Penguins Post Historical Season

Lack of belief from others is irrelevant if you have belief in yourself.

As GM Gurtowski was building his team last offseason, he felt strongly that it was a team that could compete. Despite the arms race happening amongst his fellow Metropolitan Division opponents, Gurtowski held firm on his beliefs of what his Penguins needed, opting for strategic additions as opposed to swinging for the sexiest piece available.
 

-The Penguins identified a desire to give the net to Jeremy Swayman and needed a serviceable backup, which they found in Kaapo Kahkonen, who put up a 14-4-0 record.
-The Penguins wanted a third line that could provide offense while helping the penalty kill. The result was a combined scoring output of 49 goals and 126 points from Moore, Pageau, and Rust while also boasting a 79% penalty kill percentage
-The Penguins wanted to remake their blue line to be stingy defensively, which they’ve done with guys like Mikey Anderson, Andrew Peeke, and Troy Stecher, who all boast strong defensive ratings despite being their overall ratings in the 60 overall range.

The Penguins also set numerous team and league records and were tops of the league in various categories, such as:
-First in goals (Adrian Kempe, 55)
-Second in assists (Bo Horvat, 71)
-Third and fifth in points (Kempe 111 and Horvat 106)
-First in team goals for (320)
-First in power play percentage (26.1%, which is also the best single season PP% in EHE History)
-Metropolitan Division Champions, tied for first in the Lemieux Conference in points (ranked second due to tiebreaker), and tied for first in the league in points (ranked second due to tiebreaker)
-Only team with two players over 100 points
-Only team with a 50 goal scorer
-Most 20 goal scorers (8) and 30 goal scorers (4)

The Penguins built their team looking for not the best players, but the right players, which has put them into the best position in franchise history to compete for the Stanley Cup. Pour one out for the haters. Let’s go Pens!