Salary Cap: Pens '24-'25 Salary Thread: The Crosbicles Volume XIX

[Andy99]

Made the playoffs in the weirdest way though, winning a ridiculous amount of games by a goal and getting blown out a lot in the losses. -37 GD. 41 goals worse than us.
If a team tries that formula again they fail. But yeah, some notable off-season adds since.

8 guys shooting over 16.7% for them right now. Offense is 5th in the league. Protas, McMichael, Wilson, Ovi at point per game.

Regression is inevitable imo. Just a matter of if it'll be enough to miss.

And we’re a terrible shooting % team and have Rakell (18.2%) and Eller (16%) shooting well above norms…just imagine where we’ll be if Rakell doesn’t keep this up lol…

 

[eXile3]

And we’re a terrible shooting % team and have Rakell (18.2%) and Eller (16%) shooting well above norms…just imagine where we’ll be if Rakell doesn’t keep this up lol…

They’ll be regressions to the mean for all of them though.

Honestly EK and Rakell are the only legitimate shots we have. Sid gets most his close to the net now and Genos slapper just isn’t the same or at least he can’t get off in time anymore.

 

[AuroraBorealis]

Pulju benched yesterday. I could really tell how great our scoring was in that game and how we totally don't need depth contributions.
At least we got Lizotte in there for 5:39! Hell yeah, Mike. You da man.

 

[eXile3]

View attachment 924951

Pulju benched yesterday. I could really tell how great our scoring was in that game and how we totally don't need depth contributions.
At least we got Lizotte in there for 5:39! Hell yeah, Mike. You da man.

I like how they commented on Lizette adding speed to the line up when it meant taking Pujiu out of it who is our fastest player. Or at least last time I checked edge he was.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

I like how they commented on Lizette adding speed to the line up when it meant taking Pujiu out of it who is our fastest player. Or at least last time I checked edge he was.

That and how much speed did he add in 5:39 of ice time? Lol.

 

[Buddy Bizarre]

That and how much speed did he add in 5:39 of ice time? Lol.

He was so fast you couldn't even tell he was on the ice all that time!

 

[Honour Over Glory]

He was so fast you couldn't even tell he was on the ice all that time!

He's a short and fast American player.

That's got Sully all..

 

[BillyOcean]

Why were there posts a few pages back advocating for adding players to this roster?

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Why were there posts a few pages back advocating for adding players to this roster?

Because...

We want to see how many more Sullivan can misuse. It's a drinking game. We started with 5 blokes, 3 died of alcohol poisoning.

 

[Gurglesons]

View attachment 924951

Pulju benched yesterday. I could really tell how great our scoring was in that game and how we totally don't need depth contributions.
At least we got Lizotte in there for 5:39! Hell yeah, Mike. You da man.

I never got the love for the signing of Lizotte.

I like Lizotte, but we had Hayes, Eller, and Acciari all at that point.

He just adds more boring defensive hockey to our bottom six at the expense of a prospect who could actaully add some offensive bite.

 

[Dennis Reynolds]

Literally the ONLY reason Puus and Pulju are on the outside looking in is because they're European.

They're both objectively better than all of Hayes, Beauvillier, Bunting, and Lizotte at the very least. I personally put Pulju above Glass as well, but I see how some may disagree with that.

And Puus, even though he's small does get outmuscled, brings a creativity that this roster desperately needs. I swear, every shift he makes a play that leads to a shot or chance - and that's while he's usually getting limited minutes and linemates who are not creative.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Literally the ONLY reason Puus and Pulju are on the outside looking in is because they're European.

They're both objectively better than all of Hayes, Beauvillier, Bunting, and Lizotte at the very least. I personally put Pulju above Glass as well, but I see how some may disagree with that.

And Puus, even though he's small does get outmuscled, brings a creativity that this roster desperately needs. I swear, every shift he makes a play that leads to a shot or chance - and that's while he's usually getting limited minutes and linemates who are not creative.

It's funny to see Puustinen driving the net as often as he does while no one else on the roster other than him and Puljujarvi do it regularly. One is small and fiesty and the other is a big bloke and Sullivan prefers the perimeter princesses instead.

 

[Dennis Reynolds]

It's funny to see Puustinen driving the net as often as he does while no one else on the roster other than him and Puljujarvi do it regularly. One is small and fiesty and the other is a big bloke and Sullivan prefers the perimeter princesses instead.

"That's not how we do things in Pittsburgh."

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Literally the ONLY reason Puus and Pulju are on the outside looking in is because they're European.

They're both objectively better than all of Hayes, Beauvillier, Bunting, and Lizotte at the very least. I personally put Pulju above Glass as well, but I see how some may disagree with that.

And Puus, even though he's small does get outmuscled, brings a creativity that this roster desperately needs. I swear, every shift he makes a play that leads to a shot or chance - and that's while he's usually getting limited minutes and linemates who are not creative.

At this point, I'd just love for ANYONE to argue that Sullivan doesn't have different standards for Europeans versus North Americans (and particularly Americans). Not only is Sullivan a shit coach, he's coming across as a Xenophobe as well.

 

[Empoleon8771]

This may be a semantics thing and arguing for the sake of arguing, but I think it's less "Sullivan hates Europeans" and more "Sullivan loves grit grinder Americans". I don't think it's that he hates guys like Puljujarvi and Puustinen, he just loves guys like Acciari, ZAR and such to absurd levels.

I think it's a play style type of thing more than anything. Sullivan himself was a grinder American and he's super biased towards those players.

 

[Headshot77]

Can we just be fans of a bad sports team without being incredibly toxic? For just five minutes? It ain't worth getting this heated over.

 

[FunkySeeFunkyDo]

So, I was gonna cry about the Habs game being on NHLN tomorrow. You know, because having ESPN+, Max and TNT isn’t enough. Then I checked the rest of November’s schedule. The games on the 15th, 22nd and 30th (BJs, Jets, Flames) are all also on NHLN. WTF!

Thanks to @AuroraBorealis for the outlaw method that I may finally pull the trigger on.

 

[Gurglesons]

This may be a semantics thing and arguing for the sake of arguing, but I think it's less "Sullivan hates Europeans" and more "Sullivan loves grit grinder Americans". I don't think it's that he hates guys like Puljujarvi and Puustinen, he just loves guys like Acciari, ZAR and such to absurd levels.

I think it's a play style type of thing more than anything. Sullivan himself was a grinder American and he's super biased towards those players.

I don’t think Sullivan is like against European born players, but as you said there is a clear bias to the skill set.

Frankie Corrado was talking about playing for Sullivan on the Athletic Podcast and basically confirmed he doesn’t trust young players and players have to “earn their minutes” with him through safe, responsible play.

 

[Pancakes]

I don’t think Sullivan is like against European born players, but as you said there is a clear bias to the skill set.

Frankie Corrado was talking about playing for Sullivan on the Athletic Podcast and basically confirmed he doesn’t trust young players and players have to “earn their minutes” with him through safe, responsible play.

Mike Sullivan sucks but that's not unique to him.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Mike Sullivan sucks but that's not unique to him.

It's true with all coaches, but I think there's a difference in how quickly someone earns/loses Sullivan's trust compared to most other coaches.

Look at Puljujarvi for instance. For all intents and purposes, he's performed arguably the best among our bottom six "fringe" guys. Yet he seems to have the least rope. Other coaches may have looked at him with "prove it to me first" eyes, but they likely saw enough of that during pre-season and limited minutes early on to believe in him. With Sullivan it's like Puljujarvi has to be perfect EVERY SHIFT or he's going to find a reason to demote/scratch him.

Sullivan takes the adage about young guys having to earn the trust of the coach to idiotic, ridiculous levels.

 

[HandshakeLine]

I never got the love for the signing of Lizotte.

I like Lizotte, but we had Hayes, Eller, and Acciari all at that point.

He just adds more boring defensive hockey to our bottom six at the expense of a prospect who could actaully add some offensive bite.

I would like the record to show I was extremely unenthusiastic about Lizotte.

I hate this version of Penguins hockey so much, lol.

 

[bambamcam4ever]

Terrible goals are fine. If you end up saving as much as you should throughout 60 minutes or a little more, I don't care if the goals are shots from the opposition goal line.
The scoreboard isn't gonna care when your team wins (which they did).

If the team in front of the goalie can't trust him because they think any shot has a chance to go in (ie bad goals), they will tend to instinctively play more passively. The best defenses in most sports have guys who know their teammates will be in the right spots and execute their role.

 

[AuroraBorealis]

I would like the record to show I was extremely unenthusiastic about Lizotte.

I hate this version of Penguins hockey so much, lol.

Do they have a choice at this point? Someone has to defend. 30th in the league in GA/GP. 3 multi-goal blown leads in a span of 5 games.
Whatever else Lizotte is, he's reliable that way.
At least last year they scraped 13th defensively, and missed by only a few points as a result. With the current course they'll finish bottom-5 in the league, unless the team buy-in to team defending and use personnel who can do it.

If the team in front of the goalie can't trust him because they think any shot has a chance to go in (ie bad goals), they will tend to instinctively play more passively. The best defenses in most sports have guys who know their teammates will be in the right spots and execute their role.

If the team has a winning culture, the players bounce back after a bad goal easily. Happens practically every day. Goaltending in the league is regressing. A lot of greats retired and weren't replaced.
This happened a lot under Bylsma too when Flower let in stinkers, and they still won a ton of games. They had enough faith in their offense to overcome that.
It's more about patterns you're used to as a player than it is if something bad that happens in a particular moment. That will affect their attitude and actions.
If they know that the goalie will stop enough pucks to open the door, they will respond accordingly.

My feeling is that it's not the goalie's job to manage the team psyche. His job is to stop pucks at a rate that gives them a chance to win.
If the goalie let in 2 terrible goals, but no others, it's the responsibility of the offense to generate 2+ themselves and get something out of the game. They are grown men who played hockey their whole lives. They've seen hundreds to thousands of bad goals. They need to man up and overcome mental adversity, focusing on what the team needs from them.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Do they have a choice at this point? Someone has to defend. 30th in the league in GA/GP. 3 multi-goal blown leads in a span of 5 games.
Whatever else Lizotte is, he's reliable that way.
At least last year they scraped 13th defensively, and missed by only a few points as a result. With the current course they'll finish bottom-5 in the league, unless the team buy-in to team defending and use personnel who can do it.

They absolutely have a choice. They can run a different system, they can get a different coach AND a different system, or they can even blow up the roster and rebuild. This shit (what we're doing) is just stupid.

 

[HandshakeLine]

My issue isn't even Lizotte, it's that we're playing a losing AND boring brand of hockey and clinging to it like toddlers when it's been obvious for years it doesn't work.