Fleury Reason for Pens Success

Let me just say how great it is to have the Penguins back in the playoffs. It's been a long time coming for them to get back. It's not only good for Pittsburgh, it's good for hockey and the NHL. The league isn't exactly in its best days at the moment, but you wouldn't notice by looking at Pittsburgh. The Igloo was rocking, just like they were when Mario captivated the city with two Stanley Cups in the early '90s. It's good to see. Period. Well unless you are the New York Rangers....

Today, the Pens defeated the Rangers 2-0 to take a two-games-to-none lead over the Rangers in the second round and improve to 6-0 in the playoffs. Everybody talks about the Pens offense and the talented goal scorers they have, but the reason they have been so dominant in the playoffs so far is Marc-Andre Fleury. If the Penguins were finally going to take that step toward the Cup, it was going to be with Fleury becoming that shutdown goalie he was drafted to be. And he's done just that. He missed a good chunk of the season with an injury but has returned and played nothing short of amazing. Give him the credit he deserves. Maybe it was the yellow pads he dumped that changed him. Who knows, whatever the reason it's crucial to the Pens playoff success.

I remember being at Fleury's first NHL game. It was a 3-0 loss to the Kings. Despite the loss and the fact that Fleury gave up two goals (the other was an empty net)...he faced 48 shots and had a hell of a game to keep the Pens in it. We all chanted "Fleury, Fleury, Fleury" in the crowd and couldn't wait to see where this kid's future would go. He struggled over the next couple of years as any young player can, but this year he turned the corner. The future is here. The crowd in today's game repeated the Fleury chant and it reminded me of that first game and seeing something special from him.

Since then the Pens have drastically changed the scenery around Fleury and the team is currently soaring, probably better than us at The Wheelhouse had expected in the playoffs. And it's not just Fleury stepping up...the defense is playing another level of hockey I haven't seen in a while in the 'Burgh. The defense has been the Achilles heal to the Pens over the past couple of years, but not anymore. I've never seen so many blocked shots by Penguin defenders than in today's game against the Rangers. Gonchar, Gill, Orpik, Letang, Whitney...hell even Scuderi is playing good D.

With the defense playing great and Fleury playing the best hockey of his life to go along with the high-scoring offense, the Pens have the ability and confidence to make a run at the Cup after all. It's been a long time coming for Pittsburgh.

Get Ready for History Pittsburgh

From 1933 to 1948 the Philadelphia Phillies lost...a lot. Every year during that span the Phillies were under .500 at the end of the season to set the Major League record for most consecutive losing seasons at 16. Today, the Pittsburgh Pirates are in grave danger of making history by tying that record in 2008. The Pirates are just a mere six months away from history and barring a miracle, they are going to easily hit the record.

The Pirates have been losing since 1993. As of right now, our streak sits at 15 seasons. The Pirates have been losing since that '92 NL Championship Series when the Pirates took a 2-0 lead into the ninth inning in Game 7 against the Braves. Since the Pirates put in Stan Belinda in the middle of the inning and gave up a single to left field to Francisco Cabrera. Since Barry Bonds' bullshit throw to the plate to get a slow Sid Bream trying to score from second. And they have been losing since that play simply known as "Sid's Slid."

Think about that for a minute. 1992 was the Bucs last winning season. Do you know how much the world has changed since 1992? I was 10. The Summer Olympics were held in Barcelona, Spain, the Penguins swept the Chicago Blackhawks for their second consecutive Stanley Cup, the Bulls were winning championships with Michael Jordan, Windows 3.1 was released, there were no blogs and the Internet was nothing of what it is today. Yeah, that was a long time ago. Other teams like the Arizona Diamondbacks have come into the league and won a World Series title before the Pirates can just put together 82 wins in a season.

With all that said, what are the chances that the Buccos can turn it around and end their futile drought? As much as I would love to see the Pirates turn this around and just win...forget about it. The Pirates changed general manager, manager and coaching staff in the offseason, but they barely changed the bulk of the roster. A roster that lost 94 games last year. But they have a new manager in John Russell! Big deal, the Pirates have been changing managers since losing Jim Leyland (remember Gene Lamont, Lloyd McClendon, Pete Mackanin, Jim Tracy). The managerial change does not excite this Pirates fan. However, the GM and front office changes do provide more hope for the future. But even the new GM in town Neal Huntington has admitted that their effort is to improve the team through the draft and with prospects and that won't happen this year or even the next. Yaddi, yaddi, yadda...we've all heard it plenty of times before in the past 15 years.

In the meantime, the Pirates roster is pretty much the same as last year. Management is banking on a career year from a lot of players and it's too much to ask or even expect. Sure the pitching is a positive with Ian Snell and Tom Gorzelanny having great seasons last year...but players having a couple great seasons consecutively is not something that happens recently in the Pirates organization. They're hoping for Jason Bay to stay healthy and get back to his home run-bashing days, hoping that Adam LaRoche can avoid hitting .210 in April and May, hoping that Freddy Sanchez can put together another year of being a .300 hitter and hoping that anybody they throw out in the bullpen can hold on to the few leads the Pirates will have this year. It's a recurring theme for the Pirates every year...too many things have to go right for them to compete.

Lastly the biggest obstacle for the Pirates, forgetting about whoever they put on the field, is overcoming the fact of losing all the time. Over the past 15 seasons, the Pirates have made an art of losing. They invent ways to lose a baseball game. In essence, it's really not that hard to have a winning season. 83-81 is hardly a playoff team and many teams do it and call it a bad year. For the Pirates, an 83-81 season would mean so much more...an end to the curse.

Watching this team play over the last 15 years, I seriously began to believe that the individual players and coaches didn't even think they could win. And once the losing begins and May hits, it becomes status quo and everyone only shows up to collect a paycheck and go home. It's a sad thing to watch and it's what Pirates fans have been dealing with for longer than anyone should.

What once was a respected organization with tradition, World Series titles, Hall of Fame players and a rich history has quickly become a joke around Major League Baseball. After the way the Pirates have gone through their losing seasons, it only makes sense that the Pirates should own this record of consecutive losing seasons.

Get ready for history...infamous history.

Let the Madness Begin

There was a time not that long ago before jobs, meetings, money and life got in the way that I was able to watch every minute of March Madness. And on the days leading up to tip-off, I would buy a huge poster board, draw the brackets out and then dissect every single possible matchup in the tourney. In high school you would pray you had a class that had a TV in the afternoon so you could get the teacher to throw the games on and in college, you just skipped any class that you happened to schedule on Thursday-Friday after noon. There's just no time for all that anymore. I will barely see any of the first round action with work in the next two days and due to traveling Friday night for Easter weekend. But on the eve of the NCAA tournament, it's still one of the best sports times of the year, and I can't wait to get this tourney underway.

I picked my Final Four about an hour ago for my office bracket pool and I ended up with Kansas winning it. But I take them pretty much every year so don't listen to me. The Jayhawks (ever since Roy Williams went to UNC) seem to disappoint every year in the tourney. I decided I'm taking them until that changes...there's just way too much talent on that team. Plus the North Carolina pick everyone else has is getting old.

Now let's talk about Pitt. They were probably projected to be a seven or eight seed until they rolled through the Big East tournament, beating Cincinnati, Louisville, Marquette and Georgetown in four days. That moved Pitt up to a four seed in the tourney, and what I don't like is they are quickly becoming everyone's trendy pick to reach the Final Four this year. Bob Knight even went so far as to take Pitt winning the championship over North Carolina. If you're a Pitt fan, you know this team hasn't made it past the Sweet 16 and their team this season has been inconsistent as hell. But if they repeat their play from the Big East tournament, they will go far. So which team will show up? Well, I have them losing in the championship game to Kansas, but that's just me and probably means they won't make it past Oral Roberts. Here's hoping they get a chance to take out Michigan State (I live way too close to East Lansing) and vastly overrated Memphis (Conference USA, are you kidding me?)

Oh yes, it's March Madness time. Let the madness begin.

Thank you Nicklas

If the Pens go on to capture the Stanley Cup this year, I think Sunday's game against Washington is the game you can look back on as a turning point. Huge game against the Crapitals and it ends with one of the greatest things I've seen in a while. NBC's mic on Crosby was the icing on the cake...



"Did he shoot that in his own net?" - Crosby

Ah yes...thank you Nicklas, have fun playing golf in April.

I Hate Peter Forsberg

I know, I know...this is the third consecutive post about the NHL on The Wheelhouse. Bare with us here...unlike the rest of the country, we enjoy hockey at The Wheelhouse.

There used to be a time like eight years ago that I was a fan of the Colorado Avalanche. Of course my main team was always the Penguins, but I enjoyed watching the Aves play with Joe Sakic, Patrick Roy and Peter Forsberg. They were loaded and exciting to watch. When the USA flamed out in the Winter Olympics...I always found myself pulling for Forsberg, Mats Sundin and Sweden (don't ask why...it goes back to the Nintendo game "Ice Hockey").

Well now I'm really tired of him. After sitting out the entire season as a free agent due to an "injury," Forsberg signed this week with Colorado...with about one month left in the season. How many times has he done this? Who does he think he is? I'm tired of hearing about his injury and that's the reason why he hasn't played an entire regular season in forever. It's garbage...the guy wants to skip the trials of the season and show up on a playoff team to attempt to get another Cup. All he does is take the year off, hang out in Sweden and play hockey with his buddies. Last year Nashville acquired the forward for their playoff push, and it didn't work out too well for the Predators as they were bounced from the postseason in the first round.

And now the Aves have picked him up for a playoff run. Couple of problems with that. First, Forsberg's apparently not ready to play yet. The PR machine says it's his "nagging foot injury." I say it's because he hasn't played competitive hockey in over a year and is out of shape, but whatever Colorado, pay him millions to sit the bench. The second problem with this signing is the Aves are currently two points out of the playoff race. So they go out and acquire a guy who only wants to play for a playoff team and there's no timetable for his return? Nice pickup Colorado.

Then again they also traded for defenseman Adam Foote bringing him back to the team that he won two Cups with as well. Oh I see what the Aves are trying to do bringing back players from their past. Where's Patrick Roy?

Marian Hossa

The Pittsburgh Penguins made the big headline today during crunch time of the NHL trading deadline by shipping forwards Colby Armstrong, Erik Christensen, prospect Angelo Esposito and a first-round draft pick to Atlanta for Marian Hossa and Pascal Dupuis. I probably looked like a giddy school girl when I first heard the news...the Pens are really going for it all! When I saw who the Pens had given up for him, I was disappointed to see Colby and Christensen go, but it had to be done to acquire Hossa. After talking with some of my fellow Penguins fans and random co-workers, the general consensus was the Pens gave up too much for Hossa. I don't understand where that's coming from. Yes, in basic numbers of the deal, we gave up more pieces (4 to 2) but the talent in return makes the Pens offense absolutely scary and overall a better team.

Hossa is a legit goal scorer in the NHL. He was the biggest name on the trading block this year and plenty of teams were vying for his services. Through 60 games this season, Hossa has 26 goals, 30 assists after scoring 43 goals, 57 assists for 100 points last year, good for sixth in NHL scoring. He's also scored 30 or more goals in the past six seasons. And the Pens are putting him on the same team with Crosby (who was leading the NHL in scoring before his injury) and Malkin (who is currently leading the NHL in scoring after tonight). Hossa's a premier scorer and All-Star so you know what you're getting.

Now let's talk about what the Pens gave up for Hossa. The Pens dealt two fan favorites away in Armstrong and Christensen, but let's not go overboard here on them. Armstrong is in his third year and has declined since his rookie year when he scored 16 goals in 47 games. Last year in a full 80 games, he only scored 12 and through this year he only has nine goals and just 24 points. And his numbers are inflated (as anybody's would be) playing on a line with Crosby. Army's a third liner that will score about 35 points a season...you can find those guys anywhere. Christensen is another forward in his third year and he showed signs of a prospect last season with 18 goals in 61 games...but this year he has only 20 points through 49 games. Like Armstrong, Christensen is a third liner on most teams in the NHL. Look, the Penguins were not going to win the Stanley Cup with Army and Christensen...but they sure can win it with Hossa, Crosby and Malkin. Let's also not forget that the Pens did receive another player in this deal and Dupuis has 10 goals on the season (more than both former Penguins traded) and he's a bruising forward who can help Laraque give the Pens a little more punch.

But wait, the Penguins also dealt a future first-round pick and a prospect to the Thrashers. Trading an NHL draft pick is not that big of deal. Unless you have the top three picks, you probably aren't getting a given superstar like a Crosby or Ovechkin and plenty of stars in the NHL are found in the later rounds (Zetterberg, Hasek, Datsyuk, Alfredsson). There's about a two percent chance that draft pick would pan out to be anything productive for Pittsburgh. Plus the Pens already have four solid number one picks on their team, there's no room for another one and since the Pens won't be drafting high anyway next year...what's the point? Originally, Atlanta wanted Jordan Staal in exchange for Hossa and that would have been a disaster to lose Staal. But the Pens didn't give in to that and worked out a deal where they still got Hossa and kept Staal. If draft picks had to go, so be it.

The key to this deal is if Hossa will be a "rented" player for the rest of this year and then leave as a free agent next season. I really don't think Ray Shero made this deal to rent Hossa for two months and then let him go. I believe the Pens will do everything they can to sign him for a 2-3 year deal after the season and stay under the cap. And if Hossa helps Crosby, Malkin and the boys bring the Stanley Cup back to Pittsburgh this summer then the deal was worth it all the way whether Hossa stays or not.

Obviously the Stanley Cup is not guaranteed because of this trade, and there are plenty of other things the Pens need to fall into place to have a chance...like their defense showing up, Fleury and Crosby getting healthy and a little bit of luck along the way. But you have to be willing to take risks and put your team in a position to be lethal when you decide that you're going for it. Former Pens GM Craig Patrick did it back in 1991 when he dealt three players to Hartford for Ron Francis and Ulf Samuelsson. Two Stanley Cups later, I think that worked out well for Pittsburgh. Let's Go Pens!

Not Easterns Motors, But Still Funny

I love car dealership commercials starring local sports celebrities.