CRANBERRY, Pa. -- Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle are winners in all walks of life. And knowing both gentlemen as I have for many years, I'm quite confident in citing three reasons for that:
1. They love winning almost as much as they hate losing.
2. They're smart and talented enough to win on their own.
3. They surround themselves with similarly successful individuals.
And I bring this up for exactly the reasons one might expect after the Penguins' zero-sum, minimal-effort elimination from the Stanley Cup playoffs: If Jim Rutherford and/or Mike Sullivan would prefer to proceed into the franchise's future without Kris Letang, they'd best be prepared to make a thoroughly compelling case to ownership. Because it sure won't be easy.
Lemieux and Burkle are believers in the core. For many years, the core was Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Letang and Marc-Andre Fleury. When the NHL's expansion rules essentially gift-wrapped Fleury for the Golden Knights, it was an exasperated Burkle who told me a couple years ago that, if he could somehow keep Fleury, he'd have happily handed Vegas back the $15 million entry fee each team was taking "to keep him with us forever."
Letang's in that same circle, trust me.
In May of 2014, when I interviewed both in an office at PPG Paints Arena immediately after the dual firings of Ray Shero and Dan Bylsma, this exchange occurred:
Me: Let’s talk about Kris Letang. There’s a decision to be made, as his no-trade clause will kick in after this summer. Will that be made by ownership? That’s a pretty big call.
Lemieux: That’s on the GM. We signed Kris to keep him. But when the GM comes in, he’s going to evaluate the team. If he sees fit to trade any of these players, he’ll certainly talk to us about it. But it’s his call.
DK: You believe in Kris Letang?
Lemieux: Yes.
That was the end of that. Lemieux's tone made that clear. I whisked on to the next subject.
It's easy to forget now, two more Stanley Cups later, but the sentiment -- inside and outside the team -- seemed nearly as strong against Letang as it does now, after his several glaring mistakes contributed to this sweep by the Islanders. But Lemieux and Burkle stood by Letang, and he wound up delivering a virtuoso performance in the championship-clincher at San Jose. And after that game, on the ice at SAP Center, when I brought that up with Lemieux, he came back with one of those silent but authoritative nods.
This should be instructive for Rutherford, Sullivan and anyone else in the current hierarchy who'd be amenable -- or even eager -- to move out Letang. And let's not pretend there weren't signals being sent to that effect Thursday.
Both Rutherford and Sullivan repeatedly cited the Penguins' March as the lone month in which they "played as a team," as Rutherford worded it. Sullivan stressed that he liked the way the team had been "trending" through March. But, to quote Sullivan, “To win in the playoffs, you can’t be a high-risk team. You’ve got to have a certain discipline to your game on both sides of the puck. It’s not always about scoring goals.”
Well, who was the highest-risk player in the mix?
Who was the highest-visibility culprit?
And maybe more to the point, who missed all but three games in that lauded March where the team finally found itself?
There was this, too, from Rutherford: “I’m in the middle of meeting with as many people who have input in our organization as I can, from the coaches to hockey ops to ownership, and that’ll take a little time to work through that. And then, some big decisions will have to be made.”
Hint: He doesn't need to seek ownership's blessing to move Olli Maatta.
But he will need it for something of this scope. And he might well get it. But there's already rich precedent in place that these owners will prioritize the core over any GM, over any coach, even if that GM/coach tandem won a championship. So they'd better come armed with one hell of a presentation to make that case.
Among the questions Lemieux/Burkle are likely to ask:
• Are they guilty of weighing a couple playoff games over the broader body of work?
Before he was hurt in late February, Letang, at age 31, was a widely acknowledged Norris Trophy candidate, consistently brilliant at both ends of the ice, risks and all.
• If the team's really better off without Letang, why, after Rutherford's remarks last summer that Letang might need to have his ice time cut, did all concerned wind up giving Letang an average of 25:58 of ice time per game, third-highest of anyone in the NHL? Moreover, if he was such a liability in the playoffs, why was he given an average of 27:03 of ice time, second-highest of anyone?
• If the main issue was Letang's ill-advised or ill-timed pinching, was Letang -- or any other defenseman -- ever told to not pinch?
(I know the answer to that one, and it's an emphatic no.)
Rutherford and Sullivan are upset. I get it. As Rutherford candidly acknowledged, he hoped to take some time because of the "emotions" that accompany this level of failure. Both of those guys are winners, too.
Change is needed. Change will happen. I'm betting hard against that change involving Letang.
MORE PENGUINS
• One of the two aforementioned owners saw this coming very early in the series, observing for me this team wasn't ever playing on its toes the way the recent Cup teams did. -- DK
• Don't expect the front office to broach an extension with Matt Murray this summer. They feel he's better on edge and, besides, there's not much urgency since he'd only be a restricted free agent after the 2019-20 season. Plenty of more pressing problems. -- DK
• Never fret over the Penguins' finances, just because they were eliminated early. The team manages its hockey books independent of all else that occurs at PPG Paints Arena, but it's all basically operating from the same wallet. That building does very, very well. The recent Kiss concert might as well have been a sellout hockey game. -- DK
• Jake Guentzel disclosed Thursday he had a rib injury from a blocked shot in Game 1 on Long Island, but I also saw his right hand heavily iced that night, and it was the hand he was holding upon going to the bench when it happened. He's hardly the type to make excuses, but there's no way that didn't influence all the golden chances he couldn't put away in the series. Tough, tough kid. -- DK
• Brian Dumoulin revealed Thursday he was playing through a torn PCL. He returned for the start of the playoffs while wearing a knee brace and it took some getting used to, he said. Having also torn my PCL playing hockey, albeit 25 years ago and certainly not in the NHL, I can attest to the seriousness of the injury. However, I have learned that no decision has been made at this time whether Dumoulin's injury will require surgery. A determination on that will be made after the knee is checked again "in a few weeks," according to a source. If surgery is required, it would carry into the start of next season. Connor McDavid suffered a small PCL tear after colliding with a goal post during the Oilers' regular-season finale but no surgery was needed. -- Chris Bradford in Cranberry, Pa.
• The Penguins would have loved to play Games 5 and 7 at Nassau Coliseum, but they will certainly not miss the ice surface at the Islanders' alternate home arena. One Penguins veteran said the soft ice on Long Island was tied for the worst in the league. The other, he said, somewhat surprisingly, is Detroit's two-year-old Little Caesars Arena. The veteran had played at the Coliseum before its recent renovation but said the ice now is far more treacherous than it had been. -- Bradford
• Before he leaves Pittsburgh, Zach Aston-Reese told me he wants to sit down with the team's strength and conditioning coaches and medical staff to put together a training program this summer. The affable 24-year-old has shown he can produce at the NHL level, averaging 0.40 points per game this season, but he's also been bit hard by the injury bug during his fledgling career. He was limited to 43 games this season after suffering a broken hand during a February fight against the Panthers' Colton Sceviour. After taking two or three weeks off, Aston-Reese said he'll resume training at his Staten Island, N.Y. home. -- Bradford
PIRATES
• The Pirates and Tigers just completed their first of two home-and-home two-game series this season. Major League Baseball has determined Pittsburgh and Detroit are “interleague rivals,” which is why they play each other every season even though seemingly the only connection between the franchises is their meeting in the 1909 World Series. The Pirates and Indians have long asked MLB to be considered “interleague rivals” as Pittsburgh and Cleveland are just 135 miles apart. Instead, MLB pairs the Indians and Reds so they can play for the contrived Ohio Cup each season, though Cleveland and Cincinnati are separated by 250 miles. Here is how unimportant the Ohio Cup is to both franchises: A few years ago, I saw the trophy sitting in the visiting manager’s clubhouse office at Progressive Field more than a month after the Reds had won it. The Reds didn’t even remember to take it back to Cincinnati. – John Perrotto in Detroit
• Though Lonnie Chisenhall was signed primarily to play in the outfield, he has been taking ground balls at third base during batting practice recently while recovering from a broken right hand. It would not be a surprise if Chisenhall gets some starts at third should Jung Ho Kang continue to struggle. Chisenhall has played more games at third base (341) than in the outfield (274) during his nine-year career, though he last appeared at the hot corner in 2016. – Perrotto
• For the first time in his nine-year career, Josh Harrison is playing for a manager other than Clint Hurdle. Harrison signed a one-year, $2-million contract with the Tigers in February after spending eight seasons with the Pirates. The second baseman reflected earlier this week on what Hurdle has meant to his career. “Clint was a guy that allowed me to be myself,” Harrison said. “I think that’s all guys can ask for when they get to this level. Being the young guy when I came up here, he instilled that in me — to be me. And the rest is history.” – Perrotto
• JaCoby Jones, the prospect the Pirates traded to the Tigers for reliever Joakim Soria during the 2015 season, is Detroit's starting center fielder. Tigers third base coach Dave Clark, a former Pirates outfielder and coach, told me he believes Jones is the best defensive center fielder in the American League. The advanced metrics help back Clark's assertion as Jones had 21 defensive runs saved last season. However, hitting remains the problem for the 26-year-old. He has a .200/.258/.336 line in 203 games over four seasons. -- Perrotto
STEELERS
• There has been a lot of hoopla surrounding the Browns, and a great deal was made of the fact Cleveland got four games in prime time this season when the schedule was released Wednesday night. Of course, the Steelers got five prime time games, as usual, but who's counting. This could be a big deal for a young team not accustomed to playing in those kind of games. The Browns play prime time games three times in four weeks early in the season. That might sound like fun, but it cuts down on preparation time for the upcoming week. The Steelers are obviously accustomed to playing in those games. In fact, they are one of the best teams in the league at handling them. We'll see if the young Browns can be equal to the task. -- Dale Lolley at Rooney Complex
• There is a feeling Ben Roethlisberger was dragging his feet on his new contract to wait and see exactly where Russell Wilson would re-set the quarterback market. Now that Wilson has signed a four-year, $140-million extension that includes a $65-million signing bonus, look for things to move along with Roethlisberger's contract. That's not to say Roethlisberger wants $35 million per season like Wilson got, but Roethlisberger's camp might have wanted to wait and to make sure Wilson didn't get, say, $40 million per year. Wilson also was asking for a contract that would have been tied to being a certain percentage of the Seahawks' salary cap. That didn't happen. But it would have been game changing. -- Lolley
• Steven Nelson is currently wearing No. 22. Donte Moncrief has been assigned No. 11. Mark Barron has yet to be given a number. But at least he has both numbers he's worn in the NFL available to him. Barron wore No. 4 at Alabama and obviously can't wear that. But he wore 24 in Tampa Bay before being traded to the Rams, where he had to take 26. Both numbers are currently available with the Steelers, but Barron has yet to decide which he will wear. Nelson, meanwhile, wore No. 20 with the Chiefs, but that is currently worn by Cameron Sutton. And Moncrief has worn No. 10 at Indianapolis and Jacksonville. Ryan Switzer currently has that. Look for some wheeling and dealing to be done -- or not done -- once the draft is completed as those veterans try to get their numbers back. In Barron's case, he has to decide which number he will wear -- or whether he'll go with a linebacker's number. -- Lolley
