Public Perspective of Pens

It’s been easy to forget that the Pens were having one of their more productive starts to a season in franchise history when some fans are bashing the team big time. I wrote recently about the situation with Pittsburgh and at the time I believe the general consensus was that it was “a phase” and “nothing to worry about”. As the game days and nights wear on, however, the picture appears bleaker and bleaker and the frustrations are showing!
The question I have been asking myself is this: Are we the fan’s responsible for the idea of a Pens’ ‘current slump’? Just think about it for a second…if we hadn’t finished on a relative high last year would we be so disappointed with their performance of late? Have we become our own worst enemy? Are we just playing the blame game?
The reason I am asking this is because of the huge volume of blogs/boards etc that have covered this topic, I thought I would share a few choice snippets from the last couple of weeks that I’ve picked up on:
“I know that this will probably never happen, but I believe that it would be in the Pens and the Leagues best interest to trade Crosby. You cannot deny he has talent and that he would carry a heavy pricetag, but getting more balanced scoring and prospects in return would no doubt make the Pens a better team.”
_ “Crosby being a “cancer” in the locker room.” _
“Let me just say in general that its been my view that the Penguins have been winning in SPITE of Therrien rather than BECAUSE of him…”
“For the record, things are so bad right now watching this team, id bench the captain for a game to send a message that nobody is safe.”
“ I wonder about how he really feels to have to share the spotlight with Geno. It really wasn’t supposed to happen like that.”
“Do I personally believe the blame lies on Crosby’s leadership off the ice ?? No I don’t, but his on-ice play recently is no doubt part of the problem."
“We’ve been hearing excuse after excuse. Injuries, injuries, injuries. You’d think that Sergei Gonchar played all 60 minutes rotating between forward and defenseman for as much talk there is regarding his injury. Lately, it’s been the schedule, as if no other NHL team is given games played in a short timeframe.”
“You have to wonder what Therrien is or isn’t doing to get things going.”_
Damning evidence indeed, and I’ll add my personal favourite… “Pittsburgh is just going to bomb this season to get Hedman or Tavares”
In short my personal opinion is, I don’t think we do ourselves any favours by labelling a slump. I think we are part of the problem… although, don’t get me wrong…this is no personal attack! (As I have said before) It is part of human necessity to blame, the need to determine cause is more than wishful thinking; it’s absolutely essential, because in order to maintain the hierarchy and for things to run smoothly, ‘proper’ paths must be identified. I could have bet an awful lot of money that the blame would fall at one of two people’s doors (which it seems to have turned to now) if the fan’s expectations were not met. Let us not forget that one player does not a team make!
Thoughts are invited as always…and as an aside…while I don’t loathe Therrien I read a suggestion about bringing in Torts behind the bench…I would love to see him mix it up in Pittsburgh!