Confirmed with Link: Going Full Rutherford (or: He Traded Elmer for The Reverend.)

[Sidney the Kidney]

Lovejoy was driving the play forward, crushing people, jumping into the play and making big plays in his own end.

Fowler as a partner didn't hurt, but Lovejoy's work was his own doing.

I'm not saying Fowler carried him. I'm saying that Fowler helped cover up for any shortcomings that Lovejoy possesses in ways that a guy like Scuderi can't.

 

[IcedCapp]

We have now reached the ripping down of Despres stage on the "grief" scale.

This trade sucked, it sucked yesterday, it sucked today, and it will suck tomorrow. Try to justify it all you want……….

Eh, outside of BillyBudd, I don't think anyone with a negative view of Despres is really a person whose posts you should be able to see, gnomesayin?

 

[Rectify]

Things I learned from this thread - if a young player doesn't immediately produce when he is 19, you need to get rid of him because apparently there is no possibility of getting better.

Sadly, our management seems to follow a strategy that is along these lines. I wonder if it will ever dawn on them that not every 19 year old can be a Maatta. Or they will ever wonder how other teams win cups with players they have stuck with through thick and thin.

The problem is picking the right players to stick by through thick and thin. Kunitz, Scuderi, Adams are what this organization has decided to dedicate themselves to.

They have no clue how to develop the right players efficiently... NO CLUE.

 

[SEALBound]

HA! Well played.

But yeah... I was actually kinda relieved to see him move on to LA. I recognized his contributions to that 09 Cup. Same as I did and do with a guy like Staal. But this whole "The Piece" thing is and always was friggin' ridiculous. He is a very limited positional 6/7. I'm sorry if that hurts people's feelings, or whatever... but that's what he's been almost his whole career. All the other stuff is just the creation of feel-good article after feel-good article. People love their blue collar role players. Especially around here.

He was tasked with covering Ovechkin...which he did mediocrely. He was part of the shutdown pair...but didn't necessarily provide a level of shutdown play that we won the cup as a result. If anything, the "piece" was Cooke-Staal-Kennedy.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

He was tasked with covering Ovechkin...which he did mediocrely. He was part of the shutdown pair...but didn't necessarily provide a level of shutdown play that we won the cup as a result. If anything, the "piece" was Cooke-Staal-Kennedy.

Yeah. I agree that the third line was more important overall, for sure. But I only take that assertion so far. Some go completely bonkers with that line of thinking.

 

[billybudd]

I'm not saying Fowler carried him. I'm saying that Fowler helped cover up for any shortcomings that Lovejoy possesses in ways that a guy like Scuderi can't.

Fowler's not one to clean up after his partner. Requires the opposite, actually.

 

[attaamillo]

I want to see Lovejoy with Pouliot (gets the most out of both players) and Cole with Ehrhoff to start out with. But I know it wont happen knowing Scuderi will never ride the pine.

 

[Jacob]

That's actually oddly coherent

Thanks for that compliment.

 

[cheesedanish87]

MJ kind of threw Despres under the bus.

He was asked about missing Despres physical play, MJ basically responded by saying playing defense and getting the puck out of the zone are more important then physical play.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

MJ kind of threw Despres under the bus.

He was asked about missing Despres physical play, MJ basically responded by saying playing defense and getting the puck out of the zone are more important then physical play.

They have a champ in Scuds for that.

 

[wej20]

plus Despres is playing the right side for the first time in his career.

 

[Rectify]

Cannot wait for Philly/Wash/Bos etc. to continue to dominate us physically and gain zone entry with little to no pressure or fear. But, but, but they get the puck outs da zone...no, they don't.

It is going to be an interesting ride until the end of the season, that much is certain.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

MJ kind of threw Despres under the bus.

He was asked about missing Despres physical play, MJ basically responded by saying playing defense and getting the puck out of the zone are more important then physical play.

Ugh.

It can be both. We're allowed to do both.

I'm not some sort of mutant-pusher but this team really is heading into the playoffs with the wrong mindset. Unless the clocks suddenly turned back nearly ten years and I failed to notice.

 

[td_ice]

I think the organizational dislike/unhappiness with Despres goes way back.

I know in WBS, unless there was injuries, he wasn't put on the top PP unit often. And it wasn't because of players on the team were better than him. Dumoulin was given that spot and he sucked at it. Dumo has decent mobility, but no where near the hockey sense or vision to run point on the PP, or bring up the puck. Granted Simon probably was never going to be a part of it with the big club with Letang and DP ahead of him in that regard, but he definitely should of been ahead of guys like Dumo, and various random AHL lifers, when WBS needed it.

And going back to what Iced mentioned, about being told to be physical this season, he did. I was surprised to see how well he did with physical play, because that was not part of his game in WBS. He wasn't much of a physical presence in WBS. And when the organization was preaching the "quick up"/"stretch pass" of HCDB theme, he did exactly that. So it isn't like he wasn't coachable, from what I could tell.

So I just think they never really were high on the guy, and obviously getting "rid of him" at 23 for a 31year old, average dmen lends credence to that possible theory.

 

[cheesedanish87]

Ugh.

It can be both. We're allowed to do both.

I'm not some sort of mutant-pusher but this team really is heading into the playoffs with the wrong mindset. Unless the clocks suddenly turned back nearly ten years and I failed to notice.

What i took away from MJ's answer is he didn't like Despres defense and how he got the puck out of the zone.

 

[Jacob]

How can they not like Despres' ability to get the puck out of the zone, but are OK with Scuderi's? Despres was sometimes a little overzealous and his chip outs became icings... but Scuderi frequently turns it over inside his own blueline and is basically incapable of making a first pass to his own teammates.

 

[BHD]

Almost 1000 posts of knee-jerk reactions.

 

[MtlPenFan]

People, I get it if many of you are upset because you view the Despres trade as a symptomatic problem within the organization. If you view the Pens as a team that does not develop it's own talent. If you question how they handle the injection of youth into the line-up. Those are legitimate objections. I do have two objections to all of this.......

1. Don't hold up Detriot as the standard for player development and youth injection. Babcock is worse than us in using his youth. He will play them only when forced and if he can acquire a vet to replace youth, he will do it 100% of the time. Seriously, he just traded for Eric Cole and Marek Zidlicky! Really?
Lovejoy is 31 and very capable for this teams style, just think of the outrage if Despres was moved for Marek Zidlicky!

2. Don't hold Simon Despres as the standard for player development, he is not that good. All 4 of the younger defensemen are better in their role as defenseman than he is or will be. He was never going to be more than a 5/6 here, primarily because the others fit the 1, 2, 3, & 4 roles better. Sure he threw body checks, all defensemen do. But he hits, and is physical, Ok, I get it. However, try being in position, try defending, skate and pass north and south and not east and west. Don't waste your youth arguements on Despres. Physical guys, MacNeill and Roupp are waiting in the wings. "Old Time Hockey, Wren Blair, Toe Blake!"
Wow, what would this be doing if Despres had been sent to Jersey for Jagr.......talk about Board and fan conflict!

Did the Wings trade anybody off their roster to get Cole or Zidlicky? Eriksson maybe? Glendenning? DeKeyser?

 

[SEALBound]

They have a champ in Scuds for that.

Want to send a chill down your spine? Think about this...09 playoffs, Scuds-Gill pairing, watching them handle the puck to get out of the zone or make that first pass...okay...now think about Scuderi, much older, much slower, much suckier, without Despres, now doing it himself...or handing it to Ben Lovejoy.

 

[Jacob]

Almost 1000 posts of knee-jerk reactions.

What's your hot take on this trade then?

 

[Rectify]

Almost 1000 posts of knee-jerk reactions.

I wouldn't call Despres for Lovejoy hate being "knee jerk".

 

[Riptide]

Where is your proof that their being truthful Teams say all kinds of things they think the fans want to here most times none of it is true. Like I said earlier if Lemieux wanted Despres on this team he would still be here despite what anyone thinks. Because Lemieux is the boss and Rutherford works for him.

Because I'm not the one slandering them by calling every GM in the league (your words were actually every professional league) a liar. If you insist on this path of associating them with this offensive term, asking for some sort of proof that what many GMs have said is untrue, isn't all that unreasonable.