Roster focus

[Ugene Magic]

Stack the 4th. No one will expect that.

They’ll never know what hit them

That's pretty much what they have done. If I was a fan of another team, i don't see enough to construct a 3rd line without dropping a top six player. they have 2 3rd liners so hey... Let's drop one of them to boost the 4th line.. It doesn't make a 3rd line, but 2 really good 4th lines that are pretty much meh... on being anything close to an offensive threat.

Everything comes down to depth, and the Pens clearly lack that at forward. Oh, they are for sure not short on 4th line depth... I think that's part of the problem people key in on certain players (4th liners) and just because they are better than the rest somehow makes them a 3rd liner.

Still a 4th liner...

 

[Flying Dego]

I think everyone resonates similar thoughts. Our talent as constructed leaves us with stacking the top 6.

I pounded the Granlund drum for long enough. He would have helped push Tanev down and rotate with Kapanen for top 6 time.

Since that option is not available I don't see a point trying to shoehorn more players that aren't talented with Sid/Geno.

 

[AuroraBorealis]

Don't forget Gurianov, a bloke that gets what, 12-14min on average, but scores like 9 goals in the playoffs.

Rig had 5 goals and even that wanker Perry had 5 goals. The thing was, Dallas was getting depth scoring from all over, a great problem.

Yeah Rig was my biggest surprise that playoffs. Got it done at both ends. Made me miss him.

Gurianov is starting to make a name for himself. Only 23 still. And yeah Perry was useless that whole run until the Finals, where he was Johnny on the spot in the paint.

 

[AuroraBorealis]

I think everyone resonates similar thoughts. Our talent as constructed leaves us with stacking the top 6.

I pounded the Granlund drum for long enough. He would have helped push Tanev down and rotate with Kapanen for top 6 time.

Since that option is not available I don't see a point trying to shoehorn more players that aren't talented with Sid/Geno.

Still not sold on McCann not working with Sid, especially if Kapanen fails.
He's only 24. Maybe he'll get an extended look at some point. Could surprise some people. He's got the shot. That's for sure.
And I like it when scoring wingers play with their handedness pointing towards the middle of the ice. Gives them better angles. So I like him on the right side.
Seems to work for Ovechkin

 

[Flying Dego]

Still not sold on McCann not working with Sid, especially if Kapanen fails.
He's only 24. Maybe he'll get an extended look at some point. Could surprise some people. He's got the shot. That's for sure.
And I like it when scoring wingers play with their handedness pointing towards the middle of the ice. Gives them better angles. So I like him on the right side.
Seems to work for Ovechkin

McCann is certainly a fringe top 6 guy. Are we sure he could play RW, he's never done it as far as I know?

I really hope he and Bleuger can click...that gives us a scoring punch on the third.

 

[AuroraBorealis]

McCann is certainly a fringe top 6 guy. Are we sure he could play RW, he's never done it as far as I know?

I really hope he and Bleuger can click...that gives us a scoring punch on the third.

Yeah I think he could. He's scored many times from the right wing.

The pre-existing chemistry between Baby Blue and Taz will be helpful for Canner. Still hard to see it as anything more than an average 3rd line though. They'll be more focused on shutting teams down.

 

[Flying Dego]

Yeah I think he could. He's scored many times from the right wing.

The pre-existing chemistry between Baby Blue and Taz will be helpful for Canner. Still hard to see it as anything more than an average 3rd line though. They'll be more focused on shutting teams down.

Well when Rust breaks his tibia and Kapanen fractures his tail bone we can get freaky with McCann on RW. I mean who are we kidding half the forwards will get hurt at the same time.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

McCann is certainly a fringe top 6 guy. Are we sure he could play RW, he's never done it as far as I know?

I really hope he and Bleuger can click...that gives us a scoring punch on the third.

He's done it sparingly with Sid & Jake.

 

[AuroraBorealis]

Well when Rust breaks his tibia and Kapanen fractures his tail bone we can get freaky with McCann on RW. I mean who are we kidding half the forwards will get hurt at the same time.

Oh never fear. We're in the midst of a pandemic man. That's more than enough to put 3/4 of the Pens outta commission by March.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Oh never fear. We're in the midst of a pandemic man. That's more than enough to put 3/4 of the Pens outta commission by March.

Pens are the kind of team where during a pandemic due to covid, they'll suddenly contract H1N1.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

I'd like to see this given a long look, assuming Poulin acquits himself nicely in camp/pre-season:

Jake/Zucker-Sid-Rust
Jake/Zucker-Geno-Kapanen/Poulin
McCann-TB-Kapanen/Poulin

 

[Tom Hanks]

Pens are the kind of team where during a pandemic due to covid, they'll suddenly contract H1N1.

Better than mumps although at least Crosby didn’t have mumps. He was just auditioning for Quagmire

 

[Tom Hanks]

I'd like to see this given a long look, assuming Poulin acquits himself nicely in camp/pre-season:

Jake/Zucker-Sid-Rust
Jake/Zucker-Geno-Kapanen/Poulin
McCann-TB-Kapanen/Poulin

I’m going to assume Poulin doesn’t make the team or has a short time with little impact

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Better than mumps although at least Crosby didn’t have mumps. He was just auditioning for Quagmire

Quagmire f***s.
Crosby has a subscription to pornhub.

 

[EightyOne]

Didnt read any posts in this thread, but it is like this, they dont have the players to balance...and there isnt much point in the regular season

Stack em, try and stack wins...work on other shit if playoffs looking possible

 

[The Old Master]

I'd like to see this given a long look, assuming Poulin acquits himself nicely in camp/pre-season:

Jake/Zucker-Sid-Rust
Jake/Zucker-Geno-Kapanen/Poulin
McCann-TB-Kapanen/Poulin

i would like to see...... zucker-sid-kappy/rust
jake-geno-rust/poulin [if pou's not ready it might be best to send him back instead of playing on the 3rd]
mccann-tb-???? let the rest fight it out.

 

[Tacitus Kilgore]

Pens are the kind of team where during a pandemic due to covid, they'll suddenly contract H1N1.

Or just the mumps...again

Edit: damn was beaten to it

 

[PensPlz]

Injuries are going to happen so might as well enjoy 2 stacked lines for a few games before the inevitable 3 gimpy lines.

 

[CheckingLineCenter]

I’m hoping Sully stacks the top 9.

Hopefully after the standard top 6 mix it’s McCann-Blueger-Tanev on the 3rd. Not sexy but reads solid to me on paper. Hopefully in practice it’s similar.

With that third line the 4th line is vanilla at best but seems safe at worst. Some mix of Laff, Sceviour, Jankowski, Rodrigues, and ZAR is not a 4th line that will kill you. And theoretically, you don’t need to play em a lot if you have 2 great lines and a solid 3rd.

Just seems a lot better than some weird mix of Canner Jank and Erod playing substantially more than Blueger Tanev and whoever. That would be very meh imo.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Or just the mumps...again

Edit: damn was beaten to it

Story of the Pens last 3yrs.

 

[Night Shift]

Is RS stand for Regular Season?

 

[Pens x]

You should have three capable lines. We could have easily had two stacked lines and a repstable third line, but JR needlessly acquired/signed/re-signed way too many crap players early in the offseason.

Why are we wasting nearly $2 million on E-Rod and Sceviour? You have Jank, McCann, Lafferty, Tanev, Blueger, x player you could sign with the dead money spent on erod and CS, eventually ZAR, etc.

Plus you can get additional relief if you LTIR ZAR. There are ways to come up ways to sign a legitimate NHL players.

You can have your cake and eat it too. But either JR is too dumb to see this or Burkle is too cheap to allow them to actually compete.

So my answer is spread the talent, and we could have had enough talent to spread across three lines if we didn’t shoot our selves in the foot.