GDT: Game #4 Pens vs Sabres: "Gee, I wish we had one of them powerplay machines."

[Turin]

Jarry looked good

 

[Trade]

it's the first game for most of our team

this is when sully benches him.

Nonsense! Sully only puts his bravest soldiers out there for the EN opportunities.

 

[Jobeycool]

Pens have way more speed this season... hopefully DOC can get his hands better.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

L3 really good. EK largely as advertised. Jarry had a terrific game.

New look powerplay real bad. L2 and Nylander in particular pretty putrid.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Time to overreact and overanalyze from one game

 

[Empoleon8771]

Meh. We know what he is, decent vanilla 4th liner who is a 13th F.

I feel like Nieto is what Hextall thought Archibald was: a super fast energy 4th liner that can chip in a solid amount on L4.

He's not a 3rd liner but the 3rd line looked to complement each other really well today. I don't think the 3rd line having such a strong game was just due to O'Connor and Eller.

 

[PensandCaps]

I like Wagner/Zohorna more than Nieto.

 

[Empoleon8771]

L3 really good. EK largely as advertised. Jarry had a terrific game.

New look powerplay real bad. L2 and Nylander in particular pretty putrid.

Like I posted in the 1st period, watching Karlsson today makes me realize just how much better he is than Letang. I don't think I mean this as a slight on Letang, but Karlsson has a different order of magnitude of an impact on a game than Letang does.

 

[CheckingLineCenter]

EK makes Letang look like he has rocks for hands. It’s actually insane

 

[Darren McCord]

Also, I think giving Nieto a spot over one of the impressive young guys is a mistake.

He's the definition of a 13F. I'd have no qualms in waiving him tbh.

I think Nieto could end up 13 actually.

Healthy

Jake - Sid - Rakell
Smith - Geno - Rust
DOC - Eller - Nylander
Zoho - Accari - Carter
Neito

Although id would like to see Poulin there.

Jake - Sid - Rakell
Smith - Geno - Rust
DOC - Eller - Accari
Zoho - Poulin - Carter
Neito

That's my ideal lineup with Poulin moving up to line 3 center by mid season.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Really liked Nieto and Acciari. Kinda figured I would.

Eller and DOC a bit of a surprise with how well they played, though.

And yeah EK is extremely slick. Now if only the guys he usually plays with could do f***-all with the puck...

 

[vodeni]

L3 really good. EK largely as advertised. Jarry had a terrific game.

New look powerplay real bad. L2 and Nylander in particular pretty putrid.

L1 was as bad if not worse, they scored but they gave up a load of HDCFs, Sid was coasting and Rust was only skating forward

 

[3ladesof5teel]

We are going to miss Zucker on L2

 

[Darren McCord]

I know it's just the preseason, but I'm really concerned about the physicality element in our top six and top four D.

Poulin - Sid - Carter
DOC - Geno - Zoho

all 6ft 200 lbs wingers.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

L1 was as bad if not worse, they scored but they gave up a load of HDCFs, Sid was coasting and Rust was only skating forward

They weren't great but at least they had Raks who made more than his share of nice plays, offensively.

It'll be real cool when they stick him on L3 haha

 

[DesertedPenguin]

Meh. We know what he is, decent vanilla 4th liner who is a 13th F.

Vanilla 4th liners and 13th forwards don't typically have multiple seasons with 10+ goals, including 12 last year between the Sharks and Avalanche.

 

[WickedWrister]

+++ L3, particularly Eller and DOC. Nieto made a couple nice plays with his stick including the empty netter that sprung DOC. Eller didn't even look remotely washed. Showed great hands and vision on numerous plays. DOC should've probably had 4 goals. His hands still aren't top 6 quality but he's big, young, and can f***ing skate. That's good enough for a 3rd liner. It's super early but I think this has the makings of a really good 3rd line.

++ EK65 looks as good as advertised.

++ Jarry. Looked very calm in the net and only got beat by an insane Tage Thompson play. The single biggest X-Factor for the 2023-2024 Pens.

+ Raks with a nice G from distance. Found the soft spot in the zone and Sid found him.

? Not sure tonight told me anything about Shea or Wagner. Ruh is Ruh.
? Didn't get a good read on Graves tonight. I guess I didn't notice him in a bad way, at least.

- L2 needs some work. Smith played OK I guess.
-- Nylander was invisible and registered a single missed shot. Would like to see Puustinen get an audition here next game.

 

[Empoleon8771]

On Nylander, he stunk today but I'm not quite ready to pull the plug on him yet. He was good in his other pre-season game (named first start against the Jackets in his other game) and has been really good at camp. With that being said, give another performance or two like that in the pre-season and I'm quickly changing my tune there.

A 3rd line of O'Connor-Eller-Poulin could be really good, there isn't an excessive amount of talent there but it's 3 guys that all bring some sort of talent to the table and all fit in a defensive role. On that same topic, I know they're grooming Poulin to be a C going forward but I'm not exactly sure where they plan on playing him at C in the future. You have Eller and Acciari for the next 2 years and it seems like Poulin is ready now.

 

[Darren McCord]

On Nylander, he stunk today but I'm not quite ready to pull the plug on him yet. He was good in his other pre-season game (named first start against the Jackets in his other game) and has been really good at camp. With that being said, give another performance or two like that in the pre-season and I'm quickly changing my tune there.

A 3rd line of O'Connor-Eller-Poulin could be really good, there isn't an excessive amount of talent there but it's 3 guys that all bring some sort of talent to the table and all fit in a defensive role. On that same topic, I know they're grooming Poulin to be a C going forward but I'm not exactly sure where they plan on playing him at C in the future. You have Eller and Acciari for the next 2 years and it seems like Poulin is ready now.

Id move Acciari to wing. he could help poulin and take some RH draws.

 

[PensandCaps]

Like I posted in the 1st period, watching Karlsson today makes me realize just how much better he is than Letang. I don't think I mean this as a slight on Letang, but Karlsson has a different order of magnitude of an impact on a game than Letang does.

Better offensively.

Letang's still gonna be getting the harder PK minutes and defensive matchups. More physical than EK.

Pretty impressive that 36 year old Letang is still an elite skater.

He is just terrible at passing the puck in the NZ, hard and uncontrollable passes.

Letang also gets us alot of too many men situations when he for some reason throws the puck at the bench in the middle of a line change. Literally does it all the time, I don't understand it.

While EK's passes are soft and accurate, knows what he wants to do with the puck, instead of panicking and throwing the puck to the other team.

I think Nieto could end up 13 actually.

Healthy

Jake - Sid - Rakell
Smith - Geno - Rust
DOC - Eller - Nylander
Zoho - Accari - Carter
Neito

Although id would like to see Poulin there.

Jake - Sid - Rakell
Smith - Geno - Rust
DOC - Eller - Accari
Zoho - Poulin - Carter
Neito

That's my ideal lineup with Poulin moving up to line 3 center by mid season.

I'd probably swap Zoho with Accari.

Line 4 would worry me defensively, asking alot of a rookie to centre Carter and Zoho in a defensive role.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Id move Acciari to wing. he could help poulin and take some RH draws.

At that point, I think having Poulin as a 4C is wasting him.

Maybe Eller regresses to the point where you don't even need to worry about it, it's entirely possible that Eller ends up just being a good 4C and Poulin takes over the 3C spot. But if Eller is actually still as good as he was in his old Washington days, I think moving Poulin to RW would help him make the NHL sooner.

It's also kinda funny to me that if you have an O'Connor-Eller-Poulin line, it's actually a line of 3 centers.

 

[3ladesof5teel]

I know it's just the preseason, but I'm really concerned about the physicality element in our top six and top four D.

We got rid of the only physical guy we had and you didn't like him anyway. This is no different than any other year. Not much bite at all to this team.

 

[CheckingLineCenter]

Does Nylander get another game? Do you go OC in his spot and reward him but possibly mess with what he and Eller had going? or Zohorna?

Shea-Ruh wasn’t it. Not bad depth but I’d like to start someone else at 3RD. But I thought the F group looked good outside of Nylander.

Hate to say it but a couple reg szn games like that and 27-58 should be the 2nd pair. Marked difference between them and the EK pair.

 

[WickedWrister]

Carter still just out there doing his f***ing Sunday skate with the kids routine. Just leans on guys and lazily loops around the zone waiting for the puck to come near him.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Does Nylander get another game? Do you go OC in his spot and reward him but possibly mess with what he and Eller had going? or Zohorna?

Shea-Ruh wasn’t it. But I thought the F group looked good outside of Nylander.

Hate to say it but a couple reg szn games like that and 27-58 should be the 2nd pair. Marked difference between them and the EK pair.

In Nylander's other pre-season game, he was voted the first star.

I think pulling the plug on him after 1 pre-season game is excessive. Let him play there through Guentzel's injury and then make a decision with him.

Carter still just out there doing his f***ing Sunday skate with the kids routine. Just leans on guys and lazily loops around the zone waiting for the puck to come near him.

I don't think Carter is doing a Sunday skate, he just can't move any faster.