Big Friggin Dummy
Registered User
- Feb 22, 2019
- 24,524
- 23,145
We've replaced Kessel with Zucker. And what little drop off we've seen in terms of production is made up for, in droves, with play away from the puck. I'm glad Kessel's gone, dude was a turd.
MP played 2nd pair minutes all year and both his production and metrics are good. His pairing hasn't allowed a goal through 3 playoff games.
If he's regularly getting worked - something I haven't seen evidence of - it's not manifesting itself in a quantifiable way over a large sample size in the regular season or a small sample size when it matters most.
Marino's ES pace as a rookie was 32.
Pietrangelo's in '18-'19 was 29.
Carlson's in '17-'18 was 36.
Schultz's in '16-'17 was 33.
Having 2 blueliners who can produce like Marino and Letang (and understanding that the former will likely increase and the latter decrease over the next few years) is a luxury in itself. The middle pairing's getting it done but our wing group isn't, and no minor tinkering is going to fix the PP.
It's proven a lot more difficult than most anticipated to replace both Bonino and Kessel.
If I had my say about how we spent our assets, they'd clearly go to those weaknesses rather than a top 4 that looks pretty well set up for the next few years based on the numbers.
As for Bonino; no argument there. That's a position that's proven difficult to fix, but we've got an idiot at the GM desk so, y'know. I still don't think it should be an overly expensive position to fill. It won't be dirt cheap or anything, but I don't think it'll prove super costly. Like the 1RW situation, it's more about finding the right guy as opposed to the "best" guy. If we decide what identity we want our third line to be, we have a much more clear vision of how to build it. If we want it to be a shutdown, defensive unit, or if we want it to be a unit we can use to overwhelm the opposition with scoring depth and create a matchup Hell--we need to decide and go out and find that guy via trade.
We'll never agree on Petts and the 2LD situation though, so I think we're probably done here. We'll just be running in circles forever.