Today was the NHL trade deadline and the Pittsburgh Penguins made a heavy push to come back to Stanley Cup relevance. I’ll discuss some of the other big moves in another blog but the team who decided to make the biggest moves today deserve their spotlight.
Now let’s establish this I am Philadelphia sports fan through and through so every drop of blood in my body boils when it comes to anything to do with the Pittsburgh Penguins but I have always tried to be realistic when it comes to sports. This organization has gone from almost folding to become new Red Wings of the late 90’s early 2000’s being a real cup contender year in and year out. Just as I thought the downfall was going to start, after last year’s embarrassing exit to the New York Islanders without John Tavares, they make the moves they made today and now I’m fully convinced they will win the cup… again.
They start off with acquiring Patrick Marleau which for me honestly was enough to say they will win the cup this year. A grizzled vet towards the end of his career who has paid his dues being loyal playing on the definition of playoff mediocrity that is the San Jose Sharks and never winning a Stanley Cup. Marleau is now 40 and retirement is right around the corner and what a better way for such a respected legend of the game to go out than on top. I was too young to remember it but I always saw the clips of Raymond Bourque finally raising the cup with the Avalanche after years of playing at a high level and never getting the lift the cup and that is all I can see in the future is Crosby’s dumb face passing that cup right to Marleau after the pens win another cup in the Crosby Malkin era of the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Bringing back Connor Sheary is just the cherry on top of it all, bringing back a guy who has won it with them twice already and was a solid defenseman always playing well in those runs to the cup, being a key component to those teams. Evan Rodrigues seems just like a piece the Pens had to take on to get back Sheary because I had never heard of this guy and looking up his stats he hasn’t done much and may also just be a piece for forward depth.
Along with the Marleau storyline, this also puts Crosby and Malkin at 4 Stanley cups putting them truly among the elite in NHL history and submitting the Penguins as one of the all-time teams along with the Gretzky Oilers, They Islander of the 80’s, the Toews/Kane Blackhawks, and The 90’s-00’s Redwings as I mentioned earlier. So as I go to sleep every night in the hope of sweet dreams of Flyers Stanley Cups to come in the future I will instead be tortured by nightmares of the fact the Penguins storyline is written in the stars for this year and I will just have to pray it will be no more than just a nightmare and I can watch an early and embarrassing exit for them once again.
The Hamm Report 
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