A Penguin-focused look at the 2000’s
The NHL unveiled the last of their Quarter Century team, 25 players in the 21st century. Marc-Andre Fleury joined Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin on the NHL QC team.
That led to the natural conclusion, what about a Pittsburgh Penguins quarter century team? To make it a little more challenging and balanced, we’re not going to put Jaromir Jagr or someone like that on the fourth line, since that wasn’t a fourth line player. So we’ll go with role-specific honorees. We’ll also stick as closely as possible to be position correct as well and not slide Evgeni Malkin to the wing or something like that, since he didn’t often play there.
Forwards
First line: Mario Lemieux – Sidney Crosby – Jake Guentzel
OK, this already breaks a bit of the spirit of “position correct” to place Guentzel in as a right wing, but close enough since Lemieux played a good bit on the wing in the last days of his career. Even though Lemieux barely played from Jan 1, 2000 on (229 points in 170 games) as a rule if you can take Mario Lemieux for an exercise like this, well he’s making mine every time. Lemieux’s 76 points in 43 games in 2000-01 returning from a three-year retirement remains one of the most impressive feats of the century. And then, Sid is Sid. He basically is hockey in the 21st century so far.
Second line: Chris Kunitz – Evgeni Malkin – Alexei Kovalev
I would want to see this line play hockey. A lot. Kunitz would bring the energy, board work, net presence and severely underrated in-zone passing. Kovalev is one of the smoothest and most skilled players that the NHL has ever seen. Malkin is Malkin to tie it all together like only he can. This crew all in their primes would be absolutely devastating. Kovalev, with 274 points in the 2000’s for the Pens, outscored Jagr (151 Penguin points) by a good bit, which helped AK27 earn the nod in this spot.
Third line: Carl Hagelin – Nick Bonino – Phil Kessel
Is this cheating? Maybe a little bit. The HBK magic lasted for a more brief amount of time than you might remember — they only played 209 total minutes together after the 2016 playoffs. But when it was working, brother it was working. Almost called for Matt Cooke, Jordan Staal and Tyler Kennedy out of a bigger body of work together but quality wins out.
Fourth line: Max Talbot – Matt Cullen – Georges Laraque
Hurt to keep Craig Adams off the team but we went with the muscle and presence of Laraque. For most of the first quarter of this century there was a tough guy/fighter on the fourth line, and there wasn’t a tougher one out there than Big Georges, so it feels right to include him on an attempted true-to-life type of lineup. We can always limit his ice time and double shift one of the many big dogs during games. Cullen worked brilliantly as a fourth line center, mixing defensive responsibility with still some offensive pop. Talbot is the superstar and one of the most clutch fourth liners of all time. Give me a gamer like that any time.
Didn’t make it: Jaromir Jagr. Yeah, I know, but keep in mind the context of this is the 2000’s. In the 2000’s Jagr feuded with a head coach hired specifically to appease him, requested getting traded several times and was generally a miserable personality at a tough time. Oh yeah, and then he chose to sign with Philadelphia since they offered him more money a decade later. Jagr and the Penguins in the 2000’s wasn’t all roses, and in fact was really pretty sour for absolutely anything that wasn’t during the actual games. It’s wild to leave off a guy that picked up two scoring titles in the century, surely if you’re stacking a team to be filled with All-Stars he would be on it, but that wasn’t the direction I wanted to go with this one. Bryan Rust is also 5th in Penguin scoring from Jan 1 2000 on, tough to leave him off (especially since he was once a fourth liner), but so it goes. Same with Patric Hornqvist, Staal, Martin Straka and so many other worthy honorable mentions.
Defense
First pair: Brian Dumoulin – Kris Letang
When the Penguins were at their absolute best, it was Dumoulin and Letang as the primary pair that helped power them. It’s a shame Letang never strung together a full healthy season to win a Norris, his reign as one of the top defenders in the league for a decade was really special. Dumoulin was the perfect compliment to steady the ship, stay responsible and quiet things down when it was needed.
Second pair: Brooks Orpik – Sergei Gonchar
This breaks the spirit of my rule a little since it was used as a first pair and Gonchar was never a second pair player but so be it, top-four is top-four in some senses. Gonchar was elite all the way around and had such command of a power play or a game. His style as a player was probably about 10-20 years ahead of his time for a career that started in 1994, by the 2000’s he was so comfortable putting up double-digit goals and usually a pace for 50+ assists too. Orpik brings physical presence, he could front pucks and take damage to block shots just as much as his famous big checks to deal out the pain. Glorious match of styles here, the Pens rode it to a Stanley Cup in 2009, it’s only fitting they make this kind of team together.
Third pair: Marcus Pettersson – Ben Lovejoy
The Pens used Pettersson as a third pair player for far too long, he always drove very good results while on the ice but it took a very long while from when he was acquired in 2019 until he consistently apparently gained the trust to be given a role like a big time player consistently in 2022-23. For the other spot, I’m taking Ben Lovejoy. Nothing said quietly consistent bottom-pair defenseman like Lovejoy, who spent parts of seven different seasons with the Pens.
Didn’t make it: Considering Dick Tarnstrom led the team in points one season and was the best of the early 2000’s, it would have been nice to find a spot for him on this list. Orpik has replaced the memory and role of the prior big thumper on the blueline of Darius Kasparaitis, who would have made the “first decade of the 2000’s” Penguin team. All-around good guy Paul Martin deserves a mention, and then maybe Justin Schultz? Olli Maatta? Erik Karlsson hasn’t had the smoothest of times and only spent two years in Pittsburgh, for pure “best players” he would be on the list over someone like Lovejoy but it wasn’t that type of list here.
Goaltenders
Starter: Marc-Andre Fleury
Backup: Matt Murray
Two no-doubters here. Fleury was as foundational as any non-66/87 player has been in Pittsburgh with his personality, flair and athleticism making him the rare “must-watch” goalie. Fleury put in 14 years with the franchise and went through all the highs and lows that could be imagined. His 375 wins with the Pens won’t be matched anytime soon. Then again, neither will the 216 losses.
A lot has been written and thought about the rise and fall of Murray, but how about this new theory I just baked up. The NHL changed the size of goalie equipment in 2018. Murray still had a great regular season in 2018-19, but his career path from that point forward was straight down. Clearly pad size changes was not even close to being the sole factor or variable Murray had to deal with mentally or physically around that time, but it makes you think a little. Murray was a skinny player and not the most athletic, a big part of his game was being 6’4” and eating up a lot of the net when he dropped down. The correlation/causation can be debated but once that chest protector got streamlined to reduce the amount of net getting blocked, Murray never quite did the same. That negative bit shoehorned into this positive list, it stood out since Murray was so good in 2016/2017, especially in the playoffs with a .928 save% and 1.95 GAA. It becomes easy to win playoff games when the other team is averaging two goals a night.