PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It was a night of honoring one of their all-time greats and during the celebration reality kicked in. It was Marc-Andre Fleury’s final game on the ice at PPG Paints Arena Tuesday, and it set a tone for the end of the glory days.
It’s not a franchise that has wanted to admit they were at this point. Who does? You think with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang anything is possible. You’ve seen it, but only on dusty videotape.
It’s a team that hasn’t been in the postseason in the last couple of years and hasn’t won a post-season series since 2017-18. It’s not that it’s a sudden ending of an era, but in reminiscing about those great teams and then watching what the franchise has become, it really hammers home this current team.
Crosby, Malkin, Letang are still playing, so is Jordan Staal and Fleury. But that era has passed. They’ve tried to maintain they can still win with three all-time greats, but just watch them night after night. It’s a franchise more in competition for first round picks than championships.
After grabbing a 2-0 lead Tuesday night against Minnesota with young forward Valtteri Puustinen scoring his first goal of the season and then Rickard Rakell turning for a wicked wrister, the Pens had the sold-out arena jumping. Good teams keep the roll going, bad teams are so inconsistent they give up four consecutive goals.
Rakell would score again early in the third and Crosby showed he could still play at a high level with three assists. It doesn’t mask where they are, their mask is Fright Night scary.
The Pens are a bad team. The record shows it, 3 wins in 11 games including several blown leads. They have the second worst goal differential in the NHL at minus 15.
The past should be celebrated. It’s much easier to look at those highlights than where they are right now. Their $26.9 million goalie is away from the NHL team trying to find himself. Their $11.5 million defenseman Erik Karlsson has one goal and is a minus seven and he’s under contract for two more seasons.
It’s right to pay tribute to Fleury. He not only was a great player, but better in the community. As Letang said he doesn’t have a mean bone in his body. All of that is great. What Tuesday night really became was a distraction from how far this franchise has sunk.
As some point Malkin, Letang and Crosby will also play their final games in this arena. Will they play another meaningful game before that happens?