The Pittsburgh Penguins had an awful end to the season as they lost the New York Rangers in seven games after blowing a three to one series lead. Pittsburgh ended up firing general manager Ray Shero and head coach Dan Byslma due to the failures in the postseason. They ended up hiring general manager Jim Rutherford and the coaching search is now underway. How do I rank the Penguins 2013-2014 season? Let's look.
Offense- Pittsburgh's offense was very good this season, as they were one of the highest-scoring teams in the NHL. When you have players like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Chris Kunitz, James Neal, and Kris Letang, you are expected to have the best offense in the league. Sidney Crosby carried this team the whole year when a lot of players were hurt and eventually won the Art Ross Trophy for the highest number of points in the league. Overall, the Penguins offense was very good in the playoffs, except at the end of the Rangers series. Grade: B.
Defense- The Penguins defense was also very good this season as well. Matt Niskanen had his best season of his career and was a very good quarterback on the power play. It wasn't like the days of Sergei Gonchar quarterbacking the power play which many think he's the best quarterback the Penguins have ever had but it's up there.
Rookie sensation Olli Maatta was given the nine game look for Pittsburgh and the coaches thought he deserved to be on the team which he did. He played with Niskanen most of the season and I'm sure he learned a lot from playing with him. Kris Letang had a very short season due to the stroke he suffered midseason but when he came back, he performed good.
Paul Martin also had a great season and was arguably the best penguins defenseman in the playoffs. The fan base really did not like Brooks Orpik and Rob Scuderi who has really bad seasons. I think this defense will look a lot different this season compared to last season since Matt Niskanen and Brooks Orpik may leave via free agency. The defense was overall pretty good this year. Grade: B+
Goaltending- Pittsburgh's goaltending was actually not that bad this year. Marc-Andre Fleury had one of his best seasons of his career and proved his doubters wrong in the playoffs since he did not collapse in the post season. Jeff Zatkoff, the rookie backup, started out really shaky this season but then settled in and became a very decent backup to the Flower. Expect this to be the tandem this coming season. Grade: B-.
Coaching- The coaching for Pittsburgh was fine in the regular season but a disaster in the playoffs. Once again, Dan Byslma did not make adjustments a lot which ended up costing the Penguins a shot at the Stanley Cup. Expect the next Head Coach to make the proper adjustments this season. Grade: D.