2005 Pittsburgh Penguins Preview
Welcome to the 2005 Pittsburgh Penguins Preview page. The NHL Hockey Season is around the corner and what better way to remind the public how exciting the NHL can be with a 2005 season preview from Maddux Sports. Remember if you are betting on NHL hockey look no further, as we are one of the few sports handicapping services that offers NHL picks against the hockey betting line and can help you be a winner this NHL betting season.
2005 Pittsburgh Penguins Hockey Season Preview
The Pittsburgh Penguins have two things no other team has—this year’s first round draft pick Sidney Crosby and their Chairman and CEO, Mario Lemieux, starting at center. Lemieux will turn 40 this season while Crosby enters the league at the age of 18. These men are the two centers for the Penguins who, in 2003-04, finished dead last in their division. In 1984, three years before Crosby was born, Lemieux scored a goal in his first NHL game during his first shift on his first shot. His initial season he scored 100 points.
Those were heady days for the Pittsburgh club when everything and anything seemed possible. In Pittsburgh that feeling seems to have returned. Perhaps it’s the fact that Lemieux is in the best shape he’s ever been, or that Crosby is considered to be the finest hockey prospect in fifteen years, or that the Penguins have brought in some of the most skilled veterans available, including Mark Recchi (RW), John LeClair (LW) and Sergei Gonchar (D). There is the potential for the Penguins to have four of the league’s top scorers this year. That power could destroy even the heartiest opposing netminder.
But despite these first-rate additions, the fate of Pittsburgh’s crease seems to be uncertain. Jocelyn Thibault, an eleven-year veteran who for most of those years averaged from 2.60 to 3.00 GAA, is being given a chance to stop opponents’ shots. The other goalies on the squad are youngsters from the AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton affiliate who Thibault is charged with mentoring.
It is likely that Thibault, who came to Pittsburgh via a trade with Chicago, will get a lot of offensive support from his teammates; but will he be able to return the favor defensively? If he can Pittsburgh has a chance at the playoffs this year.
