News Article: Forbes' Hockey Analysis: It's not for us. To be revisited.

[DoktorZaius]

Agreed 100%, there's a few years left of hotness & beast mode from our generational talents. I have a feeling Perron is going to to rock so much that he'll cost us a little too much though. For those who didn't know or remember (or pretended not to) Perron couldn't train before last season due to injury, worth repeating.

I'm really hoping JR can lock Perron up a few months into the season to like a 4-5 year extension at a tolerable hit (if he's looking good here). If he's used top 6 LW and really enjoying his time here, he might even just do it. He seems like he cares a great deal about playing for a contender, so if he likes the fit here I could see him taking a bit less than market value to stay on. But of course, this would require MJ to take his head out of his ass as regards Perron's wing preference.

 

[Raym11]

Most the Kessel hate is Media and anti-leaf naive hockey fans





He is going to light it up. Just look @ Toronto, the team has been a joke for years and Kessel has masked problems by carrying them to wins, or been lambasted and blamed for everything when they lost.


Kessel wasnt the issue, management and pretty much every other "core" player underperforming was. Kessel went down with the ship. He is in the perfect situation in Pittsburgh


James Neal came into Pittsburgh and tore it up, Kessel will do the same at a higher level in my opinion. He really became a new player the last 3 years until the meltdown, just nobody outside of Toronto would acknowledge it willingly.


I'm sure having players like Crosby and Malkin around you will push you further mentally and physically i would expect Kessel to be inspired by the training of someone like Sid.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Oh, how cute! Forbes! Writing about hockey? My, this is precious. It's like when a toddler dresses up in mommy's jewelry and smears make-up all over its face then wants to go to the big ball.

 

[Beaninfritz]

Thanks & you know what? About a dozen Leafs fans came here since the trade & only one was annoying so maybe you dig sportsmanship after all. I guess the Congo Toronto media jungle circus made you sound worst than you are.

Yeah, that's the thing with the media. If they interview a random person on the street and say something like "So. Do you think Phil Kessel needs to do more for the team?", people are going to say "Oh yes." But not because they think he sucks, but because they have to follow the reporter's narrative in order to get on tv, so they can say to all their friends "OMG! I WAS ON TV!"

Rogers/Sportsnet is horrid. All of their "on-air personalities" are either delusional, or delusional ex-nhl'ers that really sucked. TSN's crew is far better by miles. Unfortunately, Rogers recently agreed to a lucrative tv contract with the nhl, so they get a lot of the prime stuff now which is very disheartening.

So yeah. It's mostly just some bad, bad media, and the occasional dimwit on the street that wants their 5 seconds of fame. People like myself have just learned to turn a leafs game into a drinking game when they're playing poorly.

 

[Penguinator]

Hahahaaaaa Yesssss!
Good night good sir! (gulps)

 

[Ogrezilla]

Basically every team has one top 4 pairing. One great pairing doesn't win you championships, see: Nashville, Minnesota etc

guys like Orpik, Niskanen and Martin on the 2nd pair haven't done much to win us anything either

 

[Don'tcry4mejanhrdina]

Get a hobby, folks. The summer is officially boring from here on out. Go catch some fish or read a book or something.

There's nothing I'd rather be doing than fishing right now. I love to fish! Musky, pike, walleye, lakers, bass, doesn't matter. Unfortunately I can't go very often anymore since I'm getting married next year and have been working so much to pay for that. So my boat is sitting in storage up north and I've only had it out for a week last month when I took some vacation time. If only I could be out on the water every day... Oh well, I'm planning on taking another week off in October.

 

[IcedCapp]

One other thing that bothers me: the notion that one player wins or loses a championship.

Phil Kessel by himself won't win the Cup. Awesome, thanks for the info. Neither will Simon Despres, thanks for pointing it out, Dejan Kovacevic.

But the point is to build the best-possible team, and the Penguins are a better team today than they were on June 30th. There's still work to do. They'll continue to try to do that work. If they don't win the Cup this year, it's more about their inability to fix the bottom-6 and the defense's inconsistcies, and team health, than the Phil Kessel trade.

 

[kmillzy5]

The only player in the world that can change things is Jonathan Toews!

I second this post. HHOF lock, and pens only cup hope.



Perron + 1st ?!?

 

[Le Magnifique 66]

Most the Kessel hate is Media and anti-leaf naive hockey fans





He is going to light it up. Just look @ Toronto, the team has been a joke for years and Kessel has masked problems by carrying them to wins, or been lambasted and blamed for everything when they lost.


Kessel wasnt the issue, management and pretty much every other "core" player underperforming was. Kessel went down with the ship. He is in the perfect situation in Pittsburgh


James Neal came into Pittsburgh and tore it up, Kessel will do the same at a higher level in my opinion. He really became a new player the last 3 years until the meltdown, just nobody outside of Toronto would acknowledge it willingly.


I'm sure having players like Crosby and Malkin around you will push you further mentally and physically i would expect Kessel to be inspired by the training of someone like Sid.

It's really pathetic to be honest.

 

[Freeptop]

But seriously here is where I am at with this trade. For Sids entire career with the exception of two months he has never played with an elite winger, and now we have one and all of the sudden we're too heavy up top. What do they want us to do? Hope someone is so desperate to play on sids wing they'll play for league min? We will be fine.

"They" want the Pens to trade Malkin (or Crosby, but they tend to know that's not going to happen). Ostensibly because it would free up cap space for the Pens. Really, though, it's because they're actually fans of another team, and want to see Malkin on their team (or at least not on the Pens anymore). Outside of Madden and Prisuta, who have their own agendas, you really don't find anyone making that argument in Pittsburgh, I'll note.

 

[Shwag33]

"They" want the Pens to trade Malkin (or Crosby, but they tend to know that's not going to happen). Ostensibly because it would free up cap space for the Pens. Really, though, it's because they're actually fans of another team, and want to see Malkin on their team (or at least not on the Pens anymore). Outside of Madden and Prisuta, who have their own agendas, you really don't find anyone making that argument in Pittsburgh, I'll note.

Freaking madden wanted the pens to trade malkin for oshi and backes. Talk about taking HUGE steps backwards.....

 

[JTG]

considering how much of a question mark our defense has been with guys in their 30s, I'm completely OK with this. I mean, you're not wrong. The D is absolutely a question mark. But there is nobody available who would change that, so I hope we just roll with what we've already got on D.

Ducks had three blueliners 24 and under on their top four and four total that were 24 and under in their top six.

They made it to the WCF.

It's just not something I'm worried about. I'm make concerned with Scuds and Lovejoy being in a top four role.

I am completely fine with it. And I like the group we have. You have a massive amount of potential on that blueline, and if those guys can take strides, we have a very young, affordable, and highly talented blue line.

 

[eXile59]

He makes a point about the 40+ point players, which conveniently leaves Kunitz out, ignores Perron who scored 41, and disregards injuries.

Crosby, Malkin, Letang, Hornqvist, Perron, Kessel. There's your six guys who will go over the suddenly important 40 point marker.

His historical evidence is just arbitrarily picked qualifiers.

 

[cygnus47]

guys like Orpik, Niskanen and Martin on the 2nd pair haven't done much to win us anything either

Martin and Niskanen are worlds better than what we have at this point in time. Two 3rd pairings won't cut it in the playoffs.

 

[mpp9]

Martin and Niskanen are worlds better than what we have at this point in time. Two 3rd pairings won't cut it in the playoffs.

Niskanen isn't worlds better than Cole. And we just played a season without Maatta. Sub him in for Martin.

There's question marks, but they're necessary for this team to be built properly moving forward.

 

[Ogrezilla]

Martin and Niskanen are worlds better than what we have at this point in time. Two 3rd pairings won't cut it in the playoffs.

neither did any combination of those guys. At least the guys we have are all likely to get better. We have guys who can absolutely play on a 2nd pairing with a bit of time to work through some rookie struggles.

 

[#66]

Martin and Niskanen are worlds better than what we have at this point in time. Two 3rd pairings won't cut it in the playoffs.

Did you even watch the Rangers series last year? Martin was an abomination.

Most teams have gone to smaller more mobile defensemen. So in turn teams are getting bigger and puck heavy up front.

Nevermind Martin standing around the front of the net like he wants to put the lotion in the basket... The Rangers owned board play and corners any time they went up against him. They looked like they targeted him.

 

[cygnus47]

neither did any combination of those guys. At least the guys we have are all likely to get better. We have guys who can absolutely play on a 2nd pairing with a bit of time to work through some rookie struggles.

Pouliot, Lovejoy and Cole are not outplaying Martin, Ehrhoff, Niskanen anwhere on the ice any time soon. It's fine if you think those guys didn't cut it, but making the D objectively worse doesn't fix the problem.

 

[Penguinator]

Ehrh = off

(I've wanted to do that for a while)

 

[Ogrezilla]

Pouliot, Lovejoy and Cole are not outplaying Martin, Ehrhoff, Niskanen anwhere on the ice any time soon. It's fine if you think those guys didn't cut it, but making the D objectively worse doesn't fix the problem.

Sure, that's fine. But they can be a part of a better team than those guys were.

 

[plaidchuck]

Lol niskanen is the most overrated guy to come through the team in a while.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Hockey journalists before the Pens acquired Kessel:
"Pens won't win the Cup until they bring in better wingers to help Crosby and Malkin."

Hockey journalists after the Pens acquired Kessel:
"Pens won't win the Cup because they're too top heavy and didn't need to bring in an elite winger."

And these are the people who vote on major awards. Yikes.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

The only thing stopping this team from getting back to the promised land is the idiots up in head office.

The on ice product, for once, I don't mind what this team has right now and I am leaning more towards happy with the roster outside of some trash.

 

[metalan2]

If the Pens were healthy last year they go to the finals at least.


If they stay relatively healthy this year they are cup favorites. Health is the biggest thing for this team. End of story.