The Penguins Could Have Done More This Offseason
NHL Network: Last week on NHL Network, Tony Luftman and Bruce Boudreau discussed the 2 divisions within the Eastern Conference. They began first with the Metro, and Boudreau was asked which team he thought still had work to do. He said the Pittsburgh Penguins.
** NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
Tony Luftman: “A team with work to do among the many Metro who comes as much as your thought process.”
Did the Pittsburgh Penguins Get Higher This Off-Season?
Bruce Boudreau: “Well, I believe there’s a number of teams that need work to do, but I mean to me it’s the Pittsburgh Penguins. Okay, now it’s two years in a row, yeah, well, it’s not only the incontrovertible fact that they missed the playoffs. They’ve been an iconic playoff team for years and years and like when you’ve a team like that, you wish to see them keep going.
But I believe, you recognize, they added Kevin Hayes, they added Blake Lizotte and Matt Grzelcyk and Sebastiano Aho and Anthony Beauvillier. But I just don’t think they did enough to make them higher. They simply did substitute guys from those who they’ve lost.
And I take a look at it and, and, I mean, I wouldn’t, you recognize everybody, I believe is a Sidney Crosby fan, and you wish to see Sidney Crosby within the playoffs, and you wish to see him do rather well, so that you’d prefer to have seen them okay, let’s really, let’s, get this team back into the Stanley Cup Playoffs and make them a most watched team again, and I just, I believe they didn’t do enough.
I believe they got older, but I mean, they didn’t do enough. They lost Jake Guentzel. But, I mean I just didn’t think the actual addition of Kevin Hayes just isn’t getting them higher, it’s just replacing one other guy with one other guy.
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Luftman: “We were talking before the show, Crosby. Such an identity piece for that franchise. They’ve the statue out front of Mario Lemieux “La Magnafique.” There’s got to be a statue at the tip of 87 profession.”
