Post-Game Talk: Habs 3, Pens 2 - To Me It Looks Like Monkeys Trying to Hump A Football

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Isn't Ryan Wilson the idiot who keeps desperately holding on to the false ideal that Kunitz isn't a flaming bag of trash on skates?

"Here's some stupid graph with a ton of blips and colors. It proves my point. Ignore what you've seen on the ice for the past few seasons, and the fact that it's all happened while getting top PP time and nearly 100% of his shifts with Sid or Geno!"

 

[Waffle Fries]

Idk, Bennett was very, very, very bad last year. I'm obviously thrilled he's playing great now, but I still think he was awful last year. I think the Adams thing was a little hyperbolic by me, but the point of Bennett being very bad last year once he returned from his preseason injury is still valid.

This entire post is hyperbolic.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

Adams was by far the worst regular player on the roster last year.

And it's not even close.

 

[Fordy]

Idk, Bennett was very, very, very bad last year. I'm obviously thrilled he's playing great now, but I still think he was awful last year. I think the Adams thing was a little hyperbolic by me, but the point of Bennett being very bad last year once he returned from his preseason injury is still valid.

no he wasn't

 

[AR5]

Clendening not playing reeks of front office more than coaching staff. In like 40 games, I still think I've not seen any of the coaches say a positive thing about Ben Lovejoy once. I've certainly seen them compliment Clendening in 3 games worth of work more than Lovejoy in 40.

I think it's not out of the question that Johnston or Agnew grossly over-estimate Scuderi due to him being, as Darryl Sutter called him, a "no maintenance" player. But Lovejoy playing over Clendening strikes me more as a "we traded a lot to get this guy, shut your mouth and make it work" thing.

Deapoli claims they're playing Lovejoy over Clenny on behest of GMJR to boost Lovejoy's trade value.

 

[drpepper]

Clendening was one of the best D from the preseason? Since when? He was serviceable and was a pleasant surprise, but calling him one of the best D is just laughably untrue.

Clendening was better than Scuderi, Lovejoy, Pouliot, Dumoulin, and Maatta in pre-season. Only Cole and Letang were better.

Idk, Bennett was very, very, very bad last year. I'm obviously thrilled he's playing great now, but I still think he was awful last year. I think the Adams thing was a little hyperbolic by me, but the point of Bennett being very bad last year once he returned from his preseason injury is still valid.

The only player even close to as useless as Adams was Sill.

Bennett recovering from injury, with knee braces, on his less effective side, with bad linemates, and being encouraged to focus on board battles to the exclusion of being a good hockey player was still better than Adams and Sill without question.

 

[NewAgeOutlaw]

Last year Bennett was playing with players who either lacked offensive talent or lacked creativity/the ability to create space. I'm talking Adams, Sutter, Lapierre ect. All last season, most folks kept saying that Bennett would look much better with players that compliment his style of play. A few contrarians insisted that Bennett was just garbage.

Now this year he is playing with guys who have skill and who complement his style of play and lo and behold, he looks a lot better. Go figure, eh?

And now Sprong will be the new Bennett. People will trash him for not producing with the Porters and Farnhams of the world and once again they will be wrong.

 

[Mischa]

Last year Bennett was playing with players who either lacked offensive talent or lacked creativity/the ability to create space. I'm talking Adams, Sutter, Lapierre ect. All last season, most folks kept saying that Bennett would look much better with players that compliment his style of play. A few contrarians insisted that Bennett was just garbage.

Now this year he is playing with guys who have skill and who complement his style of play and lo and behold, he looks a lot better. Go figure, eh?

And now Sprong will be the new Bennett. People will trash him for not producing with the Porters and Farnhams of the world and once again they will be wrong.

last year bennett played with good players in the preseason and like a week out of the season

he looked good for all of that and even helped make the third like look offensive (in the good way) for bit

 

[Riptide]

Isn't Ryan Wilson the idiot who keeps desperately holding on to the false ideal that Kunitz isn't a flaming bag of trash on skates?

"Here's some stupid graph with a ton of blips and colors. It proves my point. Ignore what you've seen on the ice for the past few seasons, and the fact that it's all happened while getting top PP time and nearly 100% of his shifts with Sid or Geno!"

"the past few seasons" implies more than one season. He was very good and very effective 2 and 3 years ago. You can moan and ***** all you want that he wasn't the player we needed, but Wilson isn't lying when he was showing those "fancy stats with blips and colors". Kunitz (iirc) was producing something like .45 GPG and almost 1 PPG. Very few players in the league produced at that level over that time frame. So while you ***** and berate him as if he was some ****** player, from 12/13 to 13/14, he was 10th in points and 4th in goals - in the entire league. And no that's not just because he's some Joe on Crosby's line. If it was that easy to produce there, we would have more success finding players to play with Crosby then has actually been the case.

 

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

"bruh, stats."

It's never been about production with Kunitz. He's a ****** hockey player; lazy, floats, does nothing to help his linemates.

Stop bringing up stats like they're proving your point. They're not.

The only reason the populous took notice of his play last season is because his production finally reflected what he's been doing for far longer than people seem comfortable admitting.

 

[Riptide]

Last year Bennett was playing with players who either lacked offensive talent or lacked creativity/the ability to create space. I'm talking Adams, Sutter, Lapierre ect. All last season, most folks kept saying that Bennett would look much better with players that compliment his style of play. A few contrarians insisted that Bennett was just garbage.

Now this year he is playing with guys who have skill and who complement his style of play and lo and behold, he looks a lot better. Go figure, eh?

And now Sprong will be the new Bennett. People will trash him for not producing with the Porters and Farnhams of the world and once again they will be wrong.

Except Bennett's game changed. In the first few games when he played with Sutter before getting hurt, he played and looked great. Didn't produce, but looked very good. After coming back from that injury, he didn't look nearly as good. Not bad, but a lot more meh. After his 2nd injury, he came back and looked like utter crap. You could blame him not producing on the players he was playing with, but you can't blame how he was actually playing on them. He was a shell of the player he was in the first few weeks.

Now, he also looks a LOT more confident, is playing the body more, going to the net more and shooting more. None of those things were happening last season after the injuries.

 

[Riptide]

"bruh, stats."

It's never been about production with Kunitz. He's a ****** hockey player; lazy, floats, does nothing to help his linemates.

Stop bringing up stats like they're proving your point. They're not.

The only reason the populous took notice of his play last season is because his production finally reflected what he's been doing for far longer than people seem comfortable admitting.

Pretty sure him scoring 57 goals over ~120 games helped this team win games.

Stop saying he was playing like crap "for the past few seasons" because he wasn't. Last season? Absolutely. But the 2 prior to that? No.

And no his his play wasn't the same last year as it was the previous seasons just without the production. His overall game last year was brutal. His overall game the previous two seasons, might not have been what YOU wanted to see, but it was significantly better then what last year was - and that has nothing to do with his production.

 

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Pretty sure him scoring 57 goals over ~120 games helped this team win games.

Stop saying he was playing like crap "for the past few seasons" because he wasn't. Last season? Absolutely. But the 2 prior to that? No.

And no his his play wasn't the same last year as it was the previous seasons just without the production. His overall game last year was brutal. His overall game the previous two seasons, might not have been what YOU wanted to see, but it was significantly better then what last year was - and that has nothing to do with his production.

He's been a garbage hockey player, whether or not you're willing or able to see it. Sorry.

The guy hasn't hustled for pucks, battled for pucks, skated hard, or hit with any sort of force for years. When he was producing, he was literally just floating around waiting for Sid to do all the work and get him the puck. I don't care how good your regular season numbers are, that's not gonna help Sid or this team come playoff time. Guys will smother Sid and dare Kunitz to beat them, and he won't. Either because he's simply not good enough offensively to create on his own, or because he doesn't give it the effort to do so.

Kunitz from 2008-2012 is one of my favorite Penguins of all time. I didn't give a **** if he was a 60-70pt player or not, that didn't matter. He made Sid and this team better with his play. The production came elsewhere. Kunitz's production's never been the issue, it's his effort level and play on the ice. Not sure how many times I've gotta repeat that point, but there ya go.

I'd much, much, muuuuuch rather have a 50pt player hustling his ass off, terrorizing defensemen on the forecheck and plastering guys every chance he gets than a lazy, complacent, floater who scored 35g and 70pts by leeching off of Sid or Geno and getting top PP time.

 

[canadianguy77]

The decline of Kunitz as a hockey player began a few years ago. The stats will never tell the whole tale because of who he played with.

 

[Malkin112*]

 

[gdsmack267]

wow, those shots against numbers are terrible

 

[Ugene Magic]

He's been a garbage hockey player, whether or not you're willing or able to see it. Sorry.

The guy hasn't hustled for pucks, battled for pucks, skated hard, or hit with any sort of force for years. When he was producing, he was literally just floating around waiting for Sid to do all the work and get him the puck. I don't care how good your regular season numbers are, that's not gonna help Sid or this team come playoff time. Guys will smother Sid and dare Kunitz to beat them, and he won't. Either because he's simply not good enough offensively to create on his own, or because he doesn't give it the effort to do so.

Kunitz from 2008-2012 is one of my favorite Penguins of all time. I didn't give a **** if he was a 60-70pt player or not, that didn't matter. He made Sid and this team better with his play. The production came elsewhere. Kunitz's production's never been the issue, it's his effort level and play on the ice. Not sure how many times I've gotta repeat that point, but there ya go.

I'd much, much, muuuuuch rather have a 50pt player hustling his ass off, terrorizing defensemen on the forecheck and plastering guys every chance he gets than a lazy, complacent, floater who scored 35g and 70pts by leeching off of Sid or Geno and getting top PP time.

What I think some of you that bring this up: All. The . Time.

Is the failure that there was always someone who floated around and scored goals. There are other younger guys who can do exactly what you speak of, and lets be real, Kunitz has shown to hit as recent as the last game or the one before, but hey, you guys hat'n on won't even break a finger nail to note that.

Kunitz has declined that saw him change his game for the team and himself. They needed scores when they had none on the 1st line.

He's now a mixed bag. Some games he floats and some games he's old Kunitz for spurts.

Overall, Kunitz is not the detriment to the team that you are trying to paint a master piece of.

Right now the team needs time to gel. For more then any particular line since none of them have 3 players who have all played together for more then a few games.

Talk to us in a month. See where the team is at then.


We get your displeasure of him, but you don't have to grease this place so hard on the matter.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

What I think some of you that bring this up: All. The . Time.

Is the failure that there was always someone who floated around and scored goals. There are other younger guys who can do exactly what you speak of, and lets be real, Kunitz has shown to hit as recent as the last game or the one before, but hey, you guys hat'n on won't even break a finger nail to note that.

Kunitz has declined that saw him change his game for the team and himself. They needed scores when they had none on the 1st line.

He's now a mixed bag. Some games he floats and some games he's old Kunitz for spurts.

Overall, Kunitz is not the detriment to the team that you are trying to paint a master piece of.

Right now the team needs time to gel. For more then any particular line since none of them have 3 players who have all played together for more then a few games.

Talk to us in a month. See where the team is at then.


We get your displeasure of him, but you don't have to grease this place so hard on the matter.

1 ES goal in 2015. 4 total points in his last 25 games.

1st line in disarray and Kunitz is contributing nothing. Other wingers having great games are facing a glass ceiling because Kunitz is stuck on the 1st line like a piece of kale stuck between your teeth before a meeting. But that's not a detriment to a team that hasn't been able to score to save its life for the past 25 games?

 

[NewAgeOutlaw]

What I think some of you that bring this up: All. The . Time.

Is the failure that there was always someone who floated around and scored goals. There are other younger guys who can do exactly what you speak of, and lets be real, Kunitz has shown to hit as recent as the last game or the one before, but hey, you guys hat'n on won't even break a finger nail to note that.

Kunitz has declined that saw him change his game for the team and himself. They needed scores when they had none on the 1st line.

He's now a mixed bag. Some games he floats and some games he's old Kunitz for spurts.

Overall, Kunitz is not the detriment to the team that you are trying to paint a master piece of.

Right now the team needs time to gel. For more then any particular line since none of them have 3 players who have all played together for more then a few games.

Talk to us in a month. See where the team is at then.


We get your displeasure of him, but you don't have to grease this place so hard on the matter.

Kunitz has scored 12 points in his last half season's worth of games, all the while playing top line minutes +pp time with some of the best offensive players in the last decade of the nhl. If you do not believe that is a huge detriment then you are kidding yourself. He is not a mixed bag, he has maybe 1 or 2 good shifts every week. The rest of the time he just sucks.

 

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Honestly, if you don't think Kunitz is a serious detriment to whichever line he's on--especially in the top-6, and especially for the past year--I just don't think your post is worth a response.

There's just no discussion to be had. So, as IC says, best of luck in your future endeavors.

 

[ColePens]

Let's move to the new pre-game talk.