Injury Report: Geno Has Knee Surgery

[ronduguayshair]

Why would his skating be f***ed when he was producing above a point per game pace prior to the surgery?

Malkin's game isn't based around skating.

This is a ridiculous opinion. I thought favorite player had a rough start of the season because he "couldn't skate and train" in the offseason. Every player's game is based on skating. Saying otherwise is really amateur thing to do. Totally ridiculous. Malkin has lost a step already and it has caused him to turn over the puck at the opponents blue line over and over again.

But let's instead concentrate on the 5 good games he played this season not the 35+ garbage games.


The chronic posters here really are the worst posters here. "Malkin's game isn't base around skating". That is golden.

 

[ronduguayshair]

Malkin has the same or more cups than any active player. He also has led the playoffs in scoring the same or more than any active player.

If your agenda is winning you'd be happy with him. If your agenda is winning why are you not targeting Crosby who has sucked in two of his last playoffs offensively.

Sounds like your going to sign him based upon past achievements not what kind of player he is in how the league is today. Its pretty easy to list past achievements. You can't use that as a determining factor when your talking about at mid thirties player. Unless you want to sabotage the team and sell tickets with names not winning.

 

[ronduguayshair]

To be fair, I had no idea Hairguy was the convo driver here. He's either a complete nutbag or an Andy Kaufman-esque method actor, neither of which I care to partake in, so I've had him on ignore for a while.

I just kinda half-consciously scanned a few posts and saw people were talking about Geno being a quitter or something.

Its pretty unfair of you to only not read what I wrote but state your opinion anyway. Again the chronic posters are the worst posters here.


How childish do you have to be to cancel someone's opinion rather than simply disagreeing with it privately or publically?

I mean look at the login name.

 

[HandshakeLine]

LOL. I dub thee "RobbyBrownCancelTown", now caper and jest for me, minion!

 

[Richard]

Malkin never quit on Johnston as you alluded to. That was Sid.

You absolutely bitch at me but you don't have a single clue what you're talking about. Seriously.

Sid never quit on Mike Johnson, Sid played Mike Johnsons system to a tee until the bitter end, like the electricians keeping the power running on the Titanic. He kept going until the lights finally went dim.

Malkin, about six weeks into Mike Johnsons tenure said.... nah not playing that way, and just did whatever the f*** he felt like. Like you can do that and be successful in any sport?? Can you? Can you win and have guys doing whatever they want?

There's a reason Malkin had more points than Sid during that era-he didn't play a damn lick of that system. Was he right?? Probably. Did it help the team? I dunno..... wait, how about NO.

Malkin 100% is the weirdest dude on the team. I am firmly convinced he has been done (rangers series) and just wanted to end it several playoffs. I know he didn't enjoy the bubble last year and I know many in the Penguins organization were like WTF you didn't skate, you did light workouts, and you're just coming in raw to camp? Maybe if he actually did something last offseason he wouldn't have hurt his knee yet again? yes? right?

So don't give me that shit.

As for Crosby, you can't complain about how hard he works but you can certainly complain about his battle level in several games against the Islanders. His "effort" in game 6 was appalling. Jake and Crosby were battling to play tag hockey.

 

[Jesse]

I don't think Geno has a quit bone in his body. All the dude has ever wanted is to win. He stuck around, probably took less money, and knew he'd always be the 2C in Sid's shadow and get the leftovers when it comes to wingers--all because he knew it'd give him the best chance at the Cup. It's one reason I could see him walking after his deal, or asking to be dealt at the deadline if the team bombs badly this season and it's clear he has no shot at a Cup here anymore. He's a Penguin, but by all accounts he wants to be the only Russian to ever win 4 Cups, and if this team can't afford him that opportunity anymore, I don't think it'd be a reach for him to chase it somewhere else. By no means a sure thing, but the possibility is there far more so than Sid ever wanting out. Even if this team is stripped down to studs and bolts and goes full rebuild, Sid will go down with the ship because this is as much his organization as Mario's now.

On the other hand, I do not think Geno was ready to start the season at all. I don't know if it was a conditioning thing, but his head was absolutely not where it needed to be at the beginning of the year. He had absolutely zero confidence in his game and he looked frustrated as all hell. Don't agree that meant he had quit on the team though.

This is an extremely spot-on post in many ways and I want to just touch on a few notes out of all of this.

1. Perhaps the person most impressed by Malkin's willingness to play on a lame leg is Brian Burke. For that reason, I don't expect Malkin will be going anywhere anytime soon.

2. I think Malkin's goal is to play for the Pittsburgh Penguins longer than Sidney Crosby does.

3. Your second paragraph is the reason Jim Rutherford is no longer employed in Pittsburgh, among other elements. Any team with a half-functioning Hockey Operations department would be well-aware that COVID-19 restrictions have made access to ice and training facilities a difficult endeavor for one of their star centers. I don't think he had a clue what was going on. And that's not to absolve Malkin of the situation but the pandemic was a challenge for travel in many ways (See: Kapanen, Kasperi). I don't think he quit on anyone, I think he was winded.

 

[ziggyjoe212]

I think a big issue here is that some people are under the delusion that the Pens should be considered an elite contender every season. A lot of you need to lower your expectations. Sid and Geno are not elite gamechangers anymore. But they are still top tier talents. Likewise, the Pens are still firmly a playoff team. Unfortunately no one expects them to contend for a SC, especially if they run into Barry Trotz.

But you know what, that is OK. The big 3 have carried this franchise for 15 years and accomplished more than 99.99% of the players in history. They're still a treat to watch and deserve to finish their careers here on their terms. And if Geno plays next season like he did in the playoffs then he'll be just fine.

All this talk of rebuilding in 2021 is idiotic.

 

[KareemTrustfund]

There's a reason Malkin had more points than Sid during that era-he didn't play a damn lick of that system. Was he right?? Probably. Did it help the team? I dunno..... wait, how about NO.

What?! I’ve seen some bad takes in my day..

Malkin kept us afloat before Johnson was fired. Give me a break he didn’t play Johnson’s system so it was detrimental to the team.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

He's his favorite player, though!

 

[Pengu]

I am not arguing what Geno has done as a penguin as he has beeen great. He will be closer to 40 than 30 when his next contract is starts
This is a player that has missed over 100 regular season games just in his last 6 seasons and it is getting worse and he'll have a knee surgery this off season.
Pure insanity to argue that we must sign this extremely injury prone player for a huge contract who might play just above half the games as he get closer to 40 and might drop of at anytime cause he was really good 10 years and somehow he is owed tons of money cause he has only earned close to 100 million in his career...

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

He was really good way more recently than 10 years ago...

 

[Richard]

What?! I’ve seen some bad takes in my day..

Malkin kept us afloat before Johnson was fired. Give me a break he didn’t play Johnson’s system so it was detrimental to the team.

Again, the average Penguin fan knows nothing about hockey. Get Colepens in here to diagram it up.

Johnson had the Penguin centers playing way deep in the d-zone. Think 1960's style Montreal. Essentially three Dmen. He wanted his Centers to be in triangle with his dmen when set.

Conversely the center was to be the first man to chip the puck out of the dzone and the last man to lug the puck up the ice. F3 forward up ice at all reasonable times. Get this, once set up in the zone Johnson wanted the center to maintain his position in the high slot. His strategy was based upon channeling the offense through our Defenders and NOT through the center ice position. It was logically baffling. I shit you not, Rob Scuderi was to touch the puck as much or more than Sidney Crosby in the offensive zone. Forwards were to hold up and give it to the dmen.

Where does Crosby get most of his points? You guessed it, down low in the offensive zone, grinding out plays. Yet...... we were suppose to funnel our offense up high and through our dmen with our center perched back in the high slot to cover. Even on offense we were designed to pick off and smother the other teams offense.

In the neutral zone Dmen were to pinch the strongside forwards completely off and our Center was to cover the opposing center (or dman depending on the pinch). This all but eliminated Malkin, for example's, ability to pick off passes. Oh, and the look at the mobile group of dmen who were doing the pinching on that team. No forchecking by F1 just smother and shift...

I remember club just toying with the Penguins system it was just a bad time to be a fan.

And this dopy system wasn't even new. It's been played forever. It's a Junior A simple system for nontalented Junior A teams...... and it was played in the NHL. With Crosby and Malkin on your team.

Crosby played it to a tee.

Malkin didn't, especially in the neutral zone. Malkin did Malkin things- attacked the puck, stole the puck.... However, to play Johnsons system it has to be a complete five man unit or it doesn't work. like, at all.

Take that for what you will

 

[LOGiK]

I forgot to come here first to post my daily something something that aggravated people, but I can see someone already beat me to it.

 

[Deport Ogie]

This is deliberate trolling. Has to be. No human being would stack books like this.

*Mark Madden enters the chat*

**** me with a Sherwood PMP 5030 these people are serious.

 

[LOGiK]

This is deliberate trolling. Has to be. No human being would stack books like this.

*Mark Madden enters the chat*

**** me with a Sherwood PMP 5030 these people are serious.

You know how a full moon brings out the crazy in people and animals act different...

Maybe the partial solar eclipse that is close to happening has something to do with it =P


*For those interested there will be a solar eclipse (partial (tmk)) 10th of June Thursday early early morning....

 

[Tender Rip]

Uh... it was a good decision to (more or less!) leave this forum until free agency. Back to that plan.

Mmmm.... f*** Jarry.

 

[KareemTrustfund]

Again, the average Penguin fan knows nothing about hockey. Get Colepens in here to diagram it up.

Johnson had the Penguin centers playing way deep in the d-zone. Think 1960's style Montreal. Essentially three Dmen. He wanted his Centers to be in triangle with his dmen when set.

Conversely the center was to be the first man to chip the puck out of the dzone and the last man to lug the puck up the ice. F3 forward up ice at all reasonable times. Get this, once set up in the zone Johnson wanted the center to maintain his position in the high slot. His strategy was based upon channeling the offense through our Defenders and NOT through the center ice position. It was logically baffling. I shit you not, Rob Scuderi was to touch the puck as much or more than Sidney Crosby in the offensive zone. Forwards were to hold up and give it to the dmen.

Where does Crosby get most of his points? You guessed it, down low in the offensive zone, grinding out plays. Yet...... we were suppose to funnel our offense up high and through our dmen with our center perched back in the high slot to cover. Even on offense we were designed to pick off and smother the other teams offense.

In the neutral zone Dmen were to pinch the strongside forwards completely off and our Center was to cover the opposing center (or dman depending on the pinch). This all but eliminated Malkin, for example's, ability to pick off passes. Oh, and the look at the mobile group of dmen who were doing the pinching on that team. No forchecking by F1 just smother and shift...

I remember club just toying with the Penguins system it was just a bad time to be a fan.

And this dopy system wasn't even new. It's been played forever. It's a Junior A simple system for nontalented Junior A teams...... and it was played in the NHL. With Crosby and Malkin on your team.

Crosby played it to a tee.

Malkin didn't, especially in the neutral zone. Malkin did Malkin things- attacked the puck, stole the puck.... However, to play Johnsons system it has to be a complete five man unit or it doesn't work. like, at all.

Take that for what you will

Okay….

You explained how Malkin didn’t play the system but not how he hurt the team by doing so. You said it yourself, he put up more points by not playing his awful system. So thanks for the deep analysis I guess, but to say Malkin hurt the team when he was our best player during that time is laughable. Maybe you’re the “average pens fan”

 

[Richard]

Here we go- not rocket science - Pens are black, opposition is Green. Puck is with Green F1- Geno is F3 Black.

Johnson had our D pinch at the opposition blueline- had Geno and Crosby rotate back to D.

Assume it works and turnover, he had the Dman (scuderi, cole, and lovejoy made up half the top six....) leading the rush with our best players pinned up high. See the purple lines of counter.

It's utterly simple and utterly stupid. Teams would drop it back or in the case of geno's line wait for geno not to play the system.

Geno, being F3 would cheat and try and steal a pass- our dman would still pinch because thats his job and voila, odd man rush the other way with our other defender sometimes halfway across the ice.

Also , because Johnson had our centers way down low in the defensive zone, our (mostly likely RW) was leading the rush and Crosby and Malkin were the late man. Obviously meaning that, as designed they were almost certainly the F3 forward on the opposition blue and thus had to drop back.

There is a lot more detail to it but essentially last man up, first man back, lets have out D lead the offense with our RW (remember the talent we had on RW in 2014???).

 

[Jacob]

Don’t see what options we have. Can’t trade him now, no centers in the prospect pool, not likely to get one in free agency. Just sign him.

 

[KareemTrustfund]

Here we go- not rocket science - Pens are black, opposition is Green. Puck is with Green F1- Geno is F3 Black.

Johnson had our D pinch at the opposition blueline- had Geno and Crosby rotate back to D.

Assume it works and turnover, he had the Dman (scuderi, cole, and lovejoy made up half the top six....) leading the rush with our best players pinned up high. See the purple lines of counter.

It's utterly simple and utterly stupid. Teams would drop it back or in the case of geno's line wait for geno not to play the system.

Geno, being F3 would cheat and try and steal a pass- our dman would still pinch because thats his job and voila, odd man rush the other way with our other defender sometimes halfway across the ice.

Also , because Johnson had our centers way down low in the defensive zone, our (mostly likely RW) was leading the rush and Crosby and Malkin were the late man. Obviously meaning that, as designed they were almost certainly the F3 forward on the opposition blue and thus had to drop back.

There is a lot more detail to it but essentially last man up, first man back, lets have out D lead the offense with our RW (remember the talent we had on RW in 2014???).

I appreciate what your saying but in no way shape or form did Malkin hurt this team actively in the Johnson era. He was our best player, end of story IMO. If you want to say Sid played the system more to Johnson’s liking and it hurt his production , I’d agree that may very well have been the case. Did Malkin cheat the system for offense? Hell yeah he did. Did it hurt us? f*** no , not in any meaningful way. You’re not really breaking any ground in saying a player cheating on his defensive responsibilities can have a negative consequence. Trying to paint this in a broad “well , it must have hurt us because cheating a system for offense is bad” kind of light is disingenuous to how he performed in reality.

 

[Pittsburgh1776]

Sidney Crosby was visibly pissed off and listless at the end of the Mike Johnston era, as he was at the end of the Therrien and Bylsma eras. Malkin took the team over in November 2015 and carried them the next two months until he got hurt. Your comments are almost word for word what Josh Yohe said about Crosby and the Johnston system so your take isn’t new. And when the coach is f***ed up and as lost as Johnston, you don’t go down with the ship. This isn't a video game. Results matter. Team leaders sometimes need to be able to understand what's happening and be willing to take a risk to make shit happen on the ice. That's exactly what Malkin did, because the system was garbage and was hurting the team as you saw in our awful results. When Malkin kicked it in to high gear he willed that team to wins, and carried them for two months. The whole post is weird and you allude to insider information that I doubt you have and doesn't support your post anyway. Weird.

 

[chethejet]

Sullivan is back for two big reasons. He has a contract the Mario does want to eat and secondly, Hextall and Burke think he did a good job under some tough hurdles. I think his shelf life is up but him returning is what they decided. Pens play for him and that is far better than many of the head coaches who have come and gone.

 

[Andy99]

Rob Rossi
@Real_RobRossi

1. Penguins have NOT asked Evgeni Malkin to waive his NTC
2. Malkin is NOT interested in waiving his NTC
3. There isn’t one team or a secret list regarding Malkin and NTC
4. His focus is on getting healthy, winning another title with Penguins
5. Nothing has changed

BTW, my battery % on my iPad as I type this is currently 71%...

 

[Ryder71]

Sullivan is back for two big reasons. He has a contract the Mario does want to eat and secondly, Hextall and Burke think he did a good job under some tough hurdles. I think his shelf life is up but him returning is what they decided. Pens play for him and that is far better than many of the head coaches who have come and gone.

No, there are THREE reasons, maybe four. The biggest is Jarry. How can you throw blame at Sully there? You can't. The Goalie destroyed any chance we realistically had.

Also and to a much lesser extent Crosby was underwhelming himself. You can't force him to play like a world class player, therefore the blame lays at Sids feet. He's been pretty bad for three years now TBTH.

 

[ChaosAgent]

As for Crosby, you can't complain about how hard he works but you can certainly complain about his battle level in several games against the Islanders. His "effort" in game 6 was appalling. Jake and Crosby were battling to play tag hockey.

Whatever he worked on since the hernia...maybe he can do 50% fewer squats and much more mobility work?

How is Jeff Carter still an explosive open-ice skater and Sidney Crosby is skating through mud out there. Like, next time you're going into an opponent's zone, try to beat them with your skating. Don't just pull up inside the blueline and wait for the trailer when everyone in the arena knows that's what you're trying to do.