You're right - I've watched this team for a long, long time. They've had terrible coaches with terribly untalented teams many teams., but this team has enough talent that they shouldn't be this bad. That's a reflection of the coach's strategy and/or his ability to motivate them. The only other explanation is that they have a boatload of really bad contracts that those 70's/80's/early 2000's team didn't really have. They do however have some throwback players - Karlsson is playing like an expensive Ron Stackhouse, Letang is playing like an expensive Mario Faubert, Tristan Jarry is playing like Gordie Laxton, and so on.
I know blokes hate mentioning Disco, but this is where Disco was always better with getting the most out of his line-up and when you look around the league, I mean hell, look at the Islanders in the last game, the players they were without are the equivalent of the Pens being without - Pettersson, Grzelcyk, Crosby, Rust, and a depth D-man like a Shea/St Ivany.
If Sullivan was without those players as long as the Isles have been, he’d have his excuse that he’d milk with Werner behind the scenes to get the heat off of him, but the Islanders even found a way to beat the Pens ass with a push back.
Also Jesus mate, Laxton comparison to Jarry? Lol that’s harsh and Jarry only played 2 games so he’s not an excuse at all after the team passed the 5 game mark and even then he was 1-1 so again his impact negatively or positively is negligible for that reason. But the key indicator is neither goalie after have done well with keeping more than 3+ out of the net, the Penguins have literally done it twice this season and both teams are some of the worst in the league for offense so it isn’t even worth noting as any sort of feat out of 15 games.
Also their record vs shit teams and better teams is comical.
Pens record vs Habs, Ducks, Sabres, and Wings is 23GF 13GA (5-0, 3 regulation wins, 2 OT wins)
Pens record vs Isles, NYR, Canes, Flames, Canucks, Jets, Oilers, Leafs, and Wild is 18GF 39GA (0-7-2)
Score at a 4.6 GP/G against shit teams, allow 2.6 GA/G
Score at a 2.00 GF/G against better teams (incl hobbled Isles) and allow 4.33 GA/G
They still allow the highest high danger chances against, most high danger shots against, luckily the Hawks suck a little more which puts the pens 2nd last for high danger goals against, and they’re tied with the Habs for allowing the most goals against (Habs are worse, with 57 goals against in 14 games to the Pens 15, imagine the Sharks being better than the Pens lol).
It’s comical that he’s survived this long, so many coaches were fired early last season and some mid season - Evason, Woodcroft, Berube, Lambert, Smith, McLellan, and Ruff all during the season.
At the end of the season - Vincent, Hakstol, Quinn, Granato, Keefe, Bowness retired.
Of these teams only a couple missed the playoffs in consecutive seasons prior to them being fired: Sharks, Senators,
Blues missed the year before and Berube had a short leash, he was fired 28 games in, Bannister didn’t make the playoffs the rest of the way. Evason was fired after being bounced in the first round 3 times and they didn’t see improvement.
All of these teams have higher standards than the Penguins, the Penguins have become a team that prioritizes their respect and adoration for a coach’s previous success more than his current failures that have extended into 7 seasons of failures.
Yohe's obsession with Karlsson is almost as weird as his mancrush on Sullivan.
I called it, why am I even shocked at this point.
In the Isles game, Karlsson was pretty f***ing solid given the circumstances, he wasn’t liable for any goals against and the game before that he was insanely active at trying to get shots on net and attempts, yet Yohe found the smallest shit to make a gripe about him.
montrealgazette.com
