Post-Game Talk: Cole's Plus/Minus: Pens vs. Rangers - The Ogre/Cole Positive Train! CHOO CHOO

[ChaosAgent]

Can we viably move Horny at this point?
Move phillip, horny..... keep our d corps strong, possibly ship out Maatta.

Didn't think about any of that as I'm not a contract / roster poster, more a color poster... but I'm curious.
where are the contract/roster guys -- @pixiesfanyo

What is a color poster

 

[Gurglesons]

Can we viably move Horny at this point?
Move phillip, horny..... keep our d corps strong, possibly ship out Maatta.

Didn't think about any of that as I'm not a contract / roster poster, more a color poster... but I'm curious.
where are the contract/roster guys -- @pixiesfanyo

Why are we moving Hornqvist?

 

[Gurglesons]

What is a color poster

I think he’s referring to me being the Bob Errey of the forum.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Can we viably move Horny at this point?
Move phillip, horny..... keep our d corps strong, possibly ship out Maatta.

Didn't think about any of that as I'm not a contract / roster poster, more a color poster... but I'm curious.
where are the contract/roster guys -- @pixiesfanyo

I am gonna say no on moving Hornqvist. I think he's in a rut that a lot of guys are on this team, he's not the only one having a pretty ruthless scoring drought - Kessel is on one too.

It doesn't help that the last 5 games, Sid has 0 goals as well. What was great about today was that even though Jake and Sid didn't need to lead this team in scoring for once, they scored 5 and won. Goals from Blueger x2, Bjugstad, Cullen, and Schultz. That's good, it's tougher to get off the slump when the team is struggling to score, more pressure is put on you.

I think the team needs to just juggle things back to what has worked before, even if momentarily, as a shot in the arm to see if it works enough to get the guys scoring again.

Guentzel, Crosby, Hornqvist - I know Sid doesn't like Horny on his wing, but I'd try it for a game to see how it looks right now.
McCann, Blueger, Kessel - Canner and Blueger seem to have some solid chemistry, even Rust and Blueger do.
Simon, Bjugstad, Rust - Could be an interesting line.

 

[LOGiK]

What is a color poster

commentary bro. You seen my posts. I don't do roster / picks / trades / line ups like other posters. I'm an after the fact guy.

 

[WayneSid9987]

Rig was always a big ol' dummy in his own zone with the puck on his blade.
Guds so far looks like he knows what he's doing in those situations and hits the open outlet regularly.
I know he mentioned how much support PIT plays with and he's consistently getting pucks to that support so far.
Also think the north fast thing here isn't difficult for him either where he finds friendly sticks at a much greater rate than Rig.
Rig would often just turn it over/give the opposing team the puck back.

At the moment, the JJ's and Guds's are right where they need them to be for this team to put their best foot forward for this run.

Expect they'll dabble with Olli in here shortly and we'll see if he's gonna be at where he needs to be..helping with better exits/making it look easy dissecting the opponents forecheck/offensive support.
If he's not they have the other players to plug in...

 

[LOGiK]

I think he’s referring to me being the Bob Errey of the forum.

Wait, what? No. You think I'm insulting you? No. I'm curious what you think about what I posted.
I was color your way more in-depth at moves and rosters/trades.

 

[LOGiK]

Why are we moving Hornqvist?

That is what I'm curious for. Do we have kids that can replace him at this point?
I know he is a major piece, but I'm curious at what we are looking at.

 

[LOGiK]

I am gonna say no on moving Hornqvist. I think he's in a rut that a lot of guys are on this team, he's not the only one having a pretty ruthless scoring drought - Kessel is on one too.

It doesn't help that the last 5 games, Sid has 0 goals as well. What was great about today was that even though Jake and Sid didn't need to lead this team in scoring for once, they scored 5 and won. Goals from Blueger x2, Bjugstad, Cullen, and Schultz. That's good, it's tougher to get off the slump when the team is struggling to score, more pressure is put on you.

I think the team needs to just juggle things back to what has worked before, even if momentarily, as a shot in the arm to see if it works enough to get the guys scoring again.

Guentzel, Crosby, Hornqvist - I know Sid doesn't like Horny on his wing, but I'd try it for a game to see how it looks right now.
McCann, Blueger, Kessel - Canner and Blueger seem to have some solid chemistry, even Rust and Blueger do.
Simon, Bjugstad, Rust - Could be an interesting line.

I know we need a horny type... I'm just curious if, that IF we could move him, is there a replacement in the system.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

commentary bro. You seen my posts. I don't do roster / picks / trades / line ups like other posters. I'm an after the fact guy.

You're our Mike Rupp/Colby Armstrong post game poster.

 

[Gurglesons]

You're our Mike Rupp/Colby Armstrong post game poster.

Seems like he is more of a Jay judging by the fact he is saying he doesn’t do anything.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

I know we need a horny type... I'm just curious if, that IF we could move him, is there a replacement in the system.

I think the notion was that the replacement could have been Aston-Reese. When in reality, it's closer to Jake Guentzel at this point with net front presence and Jake is only starting to scratch the surface of that ability that he seems to be half decent at right now and could get better at.

Horny, it's just kind of shitty that there's not a fit for him right now with others struggling and whatever else that is going on. I liked him with Crosby and I even liked him with Malkin. Something about him with Bjugstad looks off, he just doesn't look comfortable, maybe it's Simon as the LW'er or whatever it is. I think the closest we have is maybe Kasper Bjorkqvist and I am insanely high on the kid to biased levels, so I might not be the right one to ask.

I was actually thinking/wondering if you move Bjugstad back to wing and put Blueger as a C on the 3rd line with Hornqvist as his RW, could that be something that might work well...

 

[WayneSid9987]

I know we need a horny type... I'm just curious if, that IF we could move him, is there a replacement in the system.

Don't think we'll have that til Bjorkqvist or Hallander come along...
Or maybe signing a UFA like Ferland...
Horny, even not producing normally like this is better than Simmonds right now.

ETA: And yea, they expected ZAR to be like him but he's a bottom 6/4th liner.

 

[Tumty]

Oh boy...

Let's forget the fact that he has 4pts in his last 5 games and has been trying to feed Crosby a lot of passes that he's fumbled that he normally wouldn't...

Bryan Rust has 18 goals in 66 games, that's a 22 goal pace. He's also a streaky player that is some how also putting up better than 0.5ppg in his role as the swiss army knife on the team. He's literally been on every line on this team.

The only trend is that he's streaky, not that he can't score on great chances. In the last 5, he has 1 goal and 3 assists, he's also been playing a ton on the PK and is a guy that is fast on the forecheck and has been utilizing his line mates a ton as well.

Sid has 0 goals in 5 games, Rust has been possibly force feeding too many passes to him to get that juggernaut rolling again.

Rust has 4pts in his last 5.
Sid has 2pts in his last 5.
Jake has 3pts in his last 5.

The one thing you might want to brush up on before you verbally **** out this kind of crap, is research. Also, watching.

Nice. Well answered. Didnt mean that he aint producing points, or making things happen. Didnt mean he is playing poorly, not at all. He just doesnt score on those ' easy ' or ' good ' opportunities, how ever you wanna say it. So please take your head out off you ass, and do not try to make anything bigger from that Quote. In my mind Rust scores a lot of because his own drive and skill. Not because someone is feeding him greatly.

 

[Pens x]

+ we get to play this dog shit team again this season

 

[Gurglesons]

That is what I'm curious for. Do we have kids that can replace him at this point?
I know he is a major piece, but I'm curious at what we are looking at.

No. Hornqvist is the only physical, net presence we have. I’m not a grit guy, but we need Hornqvist.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Nice. Well answered. Didnt mean that he aint producing points, or making things happen. Didnt mean he is playing poorly, not at all. He just doesnt score on those ' easy ' or ' good ' opportunities, how ever you wanna say it. So please take your head out off you ass, and do not try to make anything bigger from that Quote. In my mind Rust scores a lot of because his own drive and skill. Not because someone is feeding him greatly.

Well, you're still wrong.

Rust is a utility player, he's definitely not a 1st line winger and he's merely there because of his speed and style which meshes with Crosby more so than other wingers tend to. There's also a lot of success there from before and even at times this season including his play away from the puck that adds an element that Sid thrives with on his line - responsible play at both ends.

Rust has scored plenty of goals that were "easy goals" or off of "good opportunities" but he also scores a lot of goals off the rush because of his speed and his patented power move that he loves to do. Jake is more of your easy or good opportunity type of goal scorer because of how fast he rips the puck off his stick or deflects it. Having McCann there was a lot of what Jake was and it worked well for a bit and then didn't.

Personally, I prefer McCann with Crosby and Guentzel and would rather move Rust down to the 3rd line with Bjugstad, but there's already an issue of where does Hornqvist play and whatever lifeless carcass that Kessel has become.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Don't think we'll have that til Bjorkqvist or Hallander come along...
Or maybe signing a UFA like Ferland...
Horny, even not producing normally like this is better than Simmonds right now.

ETA: And yea, they expected ZAR to be like him but he's a bottom 6/4th liner.

The good thing is that Ferland has cooled off a ton, he was on this monster tear that would have seen him score closer to 30 goals, but at this point, his production is around where Rust and McCann's is, so if he's looking for his huge pay day, he better have a Rust/Guentzel type of playoffs because its likely falling around 4m/yr.

If we had the roster space for Ferland, I would look at him in the Rust salary range, but that defense is so far beyond muddled with cap space being eaten up, JR will have a lot of work to do there.

I recall when Rust & Kessel were on a line together, Kessel was the left winger because of his familiarity on that side on the powerplay, Rust also gravitates there.

Other possibilities for that staff...which I am hoping they're exploring a lot of things, would be:

McCann, Crosby, Guentzel
Kessel, Blueger, Rust
Johnson, Bjugstad, Hornqvist
Simon, Cullen, Wilson

 

[DesertPenguin]

Don't need to ship out Horny or Phil. This team can be kept 100% intact for next season with one exception: move JJ, Gudbranson or Maatta. They can't all play anyway.

Kessel is still a pt/gm player, despite the slump. You won't get better production out of the 6.8m cap hit he costs you. With McCann's emergence we don't need to chop Phil in half to create two wingers for geno. We have Phil at 6.8m and McCann at 1.25m. Thats an average of a hair over 4m average for Geno's wings. Totally fine.

 

[LOGiK]

The good thing is that Ferland has cooled off a ton, he was on this monster tear that would have seen him score closer to 30 goals, but at this point, his production is around where Rust and McCann's is, so if he's looking for his huge pay day, he better have a Rust/Guentzel type of playoffs because its likely falling around 4m/yr.

If we had the roster space for Ferland, I would look at him in the Rust salary range, but that defense is so far beyond muddled with cap space being eaten up, JR will have a lot of work to do there.

I recall when Rust & Kessel were on a line together, Kessel was the left winger because of his familiarity on that side on the powerplay, Rust also gravitates there.

Other possibilities for that staff...which I am hoping they're exploring a lot of things, would be:

McCann, Crosby, Guentzel
Kessel, Blueger, Rust
Johnson, Bjugstad, Hornqvist
Simon, Cullen, Wilson

My main reasoning behind, who can move or who can stay for team needs, people are going to get moved.

 

[CrosbyMalkin]

Regarding Gudbranson.

I think more than anything the RH/LH dynamic helped this team. They had waaaay too many LHers and you could see a bit issue when Schultz was out. Big issue. Guys couldn't play their off side at all. Now that we have 3RH/3LH we seem to be so much better in a lot of different areas.

4m for a #6 is a tad too much, though. It will be an issue in the offseason but I'll worry about that **** another day.

Except he has not been playing #6 minutes. Most of the nights since he was traded to the Pens he has played top 4 minutes. Gudbranson has easily played to the worth of his cap hit for us so far.

 

[ChaosAgent]

No. Hornqvist is the only physical, net presence we have. I’m not a grit guy, but we need Hornqvist.

If that net front presence (Hornqvist) is one of your best choices for PP1, I agree that you need that player. However, if he's not then I don't see it as essential. It's not like a player being "net front" entitles his line to play in the opponent's zone.

As of now Hornqvist should be on PP1 and so we should keep him.

 

[LOGiK]

Except he has not been playing #6 minutes. Most of the nights since he was traded to the Pens he has played top 4 minutes. Gudbranson has easily played to the worth of his cap hit for us so far.

Yep. Outside of his first game, he was paired a lot of time with 1L and did a damn fine job there.

 

[madinsomniac]

Why are we moving Hornqvist?

Same reason we were moving Murray or Rust earlier this season, or tanger last year...how you played the past twenty games trumps a whole career, plus everyone thinks players drop off a cliff at 30 instead of 34 or 35 these days lol

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

+We scored more than 2 goals after I complained about us never scoring 2 goals. My next complaint -- we can't seem to win the Cup every year!

+Booger with 2 goals, including a shorty. It's nice to see us be the ones scoring SHG instead of constantly giving them up.

+Murray let in 2 goals but somehow the team managed to bail out yet another weak performance from Matt "I should be letting in zero goals" Murray.

 

[AlphaMikeFoxtrots]

Resilience!!! and DEPTH SCORING, praise be. Thrilled for Bluegs and Bjugs, and, once again, Muzz. Especially since he finally got rewarded with some goal support.