Post-Game Talk: |Pens vs Habs | Loss | Pathetic

[Gurglesons]

I missed the memo that the Kap situation was so urgent/dire.

The reality is, no one cares about him anymore. He'll play on this team like Chad Ruhwedel or Drake Caggiula or Josh Archibald, but he ain't "enigmatic" any more. He's just bleh. That said, the org has more important things to worry about than finding the right home for Galchenyuk. I'm sure Hextall will awake from his sleep and pick up the call if another org dials about Kapanen.

We can’t afford to ride 3+ mil on the bench with our cap situation.

 

[ChaosAgent]

We can’t afford to ride 3+ mil on the bench with our cap situation.

Trade him with Jarry for an upgrade in goal or something. That would be fun

 

[Hotep Numminen]

send the guy to jersey, he'll turn into kovalchuk

 

[Gurglesons]

Trade him with Jarry for an upgrade in goal or something. That would be fun

Or just get him off the team for someone that Sullivan will give a fresh start to.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Mike Sullivan.

Bryan Rust has 1 goal and 0 assists in his last 7 games, and is -5 as well. His lowest ice time during that entire stretch is 18:25, and that's when he had 5 PIM in that game.

Could you imagine what Rakell's ice time would drop to if he went through a 7 game stretch where he produced nothing and was a defensive liability?

It's literally insane how Sullivan allocates ice time at this point.

 

[Gurglesons]

Bryan Rust has 1 goal and 0 assists in his last 7 games, and is -5 as well. His lowest ice time during that entire stretch is 18:25, and that's when he had 5 PIM in that game.

Could you imagine what Rakell's ice time would drop to if he went through a 7 game stretch where he produced nothing and was a defensive liability?

It's literally insane how Sullivan allocates ice time at this point.

I mean I guarantee we will see Rakell spending a 10-15 game stretch on the third line at some point this or next year if Sullivan is coach.

 

[Pens x]

If this front office doesn't move Kapanen this week they are absolutely moronic.

We have a coach that isn't willing to work with him anymore.

We need cap space. And I'm sure there is a deal where we don't have to pay assets to get out of him. Just pull the trigger already. It's over.

If Kap is still here in a week, you’ll put down the Hextall kool aid?

 

[AuroraBorealis]

Trade him with Jarry for an upgrade in goal or something. That would be fun

Who's the best goalie that a team would be willing to trade though? I don't see any legit options that would be likely to outperform ours.
I know people mentioned Gibson a lot but he hasn't had a good season in 5 years.
My eyes were on Varlamov but Lamoriello loves his goalie arrangement, as he should.

Jarry was a top 10 goalie last year. This year he's dealing with an injury that's hurt his play. Said so himself.
Think it's better to wait and hope he improves.

 

[reino]

It's shocking how bad Pens PP is and how bad stars have been playing. Crosby has 3 points in 15 games, f***ing Dayton Heinen has 2 points and he never even play on PP.

 

[AuroraBorealis]

It's shocking how bad Pens PP is and how bad stars have been playing. Crosby has 3 points in 15 games, f***ing Dayton Heinen has 2 points and he never even play on PP.

Yeah, it's pretty baffling. Last year:



Now:



Crosby was still 11th in the league last year at PPP/P60, among regulars. Geno had virtually the same rate.

 

[Icarium]

The last 3 power play goals that the atrocious first unit has produced:

Geno moved to the right wall for like ten seconds and this immediately produced a goal against the Canucks. Of course, it helped that Rakell was on the ice and not the usual unit of five complacent stars (well four stars and Rusty).

Fast break and a rebound, nothing to do with the normal power play set up against the Flames.

Fast break against the Sabres, again, very beautiful goal, sure, but again, nothing to do with the normal power play set up, which, as we all know, is beyond pathetic.

In other words, not only is PP1 unproductive, but the only goals it has managed to score lately have nothing to do with their usual galaxy brain "stand still and put Geno on the left point" tactic. Color me stunned. It's almost like the tactic is preventing it from reaching its full potential or something.

 

[Le Magnifique 66]

I know it was a back to back, but f*** is Jarry can't stop a f***ing beach ball because he has a nagging injury just ride CDS for f*** sakes or call someone up

 

[HandshakeLine]

Well I know he watches all the games twice, in his office, at home or in hotels. This is something he's mentioned before.
He has to pause them frequently, write notes, take time stamps and formulate ideas for the next practice, video session or coaches meeting. He has to prepare the material. That's time consuming.
Or in the case of packed stretches like we've had recently, it's something he does in the morning after travel, before the 2nd of a B2B. This entails a lot of work on off-days or time for everyone else.
He needs to focus on all aspects of the game, whereas assistants like Reirden and Vellucci only needs to watch the special teams and the contingent of players they're overseeing.

Sullivan needs to meet with Hextall before/after all practices and grade players, and discuss solutions moving forward. So there's this pressure of being immediately accountable for recent results and players under your command, with your boss staring at you from across the table. It's not easy to deal with when things are going poorly. We've seen this done with Bylsma and Shero in the behind the scenes documentaries.

The human aspect is one of the hardest things. Lineup decisions. Sullivan is the one that takes all the negative emotions from unsatisfied players, like with demoting someone to Wilkes. He needs to broach sensitive topics, and play sports psychologist/father too. Fortunately we have a fairly mature, professional team that don't give him too much grief. This Kap situation recently must have been tough though, as was the nightmare that is training camp cuts. You gotta inform players that played well to take a hike until there's injuries, and they're not gonna be happy about it. Like I'm sure a veteran like Caggiula who did great in camp was in the dumps. Or what about how Smith felt after killing it?

Managing minutes is a pain in the ass every game that Reirden and Vellucci don't really have to do. He needs to be prepared for every shift change. A lot of pressure there to keep things balanced.

He's in charge of practice planning, and has to keep things fresh and fun to keep the players invested. It's often a glum atmosphere after losses, which makes his job harder. He needs to keep a lot of his anger in check too, when frustrated with certain players. His capacity for patience is actually pretty commendable. He rarely loses it.

Media obligations is a bitch. He needs to explain his decisions before and after every game and practice. A lot of media people take too many liberties with their questions and arrogance, and they're asked at points when the coach is vulnerable. Would you wanna deal with Rossi, Kovacevic and Yohe, telling you what's f***ed up with your team?
Sullivan has actually handled them admirably, to the point where they all respect him.
How many interviews do Reirden and Vellucci take annually?

What else? There's the calls he takes from JD Forrest, the events he needs to attend, the road trip excursions he needs to plan, the long term workload plan for goalies...

I'm sure there's many things I haven't mentioned. The players were asked this year if they'd rather be a HC or GM after they retire. 100% of them said GM.

Just to make it perfectly clear here AB, I'm not dogging on you. You're still aces. I'm just still wrestling with the idea that he does all of this himself (and not the video coach? not the ACs?) and yet still nothing changes.

On the one hand, yeah, I agree it's a lot things to do, on paper. But again, the bolded here are things that a) do not change unless Sullivan is forced to do them and b) clearly not working. He doesn't explain anything to the media. He doesn't seem to be inclined to change anything. It's hard to claim you have to work so hard because of all the changes when no changes happen. The ice time is a mess. The media doesn't ask any challenging questions aside from whoever that was a few weeks ago who actually asked a specific question about lineup changes and got no answer.

It would be much much easier to swallow the argument that Sully is being failed by his ACs and he's simply too nice to do anything about it if he hadn't come in as a tough coach. And if he is overwhelmed here, he needs to be requesting help. It's not like we're limited to a set amount of ACs after all.

I know it was a back to back, but f*** is Jarry can't stop a f***ing beach ball because he has a nagging injury just ride CDS for f*** sakes or call someone up

Which is why I wished we had gotten someone better than CDS in the offseason if possible because lol, we knew this was going to happen sooner or later.

 

[vodeni]

The shot disparity would have been better if we didn't play the previous night.
It's standard to get low shot totals on the road in the 2nd half of these. This even happened when our core was young too.

Petry's improved lately, that OT goal notwithstanding.
I think Sid just needs Rakell, and to establish O-zone time and good vibes early in a game. Unfortunately he seems to prefer Rust.
Letang has made some strides. Some hopeful signs there. I noticed better escapability with zone exits lately. He's skating harder.
A little better from Dumo recently (finally) as well.

The PK's process is better the last 3 or 4 games. Better with blocks, clears and ragging the puck. If they keep that up the goals against will dip.

PP1 looks hopeless as constructed. It may have a surge at some point but I expect their rates to be pretty horrific by year's end. PP2 is carrying pretty hard right now, but that's probably unsustainable.

I did not, just the opposite!

 

[vodeni]

Danny is truly breath of fresh air. No one dares to state the obvious unless its about Malkin...

 

[Sidgeni Malkby]

Why is everybody complaining about Jarry? He’s the only reason we were even in it.

Getting hemmed in your zone 5 minutes at a time isn’t a path to success.

Montreal does the same thing over and over. Collapse down low, look for a quick break-out from a mistake. Get into the zone with numbers looking for the odd main trailer.

You would think Sully would have figured out a solution by now.

Also what was weird was we were losing all 1-on-1 battles in our zone, hence the getting hemmed in for 5-min.

 

[Buddy Bizarre]

I want a new coach, but I don't think it's fixing anything.

Funny, most people said that about the Therien and Byslma eras

 

[Andy99]

Why is everybody complaining about Jarry? He’s the only reason we were even in it.

Getting hemmed in your zone 5 minutes at a time isn’t a path to success.

Montreal does the same thing over and over. Collapse down low, look for a quick break-out from a mistake. Get into the zone with numbers looking for the odd main trailer.

You would think Sully would have figured out a solution by now.

Also what was weird was we were loosing all 1-on-1 battles in our zone, hence the getting hemmed in for 5-min.

Yes, the team didn’t have it on a b2b, and they make mistakes…that’s why you have a goalie and sometimes in critical junctures of a game, like at the end when you have a lead, or OT, sometimes you need a f**king save on a high danger chance….Jarry hasnt been giving it to them…he hasn’t been winning games for them

 

[HandshakeLine]

Danny is truly breath of fresh air. No one dares to state the obvious unless its about Malkin...

Man, that is a real poison pen with the Jankowski comparison.

 

[LOGiK]

send the guy to jersey, he'll turn into kovalchuk

Ironic you said New Jersey and Ilya. Wouldn't this have been his last year on his 12 year mega deal (had he signed it. had he stayed. etc).

That deal was insane.

 

[LOGiK]

I want a new coach, but I don't think it's fixing anything.

Funny, most people said that about the Therien and Byslma eras

Sure, I would love to win convincing when they should-and be an exciting battle against tougher teams, I've hated this stupid sulli system since it no longer worked. The speed game was great when it was what it was but it's an exhausted system at this point.

How many teams get worn down by their speed? How many games do they dominate or control or win convincingly?
The system gotta go. And for the system to go... coach gotta go.

And there are many other reasons he should be shipped but the system is my major cause for action.

 

[Gurglesons]

Why is everybody complaining about Jarry? He’s the only reason we were even in it.

Getting hemmed in your zone 5 minutes at a time isn’t a path to success.

Montreal does the same thing over and over. Collapse down low, look for a quick break-out from a mistake. Get into the zone with numbers looking for the odd main trailer.

You would think Sully would have figured out a solution by now.

Also what was weird was we were loosing all 1-on-1 battles in our zone, hence the getting hemmed in for 5-min.

Yeah, it's weird how our genius Jack Adams shoulda coulda coach has been unable to beat a system that has devastated us for four years.

 

[Buddy Bizarre]

Normally +/- isn't the most important stat but right now it is EXTREMELY telling
You have Rutta at +9, Rakell at +9, Pettersson at +7
And then you have Letang at -6 and Rust at-5
And they're on the same team!!!
Disgusting.... :-(

For me, Dumo is the #1 problem. When he's on the ice, bad stuff happens. It's not entirely all his fault, but he's got this planetary magnetism of suckage

 

[Sidgeni Malkby]

Yes, the team didn’t have it on a b2b, and they make mistakes…that’s why you have a goalie and sometimes in critical junctures of a game, like at the end when you have a lead, or OT, sometimes you need a f**king save on a high danger chance….Jarry hasnt been giving it to them…he hasn’t been winning games for them

Remember when we wanted Fleury to just make the predictable saves, so our D knew how to play in front of him? Remember Matt Murray did that, and even with his weak glove hand, we were able to manage it.

So now Jarry needs to win games on his own for us to succeed?

Okay, I went over the highlights to refresh my memory...
G1 - Anderson rips it near the blue line. Jarry should have had that.
G2 - Caufield near the blue line, but Jarry was obstructed. Yeah, he could/woudl/should, I give this one to him.
G3 - Suzuki goal wasn't really his fault at all. Rust gave it right back to him.
G4 - Rebound control? Maybe.
G5 - OT goal. Lots of fail to go around there.

That 2nd period, we should have been down by a couple of goals, but Jarry kept them in it. Fine, he didn't win the game for us, but he didn't lose it either.

I guess I can see how we can look at this both ways. Giving up 5 isn't usually a path to success either.

 

[Pancakes]

Funny, most people said that about the Therien and Byslma eras

Our core wasn't 35 years old during the Therrien and Bylsma eras