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

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SEALBound said:
Sully: How can we send the wrong message to the boys right away in 2024?
Reirden: Scratch Zohorna in favor of Harkins and Carters?
Sully: Inspired!!!! Do it.


I'm curious to see if we will see more out of Eller. He has these flashes of brilliance that make you go "Where the f*** did he come from!?" but then goes a bit quite from time to time. Hopefully, a confident DOC and an offensive-minded wing in Puustinen will get the 3rd line to be more productive.
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I hope so, its not HBK combo thats for sure
 
vodeni said:
you're right, but I think Sully thinks that Rust can do what DOC does, be that F1 that would help on forecheck.. The worst thing would be if Rust goes up to L1 and Rakell slides with Geno and Smith...

but not to worry, Sully will put Rust up to L1 on a first sign of struggle...
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I'd be okay with that. GCR is a top 3 line in the league this year.
I would keep it together, and if Rakell sucks with Malkin then put him on L3 with Eller and Puustinen, where I think he'd do quite well with the easier matchups.

Smith's heating up, so I don't wanna move him atm. 5 points in the last 6.
He's an exceptionally strong 5v5 player historically. Even this year, despite the cold streak, he's at 2.93 5v5 P/P60. That's an identical rate to Rust, who we all have praised this season.
Rust averages a whopping 5 mins of 5v5 time more per game, which I think is unjust.
 
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I'm still curious about pushing Rakell or Rust to L3 for Puusy or pushing Smith to L3 for DOC, but I'm fine starting off with those forward lines. DOC has been a force recently, Puusy's remained productive on L3, and Eller has been solid all year. As long as Puusy doesn't turn out to be a liability defensively (so far so good), I don't hate the makeup of that line.

The problem will be at the first sign of adversity, Sully will resort back to GCRu and SMRa without considering anything else.
 
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I prefer GCR as it’s proven time and time again to be our best even strength line. But if Rakell isn’t an offensive black hole anymore, putting Rust with Geno does give us a little more balanced scoring. And yeah, L2 needs some foot speed in the puck retrieval game with Smith and Geno not being burners.

Here’s hoping DOC can continue his strong play on L3
 
smith has been a total passenger to geno and doc. guess he can keep being a passenger to him and rust and we can hope doc keeps it up on the third line. it's good to mess with guys right when they start to develop some chemistry
 
Both Hinostroza and Zohorna are better options than Harkins, but if your biggest complaint about the forward group is LW4, I think you're in pretty good shape. This is the best the forward lines have looked all year.
 
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Dennis Reynolds said:
Both Hinostroza and Zohorna are better options than Harkins, but if your biggest complaint about the forward group is LW4, I think you're in pretty good shape. This is the best the forward lines have looked all year.
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Hinostroza doesn't have to pass through waivers, so he was the easiest forward to send down.

Puustinen doesn't have to clear waivers, either, but he's playing the best among the four candidates to demote.

I think giving Puustinen a couple of games with Eller and DOC to see if that can form a responsible third line that offers some potential pop offensively is a reasonable step. If Puustinen is out of place on the third line, then you send him back down and wait for another scoring line opportunity. If he does well, then maybe you finally get some consistency on the third line outside of Eller.

I think it's becoming clear that Zohorna, Harkins and Hinostroza are different variations of fringe NHL players. Hinostroza has speed. Harkins has a bit more grit. Zohorna has a bit more offense and finesse despite his size. It's basically which flavor do you want as your 12/13 forward?
 
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vodeni said:
I hope so, its not HBK combo thats for sure
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Well that was a pretty unique circumstance but if Malkin got hurt and suddenly Smith-Eller-Rust caught fire, would it be that different? Then run DOC-Malkin-Puustinen down the road.
 
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DesertedPenguin said:
Hinostroza doesn't have to pass through waivers, so he was the easiest forward to send down.

I think it's becoming clear that Zohorna, Harkins and Hinostroza are different variations of fringe NHL players. Hinostroza has speed. Harkins has a bit more grit. Zohorna has a bit more offense and finesse despite his size. It's basically which flavor do you want as your 12/13 forward?
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Mostly fair assessment.....I would say Hino P/60 is quite better than Z while playing most of his time with a terrible 4th line, and Z getting the benefit of playing with DOC and Eller vs Carter and Acciari and Nieto. He is probably a little more of a defensive liability than Z. I personally think Hino is the best of the bunch by quite a bit. I'd be willing to bet that had he been given the opportunity DOC got on L1, he would have out performed DOC in that role. Its too bad he didn't get a chance.

And Harkins sucks, even though he has had a good 2 game stretch (and stunk the other 18)
 
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Grouch said:
Mostly fair assessment.....I would say Hino P/60 is quite better than Z while playing most of his time with a terrible 4th line, and Z getting the benefit of playing with DOC and Eller vs Carter and Acciari and Nieto. He is probably a little more of a defensive liability than Z. I personally think Hino is the best of the bunch by quite a bit. I'd be willing to bet that had he been given the opportunity DOC got on L1, he would have out performed DOC in that role. Its too bad he didn't get a chance.

And Harkins sucks, even though he has had a good 2 game stretch (and stunk the other 18)
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Rate stats like points per 60 suck for evaluating players in my view. They skew to bottom sixers because those guys get fewer minutes and there is no guarantee that their production rate will continue with increased usage or different usage.

You need a holistic view of players that incorporates multiple data points, not just a stat here or there. And the holistic view says Hinostroza is a fringe NHL player.
 
DesertedPenguin said:
Rate stats like points per 60 suck for evaluating players in my view. They skew to bottom sixers because those guys get fewer minutes and there is no guarantee that their production rate will continue with increased usage or different usage.

You need a holistic view of players that incorporates multiple data points, not just a stat here or there. And the holistic view says Hinostroza is a fringe NHL player.
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Except top 5 forwards for P/60 are the ones you would think....Sid, Rust, Jake, Malkin, Smith. Not skewed at all. And no production rate is guaranteed to continue.

You are right, he is a fringe NHL'r. He is also better than Harkins and Z, which was what I said, and I think he would have out produced DOC (obv opinion).
 
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