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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