Brief and to the Point ...
The NHL's trading deadline Monday, the culmination of boundless anticipation all winter long, turned out to be a coast-to-coast, colossal bore. GMs everywhere kept their cells in sleep mode. Once Eric Staal was moved as a brief interlude, pundits were left to fuss breathlessly over the future of ... uh, Dan Hamhuis. And the local club hardly offered an exception, unless, of course, anyone was enthralled by Sergei Plotnikov getting a double-fisted shove down a hallway.
The reaction to it all was just as much of a snooze.
"It's OK, I guess," Marc-Andre Fleury was telling me hours beyond the deadline, after his 30 saves buttressed the Penguins' 6-0 shutout of the Coyotes. "There wasn't too much that happened anywhere. And here ... you know, we like the team we have."
Yep, that's about it. On both counts, actually.
What's more, there's undeniably a belief, if not some overflowing exuberance a la 2013, that this team, dull deadline and all, can compete for the Stanley Cup:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKtH40Mh7Tg
Well, of course Kris Letang would feel that way. And Fleury. And Mike Sullivan, too.
"We like our team," the coach said on a night when there was nothing not to like except the caliber of the opponent. "We have the makings of a very competitive group here. We have a nice mix of veteran players and young, enthusiastic guys. I think we've got a lot of team speed. I think we have a lot of flexibility in some of our positions, depending on how we want to play guys. I think we're strong in the goaltending position, as well. So we believe in this group. And we're going to continue to push them to be at their best."
He might be right. They all might be right.
My own view is that the Penguins have plenty enough up front to win the Cup, that the defense would need to have at least one player markedly rise above expectations, and that Fleury should be good enough.
My view of the Eastern field is that the Penguins are capable of beating any of them in a best-of-seven.
And my specific view of the top of the field, the Capitals, is that they're the Bengals of the NHL. Anyone taking their regular seasons seriously is as nuts as Vontaze Burfict.
So give the GM credit not only for reading the trade market correctly but also for not trying to make something out of nothing. It's not in Jim Rutherford's DNA to play it patient, and not just because he's 67 years old and overseeing a franchise built to win immediately. Over his three decades of running teams, he's been a lot more about the blockbuster trade than about merely bolstering a roster.
Not this year. He shipped away a third-round draft pick for Justin Schultz, clung to all the rest and wagged his finger at anyone asking about prospects.
Pitch perfect.
• Hottest take of the millennium: Sidney Crosby is good.
Behold this pass to Kris Letang that set up Chris Kunitz's tip Monday:
This is what the great passers do. This isn't a blind pass. It looks like one, but it isn't. The great players peek over their shoulder to survey the landscape before they get to the puck -- look up there again to find it -- and they move in such a way to attract as much attention as possible and, then, finally, the pass goes blade to blade.
This is beautiful. I could watch this all day.
• The Coyotes outhit the Penguins, 46-16, according to the Pittsburgh-based NHL stats crew at Consol. Just something to think about the next time your favorite team is losing and you yell at the TV, "Hit somebody!"
• The most encouraging aspect of these past two victories, including the 4-1 flattening of the Jets on Saturday, has been, beyond a doubt, how much stronger Evgeni Malkin's skating has looked with each passing shift. With the seeming snap of a finger, he's gone from uncomfortable to unreal.
• A smart coach in a playoff chase takes the two points that are on the table. That's what the Coyotes are. That's why Sullivan started Fleury and saved Matt Murray for D.C. The Penguins aren't about to catch the Capitals, so it isn't a true four-point game. They don't benefit at all by the Capitals losing points.
Now, the next opponent, the Rangers ... that's different. There's something to prove.
• All seven of Canada's NHL franchises are currently out of the playoff picture. If they all miss -- and really, only the Senators have a chance -- it will be the first such occasion since 1970.
I'll also remind: No Canadian team has lifted Lord Stanley's chalice of choice since Patrick Roy and the Canadiens in 1993.
Pressure too high?
Revenues too low?
Theories abound, but it's bizarre no matter how it's broken down.
Gerrit Cole warms up on the fields of Pirate City. -- DKPS