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Let it Be Known that a Rebuilding Flyers Team Ended the Penguins’ Big 3 Era
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Spittin’ Chiclets asks rhetorically: is this it for the Pens Big 3? –
Oh yes.
Yes, that’s it for the Penguins’ Big 3 of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang.
Malkin is out of contract, Crosby has a year remaining, and Letang has two years remaining, but even if Malkin re-signs, then what? The Penguins either miss the playoffs or lose in the first round again? This is a Yinzer team that last won an NHL playoff series in 2018. And if the Penguins couldn’t beat a rebuilding Flyers team this year, why would anybody think they’re gonna do something meaningful next year?
Letang and Malkin will be turning 40 and Crosby turns 39 in August. He didn’t have a point until Game 3. Malkin scored a couple of goals but wasn’t the guy he was years ago. Letang’s offensive skill doesn’t offset his defensive liability now. Are they going to be carried by 36-year-old Erik Karlsson? What about Anthony “The Invisible Man” Mantha, who did nothing in this series? Bryan Rust is closer to 35 than 30. The Penguins are NHL mediocrity now. Their fans will spin this narrative that they, too, were playing with house money during a rebuilding year, but how many teams rebuild with more than a dozen guys over the age of 30? It’s a bullshit narrative. Yinzer propaganda that the Iranians and North Koreans would appreciate. And sure, maybe guys like Benjamin Kindel and Egor Chinakhov and that lumbering 6’8″ Swedish guy take the next step, but the Flyers have multiple young pieces to work with, and they’re years young than the latter two. The Penguins claiming that they’re in a rebuild is worse than Cowboys fan claiming that Mazi Smith was gonna be the next Jalen Carter.
When you look at the Kubler-Ross model, it’s noted that the first stage of grief is denial. These Yinzers pulled the wool down so far over their eyes that they can’t see two feet in front of them. They think the Big 3 is gonna come back and go on another run here. Because even though the last eight seasons didn’t work out, the ninth season will! “THIS IS OUR YEAR!” Talk about pitiful. They’ll progress from denial, to anger, to bargaining, when they all find religion, and then depression is followed by acceptance.
What the Yinzers are doing out there would be like Eagles fans talking ourselves into Nick Foles coming back for a 14th season at age 38 just to see if we can replicate 2017 all over again. But we’re not so naive. We’re watching a similar situation unfold in real time with the Philadelphia Phillies, who were rightfully scorned when shown on the jumbotron Wednesday night.
“As far as I’m concerned” <Stephen A Smith voice>, it’s over. The Penguins Big 3 could certainly come back next year, sure, but they’re only winning two things – jack and shit. And if they had somehow pulled off the miraculous comeback this year, everybody knows they were going to be run completely out of the barn by the Carolina Hurricanes. So, for all intents and purposes, the final nail was driven into the Big 3 coffin by a rebuilding Flyers team. This should be celebrated around the National Hockey League in the same way NFL fans celebrated the end of the Brady and Belichick era. The Penguins deserve a nice, long streak of anguish and woe, 15 years or so, give or take.
This is the Flyers’ time.
GOD WILLS IT
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com