Taking the temperature on how you’re feeling at the end of another year
America’s favorite offseason content, Friday Polls, is back! OK, maybe a stretch there but it’s something to look forward to, we’ll hope.
It’s time for Friday polls, where we turn it over for your input about various topics both serious and pithy about the Penguins.
First, a look back to a poll from last summer that corresponds with today’s topic: the 2023-24 season. Fresh after Kyle Dubas was hired (and before any trades or signings were made) here was how the upcoming season was polled.
A key to life is managing expectations, but based on shedding Ron Hextall and adding a fresh, young mind was enough to have an early summer high here at PensBurgh. 67% of respondents were looking forward to a 98+ point season and bounce-back among the top teams in the league.
While this team did piss and piddle away more than their fair share of points, seeing them as a 100 or more type team (as they were from 2016-22 in the early Mike Sullivan days, aside from short seasons on pace to get there) was a leap that ended up being too far. There was good reason for hope and optimism that Dubas would come in and revert the team back to the glory days, but that dream wasn’t around for very long once the season started and the weaknesses of the club became apparent.
As it turned out, the Pens were slotted to be near the playoff bubble right from the beginning, and even a frantic late-season surge couldn’t quite get them into what ended up being a soft qualification year for playoffs (NYI took third place with 94 points, Washington’s 91 points was “good” enough for the last playoff spot).
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Today’s topic: how you’re feeling about how the season ended. It’s difficult, but we’re trying for now to just look backwards at what happened and not yet shift gears for what the future could hold.
The marathon of the 2023-24 season has ended and the ups and downs for the Penguins resulted in falling short of the playoffs. There was drama with aging veterans, power play, coaching, trades, tons of new additions and plenty more to consider.
Let’s get to it.