Post-Game Talk: Game XVIII Loss to Rangers: Streak back at 0

[Icarium]

So optimistic of the reporter to assume that Carter and Zohorna would actually go to the net rather than go for some galaxy brain move by Reirden and Sully.

Seriously, it's years too late but trying something, anything, is positive, I guess.

 

[Andy99]

going somewhere or Waiting to pick someone up? anyways Happy Thanksgiving

Leaving town to spend Thanksgiving w my brother. Happy Thanksgiving you too

 

[Pancakes]

Lol…I hope he thinks/knows his job is on the line…

“The Pittsburgh Penguins made perhaps the biggest wrinkle yet on their struggling power play, separating centers Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin on their two units at practice Thursday at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.

Crosby was on the top unit, along with Erik Karlsson, Jake Guentzel, Vinnie Hinostroza and, at the net front, Radim Zohorna.

Malkin was on the second unit with Kris Letang, Reilly Smith, Alex Nylander and, at the net front, Jeff Carter.”

(UPDATED) Sullivan Scrambles Power Play; Separates Crosby, Malkin

The Pittsburgh Penguins made perhaps the biggest wrinkle yet on their struggling power play, separating centers Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin on their two units at practice Thursday at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex. Crosby was on the top unit, along with Erik Karlsson, Jake Guentzel, Vinnie...

pittsburghhockeynow.com

Meh. They do this every few years and it lasts for like a week or two before they go right back to the normal top unit.

I'm not sure I even like this adjustment. The PP isn't a personnel issue. That unit should be able to succeed. They just need to have a f***in gameplan on it instead of letting the players free wheel.

Honestly one of the biggest indictments I have of Sully is his insistence to not coach the powerplay because "these guys have such good instincts" or whatever. That's such a crap thing to say. Everyone needs coaching. I could accept Sully's desire to stay out of the way if that unit was figuring things out on their own but they've been struggling so bad for years now. Coach the frickin thing. The players have tried to do it their way and it's been nothing but misery. Let them take some advice. I don't care how many scoring titles or cups they've won, they're big boys, they can swallow their pride and take a little coaching.

 

[AuroraBorealis]

Meh. They do this every few years and it lasts for like a week or two before they go right back to the normal top unit.

I'm not sure I even like this adjustment. The PP isn't a personnel issue. That unit should be able to succeed. They just need to have a f***in gameplan on it instead of letting the players free wheel.

Honestly one of the biggest indictments I have of Sully is his insistence to not coach the powerplay because "these guys have such good instincts" or whatever. That's such a crap thing to say. Everyone needs coaching. I could accept Sully's desire to stay out of the way if that unit was figuring things out on their own but they've been struggling so bad for years now. Coach the frickin thing. The players have tried to do it their way and it's been nothing but misery. Let them take some advice. I don't care how many scoring titles or cups they've won, they're big boys, they can swallow their pride and take a little coaching.

Cohesion is what matters on PP's, for the most part. Every team can trot out 5 good players. It's about how they work together.
PP2 last year outplayed PP1.
Arizona's PP is 6th right now.

 

[Pancakes]

Cohesion is what matters on PP's, for the most part. Every team can trot out 5 good players. It's about how they work together.
PP2 last year outplayed PP1.
Arizona's PP is 6th right now.

They should be able to make it work with that group. Maybe coach it and come up with a plan that takes advantage of each players talents...

 

[Smasher]

Honestly one of the biggest indictments I have of Sully is his insistence to not coach the powerplay because "these guys have such good instincts" or whatever. That's such a crap thing to say. Everyone needs coaching.

Exactly. You don't need star players to run a successful powerplay.

 

[HandshakeLine]

I’m thankful I don’t watch the games live anynore

 

[SomeDude]

Exactly. You don't need star players to run a successful powerplay.

The 2003/04 Pens (aka one of the worst teams in NHL history) were 9th in the NHL with an 18.1% pp. Keep in mind Mario played like 8 games that year.

So, a PP built around Dick Tarnstrom, Rico Fata, and Milan Kraft performed better than the current one with Crosby, Malkin, and EK.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Leaving town to spend Thanksgiving w my brother. Happy Thanksgiving you too

Being in Canada for a while now, we do both. One is a Turkey, the other is Ham.

Neither I am a fan of to be honest, but my wife really loves to do it and the in laws are flying in for this one.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

The 2003/04 Pens (aka one of the worst teams in NHL history) were 9th in the NHL with an 18.1% pp. Keep in mind Mario played like 8 games that year.

So, a PP built around Dick Tarnstrom, Rico Fata, and Milan Kraft performed better than the current one with Crosby, Malkin, and EK.

The issue is the touches. It's like they purposely want to pass it to every person on the unit to feel included to make a play and it's hilarious. There's no "leader" on the Powerplay. You watch the best ones in the league and just watch a lot of it, you'll spot the issues the Pens have super quickly.

The entire powerplay has too many big names on it on the top unit and each one wants a touch of the puck. There's no QB on the powerplay, there are QBS.

Sid, Geno, Karlsson, Guentzel all want to QB the powerplay and that becomes an issue. Whereas even with Gonchar, they had sort of a defacto QB there in Sarge because his shot had to be respected, but when you have an entire crew that doesn't have that bomb or refuse to use it and would rather make plays closer in the slot area, the PK already knows where to defend and disrupt and the players will keep trying to make passes to open up lanes and the PK knows how easy it is to figure out because the Pens don't deviate from this.

If Sullivan had any f***ing brains, he would tackle this the way Bylsma used to tackle the 3rd line and the rotation of the 1st and 2nd line when we had the big 3. As in, Staal's line would come in, set up zone pressure and cycle, wear them down and then the closers would come in by the way of Line 1 and 2.

This means splitting up the units since they will never be smart enough to just do what needs to be done so you have to put them in positions to do their thing but on their own units.

Unit 1 - Letang, Rust, Guentzel, Crosby, *big body in front*
Unit 2 - Karlsson, Rakell, Malkin, Smith, *big body in front*

Who the big body is, that's the issue. Carter could do it, DOC could also do it, but that requires coaching and we all know that's a non starter.

So really we are hoping for something to happen when we know the coaching will never identify it so it's a matter of hoping it just magically converts more so we have some sanity.

 

[DesertedPenguin]

The issue is the touches. It's like they purposely want to pass it to every person on the unit to feel included to make a play and it's hilarious. There's no "leader" on the Powerplay. You watch the best ones in the league and just watch a lot of it, you'll spot the issues the Pens have super quickly.

The entire powerplay has too many big names on it on the top unit and each one wants a touch of the puck. There's no QB on the powerplay, there are QBS.

Sid, Geno, Karlsson, Guentzel all want to QB the powerplay and that becomes an issue. Whereas even with Gonchar, they had sort of a defacto QB there in Sarge because his shot had to be respected, but when you have an entire crew that doesn't have that bomb or refuse to use it and would rather make plays closer in the slot area, the PK already knows where to defend and disrupt and the players will keep trying to make passes to open up lanes and the PK knows how easy it is to figure out because the Pens don't deviate from this.

If Sullivan had any f***ing brains, he would tackle this the way Bylsma used to tackle the 3rd line and the rotation of the 1st and 2nd line when we had the big 3. As in, Staal's line would come in, set up zone pressure and cycle, wear them down and then the closers would come in by the way of Line 1 and 2.

This means splitting up the units since they will never be smart enough to just do what needs to be done so you have to put them in positions to do their thing but on their own units.

Unit 1 - Letang, Rust, Guentzel, Crosby, *big body in front*
Unit 2 - Karlsson, Rakell, Malkin, Smith, *big body in front*

Who the big body is, that's the issue. Carter could do it, DOC could also do it, but that requires coaching and we all know that's a non starter.

So really we are hoping for something to happen when we know the coaching will never identify it so it's a matter of hoping it just magically converts more so we have some sanity.

They literally split the units up today.

PP1: Erik Karlsson, Sidney Crosby, Jake Guentzel, Radim Zohorna, Vinnie Hinostroza

PP2: Kris Letang, Evgeni Malkin, Alex Nylander, Jeff Carter, Reilly Smith

 

[Gert B Frobe]

Outside perspective it's not the coach it's the lack of depth on this team that's the problem. Sullivan is a good coach and will do well elsewhere if he is canned. Probably not a profound statement I understand thtat.

 

[metalan2]

Outside perspective it's not the coach it's the lack of depth on this team that's the problem. Sullivan is a good coach and will do well elsewhere if he is canned. Probably not a profound statement I understand thtat.

It's the coach.

 

[BusinessGoose]

Outside perspective it's not the coach it's the lack of depth on this team that's the problem. Sullivan is a good coach and will do well elsewhere if he is canned. Probably not a profound statement I understand thtat.

It's the coach.

For sure a mix. The personnel COULD be better...

But so many guys come in and turn into pumpkins... Then leave.. And look at least somewhat usable vs what they did here

That's a deployment issue, which is a coach who can't identify fit and dictate execution

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

Outside perspective it's not the coach it's the lack of depth on this team that's the problem. Sullivan is a good coach and will do well elsewhere if he is canned. Probably not a profound statement I understand thtat.

It's both. But it's a hell of a lot easier to replace a coach than like 5 forwards.

 

[HandshakeLine]

It's the coach.

Outside perspective it’s not outer space that kills ya, it’s the vacuum and radiation soaring through the airless void.

 

[Headshot77]

Lol…I hope he thinks/knows his job is on the line…

“The Pittsburgh Penguins made perhaps the biggest wrinkle yet on their struggling power play, separating centers Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin on their two units at practice Thursday at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.

Crosby was on the top unit, along with Erik Karlsson, Jake Guentzel, Vinnie Hinostroza and, at the net front, Radim Zohorna.

Malkin was on the second unit with Kris Letang, Reilly Smith, Alex Nylander and, at the net front, Jeff Carter.”

(UPDATED) Sullivan Scrambles Power Play; Separates Crosby, Malkin

The Pittsburgh Penguins made perhaps the biggest wrinkle yet on their struggling power play, separating centers Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin on their two units at practice Thursday at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex. Crosby was on the top unit, along with Erik Karlsson, Jake Guentzel, Vinnie...

pittsburghhockeynow.com

THANK YOU. Not really sure why Hinostroza is getting the nod, must be a handedness thing. Either way, finally some significant shakeup

 

[LOGiK]

Penguins play tonight... buffalo gets their revenge tonight!

 

[vodeni]

They should be able to make it work with that group. Maybe coach it and come up with a plan that takes advantage of each players talents...

oh no, what talents....Geno is good for one thing on PP, we know what that is, how many of those have been set up this iseason...instead he is standing by the goal post waiting for what...same thing with other players, Guentzel, etc...

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

Just for shits and giggles I looked up where the Pens' power play is ranked and they're 25th at 13.7%. Washington somehow has a 6.7% power play.

 

[vodeni]

THANK YOU. Not really sure why Hinostroza is getting the nod, must be a handedness thing. Either way, finally some significant shakeup

Sully understands one of the main issues of this PP, that plagued for years, and thats puck retrieval, none of the five guys on this PP1 are willing to beat the dman for a lose puck on PP, they all are "instinctively" cheating in hope that puck would somehow get to our sticks and we would have open shot or something, 45 seconds later you are trying to enter the zone again...so I can see why he is putting Vinnie there, and its not like does not have any hands..

however the joke of Carter and Zohorna on PP, especially Zohorna who has no idea what PP is and what he should do except thowing puck away from himself along the walls as soon as he gets the puck is showing desperation move casting people in roles they are not capable of doing

 

[cygnus47]

Seeing how suffocating the Rangers were defensively really put our bubble-ness in perspective for me. We took so many risks in the 3rd and were still only able to put up a fairly average set of chances. It just wouldn't be sustainable. Not sure how much of that is coaching vs personnel, but I dont see us even being competitive in a series.