OFF DAY THREAD! Postponement extraordinaire

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Honour Over Glory

Fire Sully
Jan 30, 2012
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Boston is clearly better than us, but that's nothing to sneeze at.

I agree with you that Philly again will be an interesting measuring stick.
Boston isn’t even better than the Pens. They’re literally a 1 line team. But Cassidy knows which buttons to push on the Penguins, the fact that they don’t adjust to their opponent because Sullivan can’t figure it out, is a huge detriment to beating the Bruins when this team is fully capable of it.

I’d love to see the Pens line-up against them with a top 9 of:

Zucker, Crosby, Kapanen
Guentzel, Malkin, Rust
Aston-Reese, Blueger, Tanev

That, to me, would give us hope.
 
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Ryder71

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Nov 24, 2017
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There's nothing wrong with criticism. Lambasting and ridiculing is not deserved, and even while not playing up to his standard he hasn't been as terrible as people describe. It's always the same. He starts slow or has some bad games and they want to trade him, call him a lazy Russian, say he hasn't earned deference like Sid (he isn't top 5, but for madden to say he MAY be top 50? Malkin will end his career top 25 and it isn't close). He's not harming his legacy. He's not embarrassing the city. Those are obscene comments. He has 10 points in 16 games and will be ok. He's 34. Some people need to realize that means he isn't the player he was. But he's still elite and doesn't deserve the insanity every year. He's faced trade rumors every year since 2008. Media/fan ridicule every year since 2008. That's the stain on his legacy.
I disagree, he's fallin pretty far to this point in the season. He has time to find his game but it's starting to look as though he might not find it. Now, I'm not throwing in the towel just yet. But relative to his talent and ability this version of Geno is indeed an embarrassment! You must accept that. I'm sure he's embarrassed and I am certainly embarrassed for him.
 

ChaosAgent

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May 8, 2018
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Boston isn’t even better than the Pens. They’re literally a 1 line team. But Cassidy knows which buttons to push on the Penguins, the fact that they don’t adjust to their opponent because Sullivan can’t figure it, is a huge detriment to beating the Bruins when this team is fully capable of.

I’d love to see the Pens line-up against them with a top 9 of:

Zucker, Crosby, Kapanen
Guentzel, Malkin, Rust
Aston-Reese, Blueger, Tanev

That, to me, would give us hope.

Regardless of 5-on-5 and matchups on paper or whatever, the Bruins are better at goaltender (and I like Jarry) and vastly, vastly better at special teams. There's your difference.
 

Speaking Moistly

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Feb 19, 2013
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Dumoulin to me doesn’t get that benefit. He was ass to start the season and continued that trend the whole season even before the stoppage. After the stoppage when he had more time to get in shape, he still showed up and played like ass and has started this season the same way.

It’s been a year, a whole year.

I think you have to give it to all of them. For all we know last season was him still not being truly healthy and now it’s something related to the current situation. It’s still concerning because it might be that his ankle is the problem and won’t improve but you can go back and forth on any player because we don’t know.


Dumoulin is the one where I really think time is of the essence for making a decision, though. With the expansion draft looming they need to figure out the LD options. Peak Dumoulin is better than Pettersson but if he’s not that player anymore it changes a lot.
 

Honour Over Glory

Fire Sully
Jan 30, 2012
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I think you have to give it to all of them. For all we know last season was him still not being truly healthy and now it’s something related to the current situation. It’s still concerning because it might be that his ankle is the problem and won’t improve but you can go back and forth on any player because we don’t know.


Dumoulin is the one where I really think time is of the essence for making a decision, though. With the expansion draft looming they need to figure out the LD options. Peak Dumoulin is better than Pettersson but if he’s not that player anymore it changes a lot.
I think we should split the difference.

They should trade him and see if he can rebound elsewhere, then just be happy for him.
 

Honour Over Glory

Fire Sully
Jan 30, 2012
77,316
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Regardless of 5-on-5 and matchups on paper or whatever, the Bruins are better at goaltender (and I like Jarry) and vastly, vastly better at special teams. There's your difference.
The Bruins are better at supporting their goaltender and playing team defense.

That’s what you’re missing. Jarry is fine, he’s been showing he’s fine the last 4 straight games. What hasn’t been is the Pens overall play, it’s still very inconsistent and the coach is a f***ing moron.
 
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ChaosAgent

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May 8, 2018
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The Bruins are better at supporting their goaltender and playing team defense.

That’s what you’re missing. Jarry is fine, he’s been showing he’s fine the last 4 straight games. What hasn’t been is the Pens overall play, it’s still very inconsistent and the coach is a f***ing moron.

Most of that is special teams. Even when the PK prevents a goal it's usually a shellacking. The PP has been slightly better as of late but we are 27th in net PP for a reason.

I agree with you that Jarry is fine, has been terrific recently, and whatever fancy stats people were looking at to say he was the biggest problem on the team were overstating the quality of this team's defense. When all the goals are tap-ins and uncontested looks in front it goes far beyond the tender.
 

Ryder71

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Nov 24, 2017
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Geno’s ass start would be most player’s good starts.

All while trying to make it work with Zucker & Kapanen who clearly are not the right fit for him as wingers.
Points aside he's been abysmal in managing the puck. I don't think he's playing at a level that is comparable to a good 2hd line center either. Teddy's outplaying him by a considerable margin and he at best is a good 3C. Let's be honest about it. He's been pretty damn bad relative to even conservative expectations of his talents. We don't need to sugarcoat it.
 

Gurglesons

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Points aside he's been abysmal in managing the puck. I don't think he's playing at a level that is comparable to a good 2hd line center either. Teddy's outplaying him by a considerable margin and he at best is a good 3C. Let's be honest about it. He's been pretty damn bad relative to even conservative expectations of his talents.

Blueger is playing at a Cirelli level with inferior wings right now.
 

Ryder71

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Nov 24, 2017
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If Blueger keeps this up he makes losing Malkin easier tbh.

A 45-50 pt center with that type of impact defensively with Crosby in front makes us a contender still.

Especially if it allows us to reposition Malkin’s cap hit to an elite wing.
Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Teddy is playing exceptionally well. But I think we need to see if he can maintain this level of play for a bit longer.
 

Ryder71

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He’s been on an upwards trajectory since his AHL days. Every role he’s given he succeeds in. Maybe you put him on Malkin’s “wing”.
Why would we mess with Teddy? Leave him be. You know what? I could argue that relative to reasonable expectations Teddy, Matheson, Tanev, Ceci, POJ and Ruhwedel might be our best players thus far. ZAR has had a good start himself. No top six guys but Rust is doing ok.
 

Tom Hanks

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Nov 10, 2017
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He’s been on an upwards trajectory since his AHL days. Every role he’s given he succeeds in. Maybe you put him on Malkin’s “wing”.

More like Malkin on Teddy's wing (Teddy is not a good winger)
 

CascadiaPenguin

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If we can come away with two big wins this week against the Capitals we will be comfortably in 2nd place unless Flyers win out.
all I give a f*** about is not finishing fourth to the Bruins first. The f***ing Capitals certainly don't want us in the playoffs, and I like our chances against Philly as well. Boston may be too good this year, even given their super top-heavy construction, but more power to them as they seem to know how to play our team, but I doubt they will be eager to face us running with momentum after a 1st round win, likely as a dog.
 

Bingo71

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Apr 3, 2018
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Well, Cassidy must know how to push a lot of teams’ buttons because it’s not just the Pens that the Bruins own...

It’s cute to look at rosters on paper and get giddy over all these advanced stats and analytics, but all that doesn’t mean shit if you aren’t beating the teams on the ice...
 

LOGiK

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Nov 14, 2007
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all I give a f*** about is not finishing fourth to the Bruins first. The f***ing Capitals certainly don't want us in the playoffs, and I like our chances against Philly as well. Boston may be too good this year, even given their super top-heavy construction, but more power to them as they seem to know how to play our team, but I doubt they will be eager to face us running with momentum after a 1st round win, likely as a dog.

That stuff is mostly unavoidable this season.

If you're 4th place at the end of the season and can win to get third and avoid 1st - 4th matchup..... doesnt even matter.

If you win you have to play the other metro team.

Even since the reseeding began.. dropping wins to avoid a death spiral of matchups has pretty much been eliminated with reseeding.

Just get in and hope for the best now.... (which I believe has been sully's plan all along: hope)


(('hope isn't a plan'))
 
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