Post-Game Talk: DET is better than PIT

[AuroraBorealis]

Rust is a Sullivan mouth piece. f*** anything he says anymore.

This team is coached by a loser and has a loser GM that should have hired a GM to do the job that hes f***ing up, at least a GM that isn't Dubas would fire Sullivan.

I still think Dubas could do a good job with the rebuild, but my first choice was Tulsky, always.
With the way he thinks he'd just make high percentage decisions and leave less room to get burned.
Plus he would take emotions more out of the equation and work on logic. Sullivan would have far less pull on him.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

I still think Dubas could do a good job with the rebuild, but my first choice was Tulsky, always.
With the way he thinks he'd just make high percentage decisions and leave less room to get burned.
Plus he would take emotions more out of the equation and work on logic. Sullivan would have far less pull on him.

The sad part is they had Tulsky lined up and had two interviews, whether he was legit in the running or planned to leave that year before Waddell left the year after remains a mystery but I think he felt jilted.

FSG was openly pining for Dubas and lamented that he wasn't available and kept doing interviews anyway. Then Dubas became available and didn't want the GM job and FSG wasn't happy about that and a month after being hired, he assumed the GM role temporarily.

At that point you wonder, they interviewed multiple gm candidates twice and then the bloke they wanted as gm took the poho role and I feel like FSG convinced him to take the GM job temporarily. That's the only thing that makes any sense.

Because of that they missed out on Tulsky. I mean the next one is who? Darche? I feel like Anaheim is gonna clear house at the end of the season and hire Darche.

But the Pens had Tulsky, Botterill, and Darche as well as Greeley who to me felt more like a Poho candidate instead of gm before Dubas became available. A lot of info is out there it just depends on how much you want to dig into it to piss yourself off.

Dubas as poho - good
Dubas as gm - mediocre at best

 

[Pancakes]

Imagining how the Pens would be with Tulsky or some other gm is like imagining how they'd be without Sullivan: pure fantasy :p.

Jarry on Friday presumably. That should be interesting. I wonder if Blom gets the Saturday game or if they go with Ned.

 

[Coastal Kev]

They are what some feared they would become..............very comfortable, and that includes with losing.

 

[deakka]

As someone said.. why not tank properly? These loser points gonna keep us out of a top 5 pick in the end

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

If they want to go down with the ship so be it. Let them mentor the next gen until they retire. But tear everything down around them and get the rebuild going.

 

[NewAgeOutlaw]

A top 5 pick being coached by Sully might be more embarassing than Barry Melrose's handling of young Steven Stamkos.

 

[deakka]

I think the "activity" in the PGTs lately shows we have given up. We don't even whine anymore

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

Annoyed they got a point tbh. Rust is a dweeb. Geno's basically saying what the organization's been saying; Yeah it sucks and the team's trash, but at least the big three are still together. Yay. Love being a fan of a team held hostage by ownership's inexplicable adoration of a coach and a near 40 year old Sid's desire to play in one final Olympics in 2026.

-edit-

2022-23: 10-7-3, 72 GF, 65 GA
2023-24: 10-10-0, 61 GF, 52 GA
2024-25: 6-9-3, 49 GF, 71 GA thus far

Pressure to do what exactly?

Oh, I know what.

But, it is cute that you and so many believe that it will make a real difference.

The Pens are like a sick patient. They struggle with illness for years. Up and down, but mostly down. And when they pass it is a mixture of sadness and relief for friends and family because the struggle is finally over. We are in that end stage.

Why are you typing like some dork on twitter larping as the Joker.

 

[HandshakeLine]

“None of you seem to understand. I'm not watching crappy hockey in here with you. You're watching crappy hockey in here with *ME*!”

-the Jokeman

Also just realized that Rust is going to be an AC for Sullivan after he retires, lmao.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Imagining how the Pens would be with Tulsky or some other gm is like imagining how they'd be without Sullivan: pure fantasy :p.

Jarry on Friday presumably. That should be interesting. I wonder if Blom gets the Saturday game or if they go with Ned.

If Toronto had fired Shanahan and made Dubas their Hockey Ops and then let him hire whatever the f*** he wanted in Toronto, we would likely be out of this mess. We'd have seen something like Tulsky hired as GM and maybe Greeley hired as PoHo (or Darche).

All we can dream about is one of these blokes not named Dubas, would have fired Sullivan.

“None of you seem to understand. I'm not watching crappy hockey in here with you. You're watching crappy hockey in here with *ME*!”

-the Jokeman

Also just realized that Rust is going to be an AC for Sullivan after he retires, lmao.

Rust is one of those players that would definitely be hired onto Sullivan's staff when he retires, you just know it. He's an epic Sullivan bootlicker.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1856712886023852543

So they assume...

As someone said.. why not tank properly? These loser points gonna keep us out of a top 5 pick in the end

I mean at this point I think they're just letting the year play out and pulling some out of respect shit for Sullivan or they truly believe he is still their guy and will just continue with the plan of rebuild/retool with selling off more pieces the more Sullivan tanks the team but escapes criticism for. Dubas would then have to be the biggest moron in the history of the sport because he's being blamed for a lot of the issues the coach is also causing lol.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

With our luck, Habs will win the lottery and take Hagens, Pens will get #2 and take Martone and Sullivan will turn him into the next Cody Glass.

Yohe:

I’m not impressed with Valtteri Puustinen’s game. With the Penguins’ general lack of depth right now, this is a real opportunity for him to establish himself in the lineup. He’s not doing it.

Puustinen has one goal and two points in nine games this season and has been invisible in many of his outings. This one was no different. Ten shifts, eight minutes, no shots on goal. And he was barely visible. It’s just not good enough.

He's been getting 4th line minutes mostly this season and gets benched during games and still has a higher P/60 than Doc, that goes for a lot of players that are not producing well, they're being used like shit, Puusty is just one of many and 8 f***ing minutes? Lol.

Noel Acciari tanks so many lines and somehow he's never at fault for it, the rest of the wingers are, Puljujarvi and Puustinen will likely be punished because Acciari sucks balls.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Weird how Noel Acciari f***ing blows donkey dongs but somehow keeps getting used f***ing everywhere. What O'Connor has become is tragic and Puljujarvi keeps getting shit on for absolutely no reason.

 

[orby]

Sometimes I wonder about the alternate timeline where Jim Rutherford didn't make the Oskar Sundqvist/Ryan Reaves trade. Seems like that moment was the start of a lot of bad things.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Sometimes I wonder about the alternate timeline where Jim Rutherford didn't make the Oskar Sundqvist/Ryan Reaves trade. Seems like that moment was the start of a lot of bad things.

Then Crosby would be frustrated that the Pens keep having players take runs at them, JR then would end up paying more for another enforcer perhaps, it can go either way really. I think Sid & Co were even more pissed off that they had Reaves, then he was used like shit, then in that year they traded him and gave up more to get Brass, they run into the Caps and Wilson obliterates ZAR and f***s up Oleksiak the next season in December because Wilson was out in the first game that next season, lol. Wilson effectively castrated the Penguins and they've never found their pair since because Sullivan coached any identity this team had, out of their system. Wilson's hit, looking back on it now, was clean. ZAR sees him and straightens up to lift his shoulder to hit Wilson except he forgets Wilson is a freight train.

Sometimes I wonder about the alternate timeline where Kyle Dubas has a pair of balls to fire Sullivan the moment he is hired because by the time he takes over Mike Sullivan has lost in the first round 3x, lost in the qualifying round and won 1 playoff series with a playoff miss already, in those 6 seasons the downward trend was obvious and the team needed a new voice, instead he just became another FSG puppet.

Just as a reminder:

 

[Sike Mullivan]

I just don't understand that. This is a great achievement, why the hell wouldn't she be there? What the hell.

Thought the same thing last night and channeled my inner Rossi/TMZ. On her instagram, there are lots of posts of her and G, then they just stop May 2023. She didnt even have a story posted about his night, not even sharing the Pens posts so maybe they are split? Would explain his down year last year...pure speculation on my part, but actually more interesting than the on ice product.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

Sometimes I wonder about the alternate timeline where Jim Rutherford didn't make the Oskar Sundqvist/Ryan Reaves trade. Seems like that moment was the start of a lot of bad things.

That trade really does feel like the turning point that resulted in like a decade of rudderless incompetence. Not that Sundqvist is anything special, but Reaves is hot dogshit and does nothing to deter or counter the dirty stuff.

Hell, this team had rosters with Godard, Engelland, Rupp and Asham and the two big guns still got their shit kicked in every shift of every night.

Instigator completely nullifies players policing the game, which is a shame cuz the DOPS does nothing to protect guys either.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

I still don't think that trade was the problem. The problem was how Reaves was used and the beefing with Ian Cole and the pining for Brassard, the way Reaves was used and how the Cole trade went down hurt the team far more.

They gave up a solid top 6 defenseman, a 1st, and a very good goalie prospect to get Brassard and get rid of Cole and Reaves because Sullivan wanted to be a petulant child about using both of them and didn't think Sheahan was enough, then he shit all over Brassard's usage and made that look far worse. They gave up a 1st, 3rd, Gustavsson, Cole, and Reaves and got back the shittier Vince Dunn, a 3rd and Brass.

Then they dealt a 2nd and 4th round pick in 2019 for Bjugstad and McCann, two players Sullivan couldn't decide if they should be W/C and used them like shit.

Bjugstad had to be moved with salary retained for a conditional pick.
McCann who Sullivan couldn't decide if he was a RW/LW/C and ghosted in the playoffs, was traded for a 7th rounder and Hallander.

1st in 2018 - K'Andre Miller
3rd - Justus Annunen - Goalie (Cole/Brass trade - Ironically, the Pens got the second 2nd rounder to take Filip Hallander)
3rd - Jesper Eliasson - Goalie (Sheahan trade)
2nd in 2019 - Turned into Vladislav Kolyachonok - D for Utah.
4th in 2019 - Eric Hjorth, who?


The Reaves deal ended up being Reaves + Lauzon for Sundqvist and Kostin (the players taken with the picks).

 

[canadianguy77]

That trade really does feel like the turning point that resulted in like a decade of rudderless incompetence. Not that Sundqvist is anything special, but Reaves is hot dogshit and does nothing to deter or counter the dirty stuff.

Hell, this team had rosters with Godard, Engelland, Rupp and Asham and the two big guns still got their shit kicked in every shift of every night.

Instigator completely nullifies players policing the game, which is a shame cuz the DOPS does nothing to protect guys either.

Seemed like no one was really allowed to do their job enforcing since that Islanders game when DB was still the coach. A lot of pre-planned fights but not much in the way of pure emotional fights or retaliatory fights for questionable hits on our stars. Our stars our usually the ones who have to do the fighting if it ever gets that far.

 

[BusinessGoose]

The reaves trade wasn't bad
He could have had a role on the team

But that trade and the reversing of it made it clear that Sullivan was actually in charge

 

[Andy99]

The reaves trade wasn't bad
He could have had a role on the team

But that trade and the reversing of it made it clear that Sullivan was actually in charge

And 6 years of failure later, he still is…lol

 

[Tender Rip]

WHATTHEf***ARETHEYWAITINGFOR!!!!!
Idiots! Nincompoops and neerdowell’s!

Get him out! It is 5 years too late and it won’t save the season, but just show some measure of understanding that you f***ED UP!!!!

If we are a rebuilding team do you want a coach with only one claim for any young player they helped make great over 9 years!? With that player - Guentzel - being very good from G1?

Come on! Wankers! Incontinent beancounters! Ignorant twits!

Show some f***ing stones!

 

[Empoleon8771]

I was actually having that thought about JR a couple of days ago. For as many picks and prospects as he traded, the Penguins never really had an issue with having young players in the lineup. JR was really good at acquiring youth via trades (McCann, Marino, Pettersson, Kapanen and such) and UDFAs (Sheary, ZAR, O'Connor and DeSmith). He had shown a consistent ability to get those kind of guys and that has just completely stopped since he left.

Them not having any prospects or young guys coming up through the minors is definitely JR's fault, but I do wonder if JR would have been able to continue adding youth like he had been doing for his entire time with the Penguins. Not that things would be perfect, but I think this team would be in a much better spot with JR as the GM and continuing to add these McCann/Marino/Pettersson types via trade.

 

[Khelandros]