Post-Game Talk: Penguins are the Penguins

[Pancakes]

The Penguins top-9 is fine as it is, that's not the reason why they're struggling out of the gate. Their major issues are the powerplay and goaltending. If the Penguins would have as good of a powerplay as they should have plus were getting good goaltending, they'd probably be like 6-2 right now.

The Penguins are 7th in the NHL in 5v5 goals and 5v5 goals/60. The 4th line is the only line that isn't producing, but they're at least not getting scored on either. Their issues are in net and on special teams.

They could probably get by with a better PP and goaltending and I think Dubas expected the team to do just that with the addition of EK.

At this point I don't even know if Connor McDavid would fix our PP though. There's just something fundamentally wrong with how that unit is coached/deployed. Or perhaps the stars are running the asylum. I don't know.

 

[Headshot77]

Throw Carter on the top PP unit and plonk him in the slot. Either he screens the goalie and acts as a net front presence or he takes a slapshot off the ankle and the team gets a roster spot and cap relief. Win-win.

This is an effed up thing to say. But legit Carter could be a good net front guy. It's a relatively static position.

 

[Pens x]

At lest we we arw used to garbage play by now.

 

[Pancakes]

At lest we we arw used to garbage play by now.

If anyone isn't used to it yet they better buckle up because we're about to see a decade of it

 

[Al Smith]

Two stats besides finishing I think tell the season so far:

The PP is 30th in the league. The way this roster is constructed, they need to at least be in the top 10.

Jarry has the 12th highest cap hit for goalies yet is 37th in save % (not getting into any fancier goalie stats). His save percentage needs to match his cap hit, and he needs to be in the top 10-15 goalies in the league.

Same issues as last season: if they had improved one or other then we’d have a positive record…tired of this shit

they need to play a much more defensive system since they can’t do anything about goaltending this season and do something, anything, about the PP

37th in save % with two shutouts in < 6 games, (I think) -Yikes.

 

[CascadiaPenguin]

The Rakell love affair was mostly folks just looking to shit on Rust.
In reality the two players are very close together. Average top 6 RWs. Run hot and cold, have good games and bad games.
Rakell doesn't look all that different than before, he's just not scoring now.

You may be more right than you know. A lot of parallels in this year's Rakell vs last year's Rust. Obvious frustration and self-doubt leading to destroyed confidence is the biggest. At least I sort of believed the new contract may have been a big part of Rust's mental midgetry last year, but I have no idea what Rak's problem is this year.

 

[Zirakzigil]

New GDT up