Speculation: Penguins off day talk thread: Dont look now, but we are good again!

[Zirakzigil]

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[Zirakzigil]

The whole time I wanted Smith to be tried with Sid and it took two injuries to get there.

At least this doesn't hurt Geno's line.

Just dropped over $500 for the game on Saturday. Kept humming and hawing about it since September. Flames made the lovely choice of retiring Kippers jersey that night, ticket prices are more than double what they normally are. Ended up deciding to go for two reasons, Kipper was awesome and the ceremony will be worth it and I wont be able to see Sid play live for much longer. Complain about this team/coach all you want, but we will miss this era all too soon.

From Josh Yohe's piece for The Athletic, about most likely players to be dealt on the TDL:

"Jansen Harkins — There is some talent there, but he’s not on anyone’s radar."

lol. "Has some skill."

I played juniors on a bad team. I was also a bad player. One month, we actually put together a five or six-game winning streak, and it was the third and fourth lines miraculously gelling for a bit that made it happen.

Toward the end of the streak, after I had a two-goal game, I walked by my coach talking to a reporter, saying: "Our top players haven't been scoring. It's our other guys who are... also good... who are producing."

Womp womp.

Well it really feels like a Penguins season now that Rust is injured for ~20-30 games of it.

He doesn't even PK, don't understand why Sully has become so enamoured with him. He had a stretch of 4 games in his second call up where he was laying the body pretty well on the forecheck but ever since then he's been super vanilla.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Karlsson - He really hasn't been as bad as most want to make him out to be, he has some games where it's glaring more often than not, like the game vs the Canucks, but overall, he isn't allowing more goals against while he's out there than Letang or Ruhwedel for example, he's bee better than the hate he gets. He has changed his game though, he's doing "typical" Penguins moves that are not Karlsson plays at all.

Even then if you lot buy into analytics much or whatever, his isn't all that bad at all, but there are games where when he's off, he's really off. Today was one of those games but he scored the GWG which was great, but he's so up and down right now, I think year 2 will be a less of this but I hope we get a chance to see it.

 

[Wattsburgh]

How do you fire Coaches on Cap Friendly? Every time I make a great trade / create a dream team lineup / call up Yager, Sullivan blocks me.

 

[pistolpete11]

Karlsson - He really hasn't been as bad as most want to make him out to be, he has some games where it's glaring more often than not, like the game vs the Canucks, but overall, he isn't allowing more goals against while he's out there than Letang or Ruhwedel for example, he's bee better than the hate he gets. He has changed his game though, he's doing "typical" Penguins moves that are not Karlsson plays at all.

Even then if you lot buy into analytics much or whatever, his isn't all that bad at all, but there are games where when he's off, he's really off. Today was one of those games but he scored the GWG which was great, but he's so up and down right now, I think year 2 will be a less of this but I hope we get a chance to see it.

Is it just me or has Karlsson been doing more Karlsson things the last couple of weeks? He's not as free roaming as he may have been last year, but there's at least a few times recently where I noticed him skating the puck through traffic in the neutral zone. He was doing a lot of that stuff earlier in the year before Sullivan 'helped' him 'fix' his game.

Overall, he's been better than I thought he'd be actually, other than the PP. There's a lot of blame to go around for the PP and I put the majority of that on the coaches, but Karlsson does deserve some too. And looking back to the Sharks and even the Senators PP's, they weren't great. So it might have been my misunderstanding how good of a PP player he is.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Is it just me or has Karlsson been doing more Karlsson things the last couple of weeks? He's not as free roaming as he may have been last year, but there's at least a few times recently where I noticed him skating the puck through traffic in the neutral zone. He was doing a lot of that stuff earlier in the year before Sullivan 'helped' him 'fix' his game.

Overall, he's been better than I thought he'd be actually, other than the PP. There's a lot of blame to go around for the PP and I put the majority of that on the coaches, but Karlsson does deserve some too. And looking back to the Sharks and even the Senators PP's, they weren't great. So it might have been my misunderstanding how good of a PP player he is.

Karlsson is producing a lot less than last season and the powerplay being putrid is hurting basically all the forwards that would get a production boost from it, but his game overall hasn't been nearly a bad as Yohe, Rossi, Madden, usual dipshits, make it out to be. Yeah he had a couple of bad plays in the Canucks one, so did Letang, but Karlsson seemed to be more affected by it, he played a little more gun shy and then slowly tried to get back to himself and you saw him try to deke through players etc, aka "Old Karlsson" but the rest of his game feels like the same issues we see from new players - They were brought in for a certain skillset they had and were seemingly changed to fit what the coaching staff want from them instead.

Like buying a butter knife to use as a flat head screwdriver and using the flat head screwdriver as a butter knife - That's the Sullivan method.

 

[pistolpete11]

Karlsson is producing a lot less than last season and the powerplay being putrid is hurting basically all the forwards that would get a production boost from it, but his game overall hasn't been nearly a bad as Yohe, Rossi, Madden, usual dipshits, make it out to be. Yeah he had a couple of bad plays in the Canucks one, so did Letang, but Karlsson seemed to be more affected by it, he played a little more gun shy and then slowly tried to get back to himself and you saw him try to deke through players etc, aka "Old Karlsson" but the rest of his game feels like the same issues we see from new players - They were brought in for a certain skillset they had and were seemingly changed to fit what the coaching staff want from them instead.

Like buying a butter knife to use as a flat head screwdriver and using the flat head screwdriver as a butter knife - That's the Sullivan method.

He had 17points in 16 games and was a +10 to start the season until Sullivan finally got through to him

 

[The Great Mighty Poo]

Cartkins forever, Gruden never.

 

[Andy99]

They’re really jerking Gruden around lol…from Taylor:

LIVE PRACTICE UPDATES​

Good afternoon from Calgary, where the Penguins are practicing shortly. I’ll have live updates below.
• The Penguins recalled Jonathan Gruden.
• All healthy players are present for practice. Jake Guentzel is watching from the bench.
• No lines or power-play work yet. Just a lot of skills work.
• Now they’re moving onto the power play.
• PP1: Erik Karlsson, Sidney Crosby, Rickard Rakell, Lars Eller, Valtteri Puustinen
• PP2: Kris Letang, Evgeni Malkin, Emil Bemstrom, Jeff Carter, Reilly Smith

 

[Buddy Bizarre]

They’re really jerking Gruden around lol…from Taylor:

LIVE PRACTICE UPDATES​

Good afternoon from Calgary, where the Penguins are practicing shortly. I’ll have live updates below.
• The Penguins recalled Jonathan Gruden.
• All healthy players are present for practice. Jake Guentzel is watching from the bench.
• No lines or power-play work yet. Just a lot of skills work.
• Now they’re moving onto the power play.
• PP1: Erik Karlsson, Sidney Crosby, Rickard Rakell, Lars Eller, Valtteri Puustinen
• PP2: Kris Letang, Evgeni Malkin, Emil Bemstrom, Jeff Carter, Reilly Smith

I'm a big Eller fan, but WTF is he doing on PP1??? This coach has to be f***in with us

 

[The Great Mighty Poo]

I want Cartkins on the top power play.

 

[Icarium]

Sullivan clearly wants the Sharks to get a better pick, that's truly the spirit of giving. Sign the guy for a few more years!

 

[BusinessGoose]

Sullivan clearly wants the Sharks to get a better pick, that's truly the spirit of giving. Sign the guy for a few more years!

Well well well... The plot thickens...

 

[Buddy Bizarre]

Well well well... The plot thickens...

Illuminati confirmed.

 

[Andy99]

Ok, so what I’m getting from this is the players, who have played and loved this game since they were kids so much so that they made it their life’s work, have to get excited by this coach to play hockey…wtf

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Ice wiffleball on the docket, next.

WTF does "practiced the PP in a different way than the guys are used to" even mean? That they actually tried to adjust it in meaningful ways besides shoehorning guys like Lars Eller on the top unit? That would sure be different.

 

[Andy99]

Ice wiffleball on the docket, next.

WTF does "practiced the PP in a different way than the guys are used to" even mean? That they actually tried to adjust it in meaningful ways besides shoehorning guys like Lars Eller on the top unit? That would sure be different.

If the players need ice whiffleball or ice twister or whatever to get excited this time of year to play playoff-contending hockey, then that’s how you know your coach needs to be fired…like yesterday lol

 

[Rakell67]

Ice wiffleball on the docket, next.

WTF does "practiced the PP in a different way than the guys are used to" even mean? That they actually tried to adjust it in meaningful ways besides shoehorning guys like Lars Eller on the top unit? That would sure be different.

They had their helmets on backwards.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

They had their helmets on backwards.

And their sticks upside down.

So kinda how they play already. Blind and helpless.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

He had 17points in 16 games and was a +10 to start the season until Sullivan finally got through to him

God, Sullivan really is an asshat, isn't he.

Yes, let's fix a guy who is a point per game while also being way on the positive side of goals for and against when he's on the ice. Because heaven forbid someone not play the (idiot) "right way".

 

[Dennis Reynolds]

I'm a big Eller fan, but WTF is he doing on PP1??? This coach has to be f***in with us

Like I've said before- it's a Reirden decision. He's the power play guy here, and he coached Eller in Washington. He thinks Eller has creative contributions to make on the PP. He's wrong, but that's what he thinks.

 

[BusinessGoose]

TBH, at least Sullivan is doing something

It's silly and lame, but it's his job to get these idiots working together

Should have happened 845 days ago, but, hey, whatever

 

[Darren McCord]

Karlsson is producing a lot less than last season and the powerplay being putrid is hurting basically all the forwards that would get a production boost from it, but his game overall hasn't been nearly a bad as Yohe, Rossi, Madden, usual dipshits, make it out to be. Yeah he had a couple of bad plays in the Canucks one, so did Letang, but Karlsson seemed to be more affected by it, he played a little more gun shy and then slowly tried to get back to himself and you saw him try to deke through players etc, aka "Old Karlsson" but the rest of his game feels like the same issues we see from new players - They were brought in for a certain skillset they had and were seemingly changed to fit what the coaching staff want from them instead.

Like buying a butter knife to use as a flat head screwdriver and using the flat head screwdriver as a butter knife - That's the Sullivan method.

Madden hates him because he loves letang. Letang has been awful so he needs to blame karlsson to deflect.

 

[SomeDude]

Well well well... The plot thickens...

Mike Sullivan the coach would have coached Mike Sullivan the player out of standing in front of the net.

 

[SomeDude]

Madden hates him because he loves letang. Letang has been awful so he needs to blame karlsson to deflect.

The few times I turn the dial to Madden’s show anymore it’s literally just an old man yelling at a cloud. It’s embarrassing at this point. Dude is angry at the world because the day he dies alone is getting nearer and nearer.