Pittsburgh was the best team in the Eastern Conference during the regular season. It didn’t translate to a cake walk to the Stanley Cup Finals as Boston shut them down in stunning fashion. With a 15-0-0 March and offensive firepower galore, they were full of fantasy value. Let’s take a look back at Sidney Crosby and company in 2013 fantasy hockey.
Team Name: Pittsburgh PenguinsRecord: 36-12-0, Lost 4-0 to Boston in Eastern Conference Finals
Player of the Season: Crosby led this high-powered offense with 15-41–56 in just 35 games with 17 power play points and a +26 rating. Imagine how many more points he could have scored if he played all 48 games.
Breakout of the Season: Beau Bennett played 26 games and put up 14 points (3G,11A) with a good +7 rating and 3 power play points. If he stays healthy, he might move up to the third line on a steady basis and get some additional ice time to boost his numbers.
Disappointment of the Season: The penalty kill was the weakness that weighed them down, a little. They were a shocking 25th on the kill at 79.6%. That might have been about all that held them back.
Team Analysis: Pittsburgh got off to a good start at 13-8-0 in the first two months and then went nuts with a 23-4-0 run the rest of the season. Their offense was amazing during the fantasy season but then took a colossal dump by scoring just twice in a four-game sweep by Boston in the conference finals. The Penguins also never lost more than two games in a row at any point in the regular season.
2013-2014 Story Lines: Who is going to be the goaltender for this team? Marc-Andre Fleury made it through the first four games of the first-round series against the Islanders before Tomas Vokoun took over for the next 11 playoff games. Will Jarome Iginla decide to re-up with Pittsburgh after getting traded there mid-season?
2013-2014 Fantasy Guys to Have: Crosby, Iginla, Chris Kunitz, Kris Letang, Pascal Dupuis, James Neal, Evgeni Malkin, the starting goaltender
Guys On the Fringe: Paul Martin (6-17–23 with a +14 rating), the backup goaltender (as a handcuff)
| PLAYER | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | ATOI | PPG | PPA | SHG | SHA | SOG | SPCT |
| Sidney Crosby, C | 36 | 15 | 41 | 56 | 26 | 16 | 21:06 | 3 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 124 | 12.1 |
| Chris Kunitz, LW | 48 | 22 | 30 | 52 | 30 | 39 | 18:01 | 9 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 113 | 19.5 |
| Kris Letang, D | 35 | 5 | 33 | 38 | 16 | 8 | 25:38 | 1 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 95 | 5.3 |
| Pascal Dupuis, RW | 48 | 20 | 18 | 38 | 31 | 26 | 17:30 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 140 | 14.3 |
| James Neal, LW | 40 | 21 | 15 | 36 | 5 | 26 | 17:28 | 9 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 136 | 15.4 |
| Evgeni Malkin, C | 31 | 9 | 24 | 33 | 5 | 36 | 19:42 | 4 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 99 | 9.1 |
| Paul Martin, D | 34 | 6 | 17 | 23 | 14 | 16 | 25:20 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 38 | 15.8 |
| Matt Cooke, LW | 48 | 8 | 13 | 21 | -2 | 36 | 14:43 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 61 | 13.1 |
| Brandon Sutter, C | 48 | 11 | 8 | 19 | 3 | 4 | 16:24 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 82 | 13.4 |
| Beau Bennett, RW | 26 | 3 | 11 | 14 | 7 | 6 | 12:18 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 30 | 10.0 |
| Brenden Morrow, LW† | 15 | 6 | 8 | 14 | 5 | 19 | 14:44 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 24 | 25.0 |
| Matt Niskanen, D | 40 | 4 | 10 | 14 | 4 | 12 | 20:21 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 67 | 6.0 |
| Tyler Kennedy, C | 46 | 6 | 5 | 11 | -6 | 19 | 12:28 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 100 | 6.0 |
| Jussi Jokinen, LW† | 10 | 7 | 4 | 11 | 3 | 6 | 14:55 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 53.8 |
| Jarome Iginla, RW† | 13 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 2 | 9 | 17:40 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 34 | 14.7 |
| Craig Adams, RW | 48 | 3 | 6 | 9 | -1 | 28 | 11:10 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 46 | 6.5 |
| Brooks Orpik, D | 46 | 0 | 8 | 8 | 17 | 32 | 22:17 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 32 | 0.0 |
| Simon Despres, D | 33 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 20 | 15:07 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 33 | 6.1 |
| Dustin Jeffrey, C | 24 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 11:31 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 26 | 11.5 |
| Deryk Engelland, D | 42 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 54 | 13:55 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 31 | 0.0 |
| Joe Vitale, C | 33 | 2 | 3 | 5 | -7 | 17 | 9:31 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 26 | 7.7 |
| Robert Bortuzzo, D | 15 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 27 | 13:17 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 20.0 |
| Douglas Murray, D † | 14 | 1 | 2 | 3 | -1 | 9 | 18:30 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 7.1 |
| Tanner Glass, C | 48 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -11 | 62 | 10:04 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 38 | 2.6 |
| Zach Boychuk, C † | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 2 | 11:37 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0.0 |
| Ben Lovejoy, D † | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 0 | 13:36 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0.0 |
| Dylan Reese, D | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15:16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.0 |
| Eric Tangradi, LW† | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 8:32 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0.0 |
| Mark Eaton, D | 23 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 4 | 17:59 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0.0 |
| Steve MacIntyre, LW | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 4:31 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 |
| Trevor Smith, LW | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10:24 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 |
| PLAYER | GP | W | L | OTL | GAA | TOI | SV | SV% | SHO | TGA | TSA | PIM |
| Marc-Andre Fleury | 33 | 23 | 8 | 0 | 2.39 | 1857:45 | 807 | .916 | 1 | 74 | 881 | 2 |
| Tomas Vokoun | 20 | 13 | 4 | 0 | 2.45 | 1028:32 | 477 | .919 | 3 | 42 | 519 | 2 |
