No matter what happens in San Jose tonight, the Penguins will move on to the business of their offseason late this week.
Most other teams have been working on these decisions for at least a month, so the Penguins will be playing catch-up. That's one of the side effects of making the Stanley Cup Final, and who wouldn't accept that trade off?
One of the most interesting issues will be how to handle the goaltending position. Rookie Matt Murray, a veteran of 13 regular season games and 20 in the playoffs, is now the starter. In four rounds of playoffs, Marc-Andre Fleury has played four periods.
The assumption is the Penguins will seek to trade Fleury and install Murray as No. 1. He clearly has coach Mike Sullivan's confidence.
Win or lose, and no matter how loudly the offseason clock is ticking, the Penguins might want to thoroughly think this one through.
Fleury's body of work includes the 2009 Cup championship and 357 regular season wins. At 31, he's not old. He's one of the great teammates in the history of the NHL.
He never makes excuses, and he's never thrown a teammate under the bus, even though there have been hundreds of times when that could have been justified.
Murray has done a good job, but he hasn't been spectacular by any means. Do the Penguins trust him with their future based on what they've seen over the last few months?
This team's personnel and contracts make runs at more championships viable.
Back when Craig Patrick was still an effective GM, he had a policy of taking a couple of weeks after the season before making major decisions. He wanted to get some distance from the emotion, whether it was positive or negative.
The Penguins would do well to embrace that idea, even though their offseason time is compromised.
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--FLABBY MIDDLE
If you think the Pirates have middle relief problems, you're not incorrect. You're just missing a bigger point.
Nobody has good middle relievers. Those are the last pitchers on the staff, usually numbers 10, 11 and 12 on a 12-man staff. It's not a place for prospects to rot, or a role for someone who commands a big contract.
Those pitchers generally get into games because the starting pitchers haven't gone deep enough. That's been the bigger problem for the Pirates.
Starters should ideally pitch into the seventh inning so a team can go to its progression of skilled relievers to finish the game. When pitchers are needed in the middle innings, the call goes to the least-accomplished pitchers on the staff.
Juan Nicasio has worked five innings or less in seven of his 12 starts. That number was five of 11 starts for Francisco Liriano entering Saturday's game. Even Gerrit Cole has exited early in four of 12 starts.
Too many short starts lead to too much mediocrity out of the bullpen.
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--SPECIAL GUEST
Congratulations to whatever person persuaded Bill Mazeroski to attend the Penguins' playoff game the other night.
TV cameras caught Mazeroski in one of the luxury boxes, merrily waving a rally towel as the Penguins attempted to win a championship in Pittsburgh for the first time since Mazeroski's home run ended the 1960 World Series.
Maz turns 80 in September and usually doesn't go out much unless he gets a chance to golf.
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--OVERSTATING THE CASE
When Neil Walker visited with the New York Mets last week, there was talk of what his legacy would be with the Pirates.
Legacy? Isn't that a word that should be associated with heads of state, people whose decisions and actions may have changed the course of world history?
Walker was a good player for six seasons on teams that finally broke the Pirates' 20-year losing streak. He conducted himself admirably on and off the field.
He never got a vote for Most Valuable Player, and never made an All-Star team. He was basically very similar to Johnny Ray, who played six seasons at second base for the Pirates. Ray had a better average, Walker had more power.
Nobody ever talks about Johnny Ray's legacy.
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