GDT: #6| Canes vs. Pens | Fri. Oct. 18 7:00 PM EST |PPG| NHLN, SN-PIT, BSSO | Mario Bobble head on my B-day ....And Justice For All

[Sideline]

I have to roll my eyes a LITTLE that some of the commentary in the wake of 500 and his hot start is "Sullivan fixed him." The Yohe article was especially egregious. But I mean... the point that Malkin needs to change his game with age is a valid one so I'm not gonna bellyache too much. It's just kinda funny.

Agreed. There are plenty of cases where Sullivan is right to what different styles, but just as many completely insane decisions.

 

[Tender Rip]

Interesting game. We won three against suspected bad teams. Lost twice against suspected good teams.
Canes belong in the second category, but have played so little we don’t know where they are at really.

Let’s see, and LGP.

 

[Turin]

Feels like pens haven’t beat Carolina in over 3 years

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Agreed. There are plenty of cases where Sullivan is right to what different styles, but just as many completely insane decisions.

Hey if it helps him get to a PPG at 38 years old... credit where it's due.

But I don't think they had to drag Malkin to this decision. Sounds like he wanted to make a change and put the work in.

Here is another article from yesterday that sorta goes over many of the same points from the above video. Just not as well.

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www.nytimes.com

Interestingly it sounds like there WAS a blowup last year between Sullivan and Malkin. The January third period collapse against Vegas.

 

[eXile3]

Feels like pens haven’t beat Carolina in over 3 years

3-8 according to chatGBT. Well 3-4-4.

 

[McGroarty2]

Any updates on Lizotte?

 

[Invalid cuz QoC]

Any updates on Lizotte?

He’s a our new Nieto, we’ll get an update in 6 months.

 

[Fiji Water]

Good breakdown, but I do think Malkin is skating better than he has in a while. I think that combined with having competent linemates are the main contributors to his rejuvenation.

 

[Khelandros]

 

[Sideline]

Credit where credit is due: Sullivan doesn't play favorites with the goalies. He's been good about give the majority of the starts to the guy playing the best hockey.

 

[Randy Butternubs]

I wanted to post this in the PGT but that is rightfully closed. So I'm posting it here:

I recently changed to Firefox instead of Chrome and now Tweets don't load. Anyone know how to fix it?

 

[Old Gregg]

Hoping for multi point games from Sid and Geno tonight

 

[Arkadiusz]

Jordan and Jake -versus- Geno and Sid

Why the Canes only played two games so far?
NJ with seven games played.

Hurricane postponed one against Tampa last week...

 

[Jag68Sid87]

Malkin's demise was significantly overblown imo. For one thing, he played with a lot of crap last season before the Guentzel trade and ended up with 67 points (which is a pretty good season for a ton of second-line players, just not a legend like Geno).

I also think he has played safer in recent seasons and it has resulted in him playing every game, which is a good thing. But that safety comes with fewer points, too. Finally, Michael Bunting is the linemate he has needed for quite some time now. Bunting never hesitates to dish the puck to Malkin. He digs for pucks, becomes a nuisance in front of the net and gets opponents off their game...all of which helps Malkin do Malkin things.

Tonight is an interesting game. We have not won much against Carolina lately, but to my knowledge the games are often very close. The 'Canes are a tough team to beat in one-goal games. They know how to win those close ones.

Blomqvist definitely gives us a puncher's chance tonight. Plus, Carolina is so disciplined that maybe they might be a bit easier to handle defensively than teams like Buffalo, Montreal and Detroit, who like to run and gun. That means fewer goals against tonight potentially, but also a much much harder time to score goals too. The yin and the yang.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

The REAL frustrating thing about losing to Carolina as much as the Penguins have the last few years is how overrated they are.

Like... great... you guys are terrific at getting in the way. Wowee.

 

[KrisLetAngry]

Jordy Staal will be a good for a goal against, no doubt.

He also shadows Malkins line and makes him not play well.

Hopefully Malkin can avoid that while he's hot off a 500th goal.

 

[pistolpete11]

Malkin's demise was significantly overblown imo. For one thing, he played with a lot of crap last season before the Guentzel trade and ended up with 67 points (which is a pretty good season for a ton of second-line players, just not a legend like Geno).

I also think he has played safer in recent seasons and it has resulted in him playing every game, which is a good thing. But that safety comes with fewer points, too. Finally, Michael Bunting is the linemate he has needed for quite some time now. Bunting never hesitates to dish the puck to Malkin. He digs for pucks, becomes a nuisance in front of the net and gets opponents off their game...all of which helps Malkin do Malkin things.

It's also a function of the PP being awful.

Over 82 games, Malkin averages 36 PPP. Last year he had 18. If he hit his career average, he's over a point per game.

And before anyone says that he's older now so that's too much to expect from him, he hit his career average on the nose the year before last.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

It's also a function of the PP being awful.

Over 82 games, Malkin averages 36 PPP. Last year he had 18. If he hit his career average, he's over a point per game.

And before anyone says that he's older now so that's too much to expect from him, he hit his career average on the nose the year before last.

Yeah and again just to reiterate because of how idiotic it is and how much I had to sit here and listen about the wisdom of "split units" for years and all it's magical benefits -- Malkin didn't even really get a CHANCE to make hay on the poweplay for like what... 1/3 of the season? They had him on PP2

Looked great. Really fixed things.

 

[AuroraBorealis]

3-8 according to chatGBT. Well 3-4-4.

So 10 out of 22 points. I guess that's about right. They're a much better team. Asking for much more is unrealistic.

 

[AuroraBorealis]

The REAL frustrating thing about losing to Carolina as much as the Penguins have the last few years is how overrated they are.

Like... great... you guys are terrific at getting in the way. Wowee.

Overrated maybe, but still way better than us. They won a few rounds in recent years.

3-4-4 the last 3 years in the H2H is acceptable based on our rosters.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Happy birthday @Ugene Magic

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Overrated maybe, but still way better than us. They won a few rounds in recent years.

3-4-4 the last 3 years in the H2H is acceptable based on our rosters.

Well yeah. That goes without saying. This team is at or very near the end of things.

But at least they got theirs. Carolina mostly deals in hype regular seasons and shitting their extremely boring pants when it matters.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

The REAL frustrating thing about losing to Carolina as much as the Penguins have the last few years is how overrated they are.

Like... great... you guys are terrific at getting in the way. Wowee.

Carolina plays like Sullivan thinks the Pens play.

Which is they're just a non-flawed version of our boring brand of hockey.

In any case, tonight will be interesting to see how our offense does. Would be nice if we can put up numbers against a team that's good defensively and not just pile up goals against shitty teams projected to miss the playoffs.

 

[AuroraBorealis]

Not that scoring is a problem right now, but Puus to L1 please.

 

[cookthebooks]

maybe instead of playing both teams sit down at center ice together and have a good cry over missing jake