Faceoff Factor

Gonchar: The Year That Could Have Been

Jesse Marshall | Pittsburgh Penguins

Apr 3, 12:09 PM | Hype this story!

I’d like to take a minute to hearken you back to game 5 of last year’s Stanley Cup Final.

In the midst of Fleury’s stellar performance in net and Petr Sykora’s “Babe Ruth” like goal in the third overtime, one performance goes slightly unnoticed in the fray of heroics that occurred.

In the third period of regulation time, Sergei Gonchar suffered a back injury that kept him on the bench for the rest of the game.

Fast forward to the third overtime, the Penguins were awarded a power-play midway through the period.

Sergei Gonchar sucked it up, jumped over the boards, and assisted on the game winner.

It was a storybook ending to the season for Gonchar, who amassed 65 points in the regular season, and played an inspired game of defensive hockey in the playoffs, the likes of which I’d never seen from the Sarge.

There was a little bit of a bitter taste left in mouth of the Penguins fanbase last year after Gonchar was not given any consideration for the Norris Trophy. The consensus was, however, that if he could maintain the pace he set last season this year, the award that honors the best defenseman in the National Hockey League could surely be his.

Enter David Koci.

Whether it was actually a late hit or not was debatable, but regardless, Koci put Gonchar into the right boards in the defensive zone and dislocated his shoulder in a preseason game.

The prognosis called for Gonchar to miss 4-6 months.

The sentiment among Penguins fans? Even if he did return, he wouldn’t be 100 percent, and his performance would surely struggle.

20 games later, Sergei Gonchar has 17 points, a +6 rating, and has scored some monster goals for the Penguins.

The Sarge didn’t miss a thing.

But what if that shoulder injury had never occurred? Gonchar’s blistering start, if paced out over 82 games, would put him just ahead of his career high 67 points in a year, and his defensive game has been no slouch, either.

Is it out of line to predict that Gonchar could have made a serious push for the Norris this year?

His impact on the team has been nothing short of noticeable. The Penguins are 14-3-3 since Gonchar has returned, and he’s breathed new life into a dull and stagnant power-play.

For Gonchar, the playoffs are not only the chance to return to the Cup Finals for a third time, it’s a chance to pave the way for a career year next season.

For the man who sits 30th on the all time scoring list for defensemen, it appears that his career is peaking at just the right time.

His future with the Penguins beyond next year is uncertain, but he’s proven we can count on one thing for sure: wherever the Penguins go this year, you can bet that 55 will be one of the driving forces.