Not wanting mentally disturbed *******s who will eventually hurt the team through their viscious stupidity is not the same as wanting pretty ineffectual hockey. Not that Bylsma's dump and chase was that pretty anyway.
I want the Pens to be bigger and tougher, too. But just hiring some new cheapshot artists won't change much. The entire team needs to grow some balls and hopefully, with Johnston taking the chains off, will step up better to defend each other. We already have guys who can get nasty, they just weren't allowed to, or were stuck in the AHL. Let them play and use tryouts for positions of need. We still have a giant hole in the top 6 that needs to be filled before we can seriously contend.
But apparently trolling the league is now more important than winning.
Mad respect for your opinion usually Burgs, but man. This has got to be one of the most hyperbolic satements I have ever read on here. NOBODY is even insinuating that yet you are arguing the point as if that is the majority opinion around here.
We all want this team to win.
You CAN troll the league AND win at the same time. Trolling the league isn't mutually exclusive with losing.
You're assuming that this signing means that we will suddenly become losers, and carrying that assumption further, you are assuming that nobody will care so long as we get our league wide trolling mandate in.
Comon man!
Now, for my opinion on the signing (not directed at you Burgs)
I am reading all of this "opinion" on the signing and I am totally flabbergasted. Do all of you remember how horrible our fourth line was (or even our entire bottom six)? It needed a severe upgrade. Any combination that includes Goc, Spaling, Carcillo, Comeau, Sutter, Downey is SO much better than what we had at this time last season. SO MUCH BETTER!
The fact remains, the entire point should be to upgrade in obvious area's of weakness. We did exactly that.
The other fact remains. Just because we were unable to upgrade the top 6, doesn't mean we should IGNORE the other obvious problems in the lineup and focus exclusively on something that is unobtainable at the moment (upgrading the top 6).
Is Carcillo an upgrade over what we had? Absolutely.
Does he address an area of weakness? Without a doubt.
Is this team better off without him (in other words, rolling with Adams as a regular). No freaking way!
Does he come with baggage? Yup.
Does he have the potential to hurt the team? Of course.
Does the coach have the ability to minimize that affect? Absolutely.
The ENTIRE BOTTOM line is that Dan Carcillo, like him or hate him, is an upgrade for this team and addresses two obvious area's of weakness. Our fourth line AND team toughness.
I could care less about talk of being a hypocrite. It's sports. We reserve the right to hate a player when he plays for another team yet love him when he plays for us.
Ruuttu, Laraque, Cooke, Barnaby, Kasparitis, Samuelsson and so on and so on ALL fit into this category. So yeah, great. I'm a hypocrite for wanting my team to be better and for wanting a player on my team to make my team better. I can live with that. It isn't like almost every single fan in every single fanbase isn't exactly the same. I would venture a guess that those calling Pens fans hypocrites over this are even more so themselves because they would react the same exact way once "player A" signed with their team.
Another issue that is silly: This "tryout" holds back young guys looking to fill the same role (Payerl or Sill...I've even seen PL3 mentioned which is laughable). Guess what? See above. I WANT THE BEST POSSIBLE PLAYERS to be iced every night. Carcillo is a better player than Sill. He is a better player than Pay-roll. And if he proves that he isn't during his TRYOUT, then we have the option of NOT signing him.
Complaining about a guy on a tryout who is better than what we had AND fills a couple of absolute needs is just dumb.
Finally...Malone? Penner?
Dear lord people. We are really reaching. If they were actual "potential" options on a team with obvious holes in the top 6 then they would have been brought in as well. These guys are NOT options for any teams top 6 and thinking so is revisionist history...not to mention grasping at straws in order to justify the negativity surrounding this signing.
Hell, bring back Bill Guerin then. He is a net front presence and about as fast as both Penner AND Malone.
I can't believe I am reading those names seriously.
Finally, this signing does NOT mean that those who are happy with it think that we are now serious cup contenders. But I will say this. We are now a deeper and a better team than we were before this signing. And we are continuing to chip away the weaknesses where we are currently able to. So if we continue on that road then yes, we will be where we should be eventually. Just because we can't fix the top 6 at the moment DOESN'T mean we shouldn't try to fix the other weaknesses surrounding this roster.