Will the Penguins Need to Be Bad to Get Good?

I was pondering the present state of our Penguins this morning, when a question popped into my head. Will the Pens need to be bad before they can be good?

Before I expound, I need to mention that Hall-of-Famer Dave Molinari wrote a similar piece on Pittsburgh Hockey Now titled Molinari’s One-Timers: Want to Win Big in the NHL? Start By Losing. An excellent read.

It’s safe to say that the seeds for our five Stanley Cup winners were, indeed, sown in losing. Following a nearly endless run of mediocrity during the team’s early years, culminating in a near-miss against the powerhouse Islanders in the 1982 playoffs, the bottom fell out. A team thought to be only a few players away instead collapsed…