Pittsburgh Penguins aiming at strong Playoff run next Season -NHL Update
Pittsburgh Penguins had one of their best regular seasons in 2011-2012 compared to recent years but all that hard work that nearly got them to the top of the Eastern Conference, just completely fell apart come the playoffs as Philadelphia Flyers dominated
in all perspectives.
Weak goaltending is cited to be the biggest reason as to why the Pittsburgh Penguins faced such a depressing situation in the postseason as Marc-Andre Fleury failed to keep Philadelphia at bay, but there were many factors as to why that happened.
Lack of defensive depth forced Pittsburgh to give up goals on every end as Philadelphia dominated in many games with up to eight goals at a time while Penguins failed to score half or less. It was their second straight first round defeat despite having a
star studded offensive line-up, giving them something to think about this time around.
General manager of Pittsburgh Penguins, Ray Shero, was especially excited for the offseason as he saw Ryan Suter or even Nashville Predators’ captain and star defenseman, Shea Weber, as potential players they would be able to woo into joining, but unfortunately,
they failed to grab either.
"We like our team. Adding a guy like Parise and/or Suter would have been fantastic," Shero said in July. "But we've got two First-Team All-Stars coming back at forward with [Evgeni] Malkin and [James] Neal, and adding Sidney Crosby -- that's a pretty good
lineup already."
Pittsburgh also lost star centre, Jordan Staal, who refused to sign a 10-year extension with them and joined brother Eric Staal in Carolina with the Hurricanes.
Now with the loss of Staal and not picking up any big names during the offseason for defensive depth, Pittsburgh has to settle with what they have at the moment and utilise it to the maximum.
“You see the possibility of seeing younger players in the organization get a chance to play there as well, whether it’s Eric Tangradi in a top-six role or [2010 first-round pick] Beau Bennett getting a chance to play there in exhibition and training camp,
or Tyler Kennedy," coach Dan Bylsma told the team's website.
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