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Thoughts on our grit up front.

MichiganWolverines

MichiganWolverines

Big Mac Attack
Jul 3, 2012
1,657
0
Brampton, Ontario
#66 said:
I'm a huge Backes fan. IMO he's right up there with Sid, Malkin, Dats and Quick as the hardest players to play against. Those other guys are really skilled but Backes is big, viper mean and 2 way smart. Players can learn something by watching him.
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I've never liked David Backes for some reason, he's a great all-around forward, but I've always hated him. I'd be grateful if Eric Tangradi could develop into a Nathan Horton type power-forward.
 
Jules Winnfield

Jules Winnfield

Fleurymanbad
Mar 19, 2010
8,919
1,963
#66 said:
I'm not overly a Tangradi fan either but I think some people, maybe even the Pens, miscast him as a Malone or Ladd type. IMO he's more along the lines of Avery or Cooke, he needs to hit, fight, chirp and be hard to play against. I want to see him play with a huge chip on his shoulder and dare people to knock it off.
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I'm not sure where you see this connection from. I see very little in common with Tangradi and Avery/Cooke. They are feisty. They play physically bigger than their size. They do not fear taking a beating and giving one back to score. They instigate conflict.

Tangradi is "currently" very similar to Dave Roche for the older Pens fans. His upside IMO would be to develop like Tomas Holmstrom/Mike Knuble and cause havoc on the PP screening the goalie and go to the net on ES.
 
MonsterSurge

MonsterSurge

Registered User
Nov 14, 2011
2,387
0
Jules Winnfield said:
I'm not sure where you see this connection from. I see very little in common with Tangradi and Avery/Cooke. They are feisty. They play physically bigger than their size. They do not fear taking a beating and giving one back to score. They instigate conflict.

Tangradi is "currently" very similar to Dave Roche for the older Pens fans. His upside IMO would be to develop like Tomas Holmstrom/Mike Knuble and cause havoc on the PP screening the goalie and go to the net on ES.
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I'd much rather him play like Iginla or Backes...
 

DeadGator401

Registered User
Feb 7, 2011
1,158
0
cassius said:
I'm with Jacob on this one... our forwards seem fine from a grit/toughness POV, but the defense is very suspect.

Last year, I bet teams were licking their chops about the prospects of squaring off against Michalek / Martin in the post-season. Rightly so too - those guys were soff and got tossed around like a freshman on prom night.
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What?
 
#66

#66

Registered User
Dec 30, 2003
11,585
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Jules Winnfield said:
I'm not sure where you see this connection from. I see very little in common with Tangradi and Avery/Cooke. They are feisty. They play physically bigger than their size. They do not fear taking a beating and giving one back to score. They instigate conflict.

Tangradi is "currently" very similar to Dave Roche for the older Pens fans. His upside IMO would be to develop like Tomas Holmstrom/Mike Knuble and cause havoc on the PP screening the goalie and go to the net on ES.
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Fully agree and thats the problem. I want the kid that sticks a player in the face from the bench.

Not that I want him doing that but thats the kind of an edge he needs to play with. If he crosses the line sometimes... so be it.
 
Darth Vitale

Darth Vitale

Dark Matter
Aug 21, 2003
28,172
114
Darkness
Sidney the Kidney said:
I think you're arguing against two different things though. For the most part, I think folks want to see more size/grit/toughness in the bottom six. So that really has no bearing on people also wanting to see more talent/skill in the top six.
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Since someone else said that I must've misunderstood the original complaint.

I am not too worried about the bottom 6 grit either, though.

For one I don't believe Cooke is now useless as some loonies here seem to think. :)
Two I don't think Sutter has to be a "banger" in order to be very effective in this dept.
Three, Glass is going to cut people and Vitale will finish them off.
 
#66

#66

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Dec 30, 2003
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Chancellor Vitale said:
Since someone else said that I must've misunderstood the original complaint.

I am not too worried about the bottom 6 grit either, though.

For one I don't believe Cooke is now useless as some loonies here seem to think. :)
Two I don't think Sutter has to be a "banger" in order to be very effective in this dept.
Three, Glass is going to cut people and Vitale will finish them off.
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True but the Pens are going to have to play in playoff wars against the Rangers, Flyers and Bruins to win cups.

One of the long list of things that annoyed me about last years team was Asham standing in the middle of a bunch of Bruins looking like a dwarf in an oak forest. At the same time I thought about Avery going after MAF in the Rangers series in 08. Gill and BGL stepped in and we never heard from Avery again.

Something happened with the Pens and they've gotten really bland after winning the cup. Sure huge injuries have something to do with it but they've lost that attitude. Sid showed a spark last year but its not a team wide thing like it used to be.
 
Darth Vitale

Darth Vitale

Dark Matter
Aug 21, 2003
28,172
114
Darkness
#66 said:
True but the Pens are going to have to play in playoff wars against the Rangers, Flyers and Bruins to win cups.

One of the long list of things that annoyed me about last years team was Asham standing in the middle of a bunch of Bruins looking like a dwarf in an oak forest. At the same time I thought about Avery going after MAF in the Rangers series in 08. Gill and BGL stepped in and we never heard from Avery again.

Something happened with the Pens and they've gotten really bland after winning the cup. Sure huge injuries have something to do with it but they've lost that attitude. Sid showed a spark last year but its not a team wide thing like it used to be.
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You can make the argument we're undersized in the bottom 6 (sans Sutter). That's hard to argue against because everyone's basically 5-11"-6'1" which is average at best by NHL standards. So yah we could afford to maybe shed a TK and an Adams and replace with bigger guys of comparable worth.

It all goes back to the coach's fascination with mobility and speed. Which, it's not a bad thing, just a philosophy. Some teams are built for brute force (Bruins), others speed mostly (Penguins, Oilers), some a mix. Maybe one day we'll see a Pens - Oilers final. That would be a helluva exciting series to watch.
 
Crafton

Crafton

Liver-Eating Johnson
May 6, 2010
9,842
110
San Francisco
Chancellor Vitale said:
Since someone else said that I must've misunderstood the original complaint.

I am not too worried about the bottom 6 grit either, though.

For one I don't believe Cooke is now useless as some loonies here seem to think. :)
Two I don't think Sutter has to be a "banger" in order to be very effective in this dept.
Three, Glass is going to cut people and Vitale will finish them off.
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that's how you coin a nickname.

cutters_way.jpg
 
Shady Machine

Shady Machine

Registered User
Aug 6, 2010
36,705
8,141
I'm not sure the Bruins are really built that tough. They have Lucic, Horton (his concussions don't really make him this big mean guy), and the 4th line, but the rest of the forward team is average sized and skill guys. Marchand is their Cooke with skill, Krecji is small and pretty soft, same with Seguin. And then on the back end they have Chara, Seidenburg. I don't know, I guess I'm not particularly scared of their toughness (or really anybody's).
 
King of the Fall

King of the Fall

Registered User
Aug 26, 2007
1,532
5
Shady Machine said:
I'm not sure the Bruins are really built that tough. They have Lucic, Horton (his concussions don't really make him this big mean guy), and the 4th line, but the rest of the forward team is average sized and skill guys. Marchand is their Cooke with skill, Krecji is small and pretty soft, same with Seguin. And then on the back end they have Chara, Seidenburg. I don't know, I guess I'm not particularly scared of their toughness (or really anybody's).
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Dont forget McQuaid. Ference also has a nastiness to his game.
 
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