Did Pittsburgh miscalculate how bad their defense was?

[Sureves]

Letang is out. Schultz is out now too.

Even with those two guys healthy, the Pens have a really pathetic blueline, and Letang is honestly so made of glass that they really needed to have better depth on their roster to ensure that the exact situation they find themselves in now didn't happen.

Letang has missed 34% of games in the last 4 years (55%, 16%, 13%, 50%; from 2014 to 2017), how can they responsibly rely on this guy being literally their entire defense when he's that prone to missing games?

I mean Schultz is not a great defenseman by any stretch either despite putting up a lot of points this season.

My question is, did management drop the ball by not addressing this issue earlier in the offseason / earlier in the year / at the trade deadline? I find it perplexing that no one in the Pittsburgh organization realized how dire of a situation this was for their team.

What do you guys think? I think Pittsburgh has nobody to blame but themselves for the situation they find themselves in defensively.

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[Gil Gunderson]

I don't think it would look to different than most teams' bluelines if you took away their two best d-men.

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

No, pens defense is actually quite good at moving the puck when healthy, and moving the puck out quickly is the best defense for this group. We saw how good they are at it in last year's playoffs with beautiful precision passing. Now that they get pinned in their own end and actually have to play defense and yeah it's bad.

With Letang and Schultz out and Daley hobbled, the pens top 3 puck movers are essentially non existent. This also puts way more pressure on the players that should be playing less minutes.

 

[StroShow]

Without their number 1 D-Man , they have beaten the two best teams in the league and are down 1 game in the conference finals. I don't think they dropped the ball by any means.

 

[Son Goku]

Lol no. Let's let this series play out

 

[Sureves]

No, pens defense is actually quite good at moving the puck when healthy, and moving the puck out quickly is the best defense for this group. We saw how good they are at it in last year's playoffs with beautiful precision passing. Now that they get pinned in their own end and actually have to play defense and yeah it's bad.

With Letang and Schultz out and Daley hobbled, the pens top 3 puck movers are essentially non existent. This also puts way more pressure on the players that should be playing less minutes.

But how can you depend so heavily on Letang (a guy who misses 34% of games due to injury / sickness) and Schultz (a massive surprise this year who still can't really play defense)?

To me this was just a massive recipe for disaster, and it's really not surprising that it has come to fruition.

 

[NyQuil]

With the cap, it's impossible to have amazing depth everywhere.

I don't see their d-corps as any worse than all but a small handful of teams.

Calling the blue line pathetic when healthy is pretty disrespectful considering they won the Cup last year and Letang played the entire playoff.

I don't agree with this take at all.

 

[FreeBobbyFarnham]

I mean Ottawa's defense is pretty much just Karlsson.

 

[Sureves]

Without their number 1 D-Man , they have beaten the two best teams in the league and are down 1 game in the conference finals. I don't think they dropped the ball by any means.

I don't know, I keep hearing from Pens fans that these injuries are absolutely massive factors in why they are not playing well.

I think management really turned a blind eye to how thin and unreliable their blueline was (in consideration of injury-proneness and single-threadedness).

 

[Eli Cash]

They're injured on D and it's a salary cap world. Last year they steamrolled teams with a similar defense, unless you think Ben Lovejoy is the answer. They couldn't afford anyone big this year unless they jettisoned Kunitz and Fleury and neither one of those things was going to happen.

Injuries happen though. It sucks that we can't see them play to their full potential but it is what it is. No excuse.

 

[SEALBound]

Take out any teams #1D and another Top 4 dman and see how they suffice.

Where would Ottawa be without Karlsson? Arguably not past the first round.

Where would the Ducks be without Lindholm and Vatanen?

Where would the Predators be without Subban and Josi?

Everyone knew the Penguins defense was suspect. But it's not like everyone went around praising it and the GM made no efforts to make it better. They were in on Shattenkirk before the price tag got too high, Hainsey was brought in too beef up the bottom pair, and Letang was on schedule to make it back.

Now guys have to play over their heads. Dumoulin isn't as good without Letang, Hainsey is playing WAY over his head, Maatta is doing just fine, Daley's come back from knee injury, Cole's been the best Pens dman all playoffs, and Schultz was doing fine until injured. Now we have Rudwedel who by all means is NOT an issue.

They've lost the majority of their puck movers. What exactly were you expecting OP? What is the response you're looking for out of Pens fans?

Hainsey and Streit won't lead a team to the Stanley Cup!? Oh no way!

 

[NyQuil]

I don't know, I keep hearing from Pens fans that these injuries are absolutely massive factors in why they are not playing well.

I think management really turned a blind eye to how thin and unreliable their blueline was (in consideration of injury-proneness and single-threadedness).

This whole thread smacks of just being angry about the injury comments.

 

[Sureves]

With the cap, it's impossible to have amazing depth everywhere.

I don't see their d-corps as any worse than all but a small handful of teams.

Calling the blue line pathetic when healthy is pretty disrespectful considering they won the Cup last year and Letanf played the entire playoff.

I don't agree with this take at all.

I guess that's my point. They only invested 13.433 in their blueline from a cap perspective which is 5th lowest in the league.

I think it would have been prudent to make some redistribution of their talent to get some help on their blueline.

The other teams lower than them in cap spend on defense? NJD, PHI, CAR, DAL...I'm seeing a trend here.

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

But how can you depend so heavily on Letang (a guy who misses 34% of games due to injury / sickness) and Schultz (a massive surprise this year who still can't really play defense)?

To me this was just a massive recipe for disaster, and it's really not surprising that it has come to fruition.

I see your point, but Letang's previous two serious injuries were a concussion and a stroke, both things that could happen to anyone. Impossible to predict he was going to get a herniated disc in his neck and miss 6 months.

 

[Hockeyholic]

The problem is they keep relying on Letang to be the # 1 D. It's obvious he is injury prone and won't be available for a minimum of 30 games a year.

They desperately need to get Shattenkirk and Alzner to round out the top four.

Olli Maata & Ron Hainsey should never be playing big minutes for a cup contender.

 

[KPower]

The pens team after the trade deadline was good enough to win a cup.

Injuries happen, you can't plan for 6 injuries to top players in a cap world.

 

[NyQuil]

Take out any teams #1D and another Top 4 dman and see how they suffice.

Where would Ottawa be without Karlsson? Arguably not past the first round.

Where would the Ducks be without Lindholm and Vatanen?

Where would the Predators be without Subban and Josi?

Everyone knew the Penguins defense was suspect. But it's not like everyone went around praising it and the GM made no efforts to make it better. They were in on Shattenkirk before the price tag got too high, Hainsey was brought in too beef up the bottom pair, and Letang was on schedule to make it back.

Now guys have to play over their heads. Dumoulin isn't as good without Letang, Hainsey is playing WAY over his head, Maatta is doing just fine, Daley's come back from knee injury, Cole's been the best Pens dman all playoffs, and Schultz was doing fine until injured. Now we have Rudwedel who by all means is NOT an issue.

They've lost the majority of their puck movers. What exactly were you expecting OP? What is the response you're looking for out of Pens fans?

Hainsey and Streit won't lead a team to the Stanley Cup!? Oh no way!

With Ellis and Ekholm, the Preds are one of the few teams that could take a hit to their D.

But they obviously don't have Crosby and Malkin either.

 

[Sureves]

This whole thread smacks of just being angry about the injury comments.

I'm not going to pretend it isn't: it's a big factor in my making this thread, but I think it's a worthwhile question to ask if these injuries are so significant to the Penguins.

They didn't consider how injury prone their only good defenseman was and did nothing to build depth around him. To reiterate, Schultz is not at all a #2 (or even #3) defenseman, and can't defend.

I just think they did this to themselves.

 

[Mikeshane]

I guess the question would be could they have unloaded MAF to free up cap space and got a defenseman. That would have been pretty challenging to get that done tbh.

 

[Brodeur]

My question is, did management drop the ball by not addressing this issue earlier in the offseason / earlier in the year / at the trade deadline? I find it perplexing that no one in the Pittsburgh organization realized how dire of a situation this was for their team.

What do you guys think?

They got Ron Hainsey and Mark Streit at the deadline. It wasn't like there were a ton of other high caliber D who were moved. They tried for Shattenkirk but got outbid by Washington. Who else do you think they should have gotten?

It's pretty easy to criticize after the fact and act like acquiring quality defensemen is an easy endeavor.

 

[Sureves]

Take out any teams #1D and another Top 4 dman and see how they suffice.

Where would Ottawa be without Karlsson? Arguably not past the first round.

Where would the Ducks be without Lindholm and Vatanen?

Where would the Predators be without Subban and Josi?

Everyone knew the Penguins defense was suspect. But it's not like everyone went around praising it and the GM made no efforts to make it better. They were in on Shattenkirk before the price tag got too high, Hainsey was brought in too beef up the bottom pair, and Letang was on schedule to make it back.

Now guys have to play over their heads. Dumoulin isn't as good without Letang, Hainsey is playing WAY over his head, Maatta is doing just fine, Daley's come back from knee injury, Cole's been the best Pens dman all playoffs, and Schultz was doing fine until injured. Now we have Rudwedel who by all means is NOT an issue.

They've lost the majority of their puck movers. What exactly were you expecting OP? What is the response you're looking for out of Pens fans?

Hainsey and Streit won't lead a team to the Stanley Cup!? Oh no way!

You're missing the point entirely.

It's not a surprise that Letang is hurt. He has consistently missed a lot of games throughout his entire career, and especially lately.

How can he be your only good defenseman when you are trying to compete for the cup? It's an irresponsible gamble.

 

[NyQuil]

I'm not going to pretend it isn't: it's a big factor in my making this thread, but I think it's a worthwhile question to ask if these injuries are so significant to the Penguins.

They didn't consider how injury prone their only good defenseman was and did nothing to build depth around him. To reiterate, Schultz is not at all a #2 (or even #3) defenseman, and can't defend.

I just think they did this to themselves.

I'll admit to being surprised to find out that Letang was Pittsburgh's most valuable player and they can't compete without him.

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

I'm not going to pretend it isn't: it's a big factor in my making this thread, but I think it's a worthwhile question to ask if these injuries are so significant to the Penguins.

They didn't consider how injury prone their only good defenseman was and did nothing to build depth around him. To reiterate, Schultz is not at all a #2 (or even #3) defenseman, and can't defend.

I just think they did this to themselves.

Injuries can derail any team's season, no matter how well a team plans. There's a reason why winning the cup is so difficult, and no team has repeated in 20 years. Good health and luck is always a factor. Look at Tampa, they didn't even make the playoffs. With a healthy roster they're a cup contender.

 

[Ezekial]

I don't know, I keep hearing from Pens fans that these injuries are absolutely massive factors in why they are not playing well.

I think management really turned a blind eye to how thin and unreliable their blueline was (in consideration of injury-proneness and single-threadedness).

You lose Dion and Methot, how good is your defense?

Pitt is dealing with a bigger loss than that.

 

[StroShow]

I don't know, I keep hearing from Pens fans that these injuries are absolutely massive factors in why they are not playing well.

I think management really turned a blind eye to how thin and unreliable their blueline was (in consideration of injury-proneness and single-threadedness).

Don't think they could've possibly gotten a replacement for Letang at the trade deadline. You take away any teams #1 , #2 , and #5 D-Man , it is obviously not going to be the same.