The Lockout is Over: Let's DO THIS

By Artistry

It's almost incomprehensible that it took until January to resolve some very basic issues. Splitting a large revenue pie between two parties and picking a cap number between $60 and $70 million really had you tied up in knots, huh guys?  Ridiculous. Pathetic. There's a bad taste lingering from the useless meetings, cancelled meetings, and mindless Rob Rossi tweets. We can't stand Bettman and Fehr. Nobody puts Ron Burkle in a corner.  Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's done. Our long blogging nightmare is over. Let's get to our game.

We're looking at a compressed schedule with a disproportionate amount of games against division rivals, who we think we hate already, but it's possible we don't even know what hate is yet. Jordan Staal has flown south, so we'll need all hands on deck.

Still out of position.

We saw a 48-game season one other time, in 1994-95. Mario Lemieux sat things out, and in that lockout-shortened year, three things proved vital:

1) A strong start. The Pens blew out of the gate with a 12-0-1 record in their first 13 games en route to a 29-16-3 overall mark and a high playoff seeding.

2) Top talent. The Pens had a No. 1 line of Jaromir Jagr, Ronnie Francis, and Luc Robitaille. Jagr won the Hart, Francis led the league in assists, and Lucky Luc buried rebounds.

3) Goaltending depth. Tommy Barrasso started only two games and missed the rest of the season with injuries. Kenny Wregget, the best backup in Pens history (to date), stepped in and led the league with 25 wins.

That's the formula. The bet here is this Pens team is about to check all three of those boxes. Welcome back. LGP. GTOG.