CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang have been members of the Pittsburgh Penguins for more than half their lives, an extraordinary thing. They’re the greatest winners in franchise history and the foundation of the greatest generation of Penguins hockey.
They’re the Big Three, larger-than-life figures.
They’ve done it all brilliantly, and their legacies are beyond safe.
This, of course, does not assure the Big Three of nailing the end game. It seems the odds are against their end game being what anyone wants.
“It’s obviously something new,” Letang said quietly after the Penguins’ practice Monday.
He was talking about losing. The Penguins are doing plenty of that these days, dropping one game after another, the next loss almost always more dismal than the previous one. They can’t score. They can’t defend. They aren’t tough. They aren’t fast. They aren’t good on special teams. Their goaltending is poor. They’re old. They’re at the bottom of the standings.
It’s a bleak picture.
Crosby, Malkin and Letang are sitting in an interesting position. Even though they were getting older, they wanted to stay together until their careers concluded. They received their wish when Malkin and Letang received new contracts from Ron Hextall in the summer of 2022. Crosby, predictably, signed a new deal in September.
They all have full no-trade clauses. They all can retire in Pittsburgh if they wish. But a large factor in their signing one last time with the Penguins was the expectation that this wouldn’t happen. That the winning — or at least competitiveness — would go on and on.
And yet, a couple of years later, the Penguins have plummeted. Many in the organization are feeling pressure, and rightfully so. Kyle Dubas has quite a massive path to navigate, and he didn’t help himself in the summer of 2023 when he made three decisions that look potentially disastrous. Mike Sullivan is feeling the pressure too, as the majority of NHL coaches would be long gone after starting a season like this.
The greatest pressure of all, though, might well be on Crosby, Malkin and Letang. They orchestrated this. They wanted to remain. And though this kind of loyalty is rare in professional sports and undeniably admirable, the responsibility lies on these three to avoid letting the Penguins fall apart completely.
And things aren’t going so well in that regard.
Malkin’s play has dropped notably after an excellent start. Letang is playing the worst hockey of his career. And though Crosby is still a great player, he hasn’t been at his best in the season’s first two months.
The losses are mounting. The attendance figures are dwindling.
So, what will the Big Three do about it?
“We go back to work,” Letang said. “The last thing we can do is feel sorry for ourselves.”
The NHL won’t feel sorry for the Penguins, who have been among the league’s dominant teams for the past couple of decades. Now they are wounded and the NHL’s best teams are feasting on them with no end in sight.
The postgame scenes have been eerie and, frankly, depressing.
Malkin, always the most emotional of the three, looks particularly unhappy and angry.
And Crosby looked as unhappy as I’ve ever seen him while standing with the puck that commemorated his 600th career NHL goal Saturday night.
Then there is Letang, whose physical skills appear to be diminishing. He’s taking a thoughtful approach, even if he isn’t sure what the answers are.
“We’re trying to support each other,” Letang said of his two close friends, Crosby and Malkin. “It’s tough right now because game in and game out, it’s just been the same thing, the same mistakes. And then it’s the third period, and you’re down 5-1. That would be tough for anybody to deal with.”
Crosby, Malkin and Letang aren’t just anybody. They’re future Hall of Famers, the guys who wear the letters on their chests.
It’s utterly inaccurate to suggest they are delaying a much-needed rebuild because, frankly, they all play for perfectly reasonable rates. There are many, many contracts on this team worse than the three they signed.
Still, the idea to keep the band together was theirs.
“We always want to be the guys who right the ship,” Letang said. “And we have to be the guys who right the ship. It’s just very hard for everybody right now.”
Though I don’t sense any personality conflicts in the least, this can’t be a group the Big Three are overly comfortable with. There are veterans on this team who are rounding out their careers and cashing paychecks. I’m not so sure they’re all invested the way Crosby, Malkin and Letang are.
Young players are also trying to establish themselves. Though Crosby and Letang in particular are wonderful at dealing with young players, they didn’t sign up to be coaches. They could use players who are ready to help them now.
For every Owen Pickering who looks poised to be a building block of the future, there are five Valtteri Puustinen’s over the past few years, players who have a modest amount of talent but aren’t likely to participate on a championship-level team.
Crosby, Malkin and Letang surely feel a little stuck. They’re still capable of greatness, sure, but they aren’t going to carry a bad team anywhere at their ages. This is the darkest period of their time in Pittsburgh, and though all athletes and franchises encounter rough times, it’s a little unusual for the rough patch to come at the very end, after everything has been roses and drinking champagne out of the Stanley Cup so many times.
It usually doesn’t end badly because players in their shoes typically retire or move elsewhere by now.
Making matters worse is the reality that Dubas knows this team isn’t good and is very much building for the future, starting with the Jake Guentzel trade last season.
“It’s hard to see,” Letang said. “But I know he has to look to the future.”
The Big Three wishes to make the future a good one and would love to play a significant role. They’ll have their chance.
But what’s the plan?
“We’re going to go back to what we do well,” Letang said. “Keep working hard. It’s no secret: Whoever plays the hardest and executes the plan will win.”
The Penguins are doing neither these days.
It’s taking a little something out of their foundational players every day.
I’m not sure they have the ability to make things better. They’ll get their chance. It would be a shame to see such brilliance end with a whimper.
Father Time, though, doesn’t care. Neither does the rest of the NHL.
“We have to find a way,” Letang said.
It would be their greatest feat.
(Top photo of Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin: Jeanine Leech / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
