News Article: Rutherford and Johnston are staying. Both of them.

[BrunoPuntzJones]

http://dkonpittsburghsports.com/2015/04/25/column-these-penguins-could-still-fly-with-wings/

These ***** are really trying to push me to another team.

This season was lost to incompetence, you boobs.

If you're lucky Shero will find a job this summer and make your decision easy.

 

[ColePens]

Hey, once you say goodnight and leave, you just can't jump back into the fray.

I was afraid of that...

I try to sleep and I just need quotes, posts, and madness. It's like a bad dream that I weirdly enjoy.

 

[KIRK]

Words of the organization vs. actions. To steal a little from Rossi article.

Say Shero screwed up, keep most of his staff.
Say we need to get young and play players like Despres, trade Despres and get old.
Say we need culture change, bring in similar inexperienced nhl coach.

Now for your question....

Say we brought in JR. to win the cup, lose first round and also lose badly to end up in eighth in the first place
Say we need nine gms to figure out cap, screw up and have cap issues at end of year.


Somewhere actions and words need to match. If they felt jr could really get this team a cup and made trades such as Despres for lovejoy.....then shouldn't he be fired as he failed? Words need to match actions.

I just linked to his latest here. It makes me feel so dirty to do it, but, looking at Sid, listening to Geno, he's right . . . they didn't sign up for being hung out to dry the way they've been.

I'm not sure whether to hope the speculative part about Malkin's lack of faith in the direction of the franchise and where that's heading is true or not. On the one hand, you don't want him to ask for a trade. On the other hand, as I keep saying, only Sid and Geno can save this franchise from itself by forcing Mario's hand.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

That's absurd. Perron is better than nothing. Winnik is better than nothing. The difference in current quality between Cole and Bortuzzo is comparable to the difference between Despres and Lovejoy.

Perron might turn it around, but he and Winnik were both straight garbage these playoffs.

I hated the Despres trade when it happened and I still don't like it. But other than that, it's hard to find a firing-worthy trade or signing that Rutherford made.

The Despres trade sucked. The Ehrhoff signing was stupid and unnecessary. We got poor value on the Neal trade and only managed to score more than one goal in a single game these playoffs.

Realistically, they wouldn't. They already have a huge management team, why wouldn't they hire from within? It's not likely, so hoping that Rutherford would be fired on the off chance that they hire somewhere else is a waste of time.

Maybe because they suck?

 

[td_ice]

I was afraid of that...

I try to sleep and I just need quotes, posts, and madness. It's like a bad dream that I weirdly enjoy.

Haha....glad you're back, misery loves company. The HF Pens board motto for the 2014-15 season.

 

[KIRK]

I was afraid of that...

I try to sleep and I just need quotes, posts, and madness. It's like a bad dream that I weirdly enjoy.

There's nothing weird about it. The same **** keeps happening. At some point, you just hope for something truly different, be it something finally good or a less than satisfying completion of the story.

 

[KIRK]

Haha....glad you're back, misery loves company. The HF Pens board motto for the 2014-15 season.

Early nominee for the 2015-2016 motto . . .

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

If you're lucky Shero will find a job this summer and make your decision easy.

Could be. More direction and success than this **** show.

 

[Pancakes]

There's nothing weird about it. The same **** keeps happening. At some point, you just hope for something truly different, be it something finally good or a less than satisfying completion of the story.

We got that this past season. Change was brought, but it was change for the worse.

 

[Darth Vitale]

No, you can still buyout players I think, but it's just with harsher penalties than the compliance buyouts brought. Now when you buyout Scuderi and/or Kunitz, it will bring cap penalties. Still better than having them on the roster, though.

Teams can buy out players, the traditional way.

I believe under 26, it's 1/3 of the contract value spread over twice the remaining years of the deal.

Over 26 is 2/3.

If it comes to it, I'd rather take 2.4M in dead cap space for the next 4 years to be rid of Kunitz and Scuderi than pay them about 7.2M for the next 2 years to stay.

Thanks for clearing that up guys.

If true, all day long, 7 days a week. Buy those two clowns out. Lovejoy too. Get him the FOOK out of here. Absolute disaster of a move.

I might consider buying Dupers out too but maybe not possible because of injury / health issue. I know people love the guy's heart but time to be real. I don't know if he's still hoping to come back but honestly I wouldn't let him on the ice. Last I heard his condition was pretty sketchy for a comeback. Even if he's cleared medically... age. Sorry man, time to move on. Kill the Bylsma era once and for all.

 

[Pancakes]

I'd actually be a little surprised if we couldn't find a taker for Kunitz in trade. I don't know if he has a NMC or not but I'm sure some team would be happy to have him for vet leadership and even declined as he is he's still good for 15-20 goals a season most likely.

Scuderi will need to be bought out for sure, though.

 

[Shaftception]

There's no legitimate argument to keep either outside of the (false) belief there's nobody better available.

Johnston's only praiseworthy accomplishment after the season's end is he instructed his team to trap a superior team to make up for the talent gap and thus lost quickly but closely. In other words, literally the exact same thing every single other coach in hockey history resorts to in the same lack of talent situation. Not only did he accomplish nothing praiseworthy, but proved nothing in the way of deserving confidence going forward he's capable of any better.

They brought in rutherford to win a cup in the short time he was to be here, there's articles from last summer stating as much, they didn't, thus his purpose for being here is gone other than dumping young player in the organizational dog house A as quickly as possible, which he accomplished, and player B yet to be determined but probably inevitable. If them keeping the knight's of the frown table that is this front office together for another year of delusions of grandeur leads to a trade of malkin in the vein hope of receiving more than the scraps that you can get for a player of his cap hit and nmc for a quick fix, I don't think I can mentally handle this team anymore, that would finally break me.

 

[billybudd]

For what it's worth, I'm a Flyers fan who was pulling for you guys. I was really annoyed because each game was a one goal game and y'all were missing over half of your Defense. From my perspective, y'all played great considering the circumstances - playing against the #1 team and without defense. Heck, 2 games went to OT. I don't know what the off season will bring, but I think you can be proud of how your team acquitted itself against this Rangers team.

They competed the best they could, but even with the D in the state it was in, this is one wretched group of wings. But yeah. Even winning one could be considered overachievement.

 

[High Flying Birds]

Not surprised. Gonna be a long, long summer. Hopefully MJ improves on a few things and inherits a better team than the one he had against the Rags. We'll see what old man Rutherford has up his sleeve. Getting younger and quicker has to be a priority though. I hope he realizes this.

 

[KIRK]

We got that this past season. Change was brought, but it was change for the worse.

We didn't get change, not true change. We got a change in optics. We got a change in messengers. We got a convenient scapegoat. But, the message, the culture of complacency, the family . . . save Orpik and Nisky walking because there wasn't cap space, what really changed?

 

[Darth Vitale]

As for Dejan's article, I can't help but believe a fair amount of the ******** he reported (BS in the sense that it's moronic) is actually what these losers in the front office are telling him.

And GOSH you ALMOST got me with that marketing spin, Dejan. I'm sure Lesshouse will be proud of your work and give you a nice donation this summer.

 

[systemsgo]

I hate that I agree with Rossi.

 

[mpp9]

Offseason is a win in my book if Scuderi and Kunitz are gone.

It's sad that this team may need a 36 year old Dupuis with questionable legs and a history of blood clots to come back to have even one NHL winger qualify as being fast next season.

 

[KIRK]

There's no legitimate argument to keep either outside of the (false) belief there's nobody better available.

Johnston's only praiseworthy accomplishment after the season's end is he instructed his team to trap a superior team to make up for the talent gap and thus lost quickly but closely. In other words, literally the exact same thing every single other coach in hockey history resorts to in the same lack of talent situation. Not only did he accomplish nothing praiseworthy, but proved nothing in the way of deserving confidence going forward he's capable of any better.

They brought in rutherford to win a cup in the short time he was to be here, there's articles from last summer stating as much, they didn't, thus his purpose for being here other than dumping the young player in the organizational dog-house 1 which he accomplished, and player 2 yet to be determined but probably inevitable. If them keeping the knight's of the frown table that is this front office together for another year of delusions of grandeur and that leads to a trade of malkin for the scraps that you can only get for a player of his cap hit and nmc, I don't think I can mentally handle this team anymore, that would finally break me.

They're not dumb enough to trade Malkin. He's got a full NTC, and that makes it a no win proposition for them. Plus, if he were traded, I wouldn't be surprised if Sid were far behind in asking out.

The more interesting question is whether Malkin will wake up one day and realize this franchise is going nowhere and that it's in his best interest to ask out.

 

[systemsgo]

I'd actually be a little surprised if we couldn't find a taker for Kunitz in trade. I don't know if he has a NMC or not but I'm sure some team would be happy to have him for vet leadership and even declined as he is he's still good for 15-20 goals a season most likely.

Scuderi will need to be bought out for sure, though.

Kunitz has a limited NTC or NMC if I remember correctly, no word on how many teams would have to be on it.

 

[PensPlz]

I don't care about his intentions or what made sense at the time to him, at the end of the day (or season) GMJR hurt the team more than helped.

Actually, I have a hard time rationalizing just one of his trades as actually having a positive result on this team for the next year. If he keeps his job, this team is in serious trouble.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

This is an off-season where McLellan is available, and Babcock and Julien might be. But we're committed to a guy who can't bring himself to demote Kunitz or scratch Scuderi, and takes 70 games to realize Adams shouldn't play?

En route to a 5 game drubbing in the 1st round? Please.

 

[Pancakes]

We didn't get change, not true change. We got a change in optics. We got a change in messengers. We got a convenient scapegoat. But, the message, the culture of complacency, the family . . . save Orpik and Nisky walking because there wasn't cap space, what really changed?

Eh, we did get change. The supporting cast was completely re-worked. The Neal trade. New coach, new style of play.

The problem? I'm not sure any of that worked out. The guys we brought in couldn't score at all, and our secondary scoring this year was the worst its ever been. The Neal trade...I love Hornqvist, but I'm not sure he's more valuable than Neal. Neal scored at over a PPG pace for us while here. I know it's unpopular to say since we all love Hornqvist and this team needs what he brings, but I think we lost that trade. Hornqvist was a great addition but it shouldn't have been at the cost of Neal. And obviously Spaling kinda sucks and we should have been able to at least pry a pick or something out of Nashville.

As for Mike Johnston, he isn't the worst coach ever but nor is he the answer. His style of play made us one of the lowest scoring teams in the league. Injuries or no that's inexcusable with Crosby and Malkin on board.

 

[mpp9]

This is an off-season where McLellan is available, and Babcock and Julien might be. But we're committed to a guy who can't bring himself to demote Kunitz or scratch Scuderi, and takes 70 games to realize Adams shouldn't play?

Babcock wouldn't demote Kunitz either. I'd guarantee that.

 

[Darth Vitale]

Offseason is a win in my book if Scuderi and Kunitz are gone.

It's sad that this team may need a 36 year old Dupuis with questionable legs and a history of blood clots to come back to have even one NHL winger qualify as being fast next season.

I will concede if we find a way to get rid of Kunitz, Scuderi AND Lovejoy (there is absolutley no reason to keep that guy on our roster -- he is a disaster), and we sign a couple 20-something wingers. Guys who have some skill and savvy and can consistently put up some modest numbers, even if not top-line quality players... that will be success.

Move the f-ing ball forward and take no steps back. For once.