Post-Game Talk: The Comeback Kids get it done

[ChaosAgent]

I hope ERod isn’t out long-term, love what he brings to that top line. His tenacity and grit are irreplaceable.

It's the return of the "no, wait, you're kidding. He didn't just say what I think he did, did he?"

 

[Speaking Moistly]

I really hope you’re correct but the rapid 180 in form of a premier defensive dman that has all been since return from a major injury is quite scary. Dumo also was incredibly consistent and played such a simple game that idk if he’s the type who needs a ton of warming up. Remember how he used to just lap the rest of the team in their camp skating testing?

I think 87/71 are fine. Jake and Zucker will be fine. But I am worried about Dumo.

Yeah, I’m incredibly leery of that ankle. Ankle injuries have hindered players before even if they don’t have the instant dread of a knee injury. It could be a coincidence and he’ll be fine a couple of weeks from now but it’s a real concern for me. Maybe it’s just that he wasn’t 100% last season and needs to work into shape now so it’s looking bad. Maybe it just isn’t the same and won’t be.

That being said, I don’t think he’s an untouchable paragon of consistency that can’t have a bad stretch so it might be a plain old rough stretch unrelated to anything. He does have those, they’re just not of the “omg trade him! Over the hill!!!” panic variety. I’ll die on the hill that his rookie season was his most consistent. He’s still very consistent, just not incapable of having a rough time all by himself.

The thing I wonder about Dumo, and most of the guys struggling if we're honest, is how much of an impact the lack of a training camp + pre-season is affecting the start of their seasons.

More than they’ll admit in the immediate future but I expect we’ll eventually hear how hard it was. A lot of the games I’ve seen or seen parts of look sloppier than you’d expect. Lots of timing and decision making not being quite right, or precision missing that little bit.

 

[Pens x]

Is Sully too far gone to realize that EFraud doesn’t belong on the top line? Do you think it even occurs to him that the first line clicked after he was injured?

 

[Gurglesons]

Why are people bringing up Dumo’s ankle? His skating isn’t the issue. The dude is straight up making awful decisions with the puck and trying complicated plays.

 

[vodeni]

came back to post this....made a mistake went down the twitter rabbit hole after DK had some rather harsh twitts about Geno's effort, holy shit! How much hate and vicious attacks...you'd think they are talking about someone who killed Mario, someone who for years has been deliberately cheating and sabotaging Penguins...gosh I hate majority of humans in Pittsburgh,

 

[Jaded-Fan]

Rangers already showing that, unlike the Pens, they know how to best utilize JJ.

https://nypost.com/2021/01/24/rangers-bench-jack-johnson-brendan-lemieux-against-penguins/

 

[Gurglesons]

came back to post this....made a mistake went down the twitter rabbit hole after DK had some rather harsh twitts about Geno's effort, holy shit! How much hate and vicious attacks...you'd think they are talking about someone who killed Mario, someone who for years has been deliberately cheating and sabotaging Penguins...gosh I hate majority of humans in Pittsburgh,

It’s much easier for PIT to follow the “he isn’t trying” line then admit their org and coaching staff might be f***ing it up.

Malkin is obviously someone who cares too much and isn’t happy with his game.

@KIRK made a comment that we are no longer the Pittsburgh Crosby’s but that isn’t true. Rust got ripped from Malkin the second Rodrigues left his line.

 

[Tom Hanks]

 

[Dennis Reynolds]

Healthy Rodrigues: 0 goals.
Hurt Rodrigues 3 goals.

He only played half a game, and still had 9 minutes of icetime. Kapanen had 13.5 while playing the whole game.

This is going to get Craig Adams level of awful real fast.

Rodrigues is not an NHL player.

 

[PensandCaps]

Healthy Rodrigues: 0 goals.
Hurt Rodrigues 3 goals.

He only played half a game, and still had 9 minutes of icetime. Kapanen had 13.5 while playing the whole game.

This is going to get Craig Adams level of awful real fast.

Rodrigues is not an NHL player.

Erod is definitely an NHL player..

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Healthy Rodrigues: 0 goals.
Hurt Rodrigues 3 goals.

He only played half a game, and still had 9 minutes of icetime. Kapanen had 13.5 while playing the whole game.

This is going to get Craig Adams level of awful real fast.

Rodrigues is not an NHL player.

Honestly, I'd argue it's getting worse than the Adams situation because at least Adams was relegated to the 4th line, even if he was used in more defensive situations than he should have been.

E-Rod has been stapled to the top line no matter how many plays he kills. It literally took him injuring himself on a delayed offside for Sullivan to make the switch to an actual talented winger in that spot, and look what happened. 2 goals for that line and it generally looked dangerous because the third guy isn't an anchor.

 

[Nathaniel Skywalker]

If Sid and Geno were still at their actual offensive peaks - which I sadly didn't get to see - we'd probably be 6-0-0 and the rest of the league would be on anxiety meds. Crosby's still really good and Malkin was very recently and hopefully gets back there, but they're not quite the same.

Crosby will be top 5 in scoring book it

 

[Kristopher Letang]

Crosby will be top 5 in scoring book it

On the season? I believe that too if he stays healthy.

 

[Nathaniel Skywalker]

On the season? I believe that too if he stays healthy.

I'll say 70 points

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

On the season? I believe that too if he stays healthy.

Depends how long Rodrigues is out.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

On another note, Marino is doing yeoman's work having to carry around Ceci. My God, Ceci can't even make the most basic of plays. I swear he's regressed terribly since his Ottawa days. He was never that good, but he could at least make halfway decent outlet passes. Now, it's like watching a right-handed Jack Johnson.

 

[Gurglesons]

On another note, Marino is doing yeoman's work having to carry around Ceci. My God, Ceci can't even make the most basic of plays. I swear he's regressed terribly since his Ottawa days. He was never that good, but he could at least make halfway decent outlet passes. Now, it's like watching a right-handed Jack Johnson.

He seemed to be "okay" tonight. I mean, with Matheson, Riikola, and Pettersson hurt, I'm going to give him a pass since that is f***ing ridiculous.

But yeah, if this staff makes him a regular after our team gets healthy f*** them to hell.

The big thing I notice about Ceci that differs from Jack Johnson is he can single handily get the puck out of the zone without too much of a flub, he actually uses his size to his advantage, and he can hold a blue line when we have the puck in the o-zone. He is just as awful in from to the net though.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

He seemed to be "okay" tonight. I mean, with Matheson, Riikola, and Pettersson hurt, I'm going to give him a pass since that is f***ing ridiculous.

But yeah, if this staff makes him a regular after our team gets healthy f*** them to hell.

The big thing I notice about Ceci that differs from Jack Johnson is he can single handily get the puck out of the zone without too much of a flub, he actually uses his size to his advantage, and he can hold a blue line when we have the puck in the o-zone. He is just as awful in from to the net though.

I thought he did a poor job either tying up or fronting Blackwell on the 1st goal, and he was kind of swimming around without actually taking anyone on the Strome goal. I also thought he fumbled a lot of easy breakout passes and reversals to Marino.

I think the only areas he's got on Johnson are he's probably got a better ability to keep pucks in at the O-zone blueline and can create a bit more offense than Johnson's blackhole hot potato action, and he's better at lugging the puck up the ice as long as the forecheck isn't too strong.

I kind of wish they either went with POJ next to Marino, or if they were going to play Marino on his off side anyway, Ruhwedel next to Marino so the second pairing could be a decent second pairing.

 

[Gurglesons]

I thought he did a poor job either tying up or fronting Blackwell on the 1st goal, and he was kind of swimming around without actually taking anyone on the Strome goal. I also thought he fumbled a lot of easy breakout passes and reversals to Marino.

I think the only areas he's got on Johnson are he's probably got a better ability to keep pucks in at the O-zone blueline and can create a bit more offense than Johnson's blackhole hot potato action, and he's better at lugging the puck up the ice as long as the forecheck isn't too strong.

I kind of wish they either went with POJ next to Marino, or if they were going to play Marino on his off side anyway, Ruhwedel next to Marino so the second pairing could be a decent second pairing.

They did run a couple shifts with POJ and Marino throughout tonight.

It does not seem like Sullivan is very amused with Ceci which is a good sign. That being said he played 22 minutes tonight.

Question is what the organization does like Matheson if he has more G1 type performances versus G2 type performances.

If Pettersson comes back I'd run POJ - Marino / Pettersson - Ruhwedel as our bottom six in a heart beat.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

They did run a couple shifts with POJ and Marino throughout tonight.

It does not seem like Sullivan is very amused with Ceci which is a good sign. That being said he played 22 minutes tonight.

Question is what the organization does like Matheson if he has more G1 type performances versus G2 type performances.

If Pettersson comes back I'd run POJ - Marino / Pettersson - Ruhwedel as our bottom six in a heart beat.

Ceci got more minutes than Marino. He got over twice as many minutes as Ruhwedel.

I swear this team likes to play bad players way too much for some reason.

 

[66-30-33]

What's up with Lafreniere? 0 points and a -2 in 5 games. If we had won the draft I wonder if he would still be at the same totals?

Probably...would have been on the 4th line with Kapanen and Blueger LOL!!

 

[Peat]

What's up with Lafreniere? 0 points and a -2 in 5 games. If we had won the draft I wonder if he would still be at the same totals?

Probably...would have been on the 4th line with Kapanen and Blueger LOL!!

Sir that's a damn fine scoring line, mind your disrespect

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

POJ already looks better than the ~5 mil per, 6 year deal Matheson.

Almost like we shouldn't have traded Hornqvist - the "rapidly declining" winger with 3 goals and 1 assist in 2 games - for him.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

Shit, I blacked out for a few days and forgot about hockey. E-Rod still with Sid?

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

Shit, I blacked out for a few days and forgot about hockey. E-Rod still with Sid?

Like manna from heaven, he got injured last game and the 1st line scored a goal pretty much the very next shift.

If there is a God, Rodrigues will have developed the Hossa rash and never be heard from again.