Pittsburgh Sports Media Gibberish - Part X (Rossi explains it all)

[Gurglesons]

Our scouting's been pretty good, it's just woefully short on forwards. Hell, look at how good our 2012 class is shaping up to be. Arguably the best of any team in the league that year.

Uh. Shero ruined this team, his drafting was horrible, and he is the root of everything wrong with the Penguins bro. How could he draft well?

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

Uh. Shero ruined this team, his drafting was horrible, and he is the root of everything wrong with the Penguins bro. How could he draft well?

That's pretty much it (according to some).

 

[Gurglesons]

That's pretty much it (according to some).

Even with the trade of SD we could potentially have a defensive roster next year of..

Letang, DP, Maatta, and one of Harrington or Dumo.

 

[kodoshin]

Even with the trade of SD we could potentially have a defensive roster next year of..

Letang, DP, Maatta, and one of Harrington or Dumo.

Until it's close to the playoffs right? Then we bring in experience.

 

[Shady Machine]

Even with the trade of SD we could potentially have a defensive roster next year of..

Letang, DP, Maatta, and one of Harrington or Dumo.

What about when Dumo can't be sent back down and they trade him for 'insert random veteran presence here'?

 

[Asuna]

"You've got to produce," coach Darryl Sutter said Saturday after the Kings struggled in a 4-1 home loss to Vancouver. "At the end of the day, the guys have played 20-some games and we're into the stretch part and they have one or no goals. We're having trouble scoring. The guys have got to produce. That's just being honest."

That's pretty refreshing to hear. Too bad it's not from the Penguins.

 

[joeyjake5]

IMO, the two items that really screwed up the pens D for a long time were

1. The signing of scuds which makes no sense

2. The trading of Simon.

Signing scuds and with Simon gone, probably means scuds will be on the team next year, you just have to have his experience and leadership on this team no matter how bad he is. You have DP, Letang, and Maata who is ?? with his shoulder problems on the D for next year. Then who?? I will not bet on either Dumo or Harry, just the way this management team views young D. Oh, yes I forgot about Cole and Lovejoy. If only you could forget about them.

I am OK about trading anybody, but Simon for Lovejoy. What a fleecing by the Ducks.

 

[Til the End of Time]

the funny thing is that if one were to describe what type of defenseman the penguins currently need, they would pretty much be describing simon despres perfectly.

big, good skater, willing to play physical, willing to be tough in front of the net and corners, some offensive upside, willing to go against other teams stars.

that's what the penguins need right now, and that what they just traded away.

 

[Asuna]

Rutherford said Dupuis will not play again this season.

No surprise there really.

 

[UnderratedBrooks44]

IMO, the two items that really screwed up the pens D for a long time were

1. The signing of scuds which makes no sense

2. The trading of Simon.

Signing scuds and with Simon gone, probably means scuds will be on the team next year, you just have to have his experience and leadership on this team no matter how bad he is. You have DP, Letang, and Maata who is ?? with his shoulder problems on the D for next year. Then who?? I will not bet on either Dumo or Harry, just the way this management team views young D. Oh, yes I forgot about Cole and Lovejoy. If only you could forget about them.

I am OK about trading anybody, but Simon for Lovejoy. What a fleecing by the Ducks.

I agree it really sucks this is where we're at. Maatta-Letang then Pouliot-Despres would've been great and we'd be set for a long time barring free agency. Cole would be good enough on the bottom pair, if not no big deal, and if someone else kept improving and came up the ranks we're in great shape.

 

[Snooki Stackhouse]

that's what the penguins need right now, and that what they just traded away.

For Ben ****ing Lovejoy

 

[cassius]

Saw this and immediately cracked up... SOMEONE feels our pain. lol..

"Fall Out Boy apologizes for 'Centuries'"
"Remember meeee for centurieeees!"

How sick are you of hearing the Fall Out Boy song that has become this year's sports anthem? Well, you're not alone.

The band acknowledges that their latest single may have been a bit overused during the College Football Playoff and they're ready to apologize.

http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-fo...uries-played-during-college-football-playoffs

 

[Joejosh999]

Savran had Mike Lange on today and he had some i testing comments....basically that the Pens are focussed on D at the expense of scoring any goals...Lange remarked "maybe it's just me but..." He felt Crosby and Malkin needed to have more freedom (it ain't just you Mikey) to produce offense....

 

[Joejosh999]

IMO ironically at the start of the season when they were so diligent about circling back into the D zone to break out with strong support, they WERE opening up the O more....coming through neutral in a pack, able to break down layered D with short passes.

It really has gone to hell.

 

[drpepper]

IMO ironically at the start of the season when they were so diligent about circling back into the D zone to break out with strong support, they WERE opening up the O more....coming through neutral in a pack, able to break down layered D with short passes.

It really has gone to hell.

The forwards are still doing that; however three things have changed:

(1) the defense is worse at moving the puck
(2) the wingers that have primary roles on the breakout are struggling or playing center
(3) the breakout has been analyzed by other teams and is relatively easy to combat with an aggressive forecheck challenging the d-men (see #1) or with a neutral zone trap with special attention on the left wall (see #2)

 

[Sam Spade]

Even with the trade of SD we could potentially have a defensive roster next year of..

Letang, DP, Maatta, and one of Harrington or Dumo.

So Letang, Maata, DP, Lovejoy, Scuderi, Cole, and either SH or BD?

Doesn't exactly inspire to be honest.

 

[Joejosh999]

The forwards are still doing that; however three things have changed:

(1) the defense is worse at moving the puck
(2) the wingers that have primary roles on the breakout are struggling or playing center
(3) the breakout has been analyzed by other teams and is relatively easy to combat with an aggressive forecheck challenging the d-men (see #1) or with a neutral zone trap with special attention on the left wall (see #2)

Respectfully I do NOT see them still doing that at anything like the diligent level they did early on. Nowhere near the depth of support from the Fs.

Don't see it.

 

[sf expat71]

So Letang, Maata, DP, Lovejoy, Scuderi, Cole, and either SH or BD?

Doesn't exactly inspire to be honest.

Probably Dumuolin, I think he's waiver eligible next year right? The question will once again be who can keep afloat the Scuderi submarine.

 

[JBose7]

I may be in the minority but I actually like Ian Cole. I think he can get better, and maybe be one of those surprise under the radar aquisitions who becomes a cog in the wheel.

 

[cygnus47]

IMO ironically at the start of the season when they were so diligent about circling back into the D zone to break out with strong support, they WERE opening up the O more....coming through neutral in a pack, able to break down layered D with short passes.

It really has gone to hell.

You've put into words what I've thought all season. You could see it in the first month of the season.

We had the nice collapsing cross and we kept the shape until we were in the neutral zone. The big thing for me was that the far winger was always closer to the puck than his mark, which meant that the puck carrier never had more than one outlet and any puck that came loose was almost certainly going to us. It also meant that as soon as we had possession, the carrier had at LEAST two outlets and that guy would then have two outlets PLUS support. We would force the puck into the corners and then overload the lower half of the zone on that side and cut off the passes to the point by having 5 guys around the puck.

Now we spread out too much in the zone defending, we miss a lot more bounces and when anyone gets possession they only ever have one predictable outlet other than chipping it up the wall. The far winger is too far away, our guys spread out to the opposite walls when we get possession down low and guys blow the zone before we have the puck out of our zone. We end up getting overloaded and have to chip the puck along the wall and hope for a bounce, and teams like the Flyers and NYI just stack 3 guys along the wall and we can't do anything about it.

We had that puck support, overload and structured breakout early, we lost it about a month in and we haven't had it back since.

 

[Captain Hook]

I may be in the minority but I actually like Ian Cole. I think he can get better, and maybe be one of those surprise under the radar aquisitions who becomes a cog in the wheel.

I'm guessing Cole's issues must be between the ears because he seems to have lots of talent. The mobility and cannon of a shot make it easy to see why he was a 1st rounder. He just hasn't been able to put it all together for some reason. Maybe he can here. Time will tell.

 

[IcedCapp]

is there really anyone who doesn't like Cole or the Cole deal? He's no worse than Bortuzzo and seems to have upside.

People are only upset about one deal and like 3 players (Scuderi, Ehrhoff?, Despres)

 

[Shady Machine]

I may be in the minority but I actually like Ian Cole. I think he can get better, and maybe be one of those surprise under the radar aquisitions who becomes a cog in the wheel.

You're not in the minority (at least not on HFBoards). I haven't seen anyone on here complain about that trade.

 

[Still Apps]

is there really anyone who doesn't like Cole or the Cole deal? He's no worse than Bortuzzo and seems to have upside.

People are only upset about one deal and like 3 players (Scuderi, Ehrhoff?, Despres)

I like Cole a lot but it makes me despondent to think we actually had Cole and Despres for about 10 seconds.

 

[Joejosh999]

Oh dear LOL, DKs been reading too much HF....

...
Not talking about you here, just in general, but the state of Penguins fandom has reached the point of hyper-hyperbolic with pretty much every little thing that goes awry. And I’m going to be totally candid here: It was nice being away from it for a few days while focusing on baseball in Bradenton.

I was speaking with a friend up in Winnipeg yesterday, and he was telling me all about the sheer joy happening up there with the Jets pursuing their first playoff appearance in 19 years. Every day, every night is a thrill for everyone involved. The MTS Centre is exploding with enthusiasm. The players are being supported unlike any others, win or lose, in the entire NHL.

And in Pittsburgh, we’re pouting over 40 wins, another two potential scoring champs, a Vezina candidate, a Norris candidate and a possible Executive of the Year.

Man, that’s stale. Maybe this team needs to really stink for some semblance of reality to take hold.