I think Staal will not be signing any extensions with the team. I believe his days of being happy with his role in the Burgh are nearing their end. Wouldn't surprise me if he's already made it known to management so they can move him. And if that's the case we absolutely should move him and get something for him, especially now coming off a series where his trade value is at a peak. I think next season is the last you'll see of Jordan Staal in a Pens uniform........if he even makes it to next season.

Orpik's gap control/positional discipline is something that had him at odds with Therrien, and saw his ice time dwindle. He was always getting himself out of position going for the big hit. He was able to get it corrected, but has since regressed. He can get it corrected again. I feel it would be a big mistake to get rid of Orpik.

I believe Martin can get it together. This had to be humbling for him and a motivating factor for next season. With a 5 mil cap hit he had better. And if the team doesn't have confidence in him doing so then they need to move him.

I love Kunitz but I wonder if he's worth his 3.7 mil cap hit......especially with Neal's deal jumping up to a 5 mil hit starting next season.

I don't want us to go all Washington Capitals here and completely change our system because of one playoff series dud. This loss wasn't about our system. This was simply about abysmal effort, performance, preparation, discipline, adjustment......a total failure on every level. A meltdown unprecedented in Pittsburgh sports history, if not NHL history.

But it wasn't ONE playoff series dud, it was THREE, as in they have now lost each of their last 3 playoff series to lower seeded teams. You can talk about how last year they didn't have Sid & Geno but they were both playing in 2 of those lost series. I'm not saying blow the whole thing up but significant changes need to made starting with the Defense.

Not sure we blame the D for the Montreal and Tampa series though. In the Montreal series Halak had the series of a lifetime and the guys in front of him were laying down to block everything. Crosby was largely neutralized by Cammalerri and Geno didn't exactly step up either. If anything, we can say this is the 2nd straight series where our 2 superstars came up very small.

The Tampa series was an anomaly. Our team was depleted and we just couldn't close it out. We wouldn't have made it past the 2nd round anyway last year.

People laughed at me when back in 2009, I said we should trade Malkin.

You need good defense to win the Cup. You don't need two superstars.

One superstar, complementary/competent offensive players, and a cast of good defensivemen are all you need.

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I know this, your ability to think concisely, your ability to make good judgments is much easier on Thursday night than during the heat of the game. -Bill Walsh

I think maybe people got stuck in their own bubble away from reality when it comes to having 2 guys like Geno and Crosby. People kept giving Bylsma all this credit for his record this year missing Sid, all the while having Geno in there showed that we really don't need 2 worldly superstars (something every other successful team already knows), and if anything, having 2 guys like that might even get in the way to some extent as far as cap room as well as finding ways to plug them in to certain situations without killing another line's juju (as we saw this year when Sid came back). No doubt moving Staal and Geno could bring a MAJOR haul, and free up some major cap room. Hell, keeping Staal and just moving Geno would still bring a major haul. This team has proven it can win with one superstar. It has proven it can win with no superstars. So surely, moving one of them isn't going to kill this team by any stretch.

It's simply not likely that we'll have both Sid and Geno for all or even most of their careers. One will have to go sooner or later. And which do you choose? Sid has his health issues and Geno can be very streaky. One will not be extended for one reason or another. Either we will choose to move them prior to extension or they will simply refuse to extend IMO. I'm sure Geno is thinking of moving on to his own situation eventually and Staal isn't going to be happy as "3rd line center" for much longer (and i'm sure he's already over it).

I have to say- that is the question now...now that Crosby has his concussion issues (and I wouldn't doubt he's feeling a little woozy right now, after the hits from Malkin and Giroux).

But the overall principle of having a solid defense, sound goal-tending, and at most one big-time goal-scorer with offensive complements, is still the way to go if you want to win mutliple Stanley Cups.

Penguins always do this- they learn their lesson to surround their core talent with solid defense so they can both score, and then go into a shutdown trap to preserve the lead...and then start overly-relying on the core offensive talent and hope they can either play defense by playing offense, or else hope their goalie bails them out of trouble.

They did this after the two Cups in the 1990s, and now it seems they're starting to do this after two Cup appearances now.

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I know this, your ability to think concisely, your ability to make good judgments is much easier on Thursday night than during the heat of the game. -Bill Walsh

Just a few thoughts:

- Our three series losses were to 2 hot goaltenders and one terrible one... unfortunately MAF was a little bit worse in all 3 cases. If he had only been as good this year as he was last year, we would be moving on. This year we finally got scoring (4+ per game) but we gave up so many it didn't matter.

- It's easy to say Tampa was an anomaly & we weren't going anywhere anyway but we were the 4 seed & they were the 5 and we split with them during the regular season with both teams winning their home games. In the playoffs we were 1-3 at home including the game 7 loss. As far as saying we would have been stopped in the next round.... they weren't..... they swept the Caps and went to game 7 with the eventual Champion Bruins where they lost 1-0. This is a team we had down 3-1 so there is a reasonable chance that we could have gone deeper if we could have gotten that last win.

- We can always come up with reasons (excuses) why we lost but the goal is to win the cup & when you don't you are either getting closer to the goal or you are not. The first year we went to the finals it was obvious we were heading in the right direction and the next year proved that to be the case. Since that run, there is little evidence that we are getting closer to going back to the finals (or even the 2nd round).

Like I said, I'm not ready to blow the whole thing up but I like our chances a lot better if our D would be more consistent.

The Martin signing has hung around this team all year. But I'm not about to go screaming to trade him away. He is still a good player, and I have to hope he can rebound. If I recall correctly, Gonchar was almost run out of town after his first season here. That sure turned out ok.

Nor would I go and try to trade Malkin or Sid. That just sounds like crazy talk to me. All this chatter of 1 superstar is enough is just bitter grapes right now. If 1 line were enough to win championships then I would think the Senators would have at least come close a few times. How about San Jose. No, 2 scoring lines are important. Lemieux didn't win jack alone. Neither did Gretzky. Or Yzerman. Just calm down and let things play out. They each had a bad series, but there's no way anyone can sit here and blame it all on them. The whole team played like utter shit after the 1st period of game 1. The team earned that 3-0 hole going into game 4.

Now, if you say trading Staal makes sense, then I can agree to that. I like the kid, and he has a tendency to show up big at times. But he's not a guy that needs to be gameplanned for. You'll never see Philly running Cunturier out on him every shift. It would shake up the team a bit, and could reap a decent return without drastically affecting the top too much. Maybe even try to improve upon Sullivan if possible.

Oh, and I definitely would be looking to a veteran goalie who can push Fleury. The Pens just had no ability to respond to his sucking so badly. Goodbye Brent Johnson. And honestly, I stick by Fleury this year, but if he has another shitty playoff series next year then I would hope Shero sends his ass packing.

No- but you don't need another superstar to go with them.

Another competent goal-scorer would be enough to make for a good second line.

And none of it matters if the defense is not also solid.

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I know this, your ability to think concisely, your ability to make good judgments is much easier on Thursday night than during the heat of the game. -Bill Walsh

Here's a fun fact - Martin has a no-trade clause in his contract....

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