SLAP SHOTS

People have been asking me if I'm going to write anything regarding the end of your Pittsburgh Penguins season. I must admit that I'm at a loss for words, as far as this goes. You figure, the Pens were picked to cruise all the way to the Stanley Cup by many, fans and pundits, alike. Sure they hit some potholes along the way in the lockout-shortened season. There were too many injuries to mention here, the worst of which was when Captain Sidney Crosby, leading the league in scoring and perhaps on his way to an MVP trophy, went down with a broken jaw with about a month to go. Did that slow down the Penguins? No way! Even when new faces climbed aboard, such as Iginla, Morrow, Murray, and Jokinen, the Penguins just kept right on rolling. Some guys, such as Evegeni Malkin, didn't always play up to speed, but the Penguins managed to avoid the obstacles in the road. Sure, it was a bumpy ride, sometimes, during the playoffs but they never seemed to run out of gas, even when Tomas Vokoun had to take the wheel in place of Marc-Andre Fleury. Then came the Eastern Conference Finals versus Tuukka Rask and the Boston Bruins. The Penguins had to remain in neutral for about a week while the NHL decided the schedule. After that, it never seemed like they were running on all cylinders. There were missed shots, penalties, and turnover after turnover. The Bruins hit them with a roadblock at every turn, causing the highest-scoring offense in the league to sputter to a pedestrian 2 goals in 4 games. Is it the players? How about the coaches? Can the GM be blamed? Penguins fans are calling for multitudes of pink slips. When a team fails to reach the ultimate goal of a championship, you can surely expect changes to be made. Should the Flower be shipped out for his failures during the postseason? If so, is Vokoun the goalie to steer them to the promised land? Is coach Dan Bylsma the man to lead them to another Stanley Cup? People are complaining that the coach and his staff didn't make the necessary adjustments to the detours the team encountered. What players should stay and who should go? Should Mario get rid of GM Ray Shero and the coaching staff and hand the keys over to a new regime? Or should he roll out the same, old model next year and hope that everything runs smoothly? All I know is that I'd like to see the Pittsburgh Penguins drive all the way to the Stanley Cup next season. Let's Go Pens!!!