Post-Game Talk: Flyers 4, Penguins 2 - And The Beat Goes On

[Ryder71]

Saying players have tuned out the coach is a lazy excuse. Literally every forward on this team that is supposed to be producing is. Ditto for Letang on d.

The rest of the roster effin blows. That's all it is. Sullivan isn't coaching it ideally, but he's such a small part of the problem.

JR brought in both Cole and then Reaves, by all accounts both such players were very well liked in the locker room. Neither player was Sully's cup of tea. They were traded, and since then this team has taken step after step backwards. It's pretty clear JR liked both such players or he wouldn't have brought them in. And wouldn't have signed Cole to an extension. And given up a 1st for Reaves and moving down in the draft. Why did the team look very different after that trade and what person had the most impact on those decisions.

 

[Pancakes]

JR brought in both Cole and then Reaves, by all accounts both such players were very well liked in the locker room. Neither player was Sully's'' cup of tea. They were traded, and since then this team has taken step after step backwards. It's pretty clear JR liked both such players or he wouldn't have brought them in. And wouldn't have signed Cole to an extension. And given up a 1st for Reaves and moving down in the draft. Why did the team look very different after that trade and what person had the most impact on those decisions.

Who cares about Reaves though? He sucks and it was an idiotic decision to bring him in. Losing Cole because of Sully is the only Sullivan-related coaching negative in terms of roster deployment I can think of. And even then, JR didn't have to trade him. He can feel free to tell Sully to sack up and deal with it, and Sully would have had to do so.

JR doesn't get to blame bad roster decisions on Sullivan.

 

[Gurglesons]

Who cares about Reaves though? He sucks and it was an idiotic decision to bring him in. Losing Cole because of Sully is the only Sullivan-related coaching negative in terms of roster deployment I can think of. And even then, JR didn't have to trade him. He can feel free to tell Sully to sack up and deal with it, and Sully would have had to do so.

JR doesn't get to blame bad roster decisions on Sullivan.

Not to mention Cole was consistently playing when he was traded so obviously Sullivan had no issue playing him and Cole was easily our worst D after Hunwick last year when he was scratched.

 

[Ryder71]

Who cares about Reaves though? He sucks and it was an idiotic decision to bring him in. Losing Cole because of Sully is the only Sullivan-related coaching negative in terms of roster deployment I can think of. And even then, JR didn't have to trade him. He can feel free to tell Sully to sack up and deal with it, and Sully would have had to do so.

JR doesn't get to blame bad roster decisions on Sullivan.

JR liked both players Sully didn't, Sully won out there. I think JR could have pushed back more but those decisions had Sullys fingerprints all over them. Come on now.

 

[Pancakes]

JR liked both players Sully didn't, Sully won out there. I think JR could have pushed back more but those decisions had Sullys fingerprints all over them. Come on now.

JR has final say, though. If he's ceding too much power to Sullivan, that's on him. He doesn't have to trade people Sully doesnt like.

 

[CertifiedLurker]

All of you are over thinking this. Every single issue this team is having right now has to do with the defensemen on this team not being skilled enough to move the puck through the neutral zone with any efficiency. The only reason Crosby is killing it is because he's so god damn good at working the boards, neutral zone transition isn't anything he needs to succeed, he just needs 2 wingers to support the cycle nearby. Lack of transition is literally killing every other line on this team.

I don't know how you fix it, but if you don't have enough dmen who can pass cleanly through the neutral zone, you're gonna have a lot of very skilled players on this team stuck playing dump and chase, away from their abilities, away from what makes them so successful.

Losing Schultz was a huge blow to this team, the dmen ability to transition was already pretty shallow but minus Schultz you're basically putting everything on Letang.

I don't think changing a coach, or a forward, or a line combo changes anything right now. They have to figure out a way to get better PMD on the team, no idea how they can do that right now though.

 

[cygnus47]

Even without the PMD, we aren't really playing as a team. Outside of the Winnipeg game we haven't had anything resembling a system in the neutral zone. We've at least been trying a few new breakouts, but it's hard to figure out who is just individually playing badly and who is suffering due to the lack of system this season. I'm definitely on the more PMD train, but I think the issues are bigger than that.

 

[BHD]

Carry on in the off-day thread.