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

[Winger for Hire]

I'll give you a hint, his name starts with "F" and ends with "arnham"

Fehr?

 

[Randy Butternubs]

Well, Sprong's grandmother surprised him last night:

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

Well, Sprong's grandmother surprised him last night:

That's awesome.

 

[td_ice]

That's awesome.

Yeah, that's really cool.

 

[zhenyas most fly rep]

Yes. He was tremendous before he went out last year.

Yeah he had a really good start to the season last year.
Without looking that far back, I was pretty satisfied with the Määttä-Clendening pairing in preseason. yeah, it doesn't mean much but then again maybe it does, who knows? It hasn't been tried since.

Amazing really, before last night, we were two games into the season, two losses, more than suspect defensive pairings (Cole on the first pairing being probably the worst miscast on this team contending with Kunitz on the first line and Perron alongside Malkin) Määttä struggling and our supposedly "head coach" stand still, changes nothing when he has, in the case of the second pairing, an obvious alternative seating in the press box. You know, the guy who actually had some pretty good showings in preseason (can't say the same about Lovejoy, Scuderi).

Now 3 loses in as many horrendous games. At what point does HCMJ begin to fear for his job (since trying to ice the most competitive team isn't incentive enough) and takes the really "hard" decision of benching one of his veteran?
The best part is these are actually the easiest tweaks (personnel changes) when you look at the mess that are our systems, be it neutral zone play, defensive zone coverage, breakout under pressure, special teams, etc... In fact I have a hard time finding a single thing satisfactory with the way this team play in any of the three zones.

OT: What is the purpose of the preseason if you're not going to experiment different things - for instance, trying Kessel with different centers (like they were afraid he would mesh better with Malkin, just like it seems they are afraid Sprong does so well they can't send him back)
or even worse not keeping those experiment who gave a good first impression.
Of course, this is all assuming this coaching staff isn't completely incompetent in the first place. I mean, this is kind of shocking but they notice Bennett had a good game last night..

 

[DegenX]

On one particular play during Tuesday's loss to Montreal, defenseman Rob Scuderi attempted a breakout pass out of his own zone to rookie Daniel Sprong who was nowhere near the play. Immediately, and while he was still on the ice in the middle of his shift, Scuderi literally shrugged his shoulders in disbelief (it was the real-life version of this). And that's pretty much the first three games of the season in a nut shell. source

I don't think it was 'in disbelief'

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

I don't think it was 'in disbelief'

"Huh. I'm usually money with my breakout passes."

- Rob Scuderi

 

[DegenX]

"Huh. I'm usually money with my breakout passes."

- Rob Scuderi

More like "Meh, whatever. It's not like they're going to bench me."

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

More like "Meh, whatever. It's not like they're going to bench me."

Touché.

 

[Winger for Hire]

More like "Meh, whatever. It's not like they're going to bench me."

It's so funny and it hurts so deep.

 

[Ogrezilla]

More like "Meh, whatever. It's not like they're going to bench me."

way better chance we bench Dumoulin to shake things up than Scuderi. Its sad.

 

[Shrimper]

That's awesome.

I was in that queue of people. Went to look at the shop but was told the players would be turning up. Gave up when only 3 (Lovejoy, Perron and Maatta) arrived after 30 minutes. Lovejoy and Maatta ignored everyone.

 

[steveg]

way better chance we bench Dumoulin to shake things up than Scuderi. Its sad.

I will be spitting nails if I see Dumoulin benched to allow Clendening to play, instead of Scuderi.

Tell me even this coaching staff wouldn't be THAT moronic...

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

I was in that queue of people. Went to look at the shop but was told the players would be turning up. Gave up when only 3 (Lovejoy, Perron and Maatta) arrived after 30 minutes. Lovejoy and Maatta ignored everyone.

Did you make a special trip to see the Pens home-opener? I thought you were based in England.

 

[SaintLouHaintBlue]

I was in that queue of people.

Spoken like a true Englishman.

 

[Rocket of Russia]

Well, Sprong's grandmother surprised him last night:

Painfully adorable.

This org has me so pessimistic I'm sitting here thinking, "hopefully these aholes see this as a PR stunt and they start to play Spong more as fan service." But then I remember Sprong isn't s blue collar, hard-work trumps talent kinda guy. He's just talented and works hard. We don't want the talent. We want Adams.

 

[Jacob]

Spoken like a true Englishman.

Mental.

 

[Ogrezilla]

I will be spitting nails if I see Dumoulin benched to allow Clendening to play, instead of Scuderi.

Tell me even this coaching staff wouldn't be THAT moronic...

if we need a shake up, do you think anyone but the youngest guys will sit?

 

[AjaxTelamon]

if we need a shake up, do you think anyone but the youngest guys will sit?

He is about our 2nd or 3rd best D man right now, and he's carrying his dead weight partner. So I can't imagine even this staff would consider sitting him.

On the upside, maybe we get a perfect storm, MJ is fired, Sullivan or Jacques take over, DP has worked out his issues at WBS and comes up to stabilize the 3rd pair, and we're ready for the cup run.

 

[NewAgeOutlaw]

He is about our 2nd or 3rd best D man right now, and he's carrying his dead weight partner. So I can't imagine even this staff would consider sitting him.

On the upside, maybe we get a perfect storm, MJ is fired, Sullivan or Jacques take over, DP has worked out his issues at WBS and comes up to stabilize the 3rd pair, and we're ready for the cup run.

This is the same organization/coaching staff that believed Scuderi was carrying Despres last year. I don't know why you would expect them to suddenly become competent.

 

[Empoleon8771]

I honestly can't see any way that they scratch Dumoulin. I think the organization is as dumb as everyone else thinks, but there is absolutely no way they scratch Dumoulin after he has been our most consistent D. I think it's more likely they scratch Maatta than scratch Dumoulin.

 

[Sidgeni Malkby]

No, they'd score 81 in the last game since they started at 0. Head in the clouds.

Scoring 82 would be for the playoffs.

 

[billybudd]

I honestly can't see any way that they scratch Dumoulin. I think the organization is as dumb as everyone else thinks, but there is absolutely no way they scratch Dumoulin after he has been our most consistent D. I think it's more likely they scratch Maatta than scratch Dumoulin.

I dunno. Bourque is usually a canary in the coal mine when it comes to who the Penguins aren't happy with. I don't get it, but he seems to think Dumoulin is some sort of problem for unknown reasons. Nevermind that he's one of two players on D that's completing passes right now. I love Maatta, but he's playing like he's terrified that Lovejoy's going to get him scored on. Can't really say I blame him.

 

[IcedCapp]

He wasn't better last game, but over 3 games, Dumoulin has outplayed everyone, including Letang, on the defense.

Which totally means he'll sit. Same **** happened with Despres last year.

But it's gambling problems.

 

[Empoleon8771]

I dunno. Bourque is usually a canary in the coal mine when it comes to who the Penguins aren't happy with. I don't get it, but he seems to think Dumoulin is some sort of problem for unknown reasons. Nevermind that he's one of two players on D that's completing passes right now. I love Maatta, but he's playing like he's terrified that Lovejoy's going to get him scored on. Can't really say I blame him.

I honestly refuse to believe that they would do that until they actually would. They should be giving him more ice time with the way he's playing right now, not scratching him for Clendening. I just can't see it. As dumb as this organization is with personnel choices, they won't take out a player who's actively performing. It just means Clendening probably won't be playing anytime soon.