It’s time to get back to reality. The stacked international teams are no longer playing. It is back to regular NHL action. For the Penguins that means playing out the stretch until they figure out which current players on the roster they want to trade and then learn where they will be drafting in the upcoming draft..
Sidney Crosby returns as a champion, as is tradition, when he captains Team Canada after their thrilling overtime victory in the final over the Americans. Sid is a game time decision and found himself playing more wing than he’s ever played before. While I did see him taking important faceoffs in the final you could tell he had an arm injury. I could see him missing time. He probably should miss time.
Mike Sullivan will return after losing the finals. However, he did a good job at the tournament getting the Americans to play well on the big stage. He did nothing to lose his Olympic gig in 2026. As such, don’t expect the Penguins to fire a successful US Olympic head coach anytime soon. We can put that on the back burner for now. There’s no sense in wasting any energy talking about it. Furthermore, there is nothing a coaching change will accomplish. The team isn’t trying to win and the big 3 on the roster don’t want him gone. There is no end game to a firing based on where the Penguins are right now. The time to let Sullivan go was back in 2020 or 2021 when the team was still trying to compete. Some people are going to have to accept this is the reality of the situation.
Evgeni Malkin will be making his return to the lineup so even if Crosby is unable to go we will have at least one hall of fame center in the lineup. Malkin hasn’t played since January 25th. It will be nice to see him back on the ice again.
Today’s game was potentially going to be historic until the Russian Machine broke. Alex Ovechkin enters today’s contest 15 goals shy of tying Wayne Gretzky’s career goal record. Without the missed time there was an outside chance of Ovechkin doing something very historic in Pittsburgh. I think that would have been a very fitting moment. It wasn’t to be.
Thanks for reading!
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