Crosby's crew without Gonchar - Penguins without bite?
After losing a heartbreaking best-of-seven series to the Montreal Canadiens last Spring, the Pittsburgh Penguins needed to regroup, l**k their wounds and address some of their issues. While some of those problems were in the process of being solved, another one arose: the departure of veteran defeceman Sergei Gonchar to their Eastern Conference rivals, the Ottawa Senators.
From the minute that the free agency hit, Senators general manager Andy Murray went after Gonchar with purpose, making it clear to him that he was interested in his services and would do whatever it took to have in Ottawa.
Gonchar had been fishing for a long-term deal with Pittsburgh but GM Ray Shero was reluctant to forward a contract for more than a year to the veteran. Gonchar was deemed too big a risk considering the salary demanded. Andy Murray on the other hand, had no trouble whatsoever offering Gonchar a three-year contract worth $16.5 million. Murray went on the record saying that players the likes of Gonchar and Detroit Red Wing Nik Lidstrom were a breed of their own and that in their case, age isn’t a factor.
Considering that Gonchar plays regularly north of 20 minutes at night (close to 23 in average) and harvested 50 points or more in 9 seasons certainly proves his point. At 37, the Chelyabinski native is still one of the best puck-moving defenceman in the league, can still skate very well and is a worthy addition to anyone’s blue line. He is expected to boost Ottawa’s powerplay, which finished 20th last season and will be an ideal mentor to young and talented defenceman Erik Karlsson.
Patching Up Pittsburgh
The loss of Sergei Gonchar is a severe one in more ways than one. Though they do have some offensive talent up front, they will be sorely lacking in their back end. In the last few seasons, they have seen themselves lose the precious services of defencemen Rob Scuderi to the L.A. Kings and Hal Gill to the Montreal Canadiens. Neither of them were ever known for their offensive exploits, but both were and are masters of positioning and could always be relied upon to be at the right place and at the right time, making the right play without winding up in the box too often. At this point, both of them have yet to be properly replaced.
Another disturbing fact is that the Pittsburgh Penguins seem to be unable to win games without Gonchar’s presence. While the all-star missed 20 games last season, the Pens seemed without an answer to anything that their opponents threw at them, dropping most decisions in the span of a month. Rising defenceman Alex Goligoski is slowly improving his game but the odds that he will ever be a player of Gonchar’s ability are slim.
The fiery Russian also brought a much-needed offensive dimension to the Penguins’ play. As some of the offensive prowess of many of their forwards failed to impress last season (Max Talbot, Chris Kunitz, Ruslan Fedotenko, departed Alexei Ponikarovsky and even Evgeni Malkin come to mind), the void left by his absence will be doubly hard to fill. Most of the Pens’ punch reside in the play of Crosby, Malkin, and Staal, all three centres, who lack the wingers to put the puck in the net.
With some cap space left available to him, Shero does have a bit of wiggle room to import some talent and cater to his club’s needs. But with the upcoming season less than two months away and with the limited amount of talent available, he will be hard-pressed to fill the gaping hole left by Gonchar’s departure. Should the Pens meet the Senators again in the play-offs this year (if the Penguins make it that far) the outcome might be drastically different than last year’s.
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