Speculation: Penguins off day talk thread: Yes, Sully is still the coach

[Gurglesons]

Sorry you aren't intelligent to grasp it

Try making sense if you are going to put on your glasses and say your smart.

"Sorry you are not intelligent to grasp it".

 

[Grouch]

Try making sense if you are going to put on your glasses and say your smart.

"Sorry you are not intelligent to grasp it".

you’re

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Imagine if they made Sidney Crosby change his game because he was stuck with inept wingers and had to do so much himself that he was burned out and struggling.

To have Malkin now not sure how he needs to play, bravo. Sullivan literally ruined Malkin, he was ruining other new players and prospects but now a Penguins legend is who he's put into a crisis of faith in his own abilities.

Bravo. Master class by a truly despicable of a human being.

 

[Andy99]

 

[Al Smith]

He had to re-watch games to figure that out?

 

[ChaosAgent]

Yes, the Penguins play very unskilled hockey.

Skill is possession. If you do not believe in possessing the puck, you are either unskilled or cowardly.
The Penguins chip-forward-fest is coward hockey.

 

[Andy99]

Yes, the Penguins play very unskilled hockey.

Skill is possession. If you do not believe in possessing the puck, you are either unskilled or cowardly.
The Penguins chip-forward-fest is coward hockey.

it‘s old player hockey….we know we can’t keep up with the young guys skating around with the puck, so we’ll chip it…that’s why they use the boards so much lol…

mixed results in the Metro tonight but Isles and Devils immediately ahead of Pens picked up 1-2 points, and Caps lost, but whatever…the Pens suck…

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Yes, the Penguins play very unskilled hockey.

Skill is possession. If you do not believe in possessing the puck, you are either unskilled or cowardly.
The Penguins chip-forward-fest is coward hockey.

It makes it all the more insulting when the team/staff/management talk about how the Pittsburgh Penguins identity is to play "fast, skilled up-tempo hockey." Meanwhile they're pushing the puck up and down the walls even when the opposing team is closing that off, chipping it in when they DO manage to make it past the red line (only to not win the ensuing puck battle because nobody made it there), trying to play a low-to-high point shot game with nobody going to the net and without defensemen who can shoot and forfeiting entire swaths of all three zones unopposed when the other team challenges them.

Coward hockey, indeed. Like a team playing without any ideas so they have just decided to attempt to remove any and all risk and are left with... whatever this garbage is.

 

[ChaosAgent]

it‘s old player hockey….we know we can’t keep up with the young guys skating around with the puck, so we’ll chip it…that’s why they use the boards so much lol…

mixed results in the Metro tonight but Isles and Devils immediately ahead of Pens picked up 1-2 points, and Caps lost, but whatever…the Pens suck…

I don't think the core, EK, or Guentzel-Rust are doing this. Smith is also trying to carry the puck, for as hated as he is here. POJ carries the puck sometimes.
But Rakell, the non-EK/58 defensemen and the entirety of L3-L4 just play chip/wall toddler hockey.

It makes it all the more insulting when the team/staff/management talk about how the Pittsburgh Penguins identity is to play "fast, skilled up-tempo hockey." Meanwhile they're pushing the puck up and down the walls even when the opposing team is closing that off, chipping it in when they DO manage to make it past the red line (only to not win the ensuing puck battle because nobody made it there), trying to play a low-to-high point shot game with nobody going to the net and without defensemen who can shoot and forfeiting entire swaths of all three zones unopposed when the other team challenges them.

Coward hockey, indeed. Like a team playing without any ideas so they have just decided to attempt to remove any and all risk and are left with... whatever this garbage is.

You and I agree 10000% on this.
This is why those stats about clean zone exits and entries at 5-on-5 aren't surprising. It's very easy to see we're on the struggle bus all the time. And mostly because the players are pathetically north-south.

I hear folks talk about this as an "East West hockey team" and I think they're from outer space or something.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

You and I agree 10000% on this.
This is why those stats about clean zone exits and entries at 5-on-5 aren't surprising. It's very easy to see we're on the struggle bus all the time. And mostly because the players are pathetically north-south.

I hear folks talk about this as an "East West hockey team" and I think they're from outer space or something.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that gets driven to the brink of insanity by this.

"tHiS tEaM pLaYs ToO mUcH E/w hOcKeY!1!"

THIS team? They avoid the entirety of the middle of the ice like the bubonic plague has permanently taken up residence there. I think people only say that because it's such a crusty old armchair coach thing to say. "Robble robble you can't play east/west hockey you turn the puck over too much robble robble! Good ol Canadian boys punch the puck up and down the wall all game and if they turn the puck over once blow their brains out in the locker room!"

 

[Gurglesons]

you’re

Never said I was smart.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

I mean... I guess none of this should be surprising. Not even just this team but the sport in general.

We're talking about a league full of coaches that look at a term like "low-event hockey player" and say "YES. PERFECT. MORE OF ALL OF THAT PLEASE." Shit man a ton of the fans have even convinced themselves it's great.

 

[ChaosAgent]

I'm glad I'm not the only one that gets driven to the brink of insanity by this.

"tHiS tEaM pLaYs ToO mUcH E/w hOcKeY!1!"

THIS team? They avoid the entirety of the middle of the ice like the bubonic plague has permanently taken up residence there. I think people only say that because it's such a crusty old armchair coach thing to say. "Robble robble you can't play east/west hockey you turn the puck over too much robble robble! Good ol Canadian boys punch the puck up and down the wall all game and if they turn the puck over once blow their brains out in the locker room!"

When I watch our opponents, someone gets the puck along the wall just shy of their blue line. Then they make a diagonal stretch pass across the middle of the ice which finds someone roughly at the red line. This leads to a lot of 2-on-2 or 3-on-3 entries with actual controlled possession.

It's possible that the Penguins are just a really easy team to break out against if you get past the first 2 forecheckers. But I think our guys are coached to just chip the puck as quickly as possible forwards. No one is even looking for a controlled diagonal pass through the zone.

Sully's system is so stale, man.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

When I watch our opponents, someone gets the puck along the wall just shy of their blue line. Then they make a diagonal stretch pass across the middle of the ice which finds someone roughly at the red line. This leads to a lot of 2-on-2 or 3-on-3 entries with actual controlled possession.

It's possible that the Penguins are just a really easy team to break out against if you get past the first 2 forecheckers. But I think our guys are coached to just chip the puck as quickly as possible forwards. No one is even looking for a controlled diagonal pass through the zone.

Sully's system is so stale, man.

Exactly. It's automaton shit. There is very little personal agency on this team it seems like.

It's like the asinine drop pass on the powerplay for all those years. I get that that's a standard thing that every NHL team pulls out of it's bag of tricks, sure. But they don't do it every single time practically on cue even when the other team is giving you lanes you could skate a dump truck through. It's baffling to watch sometimes and obviously not limited to just the powerplay/drop pass.

Everyone thinks the team is tuning the coach out or not executing. This is possible. But I lean more towards them being so insanely scripted that when the other team inevitably sniffs them out they just grip their sticks even harder and keep trying. Seems like there are SO many set plays with this team. I dunno... maybe I'm seeing stuff that's not there.

Anyway. Tangent. Point being, these guys are super boring and predictable on top of being losers. At least make the disappointment entertaining.

 

[ChaosAgent]

Anyway. Tangent. Point being, these guys are super boring and predictable on top of being losers. At least make the disappointment entertaining.

Yeah, my view on Sully is that coaches are hired to be fired, and the Penguins play cowardly/boring/unskilled hockey seemingly by design.

I think the psychology of this team is also broken and they need to do something dramatic to shake it up. When you hear them talk it's like "if we just did 1-2 things crisper we'd be right back to 2018," and that is delusional stuff.

It's like temporarily displaced millionaires/champions. I kind of want the org to do something at some point to acknowledge it has assembled a middling team and stale staff. Instead of trying to gaslight me into believing that this is an inner circle contender that's just had some misfortune befall them. Tired of having our intelligence insulted. The fans aren't buying it; they are tuning out.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Yeah, my view on Sully is that coaches are hired to be fired, and the Penguins play cowardly/boring/unskilled hockey seemingly by design.

I think the psychology of this team is also broken and they need to do something dramatic to shake it up. When you hear them talk it's like "if we just did 1-2 things crisper we'd be right back to 2018," and that is delusional stuff.

It's like temporarily displaced millionaires/champions. I kind of want the org to do something at some point to acknowledge it has assembled a middling team and stale staff. Instead of trying to gaslight me into believing that this is an inner circle contender that's just had some misfortune befall them. Tired of having our intelligence insulted. The fans aren't buying it; they are tuning out.

Can you imagine Lemieux circa 1996 saying "we were just a few bounces away" or "I like how our power play is doing and the puck just didn't go in" when asked about the 29th ranked powerplay in the league? Just mindboggling from me. Sid especially should know better.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Hence why Sullivan is a much worse coach than Bylsma ever was.

I often wonder what would have happened if we hadn't run into that Canadians squad. Would Bylsma with a B2B get as much rope as Sullivan? Would he have had more "success"? I think it's a fairer question than people want to answer, partially because people deluded themselves into thinking that Sullivan was the real reason behind the B2B.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

Could you imagine if the Pens fired Sullivan and replaced him with another doofus like Johnston, though? Man, they might miss the playoffs or play boring hockey night in and night out.

Also, trade Jake you f***ing cowards.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Could you imagine if the Pens fired Sullivan and replaced him with another doofus like Johnston, though? Man, they might miss the playoffs or play boring hockey night in and night out.

Also, trade Jake you f***ing cowards.

I am still loling over the fact that this team's power play is less effective than the worst Pens teams in living record (and perhaps all-time).

 

[Sideline]

I am still loling over the fact that this team's power play is less effective than the worst Pens teams in living record (and perhaps all-time).

That's what kills me the most. I can be convinced Geno is old and no longer able to brute force elite results, but the power play still has enough talent to be mediocre.

Minnesota and Montreal are 6 or 7 percentage points better than the Penguins. Being as good as the Montreal Canadiens on the powerplay would net this team 10-12 more goals so far. That's going to be good for 10 points in the standings which puts the Penguins in a playoff spot.

If we had a coach that managed to get Erik Karlsson, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jake Guentzel, and who f***ing cares look at those 4 names into a top 5 power play this team is competing for a division title.

 

[HandshakeLine]

That's what kills me the most. I can be convinced Geno is old and no longer able to brute force elite results, but the power play still has enough talent to be mediocre.

Minnesota and Montreal are 6 or 7 percentage points better than the Penguins. Being as good as the Montreal Canadiens on the powerplay would net this team 10-12 more goals so far. That's going to be good for 10 points in the standings which puts the Penguins in a playoff spot.

If we had a coach that managed to get Erik Karlsson, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jake Guentzel, and who f***ing cares look at those 4 names into a top 5 power play this team is competing for a division title.

Right? It is downright criminal that this power play is as bad as it is. And while the players should shoulder a good chunk of that blame, the coaches should be fired for tolerating it.

 

[Sidgeni Malkby]

Even I wouldn't go that far. The roster is still a mess and not gelling, but yeah, coaching is a huge part of that.

Gelling is about a system that allows them to gel. Ultimately if we are just a bad team, and no coach can fix it, so be it, then it's time to blow it up and move on. We'll never know for sure though, until we try another coach.

Besides, fine, say we all love Sully and his coaching staff, what's stopping them from adding people to the coaching staff?

I'm not at all anti-Sully, but I am anti-"sit around and do nothing".

 

[Andy99]

 

[SomeDude]

It is funny how angry the general fanbase got riled up by our idiot beat writers about Hextall doing nothing. Meanwhile, Dubas has done less in a more dire situation, but he’s above criticism as he’s the boy wonder becuase he apparently did great things with the Leafs as demonstrated by how much winning went on there.

 

[Andy99]

It is funny how angry the general fanbase got riled up by our idiot beat writers about Hextall doing nothing. Meanwhile, Dubas has done less in a more dire situation, but he’s above criticism as he’s the boy wonder becuase he apparently did great things with the Leafs as demonstrated by how much winning went on there.

Well,he did just come in late in the off-season and changed half the roster…wait until next season lol…I’m more disappointed of the lack of “Fire Sullivan” chants at the arena after six failed seasons…wtf, I mean Matt Canada got more hate at PPG lol