Perron Before and After

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Indeed. The Flames may not make it...wouldn't break my heart.

A 9th place finish would make the suffering we've endured this year a lot more bearable.

Dunno about lack of good goaltending in the East, Habs-Bolts-Rangers have pretty serious goaltending, not sure off the top of my head if there are any better in the West.

I'm not terribly sold on Bishop (or the Lightning as a whole), but perhaps things will change after the playoffs.

Yes the Rangers/Habs have the best goaltending in the East, if not the league. The West offers Quick, Rinne, and Miller isn't too bad either.

 

[Throttlehead]

A 9th place finish would make the suffering we've endured this year a lot more bearable.



I'm not terribly sold on Bishop (or the Lightning as a whole), but perhaps things will change after the playoffs.

Yes the Rangers/Habs have the best goaltending in the East, if not the league. The West offers Quick, Rinne, and Miller isn't too bad either.

I'm picking Nashville to come of the West.

On a side note Avs outshoot Nucks 18-5 in first period.

Tyson Barrie is a freak AGAIN.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

I'm picking Nashville to come of the West.

On a side note Avs outshoot Nucks 18-5 in first period.

Tyson Barrie is a freak AGAIN.

I would love it if Nashville finally broke through. They absolutely need to win the division though. I don't like their chances against Chicago.

 

[Throttlehead]

I would love it if Nashville finally broke through. They absolutely need to win the division though. I don't like their chances against Chicago.

Nashville is one legit centre (goal scorer) away from a super power.

Bishop is the mistake Tambi made, we could have had him for MPS instead we offered Jones. He would have solved our goalie problem.

 

[hmminvisiblecola1279]

I agree with that as well.

They are my choice to come out of the East.

In the West I like the Wild.
Unfortunately I also think the Flames are going to cause some damage.

I mentioned Montreal as they have Price who can steal them some games in the playoffs.

 

[Delicious Pancakes]

Pittsburgh has a reasonably easy schedule to close out the year. Maybe some wins help mentally to right the ship. As others have said Perron isn't the cause of the Pens troubles. That said he's a streaky player and after starting with 9 points in his first 9 games with Pittsburgh he's only got 1 point in the last 6 games and 12 in 24 since the beginning of February.

It would be great to see the Pens keep dropping. I still have hopes that that 1st rounder will be in the teens.

 

[nexttothemoon]

Interesting stat... the last 4 Stanley Cups have been won by a team finishing either number #1 or #2 in goals against in the regular season.

14 Kings #1
13 Hawks #1
12 Kings #2
11 Bruins #2

That hasn't always been the trend in the NHL obviously... Pens won it in 09 with the 17th best GA and Hurricanes in 06 with the 20th best GA.

In general though... defense does dominate in the playoffs.

This season leading the GA we have:

Montreal #1
NYR #2
Chicago #3
Nashville #4
LA #5

Will be interesting to see if one of the top 2 teams in that stat win the cup for the 5th year in a row.

 

[Throttlehead]

Interesting stat... the last 4 Stanley Cups have been won by a team finishing either number #1 or #2 in goals against in the regular season.

14 Kings #1
13 Hawks #1
12 Kings #2
11 Bruins #2

That hasn't always been the trend in the NHL obviously... Pens won it in 09 with the 17th best GA and Hurricanes in 06 with the 20th best GA.

In general though... defense does dominate in the playoffs.

This season leading the GA we have:

Montreal #1
NYR #2
Chicago #3
Nashville #4
LA #5

Will be interesting to see if one of the top 2 teams in that stat win the cup for the 5th year in a row.

That is very interesting, and it is reasonable to think that 2 of those 5 teams end up in the finals. They seem to be favs without looking up that stat.

 

[Real_Estate-Agent]

Really? You think Montreal's a favourite? They only go as far as Price takes them.

The Rangers are the clear cut favourite.

Shhhhhh.... Some guys in my playoff pool might be reading this thread

 

[Replacement*]

Pens don't really need to be winning games right now and the one thing they are focused on this year that hasn't always been the case is in limiting GA and playing a better system game that is more conducive to playoffs.

I think the Pens are a better playoff team now but a worse Regular SEason team. As the LA KINGS have demonstrated for around 4 seasons that's a better thing to be.

I bet if Perron stayed here he'd have a pile of points as well in some of the weak opponent outings this club has had over the last 20 games.

 

[McShogun99]

Perron is a very good 2nd line winger. Regardless of Pittsburgh's slump we still lost that trade.

 

[Throttlehead]

Perron is a very good 2nd line winger. Regardless of Pittsburgh's slump we still lost that trade.

How do you know till you see what we get in return?

 

[Mr Positive]

How do you know till you see what we get in return?

if we're judging the trade though, does it really look better on the guy making it if we luck out with it? The Pitt 1st could win the draft lottery after all if they miss the playofs. MacT is a genuis!!

regardless, I don't mind the Perron trade. Even if it's a late first, at least it's a first in a deep draft. That's a very useful asset, which is a lot more than a lot of other teams can say about trade returns for key players (eg Hartnell trade). Trading him also created a void that allowed Yakupov to rise to the occasion. It was one of several factors anyway.

Perron also seemed like he wanted out of here, and his value was falling as his production was stagnating.

 

[yukoner88]

Perron is a very good 2nd line winger. Regardless of Pittsburgh's slump we still lost that trade.

We've lost for the moment, but whatever happens with the 1st rounder we got will determine how well we faired with the trade.

 

[McArthur]

I agree with that as well.

They are my choice to come out of the East.

In the West I like the Wild.
Unfortunately I also think the Flames are going to cause some damage.

Any word on the return of Martin St. Louis?

 

[McArthur]

if we're judging the trade though, does it really look better on the guy making it if we luck out with it? The Pitt 1st could win the draft lottery after all if they miss the playofs. MacT is a genuis!!

I would party in the street NAKED.

 

[dem]

I didn't think Perron would work very well with Crosby..
He likes the puck too much.

Hopefully our Pens 1st rounder can slip into the teens

 

[nexttothemoon]

That is very interesting, and it is reasonable to think that 2 of those 5 teams end up in the finals. They seem to be favs without looking up that stat.

Yes... I think the trend in the NHL more than ever is towards the strongest defensive teams having the most success... and you can see the focus on team defense league wide as scoring of the top producers likely won't even hit 85 pts this year.

The last time it took less than 90 pts to win the Art Ross (other than lockout shortened years) was 67/68... and that was when there was only a 74 game season.

So basically this is some of the most offensively stifling hockey we are seeing in ~50 years.

For a bit more depression inducing info... Oilers are dead last in goals against so when you consider the emphasis on team defense league-wide, it shows just how far the Oilers are from coming anywhere near being even an average team in the NHL.

It's basically a case that the path the Oilers management took with their rebuild philosophy... to become a free wheeling, offense-1st, run and gun style team like the Oilers of the 80's is basically the exact opposite of the teams that will have success in the NHL now and very likely going forward as well.

Oilers have been built to fail.

Hopefully MacT (or hopefully new management) can someday realize this and the philosophy can be shifted towards building a team that can actually compete in the NHL instead of wallowing in mediocrity for "decades of Oiler hockey".

 

[blupye*]

Pittsburgh has a reasonably easy schedule to close out the year. Maybe some wins help mentally to right the ship. As others have said Perron isn't the cause of the Pens troubles. That said he's a streaky player and after starting with 9 points in his first 9 games with Pittsburgh he's only got 1 point in the last 6 games and 12 in 24 since the beginning of February.

It would be great to see the Pens keep dropping. I still have hopes that that 1st rounder will be in the teens.

I have high hopes they don't make it. Boston is 6 behind them. Pit plays Philly twice and CBJ once this week. What a dream come true if they didn't make playoffs and their balls were picked for the 1st overall pick.

 

[McLotto 97]

Thing I am most excited about is this

10 Pittsburgh M 74 40 23 11 91
11 Detroit A 73 39 22 12 90
12 Vancouver P 74 43 27 4 90
13 Washington 74 40 24 10 90
14 Winnipeg C 75 39 24 12 90
15 Los Angeles 74 37 23 14 88
16 Calgary P 74 40 27 7 87

For sure they make the playoffs but if some of these teams below them keep winning and Pitts keeps sliding (unless Pitts makes the Semi finals or finals) we could be picking 15 to 21 with their pick

 

[obglim]

The fact that they're doing this well without Henrik really shows how good they are.

This isn't really true. Talbot has better numbers than Lundquist.

Talbot: 2.16 .928
Lundquist: 2.25 .922

Not a huge difference, but goaltending has been a positive.

 

[voxel]

Tyson Barrie is a freak AGAIN.

He was excellent in the AHL as I recall and I wanted the Oilers to trade for him and I remember BBO saying we just signed Justin Schultz so I got my wish... well no. JS is a slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow decision maker. He plays the game at AHL speed.

 

[Throttlehead]

Yes... I think the trend in the NHL more than ever is towards the strongest defensive teams having the most success... and you can see the focus on team defense league wide as scoring of the top producers likely won't even hit 85 pts this year.

The last time it took less than 90 pts to win the Art Ross (other than lockout shortened years) was 67/68... and that was when there was only a 74 game season.

So basically this is some of the most offensively stifling hockey we are seeing in ~50 years.

For a bit more depression inducing info... Oilers are dead last in goals against so when you consider the emphasis on team defense league-wide, it shows just how far the Oilers are from coming anywhere near being even an average team in the NHL.

It's basically a case that the path the Oilers management took with their rebuild philosophy... to become a free wheeling, offense-1st, run and gun style team like the Oilers of the 80's is basically the exact opposite of the teams that will have success in the NHL now and very likely going forward as well.

Oilers have been built to fail.

Hopefully MacT (or hopefully new management) can someday realize this and the philosophy can be shifted towards building a team that can actually compete in the NHL instead of wallowing in mediocrity for "decades of Oiler hockey".

I don't think its a surprise the Oilers are worst at GA, they need to stop building from the wings in. Even the Oilers in the 80's had goalies and competent dmen.

 

[Mr Positive]

I don't think its a surprise the Oilers are worst at GA, they need to stop building from the wings in. Even the Oilers in the 80's had goalies and competent dmen.

this was known since even before we drafted Hall. We took the winger, but we knew that we should be building from the net out. There just was no opportunity to really do it that way, because the rebuild did not have any kind of pre-planning.

 

[McDynasty]

they were playing like junk before the Perron trade, over a shorter term than what you are stating. They really didn't want to trade any of their picks or prospects this year, but the team is in collapse so that philosophy went out the window.

Getting Perron actually led to them winning some games, but it looks like they have fallen off yet again.

imo the issue is that the league is attacking the skill game. Scoring is way down league wide. The Pens are built on scoring so it has hit them hardest. A player like Crosby is no longer best in the league in this environment imo.

I'm curious what are some of the things you percieve that support that the league attacking the skill game.