Post-Game Talk: Pens crash the Island: Ned puts the Carkins on his skin and so should you!

[Zbynek]

Honestly, I’m not touching Rakell on that top line…what I’d do is a little different…I think Smith is the top six winger doing the least…maybe Eller gets Smith’s ass in gear and he can make the third line a scoring threat along w Puusty

Jake-Sid-Rakell
DOC-Geno-Rust
Smith-Eller-Puusty
whatever

This top-9 is actually sick. (it'll never happen).

 

[Zirakzigil]

Personally would rather have Rutta, Petry and the cap space vs Karlsson, Ruh and less cap space. Petry was physical and provided some puck movement. Karlsson is providing forces passes, bad turnovers and thats about it right now.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

he had 7 minutes TOI tonight, lowest on the team

His points per minute are tops as much as Sullivan hates using a productive player like him.

 

[Josey Wales]

Personally would rather have Rutta, Petry and the cap space vs Karlsson, Ruh and less cap space. Petry was physical and provided some puck movement. Karlsson is providing forces passes, bad turnovers and thats about it right now.

because just like everyone else they defer to the Core & that is why he is forcing passes

 

[Randy Butternubs]

Personally would rather have Rutta, Petry and the cap space vs Karlsson, Ruh and less cap space. Petry was physical and provided some puck movement. Karlsson is providing forces passes, bad turnovers and thats about it right now.

Agreed on Rutta over Petry for this current team. I think people are forgetting how good Rutta was for us prior to his injury.

 

[wgknestrick]

4th liners generally score like 1.40 5v5 P/P60 or worse over a full season in this league. Z's at 2.21.
He's genuinely not scoring poorly. It's just an absence of minutes that's the problem now.

2.2 pts/60 is top 6 level production, but Sully is trying to bury him like he does with all talented bottom 6ers that show promise. Sully rather bench them if they make a small mistake instead of coaching them through it and seeing the big picture.

Freddy Gaudreau and Jared McCann were others who got the Big Z treatment from Sully with questionably low ice time in the face of pretty good to great production.

 

[SEALBound]

Personally would rather have Rutta, Petry and the cap space vs Karlsson, Ruh and less cap space. Petry was physical and provided some puck movement. Karlsson is providing forces passes, bad turnovers and thats about it right now.

There was no cap space though. And you're forgetting Granlund.

Karlsson runs hot and cold true, but let's not pretend Petry didn't have multiple game-losing gaffs as well.

 

[molon labe]

Rutta was shit. He literally was a bigger version of Ruh who didn't even use that size.

Petry was worse. Physical? In what way? Puck mover? Not. Shut down? Nope.

Cap wise - there's a reason Petry is being shopped all the time. He's a nobody for what he brings / $$.

I'm not trying to overtly defend Karlsson - but we could easily get a hefty return for EK with slight retention versus whatever the hell either of those two would net us. For the organization that was an absolute dynamite move by Dubas. As a fan - those two were absolute dog meat and I'm thankful they're gone. And Granlund? Woof.

End of the day the complains should be that Pettersson is by far and away the best true defender on the team and we have garbage on the third pair. So that leaves two high stakes O-defenseman on the ice for 5/6ths of the game and Graves is an utter let down. If we had 2 Petterssons there would be zero complaints out there.

 

[Solution]

I'd feel pretty bad if that happened for the family lol. Maybe POJ for Kubalik?

I think they need to build a purposeful 4th line for when everyone is healthy. I know when I talk about bringing in a top 9 player, it usually means I'm slotting someone on the 2nd or 3rd line on the 4th line and people balk at it but realistically I think this team needs to be able to run a 4th line that will outmatch another 4th line. We have to find an advantage somewhere. Say you bring in Kubalik

Jake-Sid-Rust
Smith-Malkin-Puustinen
Rakell-Eller-Kubalik
Zohonra-Acciari-DOC

That's three scoring lines and a very capable 4th line that is of 3rd line quality.

I'll just share what I shared in another Karlsson-related thread (in summary):
1. We all knew he wouldn't be getting another 100pts. Most of us had him in the 60pt range and that's where he's trending so I'm okay with what he's provided.
2. He's better than Petry. 100%. He brings so much more than what Petry could have that it's hard to compare the two. That doesn't mean that Petry was bad though.
3. I do not compare salaries/cap hits between the two because you can't. I also don't say stuff like "Oh man, the Penguins are spending $10mil on Karlsson and I don't like that because..." because in reality, you HAVE to say, "Are we better off with Karlsson or Petry, Granlund, and Rutta?" We paid to get rid of those three, which was counterbalanced by the Sharks' "paying by receiving" to get rid of Karlsson.

Craig Button (I believe) just had an alarmingly ignorant article where he said (in summary) "Dubas spent $10mil on Karlsson when he should have spent that rounding out the roster as the Penguins are top heavy and their depth is bad". But again, you can't look at it that way. We didn't sign Karlsson nor did we make the trade with an open and clear $10mil in space. We traded away underperforming assets to get Karlsson. Granlund was a dud and Petry is in HS territory for the Wings. Rutta is whatever, CDS out led us to Ned, and the other stuff...whatever.

So I'm still good with Karlsson. He's better than Petry and DOC, Zohorna, or Puustinen are likely providing more than what Granlund would have.

I have listened to the NHL network on Sirius XM, and any time Button is on, he talks down on Dubas. So take that with a grain of salt. He will say things like top heavy teams like the Leafs and Penguins do not win in the playoffs but will wax lyrically about how Edmonton has improved.

 

[Zbynek]

I thought Petry and Rutta both played to about their expectations but no chance I take those fools over EK65, even if the guy's been slumping for the past 15-20 games.

The upside of EK65 is worth so much more than Petry+Rutta it's insane.

 

[Pancakes]

Ek has had some bad turnovers at times and hasn't helped the pp like we hoped but I think people are giving him the Letang treatment right now and focusing on the bad with him while ignoring the good.

Ek has put up very good 5v5 numbers. Don't let a few ugly turnovers blind you to the fact that the rest of the game he's greatly helping with possession.

We are way better off with Ek than the guys we shipped out for him.

 

[Zirakzigil]

There was no cap space though. And you're forgetting Granlund.

Karlsson runs hot and cold true, but let's not pretend Petry didn't have multiple game-losing gaffs as well.

Granlund could of been dumped in a separate trade or bought out.