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

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BlindWillyMcHurt said:
I guess I'm just saying that I don't think this roster should be anything less than "makes the playoffs with games to spare" even as they sit, now. The underachieving is team-wide. That points to one thing.
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The underachieving is on the power play and bottom 6. Geno is probably where he's gonna be at this point in his career. It ain't the system keeping him down.

Additionally, our goaltenders are frankly playing better than expected.

So maybe a new coach comes in and gets a little more scoring - what if the goalies drop back down? Graves ain't improving so you've got two defensive units on the ice for 50 minutes a game and only 1 true defender (Pettersson) and a decent one in Letang. EK and Graves are putrid defensively.

So yeah - I want to watch. Want to be a fan that expects wins. I just don't see this roster doing it. Maybe it's because I've hated almost every roster move we've made since the Hornqvist trade (EK for those two shit players notwithstanding). We keep icing zero-offensive talent players because Sully is obsessed with them. That's why I think both HE AND his merry men need to get shot into the Sun.
 
The Geno hate will assuredly come elsewhere - maybe one or two folks here...

But at $6.1M he's doing fine. He just really needs to be considered as a power wing at this point as we've pointed out for a while now. He's pacing for 67-71 points and something like 25 goals after a horrid start to this power play. That's FINE value at 6.1M

What's not fine value is his two wings making 5M each and contributing like offensive black holes. Rakell pacing for like... 16 points on the year and Smith hovering at around 45 points. Just not what you want cemented in the top 6 especially since they don't bring pretty much anything extraordinary to the lineup.
 
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molon labe said:
The Geno hate will assuredly come elsewhere - maybe one or two folks here...

But at $6.1M he's doing fine. He just really needs to be considered as a power wing at this point as we've pointed out for a while now. He's pacing for 67-71 points and something like 25 goals after a horrid start to this power play. That's FINE value at 6.1M

What's not fine value is his two wings making 5M each and contributing like offensive black holes. Rakell pacing for like... 16 points on the year and Smith hovering at around 45 points. Just not what you want cemented in the top 6 especially since they don't bring pretty much anything extraordinary to the lineup.
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The team should have been looking toward finding a top tier solution to Malkin's W/C years ago. But they wanted to just keep pretending he was 27 forever, I guess. Now it's all his fault that he actually... you know... aged.
 
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BlindWillyMcHurt said:
The team should have been looking toward finding a top tier solution to Malkin's W/C years ago. But they wanted to just keep pretending he was 27 forever, I guess. Now it's all his fault that he actually... you know... aged.
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Two headed monster and all. Keep trudging them out there as 1/2C what could go wrong?

It's this lack of eye sight thing that kills me the most about Pittsburgh decision makers. He's still got elite hands and an elite shot. But skating up and down the ice and looking to facilitate has been lost on the guy (except the rare play) for several YEARS now.

Skating for that loose puck against Toronto was painful to watch. We shouldn't have to. But, there are certainly strong opinions (or at least there were) over each of the last 3-4 Summers about how looking for a 2C was so wrong because XY and Z. Yet, here we are...continuing as a 1...maybe 1.5 line team offensively. Good thing we're so good defensively. Oh wait.

I absolutely think slotting him up would improve both Sid's (which is crazy to think about) and Geno's numbers. Would also save us from ever having to watch Jake get dummied in the FO circle ever again. The argument against that was always depth. Welp, we have none. So we might as well go all in on the top line like Boston did for several years.
 
molon labe said:
Two headed monster and all. Keep trudging them out there as 1/2C what could go wrong?

It's this lack of eye sight thing that kills me the most about Pittsburgh decision makers. He's still got elite hands and an elite shot. But skating up and down the ice and looking to facilitate has been lost on the guy (except the rare play) for several YEARS now.

Skating for that loose puck against Toronto was painful to watch. We shouldn't have to. But, there are certainly strong opinions (or at least there were) over each of the last 3-4 Summers about how looking for a 2C was so wrong because XY and Z. Yet, here we are...continuing as a 1...maybe 1.5 line team offensively. Good thing we're so good defensively. Oh wait.

I absolutely think slotting him up would improve both Sid's (which is crazy to think about) and Geno's numbers. Would also save us from ever having to watch Jake get dummied in the FO circle ever again. The argument against that was always depth. Welp, we have none. So we might as well go all in on the top line like Boston did for several years.
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Malkin isn't very far off from Boston's two centers, but yeah.

Let's blame him.
 
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I think it's fascinating that it was SO important for Malkin to play defense for so long and now his line hasn't produced but also hasn't hardly given up anything and it doesn't matter anymore. Oh well. Can't really push back too much on the lack of PP production I guess... that IS supposed to be something he excels at.
 
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Gurglesons said:
Malkin isn't very far off from Boston's two centers, but yeah.

Let's blame him.
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I don't know who's doing that. If you think it's me then you're reading what I said in not the way it was intended.

My only criticism of Malkin - is that he's pretty mediocre as a C at this point. Otherwise I made a whole post about how great his production/value ratio is (going beyond any player attachment/sentimentality).

He needed help on his line several years ago and counting. Rakell/Smith aren't it. What I wanted these past Summers was JT Miller as a tag team C for him - or to just run line 2 while he slotted up with Sid.
 
molon labe said:
I don't know who's doing that. If you think it's me then you're reading what I said in not the way it was intended.

My only criticism of Malkin - is that he's pretty mediocre as a C at this point. Otherwise I made a whole post about how great his production/value ratio is (going beyond any player attachment/sentimentality).

He needed help on his line several years ago and counting. Rakell/Smith aren't it. What I wanted these past Summers was JT Miller as a tag team C for him - or to just run line 2 while he slotted up with Sid.
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It's alright to mention stuff, like the times this season he has lost total feeling of the puck on his stick, weak passes and so forth. But this is not just a Geno thing. I think everyone wants to hold onto is he is this magician with the puck at all times. I've noticed Sid, too. If he wasn't getting solid production people would notice his more. And that's not without saying how bad the entire teams puck management has been.

Unforced errors has been the catalyst for this teams plight..
 
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molon labe said:
Invite the correction of rationale - but I doubt that comes. So, here's some perspective for everyone: [With an all-but assured .500 hockey (at best) from Head Coach Sullivan + This (current) roster]:

1. Sullivan is fired New Years day. We have 6 games leading to Jan.1. Meaning there will be 47 games remaining for the oncoming coach and we will have amassed ~ 35 points on the season. That new coach will need to go 30-17 once taking over for us to MAYBE make the playoffs.

2. This roster needs an overhaul. Specifically you NEED Rakell/Smith (or both) swapped out and/or Graves swapped out. That's before even considering the bottom 6. One move HAS to happen, 2 or more moves LIKELY need to happen.

3. Based on the track record of the new owners / Dubas - the new coaches will get at LEAST 5-10 games of their own before that roster is addressed.

So.... best case scenario here folks, is that we get a coaching change and are faced with requiring the Penguins go roughly 27-10.

So essentially - based on what we've seen from this front office - they've thrown in the towel on this season so perhaps we should too. Each passing day at this point is a another small cut and we're already nearing the point of no return. This, by the way, is the stuff within OUR control. What if other teams don't want to make any deals? Without a roster change we're F'd. We can fire the coach and pray - but you need both to happen. If other teams clutch their guys until the TDL I'm afraid you're looking at an almost impossibility for us to even make the playoffs let alone "compete."
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I like it all except for one problem. Sullivan signed a 3 year extension, which kicks in next season for $5.5MM a year. The owners need to be willing to eat $16.5MM or pray that someone would be willing to sign him to a contract right away.
 
Shea kinda sucks so I don't care if he gets claimed (and he probably won't get claimed).

SomeDude said:
Hiring DJ Smith seems like something stupid enough for Kyle Dubas to do.
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I think if they got rid of Sully they'd be able to lure someone decent in. There's still a lot of coaches who would love to coach Sidney Crosby I'm sure.

But since Sully is here forever who cares I guess
 
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