Steve Downie

[Whale Mingo]

I'd keep PH and Downie on this team for as long as possible.

I'm just glad some people are finally seeing the value Steve Downie brings to this team. I don't think there is a team with a bigger need for a guy like him and I don't think there is a player that can fit the role this team needs more than Downie.

It's seriously a perfect match. Pay him, pay that man his money.

 

[Terrapin]

I'm just glad some people are finally seeing the value Steve Downie brings to this team. I don't think there is a team with a bigger need for a guy like him and I don't think there is a player that can fit the role this team needs more than Downie.

It's seriously a perfect match. Pay him, pay that man his money.

Downie is absolutely needed. But unfortunately, he's not big enough or tough enough to take care of everything, and even more unfortunately, there is nobody else on this team to help with that stuff.

For instance, someone mentioned Rinaldo. He ran Letang last time, he'll likely run someone again Wednesday. Downie may go out and take a beating for it. It's a shame that we continue to employ a scrub like Adams over someone with some toughness.

 

[AquaticBirdman]

Downie is absolutely needed. But unfortunately, he's not big enough or tough enough to take care of everything, and even more unfortunately, there is nobody else on this team to help with that stuff.

For instance, someone mentioned Rinaldo. He ran Letang last time, he'll likely run someone again Wednesday. Downie may go out and take a beating for it. It's a shame that we continue to employ a scrub like Adams over someone with some toughness.

I think that's why I loved Farnham so much as well. Much like Downie he's undersized to play that tough guy role, but he chooses to play it anyways. I loved that grit and no-fear attitude he brought to the fold, to go along with a fairly decent skill-set.

 

[SEALBound]

Downie is absolutely needed. But unfortunately, he's not big enough or tough enough to take care of everything, and even more unfortunately, there is nobody else on this team to help with that stuff.

For instance, someone mentioned Rinaldo. He ran Letang last time, he'll likely run someone again Wednesday. Downie may go out and take a beating for it. It's a shame that we continue to employ a scrub like Adams over someone with some toughness.

While I agree, we are hamstrung by injuries and the salary cap.

I really like what Downie brings us this year. He believe he should absolutely be resigned. If we could get Winnik, Downie, Farnham, and other gritty bottom 6'er in the lineup next year, we should be okay.

 

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Nobody in the world is going to stop Rinaldo from running Letang besides Rinaldo. Period. He's a caveman, and he's not scared of any sort of glorified bouncer on skates. Enforcers are pointless wastes of cap space and a roster spot.

 

[Terrapin]

Nobody in the world is going to stop Rinaldo from running Letang besides Rinaldo. Period. He's a caveman, and he's not scared of any sort of glorified bouncer on skates. Enforcers are pointless wastes of cap space and a roster spot.

It sure is odd how Pens players keep getting knocked out of games by cheap hits a helluva lot more than pretty much every other team. How much running around does Rinaldo do when guys like Reaves, Peluso, Scott, etc are in the game? Maybe check those stats out.

I also don't believe I mentioned anything about a goon enforcer. I want a bigger, tougher version of Downie to go along with Downie. A Lucic, Stewart, Kane, Kassian, etc.

 

[KIRK]

Nobody in the world is going to stop Rinaldo from running Letang besides Rinaldo. Period. He's a caveman, and he's not scared of any sort of glorified bouncer on skates. Enforcers are pointless wastes of cap space and a roster spot.

You know what stops Rinaldo from trying to run Letang.

Downie trying to run Giroux first refocuses Rinaldo's attention from targeting Letang to retribution on Downie.

It's why my favorite Pens troll wasn't Cooke. It was Ruutu. He'd target the other teams top guy from the word go and turn the other cheek when the other team would go for payback.

Whether a little or a lot, every second the other team's trolls spend trying to kill one of your trolls is one less they spend trying to kill one of your stars.

Ruutu was my favorite recent Penguin in this regard. Chris Neil is a master at it today.

 

[wej20]

It sure is odd how Pens players keep getting knocked out of games by cheap hits a helluva lot more than pretty much every other team. How much running around does Rinaldo do when guys like Reaves, Peluso, Scott, etc are in the game? Maybe check those stats out.

I also don't believe I mentioned anything about a goon enforcer. I want a bigger, tougher version of Downie to go along with Downie. A Lucic, Stewart, Kane, Kassian, etc.

Zach Rinaldo was suspended for 4 games for a hit to the head of Chad Ruhwedel in a game John Scott was dressed in and Nick Deslauriers was on the ice at the time of the hit.

 

[Jaded-Fan]

Can we afford to call up this guy for the Flyers' game.

 

[Terrapin]

Zach Rinaldo was suspended for 4 games for a hit to the head of Chad Ruhwedel in a game John Scott was dressed in and Nick Deslauriers was on the ice at the time of the hit.

2 years ago Chris Neil was about to 'Thorton' Orpik. Macintyre came out, got in his face, and Neil was quiet as a mouse the rest of the game. If there's even a 1% chance that having some muscle will prevent certain cheap shots, that's a risk worth taking when you have Sid and Letang (history of concussions) and Geno (hurt every year).

That 1% chance is 1% greater than the chance of Craig Adams doing anything positive ever, and only a few % points lower than Lapierre and Spaling/Sutter doing anything positive.

 

[radapex]

Can we afford to call up this guy for the Flyers' game.

Nope. Pens reportedly have less than $2,000 in cap space. A league minimum contract carries a daily cap hit of $3,353.66.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

You know what stops Rinaldo from trying to run Letang.

Downie trying to run Giroux first refocuses Rinaldo's attention from targeting Letang to retribution on Downie.

It's why my favorite Pens troll wasn't Cooke. It was Ruutu. He'd target the other teams top guy from the word go and turn the other cheek when the other team would go for payback.

Whether a little or a lot, every second the other team's trolls spend trying to kill one of your trolls is one less they spend trying to kill one of your stars.

Ruutu was my favorite recent Penguin in this regard. Chris Neil is a master at it today.

This is something that I really don't get about these recent Pens. While we're all complaining about Sid, Geno, Letang, etc. getting run and abused by the other team's scrubs, how come we rarely see guys like Giroux, Tavares, Stamkos, etc. run by our scrubs?

 

[Ogelthorpe]

This is something that I really don't get about these recent Pens. While we're all complaining about Sid, Geno, Letang, etc. getting run and abused by the other team's scrubs, how come we rarely see guys like Giroux, Tavares, Stamkos, etc. run by our scrubs?

I've been saying this for years now! Most of the time I was just told that I'm classless for having that attitude. That is how Tocchet useds to patrol things. You when after one of his stars, he went after one of yours. I think most people here have at least heard about him punching Messier, and telling the Rangers bench that if anyone touch Mario again, he was taking out Messier's knees.

You start ****ing up guys like Vorachek and Giroux, you will see the Flyers start to take less liberties on Sid, Geno, and Tanger!

 

[Terrapin]

I've been saying this for years now! Most of the time I was just told that I'm classless for having that attitude. That is how Tocchet useds to patrol things. You when after one of his stars, he went after one of yours. I think most people here have at least heard about him punching Messier, and telling the Rangers bench that if anyone touch Mario again, he was taking out Messier's knees.

You start ****ing up guys like Vorachek and Giroux, you will see the Flyers start to take less liberties on Sid, Geno, and Tanger!

Like I said before, even the softest sissies in the league are still tougher than the average person. And they all know the value of taking up for teammates. This group of Pens is the softest team I've seen in 30+ years of watching hockey, and it makes me sick. But the only explanation for them not retaliating against other teams star players is direct orders not to. Whether those come/came from Byslma, MJ, JR, Moorehouse, and/or Mario himself who knows.

Edit: Then again, James Neal used to do some of what you're talking about, and we saw how he was run out of town

 

[AjaxTelamon]

Like I said before, even the softest sissies in the league are still tougher than the average person. And they all know the value of taking up for teammates. This group of Pens is the softest team I've seen in 30+ years of watching hockey, and it makes me sick. But the only explanation for them not retaliating against other teams star players is direct orders not to. Whether those come/came from Byslma, MJ, JR, Moorehouse, and/or Mario himself who knows.

Nah, hopefully the current crop of pests just knows when to turn it on in the post season. No one is going to 100% stop nonsense like Rinaldo in the regular season. But guys like Downie, ML and Perron should turn up the pest parts of their games in the post season, and in a 7 game series. PH is a hell of a tough player, and he's a lightning rod for other teams attention once they have to play against him for a few games. Watch how he drives the entire west nuts. That's a big part of why we're so good against the west this year.

Edit: Then again, James Neal used to do some of what you're talking about, and we saw how he was run out of town

Neal only encouraged trolling, because he would retaliate selfishly and stupidly ala the knee to Marchand. All Neal did in the post season was take stupid penalties in the O zone.

 

[plaidchuck]

Lol, yes that's the key to post season success, threaten to hurt giroux or voracek.

 

[Terrapin]

Lol, yes that's the key to post season success, threaten to hurt giroux or voracek.

Actually, the key to post season success is actually making it to the postseason healthy, which is something this team rarely does.

 

[plaidchuck]

Actually, the key to post season success is actually making it to the postseason healthy, which is something this team rarely does.

And dressing a bunch of.goons will change that?

 

[billybudd]

You know what stops Rinaldo from trying to run Letang.

Downie trying to run Giroux first refocuses Rinaldo's attention from targeting Letang to retribution on Downie.

I don't think Rinaldo's smart enough to make that connection. Or much of a team guy. If somebody blew up Giroux, I'm not sure he would think that has anything to do with him, unless someone specifically explained that on the bench.

He's not like Godard or Cooke where he understands the game within a game completely. More like Artyukhin. See guy, brain off, hit him as hard as possible, consequences are someone else's problem.

Not sure if he's smart enough to understand self-preservation, either, but I'm inclined to think I've seen Carbomb put the fear of God into him in the past.

Speaking of Artyukhin, I'd take him on this team.

 

[roquay]

If the league was smart guys like Rinaldo would be getting 10, 20 game suspensions for intentional head shots. Even more for repeat offenders. Imagine losing 1/4 to 1/2 your paycheck, even the dumbest guys will learn pretty quickly when you hurt their bank account.

If we took out Giroux at the start of a game with a dirty play you can be sure they wont just be targeting the guy who did it. The whole team would be targets and with our injury history its not a great idea. I say just play hockey but if incidents like Rinaldo-Letang happen then it'd be nice to have a couple of bigger guys who can dirty and cause some havoc. Even Brooks Orpik over the years has shown that you can do some damage just by playing within the rules but I guess our management doesn't like big hitters (Despres )

 

[Terrapin]

And dressing a bunch of.goons will change that?

Cause that's what I said right?

Are you Jim Rutherford? lol. Why do some of you guys equate anyone that can win a fight or strike a little fear into someone with being a worthless goon? Would you say Lucic, Stewart, Kane, Simmonds, Kassian, etc are goons? How about some lesser players like Neil, Martin, Tootoo, etc?

I know we'd all rather have Craig Adams, Brian Rust, and Nick Spaling over these guys, but surprisingly a few people wouldn't.

 

[Pens1566]

Lol, yes that's the key to post season success, threaten to hurt giroux or voracek.

It worked wonders a few years ago when every time Timmonen touched the puck he was put through the end boards. Guy was a quivering mess by the end of those series.

 

[plaidchuck]

Cause that's what I said right?

Are you Jim Rutherford? lol. Why do some of you guys equate anyone that can win a fight or strike a little fear into someone with being a worthless goon? Would you say Lucic, Stewart, Kane, Simmonds, Kassian, etc are goons? How about some lesser players like Neil, Martin, Tootoo, etc?

I know we'd all rather have Craig Adams, Brian Rust, and Nick Spaling over these guys, but surprisingly a few people wouldn't.

Do we all want those type of players? Yep. Is it likely they acquire them? Nope.

 

[plaidchuck]

It worked wonders a few years ago when every time Timmonen touched the puck he was put through the end boards. Guy was a quivering mess by the end of those series.

Now everyone does it to Letang. Dudes going to forget the name of his child within five years at this rate.

 

[Shady Machine]

Now everyone does it to Letang. Dudes going to forget the name of his child within five years at this rate.

So are you suggesting other teams are doing to it Letang because the Pens did it to Timonen years ago? If so, you're wrong. If not, what is your point?