GDT: Pens Playoff Push: Hold on to your butts!

[Ryder71]

You'll be the one who waits.

 

[Gurglesons]

You'll be the one who waits.

For Dubas to make a good move! Ha!

 

[Ryder71]

For Dubas to make a good move! Ha!

View attachment 853579

He's made a lot of good moves actually.

Thought you'd be thrilled with trading Ruhwedel, and Bunting has been very good.

 

[Giskard]

Well at least we're spared the pain of a sure implosion against the Islanders if it was an elimination game.

It was a good "April of the Penguins", first time this team showed a consecutive pulse in years, at least is better to finish the season on a high and build on it, instead the usual sink end of season.

Now change the men behind the bench, and only then plan how to get rid of Jarry, Graves, etc. otherwise I can't see next season going any different.

 

[Slaaapshuter]

Now I can begin a 6 month long fruitless bitching about firing Sullsma and Dumbass into the sun

*complaining into the void*

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

Koivunen is decently interesting but seems very boom or bust. Pono seems like a whatever bottom-6 ceiling dude. Can't even remember the third prospect, couldn't give a shit about 'em tbh. Bunting's whatever; he would've been a decent add years ago but now it doesn't really matter imo.

The fact that Jake refused to discuss an extension with anyone until the season's over f***ed things up tbh. If he was more open to talking extension, I think the return would've been much more in line with what you'd expect from a ~40g guy at the deadline. Oh well.

 

[Don'tcry4mejanhrdina]

It could be worse, we could be Wings fans.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Now I can begin a 6 month long fruitless bitching about firing Sullsma and Dumbass into the sun

*complaining into the void*

I want to set this post to the "Don't Look Back in Anger" music video.

 

[Gold Diamond]

Don't play musical chairs with the last games of the season. This summer will be very telling:

Do they give Graves and EK another chance for another year and hope they don't suck? Or do they cut bait and salary with trades?

Are they going to go younger? Or try to sign Guentzel or other expensive free agents?

My bet is the latter: they hope that they just need to be a little better to be a contender. But hope is a dangerous thing.

 

[metalan2]

The Caps scored two goals in the past two games on a goalie and went 2-0.

I don't think this scenarios has ever happened before in NHL history.

If you would have told me, the Caps would score 1 goal each game (Boston, Philly) on a goalie, and one of those games was tied 1-1, you would think the best Washington could do is 1-1, even if you assume one 1-0 shutout. Totally insane.

 

[The Old Master]

it's what i deserve for rooting for a team out of philly.

 

[orby]

Do they give Graves and EK another chance for another year and hope they don't suck? Or do they cut bait and salary with trades?

Both will almost certainly be back. Those aren't easy contracts to move, especially EK. I think they need to re-evaluate their defensive strategy in general because both those guys looked significantly worse here than they did elsewhere.

 

[Big Poppa Pump]

How can we add EK coming off a 100pt season, and still finish near exactly the same. It's f***ing bonkers.

How can we add EK and our power play got worse?

 

[TheGoldenJet]

I’m glad they were eliminated before the final game of the year. Now, maybe our sad sack media may actually ask Sullsma some hard questions:

“Mike, what could you and the coaching staff improve upon for next year?”

“Mike, what the **** were you doing all year long that led to missing the playoffs, again?”

Who am I kidding, it will be softballs galore I’m sure.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Sorry yinz, was holding on to my wife’s butt instead. My bad.

 

[madinsomniac]

I think they got exactly what they deserved for a relatively non committal trade deadline... either be all in or all out. This league doesn't reward mediocrity... once they decided they were sellers, they should have ripped it to the bone and never even gave them a shot at finishing outside the bottom ten...

 

[Bumpus]

Can’t count on those piece of shit Flyers for anything.

 

[HandshakeLine]

I think they got exactly what they deserved for a relatively non committal trade deadline... either be all in or all out. This league doesn't reward mediocrity... once they decided they were sellers, they should have ripped it to the bone and never even gave them a shot at finishing outside the bottom ten...

I don't think the trade deadline was really the issue. I think the fact that they waited until the trade deadline to make any real changes was.

The fact of the matter is this team, like last year's team, absolutely should have been in the postseason and didn't make it not because it wasn't possible, but because they made the worst decisions every step of the way.

 

[Victor Z]

Both will almost certainly be back. Those aren't easy contracts to move, especially EK. I think they need to re-evaluate their defensive strategy in general because both those guys looked significantly worse here than they did elsewhere.

Seems quite likely. Anyone who expected EK to put up numbers which were dramatically better than what he did this season was delusional to begin with. Likewise anyone who didn't expect his defense to be (almost?) as much of a negative as his offense is a positive. We'll run it back next season with Letang, EK and St. Ivany on the right and unless JSI does a John-Marino-type sophomore regression he'll be OK. He just needs to prove that his 6 weeks in the NHL reflected his true ability and he wasn't way over his head. I was calling for him to be here long before the call came, and I suspect he'll be no worse than adequate as a #6.

On the other hand....

Anyone who expected Ryan Graves to be Brian Dumoulin (in his prime) 2.0 was delusional to begin with -- looking at you Kyle Dubious -- but, like EK, he performed exactly as should have been expected. Graves has NEVER been the "defensive" half of any pair and it was ludicrous to expect that he could be thrown in with 58 or 65 as part of a "balanced" pairing.

However, what the haters fail to see is that the suckass player they THINK Graves is, is the suckass player POJ ACTUALLY is; Graves, warts and all, is way better than clueless POJ no matter what the half-wits think.

Even so, there is NO WAY this team can come back next season with Petts, Graves, Shea and POS and still think that they don't have a major problem on that side. Put Graves with St. Ivany; that's OK though Graves is pricey for being just a #5 defenseman -- but the one thing this team needs most, even more than "shooting Tristan Jarry into the sun" or dumping the Sully-approved deadwood (Acciari, Carter, Nieto) from the bottom 6, is a REAL #1 LH defenseman and one of those is not likely to just magically appear.

 

[Buddy Bizarre]

How can we add EK and our power play got worse?

You know the answer to this

 

[K Fleur]

Crosby has to wait till he’s 35/36 before he gets back to back seasons with 82 games played.

It’s a cold world.

 

[molon labe]

Crosby has to wait till he’s 35/36 before he gets back to back seasons with 82 games played.

It’s a cold world.

Can't compare players across eras - except in the case where they play in more than one era (in Sid's case, 2.5 eras) and do well in each.

Young Sid in this league, with these goalies - I have confidence betting he'd outperform the field.

Too much hype [always] around 'the current thing' - but McDavid has had the pleasure of playing in a league that caters to speed and shys away from physicality in large part due to Sid himself. He's a fast guy who plays in a league that caters to it. Yet, everyone wants to proclaim him the best there ever was which is insanity. I look at guys like Sid and to a lesser extent, Ovi, who have done what they did across eras and against some of the best goalies in the last 50 years. But hey, who cares if folks like Hyman score 50+ goals? That means nothing when looking back to years when 44 goals won the Richard, right?

I don't think it's any major coincidence that he's been able to play this many games considering his game really hasn't changed all that much. The nightly headshots and crosschecks have really, really dwindled. He's also a bit more cautious on certain plays. I think he definitely should continue being that way.

 

[LOGiK]

Lost out on the post-season by 1 point for two consecutive seasons and the coach stays?
That means I stop watching, and supporting this team in any way it gives them money.
Fire coach, NOW>
FIRE COACH< NOW>!

 

[Bumpus]

TikTok - Make Your Day

 

[Andy99]

The Caps scored two goals in the past two games on a goalie and went 2-0.

I don't think this scenarios has ever happened before in NHL history.

If you would have told me, the Caps would score 1 goal each game (Boston, Philly) on a goalie, and one of those games was tied 1-1, you would think the best Washington could do is 1-1, even if you assume one 1-0 shutout. Totally insane.

They also only gave up a handful of goals in the last six games…they were playing the most boring trap hockey to get into the playoffs, something our core players couldn’t or wouldn’t do…