a brilliant move. Zigomanis’ NHL-best faceoff percentage, from a right-handed shot nonetheless, was exactly what the Penguins needed. However, as the Pens’ luck has gone this year, his season-ending shoulder surgery was a big blow to a team that has already had several significant injuries, and as a result, the Pens’ faceoff percentage as a team has gone back downhill.
The November 16th trade of Philippe Boucher for Darryl Sydor was a push, as was expected. Boucher got some decent playing time when he first came to the Penguins, but has recently found himself as a healthy scratch more times than not.
And just recently, who knows how this will turn out for the remainder of the year, but the Jan 17th trade for Mathieu Garon for Dany Sabourin and change doesn’t seem to have helped either team. Of course, Garon has only played in one game, but in that one he was terrible.
But perhaps Shero’s biggest question marks this season may be the re-signings of two of his players. Jordan Staal, having another disappointing year but coming up on to Restricted Free Agency, was re-signed to a four-year, 16 million dollar deal. Many, many Penguins fans were not happy. In fact, some fans were questioning whether Shero signed Staal simply to make his trade value higher at the deadline. We’ll see if that comes to fruition. In addition, Shero signed Max Talbot to a two-year, 2 million dollar extention on December 19th. Honestly, I feel Talbot’s value on this team is overrated, so in that regard a million dollar per year contract may be a bit high.
So is this ALL Shero’s fault ? No. SOME of it ?? Yes.
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Tags: NHL-Hockey, Pittsburgh+Penguins,
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