Fogghorn wrote:
whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa......have I not heard you say many times that to be successful all a team needs is average goal tending? And Fleury is definitely average.
IMO for how little it is worth, a team doesn't need the Dominator to be successful but it has to be very, very good if it only has average goal tending, ie// Detroit for many years (ok slightly above average for the most part but never really elite, or Chicago with Niemi.) The Pens need an elite defensive dman or an elite goalie, I think you have to have one or the other to consistently challenge every year. Although you maybe can get away with less and consistently challenge if your team in located in the east.
Yes, and I stand by that. But the team up front can't have a ton of holes. The Pens do. I'm just saying an elite netminder covers up for a lot of flaws on a given roster, steals games and what not. Hell, look at Lundqvist. For years he's gotten Rangers teams before this latest iteration that frankly weren't all that great. He covered up for a LOT of the team's flaws over the years, as did Varlamov for the Avs this entire season. It's only when a team has as much talent and depth (and coaching) as the Hawks do that you can get away with a "meh" netminder and still win it all. And for all the ragging I give Chris Osgood (some of it deserved), he at least stepped up when he needed to.
As far as defensemen, some would consider both Letang and Martin to be elite in their respective roles (well, maybe Martin's not "elite" but he's damn good), so again it comes to depth. The bad news is that they'll be losing some of that depth on the back end with Niskanen almost assuredly gone, and probably Orpik as well. I suppose if Maata and Despres are legit top-four guys and Bortuzzo doesn't suck, then they're okay. I suppose Shero could ditch Neal for a quality two-way center and just go back to having strength up the middle and a bunch of grinders of varying quality on the wings.