This is truly a golden era for the Pittsburgh Penguins

Don’t take the Pittsburgh Penguins success for granted. This is truly something special and won’t be seen again for some time.

Yesterday, Craig Custance of The Athletic released a terrific featured article profiling Sidney Crosby over the last decade. In that piece, former Pittsburgh Penguins General Manager Ray Shero was quoted as saying “Crosby. Malkin. Don’t ever take those guys for granted. You never know.”

Shero does deserve some credit for laying some of the groundwork that has played a key role in the Penguins’ success since his departure. He inked Crosby, Malkin, and Kris Letang to very team-friendly, long-term contracts. The Penguins also drafted Matt Murray and Jake Guentzel during his tenure.

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Jim Rutherford changed the dynamic of this roster by acquiring Patric Hornqvist, Phil Kessel, and Justin Schultz. Bringing Mike Sullivan into the organization was vital to restoring the culture and proper style of play.

Penguins fans should be very appreciative of the contributions of both general managers and the most important players of this era.

The Penguins currently possess the longest active playoff streak in the NHL (13 years). Across the four professional sports leagues, only the San Antonio Spurs can boast a longer postseason streak. Not only have the Penguins been the class of the NHL throughout the Crosby/Malkin era, but they have also been one of the most successful franchises in all of sports.

• Stanley Cups: 2 (2nd)
• Playoff victories: 97 (1st)
• Regular season wins: 480 (1st)

Based off of their expected goal share, Sean Tierney of Charting Hockey does not see the Penguins fall off any time soon

Pittsburgh’s core of Crosby, Malkin, and Letang all made Dom Luszczyszyn’s all-decade team.

Crosby is the first-line center. Malkin is the second line left-winger. Letang is on the third defense pair. Of all the players who played in more than 300 games this decade, Crosby ranked first (1.26) and Malkin ranked second (1.14) in terms of points-per-game.

Kris Letang produced more points than Zdeno Chara, Drew Doughty, and Victor Hedman despite playing in significantly fewer games than all of them. Letang has seen both his expected goals rate and game score improve during postseason play. He is vastly underrated amongst the majority of hockey media. In terms of both individual and team success, Pittsburgh’s core has been the best in the league for quite some time.

The Penguins, Blackhawks, and the Bruins are the only teams to have three players make that roster. We are privileged to be able to watch the elite talent in Pittsburgh on a nightly basis. This is the golden era of the Penguins. They appear to be legitimate Stanley Cup contenders yet again this season. Just like Ray Shero said, do not take any of this for granted. Happy Thanksgiving and thanks for reading!