Watched the first two periods, first Pens hockey I've watched in a while so forgive me if I repeat the obvious with these points -
I saw a decent team, maybe a bit low on confidence, with the problem of just going to bits around either net. Soft goals at our end, plays that didn't quite click at ours. It was the sort of thing you can excuse as a team in a rut but the rut has been 34 games now.
To me, that's a situation where you call in the coach and ask him to explain what he thinks he can do to fix this, and what he'd need, and if he's considered other options. Even a coach like Sully.
People are blaming the line shuffles on current personnel or the rut. Hmm. I remember a lot of line shuffles, frequently prompting expressions of "wtf", last season as well. My view is that Sully likes to shuffle lines and will do it pretty much any time the motor gets a little cold.
Maybe Sully would turn around and ask what do we expect with the current locker room. I'd love to do stats on our record with and without Schultz but am too lazy. I've a hunch we stop scoring when he's out though. The bottom 6 and the winger fit are also things we've been over and over, as too is the deleterious effect of Letang's form going walkabouts.
But I don't know how much I accept that. I think the roster I saw last night should be winning more games than it is. I think the roster with a couple of trades could be dynamite. But that relies on players making the simple reads and passes that they're not at the moment. And when a team frequently doesn't execute the basics, or looks a little lazy, I wonder what's happening off ice. Maybe the younger guys can't replace the veterans in the locker room. Maybe the talk about trading popular locker room members should be more alarming than I thought.
In any case, to return to the game from the mini-rant...
- This team couldn't generate an odd man rush on empty ice right now
- Cole/Hunwick should be an in extremis pairing.
- Simon has the talent and brain to play with Sid, but I'm not sure about the experience levels just yet
- Hornqvist/Hagelin remains a pairing where scoring will be a bonus