Post-Game Talk: Pens/Flames

[TooManyHumans]

When you've finished out of the playoffs two straight years by one freaking point, everything is important.

 

[SEALBound]

To be fair, I'd guess that a lot more games end in OT now with the 3-on-3. So shootouts probably aren't as important.

....but they also seem pretty terrible at 3-on-3, so....



Also, it seemed like the players thought it was fun back in the day. Might bring some levity and enjoyment to this team. They seems pretty listless and bored most nights.

My greater point was that Byslma placed value on our ability to perform after regulation. Johnston and Sullivan have not. Granted a big part is an older and less dynamic team but that hardly means would should look as inept as we do at times.

 

[Khelandros]

Sullivan Angrily Stops Practice; Clarifies Jarry Status

CALGARY, Alberta — Pittsburgh Penguins coach Mike Sullivan isn’t playing around through the Penguins’ early season struggles. Monday, Sullivan angrily stopped practice during more than one drill. He stopped both the power play and a five-on-five drill meant to drive home the concept of playing...

pittsburghhockeynow.com

Haven't seen this talked about much, but this is what it looks like when a Coach has started to or has lost a room.

 

[Duffy13]

Fell asleep on and off throughout the game... however

-Graves seems to be the only defenseman trying to play defense, Letang is just awful now, Karlsson is amazing at reading the play and anticipating pickoffs, as is Malkin, but if he misses... oh boy. Petts? where did you go this offseason? holy hell man... you were such a great opportunity to get a high pick at the deadline.
-Jarry is playing poorly which is only exasperated by playing behind this god awful defensive system. I mean lets be honest there is no system, the players do not have a clue what the coaching staff is expecting them to do. This is as big of a systems tank I have ever seen. These are not dumb players, they have all shown at some point they can play at a much higher level than this, they have not all of a sudden forgot how to play hockey, yet here we are.
- Ned and Bloom in net are making saves that a decent goalie should, and are being overwhelmed by wave after wave of odd man rushed and high danger shots. Jarry is having a rough go right now and I think he should go to the AHL discover his confidence, come back, play well for a month and demand a trade. This team is not getting better for the rest of his contract, go get some Jars!!!!
- Bottom 6 is very adequate, and buoying the fact this team should maybe be winless this year so far.
- Top 6 still needs help on wing
- Coaching staff needs to go, this is awful.... commit to the rebuild now, give guys a chance to either be in on the rebuild or move on.
- ADHD meds have worn off and I'm all over the place... seems like a good fit with the coaching staff, I'm in boys!!

- Is it just me or has the decline started when Martin left to go become a head coach again? I always felt the Defense and the Specialty teams were pretty solid under his hand, Tocchet was pretty decent as well. Sine then however woof.

 

[Zap Rowsdower]

This team is so bad. There's no identity to the roster. It's like a beer league team got thrown together for a tournament. They should go with the the crazy idea of letting your prospects play and actually develop

 

[Pancakes]

It's hard to say what's going on with Sid. He's always a slow starter but his on ice body language looks terrible. If I didn't know any better I'd say he's trying to get Sullivan fired lol

 

[Icarium]

I don't know hockey well enough to really say, but it sure seems like they run the same system they did when they were one of the faster teams in the league.

That would imply that they are using anything worthy of the word system which I find a bit hard to believe.

But yeah, the basic idea seems to be that they can outscore their problems. Only they haven't been that kind of team for years now and it doesn't work except against other teams which need a map to find the defensive zone or whose goalie has a really bad game. They should either decide to blow it up for real or try to play structured defense.

Or they could try the same thing for the millionth time and hope that this time it will work. Somehow, someway.

 

[Pancakes]

The sad thing is the start they've had isn't even that bad. 3-4-1 given the teams they've played isn't terrible on paper. The issue is how they've looked in those actual games. They look like f-ing shit. They're lucky to even have three wins.

And it's most likely about to get worse. They haven't beaten Edmonton in years and Vancouver is a back to back. It's very likely they come back to Pittsburgh 3-6-1 which already puts them in danger of digging a hole they won't be able to overcome.

 

[Pancakes]

Also...gotta say it. Sid is a slow starter so maybe that's all this is but the stuff he is doing defensively so far this season would get him into heaps of trouble with Mike Sullivan if it were Malkin playing like this instead of Sid.

His attention to detail on defense is horrific and he's making bad line changes and dogging it. Just real bad stuff.

He starts slow sometimes. Maybe that's all this is. But it's ugly

 

[BusinessGoose]

Do we even want our prospects learning to play THIS brand of hockey???