GDT: Beginning of Spring Edition | CBJ @ Pens | 7 PM EST

[CBJWerenski8]

No
I AM a DOG with sunglasses on!

Well, I changed from that avatar out of respect for Johnny and wasn’t planning on changing it anytime soon. But yeah, I’m glad you enjoyed the Baghead avatar. It will return one day

 

[Fred Glover]

Well, I changed from that avatar out of respect for Johnny and wasn’t planning on changing it anytime soon. But yeah, I’m glad you enjoyed the Baghead avatar. It will return one day

LOL

You never disappoint

 

[CBJWerenski8]

LOL

You never disappoint

Thanks fam, gotchu.

 

[KJ Dangler]

I was just addressing the pipeline question. I agree this team needs less rookies and more experience.

Obligatory progression isn’t always linear post. I could see marchenko continuing to improve, but I’m not seeing much out of KJ, Sillinger, or even Voronkov recently to inspire much confidence. Chinakhov is way too injury prone.

Mateychuk is going to have a lot of growing pains. He’s already starting to get some hard lessons recently. He’s probably going to be our 2LD.

So basically you’re overlooking what true Centers mean to a team. You basically have Fantilli right now .. they are missing Monahan and Sillinger . All the lines are jumbled , play driving has fallen off a cliff . Voronkov , Monahan Marchenko was top line in NHL.. Marchenko Fantili and Voronkov was like 17th .. You take core pieces away from a team , you can only overcome that for so long .

Also , I don’t see us coming back next year with Elvis in goal . Also , see us upgrading the defense with a couple pieces including a shut down defender ..

 

[NotWendell]

Next year is squarely on the shoulders of Waddell to improve the team through trades this summer.

 

[Cowumbus]

Long story short I’m just not fond of talking about “next year”

 

[CBJWerenski8]

So basically you’re overlooking what true Centers mean to a team. You basically have Fantilli right now .. they are missing Monahan and Sillinger . All the lines are jumbled , play driving has fallen off a cliff . Voronkov , Monahan Marchenko was top line in NHL.. Marchenko Fantili and Voronkov was like 17th .. You take core pieces away from a team , you can only overcome that for so long .

Losing Monahan was big. I agree with that.

Losing Sillinger lost a reliable NHL player but he wasn’t exactly irreplaceable. He’s way better than absolute plugs like Kunin and Fischer (as well as bottom line NHL guys like ZAR, Kuraly, etc) but I don’t watch them play right now and think “this team needs Cole Sillinger back.”

The problem with Fantilli is yes, he did well on line 1 with Voronkov and marchenko. But like you said, Monahan had that as the best line in the league. Was Fantilli a product of the line? Because prior to the injury to Monahan, Fantilli was largely a guy we were seeing as someone who needed to get going. Is he capable of being good away from marchenko? We haven’t seen that this year.

 

[Fred Glover]

Thanks fam, gotchu.

All the best to you!

 

[KJ Dangler]

Losing Monahan was big. I agree with that.

Losing Sillinger lost a reliable NHL player but he wasn’t exactly irreplaceable. He’s way better than absolute plugs like Kunin and Fischer (as well as bottom line NHL guys like ZAR, Kuraly, etc) but I don’t watch them play right now and think “this team needs Cole Sillinger back.”

The problem with Fantilli is yes, he did well on line 1 with Voronkov and marchenko. But like you said, Monahan had that as the best line in the league. Was Fantilli a product of the line? Because prior to the injury to Monahan, Fantilli was largely a guy we were seeing as someone who needed to get going. Is he capable of being good away from marchenko? We haven’t seen that this year.

You have 2 of your top 3 centers out for a long period of time ? If you remember we rode Luca DelBel for a bit , during this stretch . The downgrade in speed from Sillinger to Boone is big

 

[majormajor]

I was just addressing the pipeline question. I agree this team needs less rookies and more experience.

Obligatory progression isn’t always linear post.

Not always linear, no certainty, but that's just hockey and how it always goes. There is no point in waiting for certainty because it doesn't happen in this sport. So we deal with averages and "expected outcomes".

And based on the age distribution of our talent, we should expect improvement (for the readers out there, I repeat that this does not mean certainty of improvement).

The bigger uncertainty for me is actually what we do this summer with our defense, but that's a whole other conversation.

I could see marchenko continuing to improve, but I’m not seeing much out of KJ, Sillinger, or even Voronkov recently to inspire much confidence. Chinakhov is way too injury prone.

KJ especially I think is going to take a huge step over the summer. He sort of did last summer and just needs to learn how to sustain that. Fantilli was thrown off by the calf injury - it was a big set back. I think a full summer and he'll be popping in the Fall. And even more importantly he's just starting to learn from guys like Monahan and it's already helping him a lot.

Mateychuk is going to have a lot of growing pains. He’s already starting to get some hard lessons recently. He’s probably going to be our 2LD.

He's currently our 2LD, right now. And not quite ready for it. But it's hard to find a prospect with a better record of figuring out how to improve on his weaknesses. Personally I'd like to see him in a 3LD role next year but if he's 2LD he might surprise you and be a solid fit for that role next year.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

You have 2 of your top 3 centers out for a long period of time ? If you remember we rode Luca DelBel for a bit , during this stretch . The downgrade in speed from Sillinger to Boone is big

Sillinger went out as boone was coming back, jenner is a better player than silly (and also faster), so yeah I don’t think losing Sillinger was that big of a deal.

I don’t think Jenner has been great either mind you but I don’t think Sillinger was doing much at the time of his injury. Again, I don’t watch them and think Sillinger would make a difference.

LDBB had a nice series of games but he was really fading around the time we sent him back.

 

[NotWendell]

Sillinger went out as boone was coming back, jenner is a better player than silly (and also faster), so yeah I don’t think losing Sillinger was that big of a deal.

I don’t think Jenner has been great either mind you but I don’t think Sillinger was doing much at the time of his injury. Again, I don’t watch them and think Sillinger would make a difference.

LDBB had a nice series of games but he was really fading around the time we sent him back.

Well, since we're going there, the same could be said about Mateychuk - except he won't be sent anywhere until after our season is done.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

Well, since we're going there, the same could be said about Mateychuk - except he won't be sent anywhere until after our season is done.

Yes he’s been very poor since the outdoor game. Along with the entire team honestly.

 

[KJ Dangler]

Sillinger went out as boone was coming back, jenner is a better player than silly (and also faster), so yeah I don’t think losing Sillinger was that big of a deal.

I don’t think Jenner has been great either mind you but I don’t think Sillinger was doing much at the time of his injury. Again, I don’t watch them and think Sillinger would make a difference.

LDBB had a nice series of games but he was really fading around the time we sent him back.

Boone was actually productive in the first few games on Sillingers wing .. Sillinger vastly improved is skating and is much quicker than Boone .. It makes a dramatic difference in your lineup having Monahan only play 41 games .. Losing Chinakov who was on verge of blowing up only to lose him for half the season , you had Boone out 80% of season, and of course no Johnny . You think teams can sustain that with little fall off ? Having players where they should be slotted makes a huge difference in your lineup . The team seems worn down since the 4 nations , honestly not surprising with everything they had to endure , plus the injuries .. People forget Marchenko is trying to play thru a broken jaw ..

 

[CBJWerenski8]

Boone was actually productive in the first few games on Sillingers wing .. Sillinger vastly improved is skating and is much quicker than Boone .. It makes a dramatic difference in your lineup having Monahan only play 41 games .. Losing Chinakov who was on verge of blowing up only to lose him for half the season , you had Boone out 80% of season, and of course no Johnny . You think teams can sustain that with little fall off ? Having players where they should be slotted makes a huge difference in your lineup . The team seems worn down since the 4 nations , honestly not surprising with everything they had to endure , plus the injuries .. People forget Marchenko is trying to play thru a broken jaw ..

I really don’t think Sillinger is quicker than Boone either. Silly had made strides in his skating but I wouldn’t say he’s a fast skater.

The second the teams started locking down and playing defense we stopped scoring. Our defensive play and goaltending have been shaky all year but we’ve been able to outscore it. Now we can’t score, and we can’t keep it out of the net. I don’t think Sillinger solves either problem. And I don’t think Monahan is a saving grace either. They both help, sure, but I don’t think this streak is much better with them either. Maybe a little bit but not much

 

[CBJWerenski8]

 

[majormajor]

Boone was actually productive in the first few games on Sillingers wing .. Sillinger vastly improved is skating and is much quicker than Boone .. It makes a dramatic difference in your lineup having Monahan only play 41 games .. Losing Chinakov who was on verge of blowing up only to lose him for half the season , you had Boone out 80% of season, and of course no Johnny . You think teams can sustain that with little fall off ? Having players where they should be slotted makes a huge difference in your lineup . The team seems worn down since the 4 nations , honestly not surprising with everything they had to endure , plus the injuries .. People forget Marchenko is trying to play thru a broken jaw ..

We're certainly substantially better if we have a healthy lineup.

Sillinger is much quicker than he used to be, but not much quicker than anyone else, if that makes sense. No I don't think Jenner is missing Sillinger. 5 of Jenner's points came at center in the two Detroit games, just after Sillinger was injured. I wouldn't recommend doing a lot of "player x was better with Sillinger" because almost everyone has scored at a higher rate when Sillinger is on the bench and not on the ice.

 

[majormajor]

I missed the game. This week was insane and I forgot we were playing.

Here's the goals against analysis:

1st goal - pinball goal, not going to blame a guy, though Fabbro and Werenski could have played their guys tighter.

2nd goal - Lizotte beat Mateychuk off the wall and drove the net uncontested.

3rd goal - Weak failed clear by Provorov and he didn't get much help on what turned into a 3v2 in our zone.

4th goal - Coverage was tight, it was just a perfectly executed pass and shot.

5th goal - Failed pass by JJ - he didn't seem to be looking where he was passing there.

Honestly not that bad. The Pens didn't have that many good chances from either the highlight reel or the xG. The Jackets had a bonanza of chances. A lot of dirty work chances, some that they scored on.

 

[majormajor]

I really don’t think Sillinger is quicker than Boone either. Silly had made strides in his skating but I wouldn’t say he’s a fast skater.

The second the teams started locking down and playing defense we stopped scoring. Our defensive play and goaltending have been shaky all year but we’ve been able to outscore it. Now we can’t score, and we can’t keep it out of the net. I don’t think Sillinger solves either problem. And I don’t think Monahan is a saving grace either. They both help, sure, but I don’t think this streak is much better with them either. Maybe a little bit but not much

I think Monahan makes a huge difference. We've got a lot of guys that sometimes play the right way but don't know how to play the right way, in other words when things are going good they feel good but when opponents get in their way they lose confidence in what they're doing. Monahan just does the right thing over and over again. It doesn't always work but he knows exactly what he is supposed to do. And we need that.

I agree that teams locking down is a big part of the issue, but also the quality of the opposing teams has been an issue. Florida, Tampa, Vegas, it's easy for our kids to lose confidence playing against that. They always have someone in their way and what they've been doing isn't working. That's where a Monahan type of veteran scorer is really helpful.

 

[Theo Von]

we are 5-11-1 since February 1st.

that’s 11 points out of a possible 34.

disgusting.

we overachieved.
it’s finally starting to even out.

onto next season… sigh.

 

[Jovavic]

Lindstrom ? Ivanov ?

At least three years away on both, probably never in Lindstroms case, such an insanely stupid pick.

 

[KJ Dangler]

I think Monahan makes a huge difference. We've got a lot of guys that sometimes play the right way but don't know how to play the right way, in other words when things are going good they feel good but when opponents get in their way they lose confidence in what they're doing. Monahan just does the right thing over and over again. It doesn't always work but he knows exactly what he is supposed to do. And we need that.

I agree that teams locking down is a big part of the issue, but also the quality of the opposing teams has been an issue. Florida, Tampa, Vegas, it's easy for our kids to lose confidence playing against that. They always have someone in their way and what they've been doing isn't working. That's where a Monahan type of veteran scorer is really helpful.

Honestly , listening to KJ, Fantilli interviews , I get the sense Monahan is the leader in our room that they look up to, and he actively coaches them , similar to what JVR does … Personally , I wonder if Dean/ Don will want to put their stamp on who the leadership is going forward .. You can have young people step up, which Fantilli certainly has , but then you also look at Chinakov came out of lineup for long period , Sillinger has been out a good chunk .. Boone missed 85% of season , Gudbranson hasn’t suited up .. You can overcome only so much . Eventually cracks start to show , team is probably exhausted mentally and physically . I think it’s clear that with just middle of the league goaltending , we are sitting in a playoff spot right now . So when looking to next year , you have to upgrade in goal…I don’t see how you bring back Provorov and Severson both .. Personally I think Severson is better , I know he’s a whipping boy around here , but he’s versatile, and plays better defense than Provorov . Replace Provorov with Ekblad .. and I would trade a forward for a younger shutdown type D ..