Kessel - Interesting article...

Ogrezilla

Nerf Herder
Jul 5, 2009
75,534
22,049
Pittsburgh
I have never stated Sullivan does everything 100% wrong, he has his warts and people seem to refuse to believe they exist.
JR has done some absolutely idiotic things as well, but people are more inclined to give those stupid things far more credit.

What are all of these absolutely idiotic things? He makes some strange line-up choices the same as every other coach, but what has he done that is extra idiotic?

Our coach doesn't like Kessel, those were the rumors. They feel a lot less like rumors and when there are countless other players that our coach has had "issues with" it becomes a "who might be next?" type of thing.

So we traded Cole and Reaves for a 3C, and we traded Sprong for a D. Is that the countless list? Three guys who were moved in very reasonable deals?

Kessel hasn't been playing his best, neither has Malkin for stretches as well.

So why is Kessel getting more of the punishment than say, Geno? You can't pick 1 of the people to be your whipping boy when both have equal claim to playing some uninspired hockey at times.

Because Kessel plays wing, so he's easier to move up and down the lines. Because Kessel isn't Evgeni f***ing Malkin. I'm as big a Kessel fan as you can find, but he's still not Malkin.

Whether I want Sully fired or not or JR gone, I will 100% maintain that Sully needs someone to reign him in, if he stays, they need to do that more than ever, if they don't...this is going to get hilarious by the end of the season and playoffs.
Back to the first bit. What is he doing that needs reigned in? I see him getting the team back on track after a horrible start. I just honestly don't understand what is bothering you so much about him.
 

Ogrezilla

Nerf Herder
Jul 5, 2009
75,534
22,049
Pittsburgh
I'm curious what happens if everyone comes back, is healthy and we're out in the 1st round.

Which round of excuses will people use then?

Will the blame fall squarely on Rutherford's shoulders only?
Will Sullivan get the blame for this one?
Will Kessel finally say **** it, I want out, I can't deal with Sullivan anymore and then will people still ignore THAT is a problem with coach/player arguments?

I am just curious where people draw the line.

You're literally making up scenarios to hate. I don't really have anything to say to this, I just want to point that out.

Do we need to be a certain amount of years removed from the back to 2 back wins? (recent discussions about the Bolts and Cooper made me remember that we beat the Bolts in 7 with Stamkos out for all but 1 game and Bishop done after a game and their back-up out playing Murray and we only won because the bolts were more injured than we were).

Because I am at a point where, the more I think about our 2 cup wins, the more I see the details I glanced over because I was so in awe of certain things that allowed me to turn a blind eye to some stuff that is making me realize that you know what, 2015-16 might have been a lot of luck, actually. People will refuse to believe that, so it's whatever, because only we can use injuries and fatigue as an excuse, no one else can. Because hell, in 2017 we barely got by the Senators as well. THE OTTAWA SENATORS!
you've lost it. It's really really hard to win the Stanley Cup. You don't need an excuse to explain why you don't win a third in a row.

And you certainly can't sweep away back to back Cup wins as luck :laugh: You realize the Senators were in the conference finals, right? They didn't just fall over backwards and land there :laugh:
 
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Riptide

Registered User
Dec 29, 2011
38,887
6,520
Yukon
This guy, Kingerski, is a huge Sullivan apologist and dislikes Kessel and Geno...he’s written other articles belittling Phil and G...I wouldn’t take anything he writes on the subject to be gospel...

Apologist or not, the icetime figures do not lie.

It's not groundbreaking in the sense that he clearly likes the smell of his own farts and probably thinks he's a real journalist. I wanted to knock him down a few pegs there/everyone knows Kessel is meh on defense. You keep him around for the offense.

It's off the deep-end because to think THIS is what Sully meant when "sometimes best hammer is ice time" is baseless. It's trying to correlate things without proof.

If he had a quote from Sullivan saying these guys in particular are disappointing, fine, but I didn't see one.

I mean, the dude is like "omg the fourth line with veteran center on it was being used defensively!!!! And that extra use in close games near the end came at the expense of Pearson-Brassard-Kessel"


No. ****ing. Duh. That's classic fourth line usage. Plus, I'd consider Pearson slightly defensive, Brassard not great, and Kessel a defensive liability.

That doesn't mean those guys are useless in a game. Just, that they aren't the best choice out in the last ten minutes of a knuckledown situation.

It's a hit piece without merit.

Totally different if he benched kessel five minutes INTO the game, not five minutes LEFT in a game.

Except this wasn't exactly a close game. We were up 3-0 with 10 minutes left in the 3rd. At that point Kessel got 2 shifts for the rest of the game that were a combined 37 seconds. Crosby got 5, Sheahan and Malkin got 6 and Cullen got 7 shifts. Basically everyone but L3 got 5/6 shifts over the rest of the period.
 
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Riptide

Registered User
Dec 29, 2011
38,887
6,520
Yukon
The dude produces. Yes.. he plays a very interesting brand of hockey. But who gives a ****? He produces. If Sully has a problem with it, he can **** off. Not every player is Sidney Crosby. When you get a coach's favorite, you get ZAR.

When you get a Phil Kessel (and there are many other examples), you have to be creative to keep them engaged and playing the right way.

Who's actually been playing some pretty good hockey over the past several games.
 

Ryder71

Registered User
Nov 24, 2017
22,829
11,033
He did. But I think ZAR playing well goes back beyond him just playing with Crosby in the last game.
But my point being he may be able to get elevated mins IF say his center is Sid, because they at least have shown some modicum of chemistry prior.
 

Tom Hanks

Spelling mistakes brought to you by my iPhone.
Nov 10, 2017
30,408
32,434
He did. But I think ZAR playing well goes back beyond him just playing with Crosby in the last game.

He seems pretty unspectacular but he doesn’t really get scored that much (ES 1.5 goals/60) which is impressive given the DZS% of 68% and one ice save % of .958.

Guess that’s why he gets opportunities sometimes in certain circumstances that people don’t understand. He’s a safe player. When we were bleeding goals Sully had to try everything to stop it. ZAR was part of that. His minutes dropped quite a bit after the team got back on track so at least Sully isn’t forcing it. ZAR is limited but can have some positive effects out there.
 
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