A+ Anne Hathaway appeared out of no-where and appears to have helped us win the division.
A+ Anne Hathaway appeared out of no-where and appears to have helped us win the division.
You think Marino played up to expectations?
His 5v5 production was really bad. I know he made up for it elsewhere but I struggle to give an A to someone who gets a full season with Sid and doesn't put up better 5v5 numbers.
Lafferty?
I also feel like we need to have a real conversation about grade inflation here.
Appearances can be deceptive
The thing with Marino that surprises me is that people assumed he would stay at his top 2 level this year. Outside of Letang, I don't know a rookie Pens defenseman who didn't have a massive sophomore slump, it's just not a realistic expectation for anyone outside of a future HHOF first ballot blueliner (like Letang is/will be). I think the things to keep in mind with Marino are that a) he had periods of really good play and b) his partner and the team in general struggled mightily during parts of the season. So, there's lots of good stuff to build on there, it's just that the consistency isn't quite there yet-- you can see he has the tools, it's just a matter of putting it all together. Lots of guys don't start putting it together until they're significantly older than Marino (like Matheson's age).
I know some people would argue that it's just surprising that he sunk that low for stretches, and that's a fair criticism, but it's also been a weird offseason and season and the dude hadn't played professional hockey before last year. So, he's in a weird situation that I would hesitate to draw too much from.
I agree some sort of slump was to be expected from Marino. I wasn't expecting it to be so brutal that he was arguably the worst dman in the league for a period. And eyetest, at the start of the season, he was making so many bad decisions. I guess that's part of a guy feeling the need to prove he's worth his big new contract, that he's not some one season wonder, and overthinking it. but it still shocked me a little for a guy who was so ice cool last year.
And yeah, he recovered... some. But I think he was still making too many mistakes. We saw his ability to be a fantastic puck mover return but it wasn't leading to much actual offence. And the fact that he couldn't establish himself as taking second pairing minutes even then disappointed me. And I don't think that's on Pettersson.
I also think if we're talking expectations then Pettersson's puck movement - well, what were we expecting there? He was a fine puck mover his first season but not the next. He settled into a safe defensive role with okay production and meh puck moving last season, which is pretty much what he did this. For me, Pettersson pretty much lived up to expectations there. I think it's actually a bit uncanny just how like last season he was.
But with Marino? I expected problems, but I didn't expect so many. I didn't expect him to be Letang, but I didn't expect him to finish the season as a 3rd pairing dman. Some of that's on Ceci being great, but quite a bit of that's on Marino.
Re Rust - I've no particular argument with anyone giving him an A - just I think there's fair reason to give him less. Me, myself, I honestly can't decide how I'd grade the 1st line.
Finally, on Lafferty... I'm not sure what my expectations were pre-season tbh. But I certainly thought he was in the same group jockeying for NHL time along with Jankowski, Angello, Sceviour, etc.etc. and I think his results were Jankowski bad. Yeah he had some good games but so did Jankowski who opened the season strong, was great on the 5v3 PK vs Boston, had a weird 5 in 4 burst of production before getting HSed... a few good games aren't enough for me. Most of our spare forwards showed they belonged in the NHL and I'm not sure Lafferty did.
a low key reason for Marino’s regression has to come from the change in the defense from last season to this season...a lot more aggressive offensive system now and I don’t think it plays to his current strengths as much as last year did
I agree some sort of slump was to be expected from Marino. I wasn't expecting it to be so brutal that he was arguably the worst dman in the league for a period. And eyetest, at the start of the season, he was making so many bad decisions. I guess that's part of a guy feeling the need to prove he's worth his big new contract, that he's not some one season wonder, and overthinking it. but it still shocked me a little for a guy who was so ice cool last year.
And yeah, he recovered... some. But I think he was still making too many mistakes. We saw his ability to be a fantastic puck mover return but it wasn't leading to much actual offence. And the fact that he couldn't establish himself as taking second pairing minutes even then disappointed me. And I don't think that's on Pettersson.
I also think if we're talking expectations then Pettersson's puck movement - well, what were we expecting there? He was a fine puck mover his first season but not the next. He settled into a safe defensive role with okay production and meh puck moving last season, which is pretty much what he did this. For me, Pettersson pretty much lived up to expectations there. I think it's actually a bit uncanny just how like last season he was.
But with Marino? I expected problems, but I didn't expect so many. I didn't expect him to be Letang, but I didn't expect him to finish the season as a 3rd pairing dman. Some of that's on Ceci being great, but quite a bit of that's on Marino.
Re Rust - I've no particular argument with anyone giving him an A - just I think there's fair reason to give him less. Me, myself, I honestly can't decide how I'd grade the 1st line.
Finally, on Lafferty... I'm not sure what my expectations were pre-season tbh. But I certainly thought he was in the same group jockeying for NHL time along with Jankowski, Angello, Sceviour, etc.etc. and I think his results were Jankowski bad. Yeah he had some good games but so did Jankowski who opened the season strong, was great on the 5v3 PK vs Boston, had a weird 5 in 4 burst of production before getting HSed... a few good games aren't enough for me. Most of our spare forwards showed they belonged in the NHL and I'm not sure Lafferty did.
They’re bringing the D men up to pinch more often this year and getting involved in the play a la Dallas last season...that’s why we’re one of the highest scoring teams from D men...offensive ability and scoring wasn’t Marino’s strength last year and while he’s solid at it, he’s not anywhere near Adam Fox for example at it....it’s going to take him a little more timeHmm. I don't think I'm seeing what you're seeing. What change in the system are you seeing?
They’re bringing the D men up to pinch more often this year and getting involved in the play a la Dallas last season...that’s why we’re one of the highest scoring teams from D men...offensive ability and scoring wasn’t Marino’s strength last year and while he’s solid at it, he’s not anywhere near Adam Fox for example at it....it’s going to take him a little more time
Yep. You can’t say Pettersson was bad this year or really anything but a B or above if you are going off expectations because to start and now he’s stepped up and been a top four LD which I don’t think was ever the expectation for him.
This 100 percent. Sully has talked about it. Our gap is incredible in the neutral as well. 100 percent this. And you can tell it's schematic.They’re bringing the D men up to pinch more often this year and getting involved in the play a la Dallas last season...that’s why we’re one of the highest scoring teams from D men...offensive ability and scoring wasn’t Marino’s strength last year and while he’s solid at it, he’s not anywhere near Adam Fox for example at it....it’s going to take him a little more time
Do share with me your profession again.........
Guilty as charged.
But it's interesting to see who among us views "C" as an average grade for a player that met expectations and did nothing more, and people that put that at, say, a B or so. There's no right or wrong way about it-- it's just differing expectations for what the score actually means.