Post-Game Talk: Pens vs Rapid Panthers: Our PP taketh and taketh away

[ColePens]

@Andy99 I stand by selling my soul to the hockey Gods. We got the greatest b2b and this pain is worth every bit of that joy!

But yeah this is REALLY ugly to watch. The X-Gen years were more fun. Dubas did some things that I will stand by look fine on paper... but I've said all along you can change all teh chairs on the Titanic, but as long as Sully is the coach it wont' work.

How Sully has a job is insane. Graves is horrific. Everyone is basically under performing. We are the ugliest hockey team i've seen in quite some time.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

This team is 21-17-7 with Sid playing at the level he's been playing at all season. They were 23-15-7 last season.

This is just who they are. They'll be fighting tooth and nail for a WC spot from here on out, and if they eek into the playoffs, they're out in a week. Reality. /shrug

Sell Jake for a haul, look to starting the dismantling process. And god damn man, fire Sullivan and the rest of the coaches. Start fresh for the next chapter.

 

[Josey Wales]

@Andy99 I stand by selling my soul to the hockey Gods. We got the greatest b2b and this pain is worth every bit of that joy!

But yeah this is REALLY ugly to watch. The X-Gen years were more fun. Dubas did some things that I will stand by look fine on paper... but I've said all along you can change all teh chairs on the Titanic, but as long as Sully is the coach it wont' work.

How Sully has a job is insane. Graves is horrific. Everyone is basically under performing. We are the ugliest hockey team i've seen in quite some time.

What is Sullivan going to do with an Old Core ?

 

[Andy99]

This team is 21-17-7 with Sid playing at the level he's been playing at all season. They were 23-15-7 last season.

This is just who they are. They'll be fighting tooth and nail for a WC spot from here on out, and if they eek into the playoffs, they're out in a week. Reality. /shrug

Sell Jake for a haul, look to starting the dismantling process. And god damn man, fire Sullivan and the rest of the coaches. Start fresh for the next chapter.

They will not eek into the playoffs…they are too far out and during desperate times for points have only managed a 3-4-3 record in January.. they may get within a few points of the playoffs due to shear incompetence of teams ahead of them but they will not jump 6 points…they haven’t yet and their schedule is brutal beginning in March…time to start selling players for assets

 

[Josey Wales]

They will not eek into the playoffs…they are too far out and during desperate times for points have only managed a 3-4-3 record in January.. they may get within a few points of the playoffs due to shear incompetence of teams ahead of them but they will not jump 6 points…they haven’t yet and their schedule is brutal beginning in March…time to start selling players for assets

Who Chuckles ?

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

They will not eek into the playoffs…they are too far out and during desperate times for points have only managed a 3-4-3 record in January.. they may get within a few points of the playoffs due to shear incompetence of teams ahead of them but they will not jump 6 points…they haven’t yet and their schedule is brutal beginning in March…time to start selling players for assets

Andy you don't have to do your performative posting with me buddy. I want them to crumble and miss by a mile, but fact is they're still in the hunt and likely will be until after the TDL. So they'll keep Jake, re-sign him to some f***ing stupid contract or let him walk, and we'll be here in exactly 12 months pretending it's some unforeseen misfortune that the team's just as dogshit or worse.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Mike Sullivan on the power play: “I thought there were moments when they looked pretty good. There were others where we were a little bit disconnected. Obviously, it's disappointing we didn't score more. I thought we had some looks that we didn’t necessarily finish on. I just think we got to stick with it. We made some tweaks down the stretch there at the end with some different personnel groups. I don’t know where we'll go going forward, we'll discuss that as a coaching staff, but I know that the guys that are on it care deeply about the powerplay and understand how important it is to helping us win and so these guys put a lot of pressure on themselves to produce for us in most situations and when it doesn’t go the right way just like I was talking about Geno, all those guys they're proud guys and nobody cares more than they do so. We’re just going to stay with it here.”

yeah mike, stick with the historically worst penguins power play of all time. maybe give it a season or two to really evaluate it.

 

[Andy99]

HockeyBuzz.com - Ryan Wilson - Nothing matters if this abominable power play is not fixed

www.hockeybuzz.com

“The players aren’t blameless, but this is a coaching problem. I'm not on some kind of fire Mike Sullivan or bust mindset, but at some point the failure of this power play has to have some accountability and for me it is the coaching. It is a fireable power play by any measure.”

“Teams are clearly playing them hard because they don’t respect the Penguins ability to work themselves out of being boxed in. They are playing Malkin hard on the half wall and Karlsson up top and I don’t blame the opposition. The Penguins do not work the puck low on a consistent basis to keep anyone honest. They play into what the killers want. Work the puck down low with Sid as a release valve and have Jake pop out below the goal line on the other side just to spread things out and slow things down. Instead, they continue to shovel forth the most predictable rubbish.”

 

[metalan2]

What is Sullivan going to do with an Old Core ?

What would Jim Montgomery do? They'd be a top 5 team in the NHL. Sully is the problem. There is no debate about it. You can't switch half the team, get immensely better goaltending, have Sid play at an MVP level, and it not be the coach.

 

[Josey Wales]

What would Jim Montgomery do? They'd be a top 5 team in the NHL. Sully is the problem. There is no debate about it. You can't switch half the team, get immensely better goaltending, have Sid play at an MVP level, and it not be the coach.

What did The Bruins do in playoffs last season with a Stacked team ?? I'll wait

HockeyBuzz.com - Ryan Wilson - Nothing matters if this abominable power play is not fixed

www.hockeybuzz.com

“The players aren’t blameless, but this is a coaching problem. I'm not on some kind of fire Mike Sullivan or bust mindset, but at some point the failure of this power play has to have some accountability and for me it is the coaching. It is a fireable power play by any measure.”

“Teams are clearly playing them hard because they don’t respect the Penguins ability to work themselves out of being boxed in. They are playing Malkin hard on the half wall and Karlsson up top and I don’t blame the opposition. The Penguins do not work the puck low on a consistent basis to keep anyone honest. They play into what the killers want. Work the puck down low with Sid as a release valve and have Jake pop out below the goal line on the other side just to spread things out and slow things down. Instead, they continue to shovel forth the most predictable rubbish.”

Everything before BUT is Bullshit, There is a reason that saying has been around a long time unlike the cute catchphrases that are forgotten in a couple of years

 

[ChaosAgent]

I can't shake how terrible Rickard Rakell was to watch live.

We basically have to do GCR now because the guy is awful. Unskilled, self-doubting, tried some idiotic nonsense on a 2-on-1 and invisible otherwise.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

I can't shake how terrible Rickard Rakell was to watch live.

We basically have to do GCR now because the guy is awful. Unskilled, self-doubting, tried some idiotic nonsense on a 2-on-1 and invisible otherwise.

Whole team has a lot of that going on IMO. Clouding judgement on evaluation.

Not that I'm really defending Raks, here. Don't see any reason to carry on with him or really at least half of the starting day top six for that matter.

 

[ChaosAgent]

Whole team has a lot of that going on IMO. Clouding judgement on evaluation.

Not that I'm really defending Raks, here. Don't see any reason to carry on with him or really at least half of the starting day top six for that matter.

Of course I would want to see how any players look under a different coach.

But we need to ship off Rakell and/or Smith if we stay with this one. Someone would be interested in Rakell. I think.

 

[Andy99]

Whole team has a lot of that going on IMO. Clouding judgement on evaluation.

Not that I'm really defending Raks, here. Don't see any reason to carry on with him or really at least half of the starting day top six for that matter.

Honestly the only forwards playing objectively well (not graded on a curve for their expectations) are Sid, Jake and probably Eller…hard to win games like that

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Of course I would want to see how any players look under a different coach.

But we need to ship off Rakell and/or Smith if we stay with this one. Someone would be interested in Rakell. I think.

Honestly I don't see much use for Smith/Raks/Rust regardless of who is coaching. This team's engine is old and sputtering. These kinds of guys don't help push... they are just passenger princesses.

Probably stuck with Rust, though. Hooray.

 

[Andy99]

Of course I would want to see how any players look under a different coach.

But we need to ship off Rakell and/or Smith if we stay with this one. Someone would be interested in Rakell. I think.

No one would be interested in Rakell without a sweetener…he has three+ years left on his deal…now Smith might be easier to easier to move for something with only one year left

 

[TNT87]

If it wasn't for the Panther's d-man going to the bench to get a new stick the Pens most likely wouldn't have scored at all on the PP. I don't even know what to say any more about it. It's mind boggling how pathetic they are.

 

[ChaosAgent]

Honestly I don't see much use for Smith/Raks/Rust regardless of who is coaching. This team's engine is old and sputtering. These kinds of guys don't help push... they are just passenger princesses.

Probably stuck with Rust, though. Hooray.

I like Rust, but I know you don't.

Seems like Poulin is finally starting to pop in the A. Time for a shot up here with Sid or Malkin.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

Of Rakell, Smith and Rust, I think Rust is the best player pretty easily. I just also don't think that's saying a whole lot.

 

[ChaosAgent]

No one would be interested in Rakell without a sweetener…he has three+ years left on his deal…now Smith might be easier to easier to move for something with only one year left

Yeah, given how freaking bad he looks game in and game out, we may be stuck with Raks. Rust won't waive his NMC. Smith is a candidate in a money-out money-in swap, I guess. Some underperforming RHD would be fine or an overpaid grinder I guess.

 

[Andy99]

Of Rakell, Smith and Rust, I think Rust is the best player pretty easily. I just also don't think that's saying a whole lot.

Actually, Smith has had a better career overall although he sucks on the Pens…

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

I like Rust, but I know you don't.

Seems like Poulin is finally starting to pop in the A. Time for a shot up here with Sid or Malkin.

I used to love Rust. Then he started thinking he was a sniper or something. There is a chance he could get some of that buzzsaw mentality back with a new bench boss. But I dunno. He's getting older and has played this way now since the B2B or thereabouts. I just don't think he does much of anything when he isn't scoring. And he hasn't been doing that much, lately. Add his unfortunate ongoing stints on IR every year (not his fault but hey) and he's just kinda... there, now. I don't hate him I just don't see what he does that a younger/cheaper player with something to potentially prove couldn't. Like he once was.

Totally agreed on Poulin. He and Puljujarvi are showing some chemistry at the AHL level and making a difference, there. They deserve a shot or as someone said in the other thread last night... what's even the point?

 

[Andy99]

Yeah, given how freaking bad he looks game in and game out, we may be stuck with Raks. Rust won't waive his NMC. Smith is a candidate in a money-out money-in swap, I guess. Some underperforming RHD would be fine or an overpaid grinder I guess.

I wouldn’t be surprised for Vegas to give us a third round pick back for him, or another contender to give us a mid-level pick for him, especially if we retain a little

 

[Invalid cuz QoC]

I just want some players with give-a-f***-tuitiveness that have finishing abilities to play along side our stars.

Instead of sticktuitiveness

 

[ChaosAgent]

I wouldn’t be surprised for Vegas to give us a third round pick back for him, or another contender to give us a mid-level pick for him, especially if we retain a little

I am not sure I want to burn a retention spot on Smith given we already have one on Petry. That only gives us one left.

I am earmarking a retention spot for EK65. I think we get a 1st back at least if we retain $3-4M. Since he is killing our PP, we should consider it even if we are reloading for next year. Plus he doesn't want to be on a non-contending team.

I just want some players with give-a-f***-tuitiveness that have finishing abilities to play along side our stars.

Instead of sticktuitiveness

Rust has scored 77 goals in his last 229 games. He is a good and skilled player with finishing ability.

We need more creating ability so that Sid and Geno can do more finishing, IMO.