Sidney Crosby not in favor of breaking up Penguins’ core

When Jim Rutherford abruptly resigned four months ago, a bunch of names were reported and suggested and presumably considered to replace him as Pittsburgh Penguins general manager.

One high-profile figure, apparently, never applied.

“I’ve never been one to try to be the GM,” Sidney Crosby said Wednesday, “and I’m not going to start now.”

The timing isn’t ideal to be put in charge of Penguins roster management. After yet another disappointing playoff flameout, the men in that role — Brian Burke and Ron Hextall — have some tough decisions to make.

At the forefront of those is what to do with the team’s celebrated longtime core of Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang. That trio has led the Penguins to three Stanley Cup titles and a 15-year run of postseason berths. But it also has presided over a run of four consecutive playoff series defeats, including a six-game elimination at the hands of the New York Islanders this year.

Crosby, as has been established, is not the general manager. But that didn’t mean he shied away from responding to a prevailing narrative that the Penguins need to break up their Crosby-Malkin-Letang core.

“Well, they’ve been saying that for four years, right?” Crosby said via video conference with media soon after a 5-3 defeat in Game 6 on Long Island. “So I don’t know if I’ll change anybody’s mind.

“But I think we did a lot of good things this year. You can look every year and analyze it differently, but I think this year we had a good group and did a lot of good things. We easily could have made a run. I feel really confident about this group with the way we were trending and the way we finished out this (regular season). But it’s a fine line in the playoffs.”

“We had an opportunity here, and that’s why it stings so much.”

On the Penguins entering an uncertain offseason: https://t.co/LdnFZHQi1Z

— Seth Rorabaugh (@SethRorabaugh) May 27, 2021

The Penguins, by some measures, deserved a better fate. Among the 16 playoff teams, they ranked No. 1 in puck possession measured by 5-on-5 shot-attempts percentage (58.9%). Their coach, Mike Sullivan, said he believed his team carried the play in five of the series’ six games.

That followed a regular season in which the Penguins won what was thought to be a strong, competitive eight-team East division. This after playing the final 32 games of the regular season at a pace (25-7-2) that equates to a 125-point “normal” regular season.

But, teams are measured by their performances in the playoffs. And the Penguins have lost 13 of their past 16 playoff games. Considering Malkin will be 35, Crosby 34 and Letang 33 by the time next season begins and that Malkin and Letang are entering the final year of their contracts, there is ample case to be made the Penguins should move on from one (or even two) of their longtime triumvirate.

“Up and down the lineup,” veteran Jeff Carter said, “it’s a team that can compete for the Stanley Cup.”

.Penguins Sidney Crosby fights for the puck with Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin in the second period during game 4 as the Penguins lose 4-1. pic.twitter.com/MvyfmtgJ0W

— Charles Palla (@ChazPalla) May 22, 2021

Crosby, unsolicited, on Wednesday multiple times brought up his failures during Game 6. (He was on the ice for each of New York’s first three goals). He also referenced how he “didn’t make the big play” at times during the series — particularly during Monday’s Game 5 overtime loss. Crosby was limited to two points in the series.

But as the face of the franchise, if not league, Crosby isn’t going to be traded. He sounds like a man who doesn’t want his longtime sidekicks to be, either.

“I know that the three of us,” Crosby said of he, Malkin and Letang, “we want to win, and we’ll do whatever it takes to try to compete to do that every year.”

Keep up with the Pittsburgh Penguins all season long.