The All Purpose Pens Off Day Thread - Injuries, Practice, Lines, etc (Geno out long term; Bjugs too)

[Big Friggin Dummy]

I mean... you aren't wrong. But damnit let me *****. Dude is like the hockey equivalent of a bucket of wallpaper paste.

I've been saying since I got here that I didn't see anything in ZAR, and this team wouldn't even notice if he suddenly got abducted by aliens and went missing. The dude is not good, at all, regardless of what people say when it comes to his pts/60 or goals/60 or "on pace" or whatever analytics people want to use to grasp at straws.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

I've been saying since I got here that I didn't see anything in ZAR, and this team wouldn't even notice if he suddenly got abducted by aliens and went missing. The dude is not good, at all, regardless of what people say when it comes to his pts/60 or goals/60 or "on pace" or whatever analytics people want to use to grasp at straws.

It would seem that there has been a lot of grasping at straws in the recent past, after watching this "new improved" team in actual action. Myself included.

In ZAR's case I think they gave him "special little buddy" status after big bad boogyman Tom Wilson jacked his jaw a couple seasons back. His pedigree is semi-interesting I suppose but none of it has actually translated as far as I can tell.

 

[Darren McCord]

I think grubs was a worse move than jj tbh. Haglins contract was expiring and you were about to have some cap flexibility. Then you downgrade to pearson who has term but still has a little value then you downgrade farther and lock in term with limited value. And hes just a right handed jj.

At least learn after the jj signing. But no he made the same mistake twice which is why i think its a worse move.

 

[ZeroPucksGiven]

I've been saying since I got here that I didn't see anything in ZAR, and this team wouldn't even notice if he suddenly got abducted by aliens and went missing. The dude is not good, at all, regardless of what people say when it comes to his pts/60 or goals/60 or "on pace" or whatever analytics people want to use to grasp at straws.

There were tons of posts when ZAR was qualified...many people were saying we needed NHL quality players and "it was ok if we paid a little bit of a premium to retain him"

Can't help but laugh at that stuff now. The kids that were called up last night offered the exact same thing that ZAR does for 3/4 of the price. And for a team that is so strapped, every penny counts

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

I think grubs was a worse move than jj tbh. Haglins contract was expiring and you were about to have some cap flexibility. Then you downgrade to pearson who has term but still has a little value then you downgrade farther and lock in term with limited value. And hes just a right handed jj.

At least learn after the jj signing. But no he made the same mistake twice which is why i think its a worse move.

Eh. Tough call. I think Gud has more tools, especially at this point in his career and can maybe kinda sorta think the game a little better. Probably is helped with a really good fit as d partner... moreso than JJ at least.

I completely see what you mean, though. Doubling down on your ridiculousness and f***ing yourself hard re: the cap at the same time when you don't even have to make a move at all takes a special kind of stupid.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

It would seem that there has been a lot of grasping at straws in the recent past, after watching this "new improved" team in actual action. Myself included.

In ZAR's case I think they gave him "special little buddy" status after big bad boogyman Tom Wilson jacked his jaw a couple seasons back. His pedigree is semi-interesting I suppose but none of it has actually translated as far as I can tell.

What's been happening this season is just another example in a looooong list of evidence that "on paper" doesn't really matter. Hell, with some of the teams we've watched in the Sid/Geno era, we should know that "on paper" doesn't always translate to on-ice success. Our blueline's a mess, not just because of the abhorrent JJ-Guds pairing, but because Schultz is still a shell of his former self and now Letang's regressed back to playing like a guy with 1/3 the talent/potential. The forwards were supposed to be a strong point, and I know we've had a ton of injuries, but too many guys are ineffective and/or vanilla.

 

[Darren McCord]

Eh. Tough call. I think Gud has more tools, especially at this point in his career and can maybe kinda sorta think the game a little better. Probably is helped with a really good fit as d partner... moreso than JJ at least.

I completely see what you mean, though. Doubling down on your ridiculousness and ****ing yourself hard re: the cap at the same time when you don't even have to make a move at all takes a special kind of stupid.

Ya i think jj is worse but the fact you did an expensive failed reclamation twice is so bad. The 3 million we would have had this offseason could of got us dzingel or haula.

Or I would have love if they grabbed edmundson from the blues.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

The forwards were supposed to be a strong point, and I know we've had a ton of injuries, but too many guys are ineffective and/or vanilla.

To be fair I saw that one coming a mile away.

The defense still concerns me more but only because it's THAT bad.

 

[Bingo71]

Vanilla Coke, the official drink of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

 

[K Fleur]

In hindsight, and foresight, it probably wasn’t a good idea to bank this defense even being passable on a defenseman that’s shown himself to often be terrible keeping up the best 20 game sample size of his career.

 

[K Fleur]

To be fair I saw that one coming a mile away.

The defense still concerns me more but only because it's THAT bad.

Remember like 3 weeks ago when we said the team had one forward too many but by Halloween they wouldn’t have enough? Didn’t take that long.

 

[ZeroPucksGiven]

Vanilla Coke, the official drink of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

It's just like the original Coke, but leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth even after eating a ton of Doritos

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Remember like 3 weeks ago when we said the team had one forward too many but by Halloween they wouldn’t have enough? Didn’t take that long.

As ultra frustrating as it is I also can't help but laugh that Malkin trained hard all Summer, all this noise and hype was made and he injured himself 4 periods into the season. f***ing classic.

I also didn't watch the game the other day and found it kind of telling that nobody was even really talking about Hornqvist's injury. It's like everyone has already kinda thrown their hands up in disgust.

 

[Darren McCord]

Letangs new way of looking like an iron man is to injury all his teamates first

 

[Andy99]

pretty accurate ...

This has been an uninspiring start for the Penguins

 

[Andy99]

lol...all you can do is laugh...

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

The issue here, to me, is that these problems aren't "it's only game 3" problems. ZAR is bad. Kahun hasn't been a fit whatsoever so far. JJ and Gudbranson are notably terrible. Schultz is still playing well below his potential. Letang's been trash, but I do think that's a "it's only game 3" problem, to be fair. Then you've got injuries, of course, but even healthy--Hornqvist? Bjugs? Not exactly guys I'm confident in if we have to lean on them to produce.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

They're really covering themselves in glory with their preparation and roster management for this season. It's almost like they don't have much of a real plan and completely lack any sort of communication between the FO and staff.

JR is managing the Pens like I manage my Yahoo hockey team. I'll completely forget about it for a month, notice that a couple of my guys are injured and haven't played, put them on IR, just add whatever garbage replacement is available on the free agent list, then go back to forgetting about my team for another month.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

The issue here, to me, is that these problems aren't "it's only game 3" problems. ZAR is bad. Kahun hasn't been a fit whatsoever so far. JJ and Gudbranson are notably terrible. Schultz is still playing well below his potential. Letang's been trash, but I do think that's a "it's only game 3" problem, to be fair. Then you've got injuries, of course, but even healthy--Hornqvist? Bjugs? Not exactly guys I'm confident in if we have to lean on them to produce.

At least Tanev and now Lafferty are there. Add AJ and at least you got a few guys with great wheels, lotta heart and some skill.

Way better than slow guys with no skill who don’t have to earn anything, not that I have anyone particular in mind.

 

[Malkinstheman]

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Let's not, Taylor. Let's not.

 

[BHD]

”I don’t think the score (Tuesday) was an indication of how the game was played... I think the game was a lot closer than the score indicates."

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

We're getting closer to "goals we scored that just didn't go in" territory.

 

[SHOOTANDSCORE]

No Chucky either

Reverse torpedo time. The Australian Torpedo?

God I hate JR for this. Galchenyuk reaggravating what's probably a groin injury is entirely because the team is being ****ing stupid and insisting on carrying 9 defensemen, when they could have called up an extra forward and let Galchenyuk rest.

100% this. You could see this coming from a mile away and they still did it anyway. They didn't even have to send Marino down, they just had to put Gally on IR retroactively. Just plain stupid management.

 

[Pancakes]

We're a Crosby injury away from being worse than Ottawa