To fire them or to keep faith? This is a mega million dollar qs that the Pittsburgh Penguins need to grapple with after the team was humiliated by the Boston Bruins in the 3rd round of the NHL 2013 Playoffs.
To provide some context, the Pittsburgh Penguins' 2013 team was destined to be a history maker. After having a fantastic regular season in which they almost broke the record of the longest winning streak in NHL history, they won the first 2 playoff series with relative ease. In fact, so strong was their offense that they chased the Ottawa's stingy goaly, Anderson, out of the post. This event is a rarity, after all Anderson had the best record of all the NHL goalies in the 2013 regular season. So strong was their performance, that Ottawa Senator's coach quipped after Senators' loss to the Penguins, "I hope they don't charge us for the (hockey) clinic". Yet when it came to the 3rd round, the same team failed miserably against the Bruins. So bad was their performance that they could not score more than 2 goals in the entire series. They lost every single game. And sucked big time.
So a hockey club who has some of the the world's best players had to make a tough choice. Keep their heroes for the next year or ditch at least some of them.
It looks like they are going to keep them. They signed the coach and the coaching assistants to a 2 year contract. They were clear that their failed goalie will again start in the net next year. They signed Malkin to a 7 year deal. Bottom line, they decided that this is the team of the future.
Though the hockey fans may disagree, but the reality is that this is a fantastic long term strategy. After all, gelling as a team is what makes teams great. The players need to be a band of brothers. And yes they will make mistakes but the message of the organization is clear - we have faith in your abilities. This is a strong message and you can be rest assured that the players will respond forcefully in 2014 and beyond!
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