Post-Game Talk: Pens Ducks Halloween horror show

[Honour Over Glory]

It's funny for how much we hate how Sullivan uses this line up, Cronin is even worse. Looking at the lines he's used lol, you can do better by drawing names out of a hat. Imagine having so many good young players and using them like shit.

Sucks to be Ducks fans and I totally get why they despise Cronin. They could have hired Nelson or Vellucci and helped their youth. It's funny Verbeek still has that job.

He fired Eakins which was good, that wasn't his hire. But his first hire being Cronin while having a load of very good youth is like wtf mate.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Cutter-Zegras-Killorn was their only line that wasn't a shit show.

 

[WickedWrister]

 

[WickedWrister]

21 shot attempts for EK is f***ing insane, so is only getting 6 of those on net but I'd have to go back and look at how many of those are blocked vs looking for a redirect or what not. Probably his best game in terms of dominating possession.

 

[pi314]

And here you guys didn’t believe we could hold a team to 5 goals or less.

 

[wheelz87]

*Pens win*
*hardly a single page of posts*
of course. ty Sid + Ned.

 

[DesertPenguin]

*Pens win*
*hardly a single page of posts*
of course. ty Sid + Ned.

That was almost a haiku

 

[Dennis Reynolds]

At least there's a ton of empty seats. FSG HAS to see and care about that.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

The Ducks were so awful it's really hard to get a read on what worked well vs that team was so ass, very little looked bad.

Because a line of Beauvillier-Glass-Bunting creating 8 scoring chances and allowing 0, lol that would be the only time you'd ever see that against the team that allows as many shots as the Pens while being one of the worst for getting shots on net.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

At least there's a ton of empty seats. FSG HAS to see and care about that.

The capacity is 18, 387.

Here's the Home Games Attendance + Capacity %:

• Rangers - 18,190 - 99%
• Sabres - 15,644 - 85%
• Hurricanes - 17, 074 - 93%
• Wild - 18, 195 -99% - MAF Game
• Ducks - 14, 945 - 81%

We knew they had their "sell out streak" end in October of 2021 and that was an impressive run, 633 games I think it was. But since then, it's been a far cry from what their numbers were on average before the covid season.

From 2011-12 on...

• 18,566
• 18,648
• 18,618
• 18,618
• 18,551
• 19,763 - They really showed up for the 2nd of the back 2 back season
• 18,580
• 18,566
• 18,538
• Covid Year - 0
• 17,684 - Oct 21st, Streak ends
• 17,816
• 17,909
• 17,276 - So far with 5 games at Home.

Last season, the lowest attendance game was vs the Ducks, 16, 903 - the only game under 17k attendance. The year before that, 15, 867 vs the Jackets (had 3 games under 16,000 attendance). So fans were definitely not happy with 2022-23, showed up hoping for better in 2023-24 and were burned for it and this year they're showing how little they care for the current situation.

I want to say the attendance makes a difference to FSG, but I don't think it will. At their worst, they're 94% capacity, the bigger hit for them will be missing the playoff revenue 3yrs in a row, that would piss them off.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Penguins are 21st in the league for capacity % for attendance, average total they're 19th. Preds for example have been pretty bad this season and they've been at 100% capacity for their home games on average (100.7%) - Philly is right below the Pens for capacity %, but on average they have more fans at their games - things like that look awful for FSG and yeah the playoff revenue they're missing out on - They bought this team knowing they were a perennial playoff team and then after their purchase, they only make the playoffs in 2 out of 4 seasons and will miss a 3rd straight year? That would hopefully get them to ok the firing of Sullivan but I think it'll probably be at the end of the year.

Which is dumb really, their worry is they will have to pay him, but we all know how many coaches get fired per season, so at most he'd maybe sit on his ass for a couple of months before he gets hired again and that contract would be terminated unless they signed some weird stipulation that he gets paid no matter what, like an NHL buyout type of deal but not a %.

 

[Pancakes]

The Ducks were so awful it's really hard to get a read on what worked well vs that team was so ass, very little looked bad.

Because a line of Beauvillier-Glass-Bunting creating 8 scoring chances and allowing 0, lol that would be the only time you'd ever see that against the team that allows as many shots as the Pens while being one of the worst for getting shots on net.

Yeah I said it earlier but I said we'd probably beat Montreal and Anaheim and then the media will do Sully puff pieces.

Then we will go on that three game road trip vs Caps, Isles, and Canes and just get curbstomped.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

That was such a Penguins win. Take a million shots, score 2 goals on a shitty team.

Anaheim should feel ashamed they only scored 1 goal on this shitty defense.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Yeah I said it earlier but I said we'd probably beat Montreal and Anaheim and then the media will do Sully puff pieces.

Then we will go on that three game road trip vs Caps, Isles, and Canes and just get curbstomped.

I feel like the Habs are going to come out angry vs the Pens, but more than likely it'll be another game that inflates Sullivan's ego thinking he's figured it out, only for as you put it - get curb stomped vs the Caps, Isles, and Canes (again).

Isles haven't been great this season, but watch them get a massive confidence boost vs the Sabres tomorrow. They have the worst offense in the league, but will magically score 4+ goals against the Pens anyway. You just know Brock Nelson is going to score a couple, that f***er always does - 39pts in 43 games, most against any team he's played against, 21 goals is tops as well. Horvat, Barzal, and Nelson are due for a scoring outburst. Also can't forget Lee, his 17 goals against the Pens in 38 games is the most (tied with Jets, 20 games vs Jets and 17 goals, weird) vs any team he's played against.

Last season they were 2-1-1 vs the Isles, year before 0-3-1.

That was such a Penguins win. Take a million shots, score 2 goals on a shitty team.

Anaheim should feel ashamed they only scored 1 goal on this shitty defense.

If you look at their metrics, it's comically bad. Cronin is truly an awful coach, he's not playing to win games, he's playing not to lose games badly. Dostal steals games for his dumb ass.

They had 11 more goals at the same time last year - Vatrano had his 9 goals early last year, he has 1 this year, Mason had 5 last season, 0 right now...Cronin is doing a good job of shutting down his offense.


Edit: If you want to see a fan base that understands our anger towards Sullivan and FSG's lack of inaction and favouritism, take a peak into their thread titled "Speculation: 2024-25 Coaching/Management/Ownership"...

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Cronin is probably fired soon, if FSG was smart, they would have fired Sullivan by now so he can be hired by the Ducks, where Sullivan has no choice but to use youth and he gets his boy Harkins back and can torment Brock McGinn some more. Dumoulin would get insane usage.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Bunting & Glass were great together, the Doc-Eller-Puusty line was good and should get another game, but they won't because Puusty is likely coming out for JP and rinse and repeat.

 

[BobCole]

Missed the game. How did they look defensively tonight? I see some praise in the comments for Ned and calling out our D. Were we still bleeding chances and they only got one through?

 

[bambamcam4ever]

21 shot attempts for EK is f***ing insane, so is only getting 6 of those on net but I'd have to go back and look at how many of those are blocked vs looking for a redirect or what not. Probably his best game in terms of dominating possession.

But that's kind of the problem with him, he often forces the offense through him which looks good for his individual numbers but not necessarily for the team. There was one instance where he got the puck in the right circle area with some space then backed up to the blue line to take a wrister

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Missed the game. How did they look defensively tonight? I see some praise in the comments for Ned and calling out our D. Were we still bleeding chances and they only got one through?

Ducks barely got shots on net, but the few times they had high danger opportunities, they banged one home on Ned. Otherwise, Ned wasn't really that tested and probably needed a game like this for his own confidence with how the last few went, so a good game for a morale boost for Ned. It's a game to inflate ego's if you will - Sid got off the hump with 2 goals, Pens controlled most of the play except for the 2nd period, where the Ducks tried but even then, the Pens got more chances.

The rest, Cronin is one of the worst coaches in the league, the fact the Ducks got 1 goal today was a miracle with how awful all but 1 line looked for them, Dostal was an absolute beast stopping 44 of 46 shots, if it weren't for him this would be like the Pens vs Sharks last year. The Ducks have 4 wins because Dostal willed them to it, their offense is the worst in the league (tied with the Isles, 22 goals in 10 games, yeesh) and they let in almost as many shots as the Pens but are also one of the worst at getting shots through.

Also - Ducks took the lead in most shots against, Pens are now 31st...yay?

Dostal with his play this season should be in the running for Vezina and Hart if he keeps this up.

 

[AuroraBorealis]

+ Ned stole this one at the death. 3 giant saves.
+ Sid moving his legs again and acting like a Captain
+ Rakell. All over it tonight, and the night before.
+ Pretty close to a 60-minute effort, albeit against a weaker, tired team at the end of a road trip
+ Improved team defending, although that's largely a result of facing the Ducks I think
+ This was one of Bunting's best games. Played hard all night. Deserved a point.
+ Pettersson's best game defensively. No question.

- Throwback shooting night, although give Dostal credit too. He's insane this year.
- Those late breakaways and golden chances given up with a minute or two left. They're lucky they even got a point. How can you be that sloppy at the very end, when all you have to do is stay structured for one more minute?
- Puljujarvi scratched and possibly lost to waivers soon. Wasteful, stupid.
- Letang had like 3 really bad errors where he mishandled the puck in fairly vulnerable positions. Lucky the Ducks didn't take advantage.
- I'd like to see Karlsson attack the middle ice more. When he's moving laterally at speed, straddling the blue line, he's often going so fast that he can just blow by guys and penetrate down low. He can create odd-man situations with lost assignments. He did a lot more of this when he got 100 points. It's been coached out of him.
A team like ours who are probably gonna have bad finishing again need that out of their 10M guy. They need high danger backdoor plays.

 

[Smasher]

Second game of the season where we allowed fewer than 4 goals!