Post-Game Talk: #8 - 01/30/21 | penguins @ RANGERS

[LeetchisGod]

This team needs 2 centers badly. Probably have to look at the draft again.

Wasting the first pick of the rebuild on Lias Andersson was a colossal blunder that really hurt the franchise.

 

[bl02]

What happened to the praise Shesty was getting on here last year? It's like he is the forgotten player on this team. This guy is our future and he's beyond good enough to be our future AND present.

 

[EdJovanovski]

You don’t think the virus that adversely affects the lungs and he had it a month ago has anything to do with it?

Ok dude

A lot of players had it with no effect, most young healthy people are asymptomatic, let alone a professional athlete. Zibby said himself that it had no effect on him

 

[DuneGoon84]

The penguins have 2 or 3 speedy forwards to compliment their real slow, yet skilled centers.

 

[bleedblue94]

Haven't seen CK that pissed off in an interview in a long time

 

[DanielBrassard]

Exactly on paper looks amazing but in reality if Panarin can't enter the zone with control the line would be useless. None of them are fast enough to track the puck down in the corner and create offense.

That's what makes someone like Blackwell stand out, he actually can do that. It's an element that is sorely lacked on this team. Pretty crazy when Blackwell and DiGiuseppe are 2 of your better forwards this season.

 

[Anthony5967]

Guess the only question now is how bad will this team wind up being? This isn’t even enjoyable anymore.

 

[PuckLuck3043]

They keep pissing points away and they haven't played any of the 3 best teams in the division. So Fing frustrating.

 

[bl02]

To paraphrase: you can’t play east-west and look for pretty plays all the time. You need to go north-south. That’s how you need to play to win.

That’s not Quinn hockey.

Edit: you can see that CK is frustrated — not just with the results. He just looks like he wants to break free and be allowed to play his game. I think DQ holds him back.

Thanks!!!

 

[duhmetreE]

A lot of players had it with no effect, most young healthy people are asymptomatic, let alone a professional athlete. Zibby said himself that it had no effect on him

people forget this is what Zibs looked like in the play-in.

 

[GeorgeKaplan]

gonna do this all night? He's a good player being asked to babysit guys who used to be NHL players. btw, Staal is stinking it up in Detroit. shocking.

I can do this all night if you want me to. He's a terrible defensive player who barely making any good plays with the puck this year

 

[LokiDog]

With Mika looking like he’s not 100%, stop playing him on the PK so much. Howden, Rooney, Strome, Kreider, Buch, Lemieux can all take PK shifts. Take a little of the load off Mika, save him a few minutes per night and let him focus on getting his offense going.

Also with Sam Bennet requesting a trade we should 100% be exploring picking him up. I still have an outside feeling he could be a 40 point guy with a change of scenery.

 

[Kovalev27]

Anyone who think goergiev can be a stsrt in this league knows zip about goaltending. Hes awful. He’s completely hit or miss and when he misses he’s barely above a high level beer leaguer.

What’s friggen Quinn gonna do when Shesterkin wins Monday? He’s seriously going to go back to this idiot?

Quinn won’t be here next year. Zero doubt in my mind. He may stick thru this season just because it’s basically almost over already. But he’s made so many bad decisions he’s getting nothing out of his franchise kid forwards and he can’t figure out the lines at all. This is terrible coaching

and maybe Mika needs to sit a week or two and work on his body. Build muscle build his lungs back. This is hard to watch.

by the way Howden who I thought looked better has shown nothing since Chytil went down. Doesn’t bode well for him. He doesn’t appear to be the guy

 

[mike14]

Honestly I don’t think it’s on the horizon.

Putting coaching aside for a moment, the truth of the matter is this isn’t a great roster.

Right now we have no quality centers. Zibanejad looks very much like he still has COVID. Chytil is out. Strome is Strome. Howden, for all his improvements, is still a bottom six center.

We have no third pairing on defense. The answer isn’t Smith, or Johnson, or Hajek. And ADA looks lost.

For all their over-achievements, 1/3 of forward group is comprised of AAAA players. Even when they exceed expectations, there’s still a reason they are AAAA players.

Finally, without top notch goaltending, we simply aren’t going to overcome those other factors. At this point, it’s quite obvious that they need to make a decision in goal and let someone try to get into a rhythm. You cannot rotate goalies like this, coming off a past 10 months like we’ve seen, in a shortened season like this.

If you were a betting man, would you say they are going to look to fill the gaps you've mentioned throughout this season, or just wait for the draft and FA to see what they can do?

 

[bl02]

They keep pissing points away and they haven't played any of the 3 best teams in the division. So Fing frustrating.

Yep. Crazy thing is with how crappy the islanders have played the 4th spot is up for grabs. You can't tell me NJD, Buffalo is better than us. Would have said same thing about Pitt but obviously DQ's team is proving me wrong after losing three straight to them

 

[gravey9]

They looked erratic most of the game. But their entire game just fell apart little by little as that game wore on. Pretty frustrating.

- The only truly promising thing for me in this game was that they scored a few hardworking goals finally. There needs to be more Lemieux crash the net type goals.

Kreider, Lemieux and Trouba had the best games. Miller made some nice plays, but he also made a lot questionable plays, esp with the puck in his own zone.

- Everybody got soft as that game went on. Stopped moving their feet. Stopped doing the little things. Stopped making the safe play. Biggest culprits were Zibby, TDA in his own zone and, unfortunately, Kakko.

- TDA/Smith pairing looked god awful. TDA's effort in his own zone isn't great. But also he has no idea how to defend and he's been in the league too long to look that lost in his own zone. B Smith is just the dumbest. Lotta heart. I think he's real good guy. Good team guy. But he makes the dumbest plays, every game.

- Kappo Kakko had one good shift. ONE. In the first period. And that wasn't really mistake free, but at least he was effective. After that, he was 2020 Kakko. Last two games he's been regressing quickly and tonight was just the worst. He stopped moving his feet. He was soft on pucks. Just waiving at everything. He couldn't catch a pass. Couldn't chip the puck out of the zone. Couldn't help the breakout. No one wants this kid to succeed more than me. But I'm really frustrated by his game right now. It's one thing to make mistakes. It's another thing to play that uninspired. Young players are supposed to bring energy if nothing else. I would bench him next game. He's not playing a reliable brand of hockey.

- Zibanejad looked like garbage AGAIN. Had one good game. He lost a ton of faceoffs totally clean. He looks like a winger whose never taken a faceoff in his life. I don't get it. And he's setting a really sh**y tone and example. He's either really suffering through an injury or two or he's dealing with invisible lingering effects of COVID.

This game is infuriating. I was thinking Quinn's job was totally safe this year. But these types of losses are really demoralizing. And if not nipped in the bud soon, the team will just lose confidence in each other and could have a big impact on developing the kids. So, Quinn, the staff, the team -- they need to simplify the game in a way that forces them to play hard and do things like forecheck, crash the net, recover pucks, get rebounds, get more physical in their own zone. Start fighting for each other.

 

[Oscar Lindberg]

A lot of players had it with no effect, most young healthy people are asymptomatic, let alone a professional athlete. Zibby said himself that it had no effect on him

It’s different for everyone. Of course he’s going to say it had no effect so people don’t freak out

Anyone with their eyes open can tell he’s dealing with after effects

 

[NYRangers0723]

I really don’t get that. The way the dude trains, his attitude, his reactions when he scores. I see nothing but a competitor.

Agree. You want to say he can be inconsistent? Fine but that’s the case for most players except for the top elite players. Kreider isn’t elite but that’s ok. He was the 19th overall pick in the draft not the 1st overall pick. Most players drafted at 19 dont amount to much but he has been a top 6 player her for like 8 years and big playoff moments as well. Hell I’d sign up for that with any player picked at 19. But I’ve always said this fans wanted him to be a superstar and anything less was a major disappointment to them which I always felt was pretty unfair

 

[Anthony5967]

2 and 11. And the GM has to open his eyeballs and understand this coach sucks and that he needs players with more fight and will and CENTERS.

 

[Kravtsov420]

We got the caps, isles, and bruins twice this week and next week. Far better teams than the penguins.

somethings got to give if we do how we all think we’re gonna do against them...

 

[will1066]

Can't wrap my head around tonight's own zone coverage. Martin should know how the Pens run their offense?

 

[FIRE DRURY]

I’d like to see Morgan get a few games while Chytil is out.

 

[duhmetreE]

Quinn will blame everyone on the team. Praise the opposing team. Does he take any responsibility as a coach?

 

[Anthony5967]

Anyone who think goergiev can be a stsrt in this league knows zip about goaltending. Hes awful. He’s completely hit or miss and when he misses he’s barely above a high level beer leaguer.

What’s friggen Quinn gonna do when Shesterkin wins Monday? He’s seriously going to go back to this idiot?

Quinn won’t be here next year. Zero doubt in my mind. He may stick thru this season just because it’s basically almost over already. But he’s made so many bad decisions he’s getting nothing out of his franchise kid forwards and he can’t figure out the lines at all. This is terrible coaching

and maybe Mika needs to sit a week or two and work on his body. Build muscle build his lungs back. This is hard to watch.

by the way Howden who I thought looked better has shown nothing since Chytil went down. Doesn’t bode well for him. He doesn’t appear to be the guy

This is it in a nutshell. Saved me an extra post.

 

[bl02]

With Mika looking like he’s not 100%, stop playing him on the PK so much. Howden, Rooney, Strome, Kreider, Buch, Lemieux can all take PK shifts. Take a little of the load off Mika, save him a few minutes per night and let him focus on getting his offense going.

Also with Sam Bennet requesting a trade we should 100% be exploring picking him up. I still have an outside feeling he could be a 40 point guy with a change of scenery.

Absolutely. I would take a look at Bennett. He can play wing and center right?