Pens eliminated from playoffs; lose game 7

[WWGRD]

to the Hershey Bears..

We saw what players like Dustin Jeffrey, Luca Caputi, Mark Letestu, Ben Lovejoy, Paul Bissonnette, Deryk Engelland, etc. can bring to the table. Minard, Pesonen, and Curry set new team records.. solid season.

[Bowser]

Good season, hopefully guys like Jeffrey, Caputi and Johnson continue their momentum and appear in shape and ready to compete in training camp. The Penguins need to get a young player to emerge out of nowhere and begin to help the team at wing.

[DelPen]

Injuries looked to catch up to them at the wrong time. It's a shame, but I like our talent and I think Fletcher and Shero assembled a great coaching staff.

[mac5155]

from the little i've heard, they had a great season. it's a shame that gonch got hurt, because im sure that having go=go up here ultimately hurt them as well (although its not priority, but still)

i suppose hershey did it w/o their goaltender as well, so it probably evens out

[K2]

Hershey's goalie was just as good as Varlamov was in the AHL, IMO. It was going to be tough to beat Hershey when they loaded up on a bunch of AHL All-Stars who'd never make it in the NHL

[WWGRD]

http://www.faceoff-factor.com/wbs-pengu ... l-playoffs

Many of the Penguins were injured in this series, but they still gave it their all..

[PittsburghAfterDark]

Hershey is one of those teams that consistently plays to win in the AHL. Ownership and their arena structure coupled with short term affiliation agreements with NHL teams allow them to play to win all the time without being overly dependent on the success or failure of their NHL partner's draft position and abilities.

[ShipHockey7]

You're right.

Hershey has their own GM that can go out and sign players to soley AHL contracts. Which is a huge difference than what the Pens can do.

Also Hershey has the ability to work with contracts, for example Keith Aucoin signed a 2 year deal last off season - the first year of the deal (this year) is a two way contract, the 2nd year of the deal is a one way contract.

WB/S or Pittsburgh can't do that

[WWGRD]

I'd rather develop prospects for Pittsburgh's future, than win the Calder Cup with washed up / old journeymen

[K2]

I'd rather develop prospects for Pittsburgh's future, than win the Calder Cup with washed up / old journeymen

WB's Calder Cup will come, and it will come the right way. Once the prospects start making their way to NEPA, we should have a good enough team to compete for a Cup without filling our farm team with AAAA "wringers" like Alexandre Giroux and future career-minor leaguers like Chris Bourque. Hershey can afford to bring those types of guys in by absolutely gouging fans on ticket prices, concessions and parking.