Originally posted by StarOfAfrica2
Please. You want a hard year, try being a Blues fan this year. And let me tell you from experience, spending money on top name talent means squat. For YEARS we griped and moaned and complained that the Blues wouldnt spend money to attract or keep big name players. Yet they were ALWAYS in the playoffs. Just one choke away from a Stanley Cup. Then came the money man. I never cared much for Laurie, but everyone hailed him as the savior, the man who would get the Blues over the Hump. He spent LOTS of money hiring big name players. Guess where it got us. The same place we already got without his money. He spent more money. Same thing. Every year we were soooooooooooo close. But people forgot we were just as close every year before he came with his mega-money. Then after just a few years he showed his true colors and sold the team. Now here we are this year with a group of young kids who have seldom seen ice time in the big league. Talented, but so inexperienced. I tell ya, theres times this year .............. well anyway, the only real interest I had by this late in the season was watching them retire Al MacInnis' jersey number. Watching them raise #2 into the rafters was great, but I actually teared up. There's a great hockey player. He's gonna be missed.
The playoffs? Eh, maybe next year.
Same boat here (Pens). We go and sign T-BLOW, Recchi, Leclair, Gonchar, Palffy. Recchi goes off being a jerk in the locker room, Palffy just up and quits, and Leclair and Gonchar hire body-doubles for the 1st half of the season. T-BLOW was perhaps the worst goaltender I've ever watched. Mario gets heart problems and quits, and getting that dumb oaf Cairns was about the only thing to get excited about. All the while, the original coach (Olczyk) has this dumfounded look on his face like HiTech at a spelling bee.
Still, the last half got better. Well, the team didn't win any more games, but at least they showed up to a few of them, Crosby seemed to settle in (and exploded towards the end of the season), Therrien came in and figured out which of his Farm players would do well, the higher-ups FINALLY gave up on T-BLOW and brought in Fleury (developing, but damn he has talent) and now it looks like next season we might be getting Malkin.
And of course we have a few lesser known rookies who are likely going to spend their careers in the NHL, at least while they're in Pittsburgh:
Colby Armstrong, Konstantin Koltsov, Ryan Whitney & Noah Welch, to name a few.
I say, in five years, if the Pens can hold onto most of these players and maybe sign/draft one or two defensemen and wingers, they'll be a Stanley Cup contender.
