Post-Game Talk: You're Lehtonen too many goals: Pens - 5, Stars - 1

[mpp9]

Why do we have to choose between keeping Bennett or JJ?

Are we so flush with 50 point plus forwards who can play any position that we can toss one who we might be able to sign for $3.5 million per year away?

Who is out there that could be hand for that kind of money who is better, or even as good?

I want no part of the guy moving forward. Use that spot for Beau, sign Kule, use the cap room to re-sign both Stemps and Goc.

I'd choose those avenues first.

 

[Al Smith]

Just scanned the thread quickly but saw no mention of Gibbons. C'mon fellas, that's brutal.

He was a PK and SH demon in the A, and the rare chance he gets on the kill, he makes the play to get Sutter free. It's amazing what happens when you have fast, skilled guys together killing penalties instead of sloths with no talent.

Gibbons was doing all kinds of little stuff and making things happen tonight. I think he could really help this team in the playoffs. He gets dozed agt top pairings, but when DB has the sense to get him agt lesser pairs, he creates things for this team.

I know he's too small to be a long term answer, but in a season where there isn't much skilled depth up front, he may be a guy that makes some key plays during the playoffs.

Thanks for mentioning that. He's a gnat on the shoulder of the Webers, Charas, and other top pairings that line up against 87, but he brings some speed and IQ to the team that is missing with a lot of the deadwood forwards the Pens are icing right now.

Malkin also had a nice defensive game tonight. Hopefully he hits his offensive stride in time for the playoffs.

 

[Greeneye]

I loled at the thread title

4char

 

[Mo Wanchuk]

He should. I think Beau's energy will be good for that line. Plus Jussi seems to look good with Sutter whenever they are on a line together. Next year Jussi-Sutter-Dupuis would be handy.

Yep. This would be my third line next year as well!

BTW new name?

 

[mpp9]

Seriously, for what Jokinen costs you're not going to get much better. We probably will lose him because that may be too much as it is. We're not going to improve at 2nd line LW via free agency this year, it's just not possible.

This team has always been tight on cap room. If Shero is pursuing Kesler this offseason, and he'll likely have an idea about that pending our postseason outcome well before free agency, then that's one guy. Kule is a free agent. Goc and Stempniak are looking like great solutions for us moving forward. Bennett will have a chance to prove himself this spring.

I 100% disagree that Jokinen is a must sign.

 

[cygnus47]

It depends on the cost.

At $3.5 million per for a couple years he is much better than other options out there at that price. His versatility is an added bonus.

The player you are describing, who also puts up 50-60 points a year? Open the bank for $7 million per year if you want him.

I think Goc and Stempniak are more suited for this team than Jokinen. With Dupuis also in the lineup next year, I'm fine with letting go of Jokinen.

CAPGEEK.COM ARMCHAIR GM ROSTER
cygnus2015
FORWARDS
Beau Bennett ($0.900m) / Evgeni Malkin ($9.500m) / James Neal ($5.000m)
Chris Kunitz ($3.850m) / Sidney Crosby ($8.700m) / Lee Stempniak ($2.500m)
Pascal Dupuis ($3.750m) / Marcel Goc ($2.000m) / Brandon Sutter ($2.700m)
Brian Gibbons ($0.605m) / Joe Vitale ($0.550m) / Jayson Megna ($0.874m)
Craig Adams ($0.700m) /
DEFENSEMEN
Rob Scuderi ($3.375m) / Kris Letang ($7.250m)
Olli Maatta ($0.894m) / Matt Niskanen ($4.500m)
Simon Despres ($1.200m) / Paul Martin ($5.000m)
Robert Bortuzzo ($0.600m) /
GOALTENDERS
Marc-Andre Fleury ($5.000m)
Jeff Zatkoff ($0.600m)
------
CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter)
(estimations for 2014-15)
SALARY CAP: $71,100,000; CAP PAYROLL: $70,048,292; BONUSES: $0
CAP SPACE (22-man roster): $1,051,708



Alternative to Gibbons being a bigger 4th liner.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Jokinen is needed mostly because he's versatile, he's a solid faceoff winner, can play all 3 forward positions, and he loves it on the team and that might allow him to sign for cheap for term.

If Juice agrees to 3m/yr for 3yrs, he'll be a Penguin.

Which is fine by me. With this team, having players that can play C and be decent top 6 options in that regard as well, is always a HUGE plus. It doesn't hurt that his entire time as a Penguin, he's produced well. Does he have moments where he's not good? Sure, so do a lot of people, but we ***** about him because we have rolled the wheel of "who do we whine about this year" and it landed on him.

 

[Jedi Pengu*]

Ok, let's get to Jedi Ratings for tonight (guess who gets the fail....)

First of all starting with the games best:
Jeff Zatkoff 1GA .970 sv% - (A+)
Sid Cros 2G 1A 7shots +3 - (A+)
L. Stempniak 1G 2A - (A)
O. Maata +3 - (A)
B. Sutter 1SHG - (A-)
C. Kunitz 1G 1A - (A-)

Defense core as a whole was mediocre but good enough, outside of Depres, who was visibly second guessing things. Really want to see what 'ol Disco Dan does when Letang and Martin are ready. Orpik is done!

I'll give props to Gibbons tonight, good hard work, but hey honestly, he can't be in our playoff lineup.

Dan Bylsma - (D-) - the only reason this is not a fail is because the Pens seemed motivated and they won the game. But Jokinen was all over the place, disco line dancing. He pulls Stempniak off the first line and inserts Jokinen, WTF?! Also the misuse of Depres is hard to watch, his confidence is shot at this point. In games he looks great Bylsma holds him back. In games like tonight when it was noticeably bad ALL night,'Bylsma exposes him?? I like Zatkoff and he played great (see above) but not starting Fleury tonight after going back to back against the Flyers, in my eyes we have a small goalie controversy on our hands. Nothing major, just something to watch.

Can't end this post until I add to poor Brooks Orpik's horribleness. He is nothing more than a number 6 defenseman. And even as a #6 he is still a liability. I can't believe what I'm seeing out him, it's almost sad to see how far he's fallen. Mr. Orpik was our only negative player +/- and that's not good in a 5-1 win. Depres in relation was +3 and he fumbled his way around the ice. What saves Depres is he actually has the ability individually to skate the puck out of danger. Orpik on the other hand, has no more options left.

Go Penguins!!

 

[IcedCapp]

Ok, let's get to Jedi Ratings for tonight (guess who gets the fail....)

First of all starting with the games best:
Jeff Zatkoff 1GA .970 sv% - (A+)
Sid Cros 2G 1A 7shots +3 - (A+)
L. Stempniak 1G 2A - (A)
O. Maata +3 - (A)
B. Sutter 1SHG - (A-)
C. Kunitz 1G 1A - (A-)

Defense core as a whole was mediocre but good enough, outside of Depres, who was visibly second guessing things. Really want to see what 'ol Disco Dan does when Letang and Martin are ready.

I'll give props to Gibbons tonight, good hard work, but hey honestly, he can't be in our playoff lineup.

Dan Bylsma - (D-) - the only reason this is not a fail is because the Pens seemed motivated and they won the game. But Jokinen was all over the place, disco line dancing. He pulls Stempniak off the first line and inserts Jokinen, WTF?! Also the misuse of Depres is hard to watch, his confidence is shot at this point. In games he looks great Bylsma holds him back. In games like tonight when it was noticeably bad ALL night,'Bylsma exposes him?? I like Zatkoff and he played great (see above) but not starting Fleury tonight after going back to back against the Flyers, in my eyes we have a small goalie controversy on our hands. Nothing major, just something to watch.

Can't end this post until I add to poor Brooks Orpik's horribleness. He is nothing more than a number 6 defenseman. And even as a #6 he is still a liability. I can't believe what I'm seeing out him, it's almost sad to see how far he's fallen. Mr. Orpik was our only negative player +/- and that's not good in a 5-1 win. Depres in relation was +3 and he fumbled his way around the ice. What saves Depres is he actually has the ability individually to skate the puck out of danger. Orpik on the other hand, has no more options left.

Go Penguins!!

???

Despres was great through two periods, no homer.

He was bad in the 3rd, but get this:

he played 15 seconds in the 1st 10 minutes of the 3rd.

He played 5 minutes in the last 10 minutes of the 3rd.

I'm guessing there's a usage issue there.

 

[cygnus47]

He made one bad turnover and one additional bad read the entire game. No-one WASNT guilty of that much.

 

[IcedCapp]

He made one bad turnover and one additional bad read the entire game. No-one WASNT guilty of that much.

everyone, including the golden boy (on defense) had the puck slip off their stick like Despres did. His just happened to be in the worst ****ing area.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

After watching Dallas tonight I'm pretty happy that the Pens have a deep, mobile 2-way blueline.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

I never said Jokinen is a must-sign and I don't think he is, I just don't think we're going to do better at 2nd line LW than him.

Kesler isn't going to help the LW situation and Kulemin isn't as good offensively as Jokinen. Jokinen has his sixth 45+ point season this year, which is what I consider solid for a second line winger. Kulemin has had one. They've both also had flukey 30 goal seasons despite never hitting 20 in any other seasons. For as inconsistent as Jokinen can be, he's produced at pretty much the same level since he came into the league, he's a .645 PPG 2nd line winger.

Kulemin is more of a shutdown guy who's had one year of shining offensively, but clearly isn't in the best situation to create offense now. It's a question mark at best, though.

I probably have the lowest opinion of Kulemin as anyone here, mind you, I'd love him on the third line on the cheap, but I don't see him as an upgrade on the 2nd line.

If Kesler is brought in then Jokinen isn't brought back and that 2nd line LW becomes a huge question mark if the Penguins are serious about using him as a third line center. Kesler would eat up any money we'd have to bring in a guy from outside the organization there.


For the record I think the odds of Jokinen being a Penguin next season are extremely small and we'd be better off keeping guys like Stempniak & Goc than him, but talking second line LW I see him as the best economic possibility that we'd have, short of moving Bennett there and creating a different hole elsewhere...and I'd really much rather have Bennett with Sid than Geno.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

I don't think he brings more needed qualities than guys like Engo or Megna when it comes to non-Gladams bottom 6ers, but you're right, he had himself a game.

He was a PK machine in the A and terrorized teams SH. Megna isn't even in his universe killing penalties at this point in his career.

For a team that needs more SH points and skill on the bottom six, I'd say he has some qualities this team needs.

And besides, Megna won't play anyway so I'm trying to be realistic.

I just wanna point something out:

lots of people were giving you credit for Stempniak. I was there with you last year. I'm desperate for attention. Throw me a bone. Come on dude. Jeez.

Yea, Gibbons was alright. Whatever.

I haven't seen that, but that's cool. Must be the game threads which I rarely have time to read because I'm not talented enough to entertain two kids, watch the game and read the threads.

Hey, did you know they executed people by guillotine in France until 1977? That's bananas.

 

[Michael8771*]

I'd like to see how we look with a full compliment of players. Conversely I'd love to see how the other league powers would look if they were decimated by injury.

 

[Jedi Pengu*]

???

Despres was great through two periods, no homer.

He was bad in the 3rd, but get this:

he played 15 seconds in the 1st 10 minutes of the 3rd.

He played 5 minutes in the last 10 minutes of the 3rd.

I'm guessing there's a usage issue there.

He was fighting it a little bit tonight from what I saw, but yeah not harping on him at all. He is most definitely being misused, and that 3rd period ice time is total Bylsma magic. Unbelievable.....

 

[66-30-33]

11 minutes for Stemp with no PK time...does Bylsma not know he is an awesome PKer? or is his love of Adams too great to realize other people besides Adams can PK, most of which can do a much better job aswell.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

He was a PK machine in the A and terrorized teams SH. Megna isn't even in his universe killing penalties at this point in his career.

For a team that needs more SH points and skill on the bottom six, I'd say he has some qualities this team needs.

And besides, Megna won't play anyway so I'm trying to be realistic.

Not saying Gibby doesn't have his strong suits, I just don't think they trump some of our other scratch options. But considering DB sent Megna to the press box after he was arguably our best player against Philly, I can't imagine there's anything he could do to get into our playoff line-up this year either.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

As an aside, I loved Despres' hip checks tonight.

 

[MtlPenFan]

Both Despres and Bort will be sat when the time comes and we're fully healthy, so it really doesn't matter.

I still can't get over Megna sitting. I swear it's not even the first time he gets scratched after scoring a goal the previous game.

Gibby-Goc-Megna would make a pretty good line.

 

[Michael8771*]

As an aside, I loved Despres' hip checks tonight.

You would!

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

You would!

I would?

 

[Speaking Moistly]

11 minutes for Stemp with no PK time...does Bylsma not know he is an awesome PKer? or is his love of Adams too great to realize other people besides Adams can PK, most of which can do a much better job aswell.

I feel like at this point it's not liking players who are a threat to Gladams or PKing being the greatest show of trust DB can show and he really only trusts himself. Anyone who isn't the second coming of Bylsma is going to struggle to get there.

 

[Shockmaster]

I feel like at this point it's not liking players who are a threat to Gladams or PKing being the greatest show of trust DB can show and he really only trusts himself. Anyone who isn't the second coming of Bylsma is going to struggle to get there.

If the Penguins were like most other teams and let their top players PK more often, Adams would have literally no use on this team.

 

[66-30-33]

I feel like at this point it's not liking players who are a threat to Gladams or PKing being the greatest show of trust DB can show and he really only trusts himself. Anyone who isn't the second coming of Bylsma is going to struggle to get there.

Definatly the dumbest coach in hockey, or even sports. Hell, he even sat megna, LOL!!!!!!!