Post-Game Talk: |Pens vs Jerks | | We scored with the goalie pulled!!

[HandshakeLine]

There’s no reason to put Carter and Rust out there in the 3v3. Just joke coaching at this point.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

Geno and Zucker have been pretty quiet in their own right for a bit too. I'm sure Geno gets back to scoring, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit worried about Zucker and his 2pts in his past 8 games. He shouldn't be leaned on as the production guy at wing on any line. Which, back to Rust, is where the whole Zucker-Rust combo should work because Zucker does the work while Rust floats around and, ideally, produces.

If Rust is still putzing around as the TDL approaches, I think you've gotta at least explore the possibility of a hockey trade. I doubt he waives his NMC if asked, so it's all probably for naught, but you can't have a dude making $5 million just floating around doing absolutely nothing. At least when Zucker's not producing, he's battling along the boards and forechecking.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Yes, he does. Sully can change the PP if he wants. He can change the personnel, he can do a number of things. He is the head coach.

Doing his job is too hard, you see. He has to watch us lose multiple times in a row after every game and then refuse to make any sort of meaningful changes.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

Doing his job is too hard, you see. He has to watch us lose multiple times in a row after every game and then refuse to make any sort of meaningful changes.

Don't forget being asked what qualifies as the bare minimum for a "hard question" by either Hasse or Shirey. That preempts any sort of meaningful change too.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Geno and Zucker have been pretty quiet in their own right for a bit too. I'm sure Geno gets back to scoring, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit worried about Zucker and his 2pts in his past 8 games. He shouldn't be leaned on as the production guy at wing on any line. Which, back to Rust, is where the whole Zucker-Rust combo should work because Zucker does the work while Rust floats around and, ideally, produces.

If Rust is still putzing around as the TDL approaches, I think you've gotta at least explore the possibility of a hockey trade. I doubt he waives his NMC if asked, so it's all probably for naught, but you can't have a dude making $5 million just floating around doing absolutely nothing. At least when Zucker's not producing, he's battling along the boards and forechecking.

I mean, a more fair coach would healthy scratch/demote him until either playing better or waiving the NMC seem like better options. But because this team refuses to hold any of the ever-expanding definition of the core responsible, we've basically tied our own hands with regards to improving our own situation.

You know, I don't think I'm going to waste my morning on this shit.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

I mean, a more fair coach would healthy scratch/demote him until either playing better or waiving the NMC seem like better options. But because this team refuses to hold any of the ever-expanding definition of the core responsible, we've basically tied our own hands with regards to improving our own situation.

You know, I don't think I'm going to waste my morning on this shit.

I keep wondering whether Poehling would be any good with Geno and Zucker, then I remember it'd never happen and reconcile within myself that Poehling would just be in way over his head in a scoring line role and that's that, pretty much.

Watch the highlights and you're golden. The last 5 minutes of regulation and then OT are all that really matter anyway. Just batshit chaos.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Geno and Zucker have been pretty quiet in their own right for a bit too. I'm sure Geno gets back to scoring, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit worried about Zucker and his 2pts in his past 8 games. He shouldn't be leaned on as the production guy at wing on any line. Which, back to Rust, is where the whole Zucker-Rust combo should work because Zucker does the work while Rust floats around and, ideally, produces.

If Rust is still putzing around as the TDL approaches, I think you've gotta at least explore the possibility of a hockey trade. I doubt he waives his NMC if asked, so it's all probably for naught, but you can't have a dude making $5 million just floating around doing absolutely nothing. At least when Zucker's not producing, he's battling along the boards and forechecking.

For Rust to even be thought of as a trade possibility, the organization would first have to see his play as an issue. Judging by his usage, they don't.

I still wish they'd moved on from him last summer, but that ship has sailed.

 

[66-30-33]

Honestly the only trade I want to make with the Ducks right now is Kapanen for Max Jones. Straight up. Ducks have 14-15m in cap space, they can take the hit of adding Kapanen to a young team that would give him a shot in the top 6 with some interesting young talent. I think Max Jones is a player that we need on the Pens.

Big, can skate, has separation speed, he's a powerforward that is figuring it out, but I think put with anyone in this team's top 9, he would be a great add. He was drafted in 2016, he's 24, so I think the Ducks would be into moving him as he likely needs a change of scenery as well.

Max plays LW/RW so he would be intriguing on even Malkin's RW and drop Rust down to the 3rd line to maybe see if he can score against less strict match-ups and boost the Pens top 9 scoring in the process with McGinn and Carter.

Guentzel, Crosby, Rakell
Zucker, Malkin, Jones
McGinn, Carter, Rust
Poehling, Blueger, Archibald
Heinen - Press box, where he belongs.


Edit: Unless the Ducks also want to give us Gibson for Jarry + Dumoulin.

Well apparently we need to add a 2nd round pick to Kapanen for Comtois of the Ducks. Less productive (also a few years younger) because of 1 extra year. Like that makes no sense at all, I rather just buy out Kap in the offseason for a 1M dead cap hit for 2 years. We aint doing shit for the remainder of the cores time here so why are we giving up a 2nd round pick to rid of Kapanen? Only on HF can you trade a 1st for a player and a few years later need to trade a 2nd to get rid of him, but we also should NEVER have traded that pick for Kapanen, it was so obvious except for JR.

 

[BusinessGoose]

JUST SAY NO TO BUYOUTS

 

[Pengu]

23 GP
Rakell +12 Ice time 17.20 PP time/game 2.03
Rust -12 Ice time 17.49 PP time/game 3.25

What will it take for Rust to be demoted?

 

[Zirakzigil]

23 GP
Rakell +12 Ice time 17.20 PP time/game 2.03
Rust -12 Ice time 17.49 PP time/game 3.25

What will it take for Rust to be demoted?

Crosby to say he wants Rak on the PP

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

23 GP
Rakell +12 Ice time 17.20 PP time/game 2.03
Rust -12 Ice time 17.49 PP time/game 3.25

What will it take for Rust to be demoted?

For it to be revealed that Rakell was actually born and raised in Boston and Rust was actually born and raised somewhere in Europe.

 

[Zbynek]

Play til the whistle no matter what.

 

[CascadiaPenguin]

Just great. Kung Pow- Enter the Fist has jumped to the top of my video queue. When I see Rotten Tomatoes ratings with audience rankings 50 points higher than critics, I know I am home.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Well apparently we need to add a 2nd round pick to Kapanen for Comtois of the Ducks. Less productive (also a few years younger) because of 1 extra year. Like that makes no sense at all, I rather just buy out Kap in the offseason for a 1M dead cap hit for 2 years. We aint doing shit for the remainder of the cores time here so why are we giving up a 2nd round pick to rid of Kapanen? Only on HF can you trade a 1st for a player and a few years later need to trade a 2nd to get rid of him, but we also should NEVER have traded that pick for Kapanen, it was so obvious except for JR.

No. Just no mate.

Actually let me add more to this - most felt the same about John Marino. The problem isn't the player. It rarely is with this team. It's the coach and the usage.

You lot would happily shit all over a player like Kapanen while a coach that advocated for Jack Johnson isn't seen as the real issue.

Ffs.

Before you say he's just a coach, he doesn't have that much power. He really does have that much power on this roster. The owners would fire Hextall before they fired Sullivan and if you don't think that's ridiculous, I dunno what else to say but enjoy the snow outside mate.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

I think one of the biggest reasons coaches get fired is because they end up developing personal relationships with their players and start playing favorites. Sully has been here so long now they might as well have Thanksgiving together. I think he's a good coach but his time here is over.

This happened about 4-5 seasons ago.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Just great. Kung Pow- Enter the Fist has jumped to the top of my video queue. When I see Rotten Tomatoes ratings with audience rankings 50 points higher than critics, I know I am home.

I am actually going to seriously pitch a class tomorrow to a university on "bad movies" and I hope I get it so we can watch all sorts of amazing films like Crippled Avengers, A Better Tomorrow 2, Terror of Tiny Town, Freddy Got Fingered, and the butthole-cut of Cats.

 

[OtherThingsILike]

Well, the loss sucked, but at least we got a point it didn't look like we were going to get.
Also, it was nice of the Canadiens, Lightning, Panthers, and Islanders to all lose in regulation last night, with the Islanders losing to the Flyers and the Canadiens losing to the Sharks. Of the teams chasing us/near us, only the Capitals won (and the Hurricanes, of course).

 

[Trade]

Haven’t seen any credit to Petry for his play late in the third, essentially willing us to a point.

Stops a sure ENG and takes a perfect shot for Jake to tip.

Looked like a clear penalty, but Rust looked like an entitled whiny baby on the OT goal. Can’t stand around all poopy pants if the whistle doesn’t blow.

 

[Icarium]

Don't blame the refs, they were simply trying to do us a favour by not giving us a chance to embarrass ourselves on the power play.
Seriously bad call but what was Rust even trying to do? It's like he wanted us to get a too many men penalty and that's why he took this mysterious sudden turn to the bench.
I was pleasantly surprised that we scored a goal 6 on 5 (when was the last time that happened?) but the team is going nowhere with this power play. It looked even worse without Letang and Rust was rewarded for being a ghost for a month with return to PP1. Zucker has come back to earth as expected. so against teams with half-decent defense I don't expect the Pens to score a lot.
It cracked me up when Errey and Mears went on and on about how bad the Canes were in OTs, as if the Pens aren't even worse.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Holy hell, having sat through two-and-a-half periods of this game as of now, I am absolutely bemused that Rust isn't getting piled on more.

I haven't seen a top 6 player this lazy since Neal and at least he had the shot to be a sniper.

 

[Le Magnifique 66]

Honestly, this team is way unpredictable, I'm really starting to accept that this will finally be the season we're missing the playoffs. It's been up there for the past 2-3 seasons and with great starts we always managed to squeeze in, but this year I ain't feeling it.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

For Rust to even be thought of as a trade possibility, the organization would first have to see his play as an issue. Judging by his usage, they don't.

I still wish they'd moved on from him last summer, but that ship has sailed.

I wish they would've shopped him last deadline.

Like you said, ship sailed. Just gotta hope he pulls his head out of his ass sooner than later. /shrug

 

[Pens x]

We can’t beat good teams. You can overcome a brain dead head coach against crappy teams, but not so much against playoff teams.

 

[orby]

The horrendous power play is killing this team. If they were merely average with the man advantage, a lot of their flaws would matter less...at least in the regular season. A 16.2% conversion rate on the power play is an inexcusable stat and I look at coaching the primary reason.

Crosby's stellar even-strength scoring continues to boggle my mind this season. With the caveat that all points scored are ultimately of equal value, I think it's worth noting that over half of league leader Connor McDavid's points - 19 out of 37 - have been scored on the power play this season. Conversely, of Crosby's 31 points, only 5 (5!!!) have been scored on the power play. Imagine what Sid's point totals would look like if the Pens' power play were remotely competent!