Post-Game Talk: Pens Sens. That’s how we lost.

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

I'm by no means an advocate for E-Rod, but the one difference between him and Rust is that E-Rod at least works hard. Rust's turned into the later stages Kessel but without Kessel's elite skills.

Yeah I'm not pining for ERod, either. Like everyone else he'd have likely just been misused here and we'd all hate him haha. Remember him on Crosby's RW for way-too-many games? Balls. But my contention at the time of the Carter extension was that I'd way rather roll the dice on a guy like ERod or even DOC than the hoary old husk of a guy that was never outstanding to begin with and was the beneficiary of lots of asinine tire-pumping more than real substance on the ice.

And yes yes he's had some playoff moments between being an absolute anchor. To the tune of exactly zero playoff series wins. Whoopty damned doo.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

He's done nothing but bad deals except for Rakell and re-signing the core.

The best you can say about Hextall is he hasn't traded away the first I guess

Keeping the core, a Mario mandate I'm guessing is what has hurt him from doing more. We really needed to see this team walk away from Letang and Rust. Wasn't it JR who wanted to move Letang and Mario stepped in and said no and JR left a month later.

JR even knew he had no say anymore and the decisions were coming from above, even if he was a muppet. You lot can blame Hextall all you want. A new gm will come in and the same shit will happen. I'd wager after Hex is gone, the GM they'll attract will know how little say he'll have and it'll just be a mouth piece puppet.

 

[the penitent]

McCann wasn’t protected in the ED.

Correct. By Toronto. Apples and oranges compared to what the Pens should have done

 

[Pancakes]

Keeping the core, a Mario mandate I'm guessing is what has hurt him from doing more. We really needed to see this team walk away from Letang and Rust. Wasn't it JR who wanted to move Letang and Mario stepped in and said no and JR left a month later.

JR even knew he had no say anymore and the decisions were coming from above, even if he was a muppet. You lot can blame Hextall all you want. A new gm will come in and the same shit will happen. I'd wager after Hex is gone, the GM they'll attract will know how little say he'll have and it'll just be a mouth piece puppet.

There's no Mario mandates any more. We have no idea what FSG wants to do. We can only infer that they want to contend based on the fact that Hextall brought the core back.

There's no indication that Hextall is lacking in autonomy. The bad trades are his doing. The bad signings...his doing. Nobody is sitting there with a gun to his head telling him to trade a second for Mikael Granlund.

 

[Ragamuffin Gunner]

I'm torn on wanting them to miss the POs and keeping their streak alive. If I knew that real changes would be made if they missed I'd be 100% on board for it.

As nothing will change, I'd rather the core continue the PO streak record.

 

[Gurglesons]

I'm torn on wanting them to miss the POs and keeping their streak alive. If I knew that real changes would be made if they missed I'd be 100% on board for it.

As nothing will change, I'd rather the core continue the PO streak record.

Yeah that’s where I’m at too. It sucks.

 

[Pancakes]

I'm torn on wanting them to miss the POs and keeping their streak alive. If I knew that real changes would be made if they missed I'd be 100% on board for it.

As nothing will change, I'd rather the core continue the PO streak record.

I don't think nothing will change. I think there's a fair chance that Hextall and Burke will get fired if we miss.

I do not think Sullivan is going anywhere this year. Not after extending him.

 

[Le Magnifique 66]

I'm torn on wanting them to miss the POs and keeping their streak alive. If I knew that real changes would be made if they missed I'd be 100% on board for it.

As nothing will change, I'd rather the core continue the PO streak record.

Yup same here, but the worse part is there is even the option of us missing and nothing being done! That's what's even more scary

 

[Terrapin]

I just love when Sid gets knocked on his ass with a cheapshot, and nobody on the team even bats an eye. Sullivan has sucked the last ounce of testosterone out of this team. And people wonder why they crumble when faced with adversity. Nothing will change until Sullivan is gone. Nothing

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

I'm torn on wanting them to miss the POs and keeping their streak alive. If I knew that real changes would be made if they missed I'd be 100% on board for it.

As nothing will change, I'd rather the core continue the PO streak record.

Exactly.

If I knew with 100% certainty that missing playoffs meant Sullivan was shown the door, I'd be cheering for them to miss. But since nothing will change (maybe Hextall gets canned, but not golden boy Sullivan) I'd like to see the playoff streak continue for the Sid/Geno era.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

I just love when Sid gets knocked on his ass with a cheapshot, and nobody on the team even bats an eye. Sullivan has sucked the last ounce of testosterone out of this team. And people wonder why they crumble when faced with adversity. Nothing will change until Sullivan is gone. Nothing

Sometimes team enforcer Evgeni Malkin retaliates.

And the whole f***in' fanbase goes off the deep end and gnashes and wails because he took a penalty.

 

[FlightlessBird]

A moment that struck me was when we had a power play in the second period and tried to carry the puck in three times in a row in the most predictable of fashions. Even Bob Errey had enough and said "Hockey is a team game. You still gotta play the right way even if the opponent is out of the playoffs". The Pens don't play the right play, they play Sully's way which might have worked six years ago but nowadays is stale, to put it mildly. The teams which play the Pens the most know perfectly well how to beat them (except for the Flyers and Jackets for some reason), this is not a coincidence.

Bob Grove had had enough too

 

[Honour Over Glory]

There's no Mario mandates any more. We have no idea what FSG wants to do. We can only infer that they want to contend based on the fact that Hextall brought the core back.

There's no indication that Hextall is lacking in autonomy. The bad trades are his doing. The bad signings...his doing. Nobody is sitting there with a gun to his head telling him to trade a second for Mikael Granlund.

Which bad signing? With context show me at the time of the signing which one was bad. Just so we can properly discuss this since having differing opinion is not allowed here.

Carter was re-signed after having a 40+ season as the 3c and had 4 goals in 7 games on the Pens in the post season. Hardly a back breaking one.

Rutta has been good when healthy.
McGinn was utilized poorly and was moved.
Kapanen was utilized poorly and was moved.
Archibald has 50000 hits according to the Pens stat bloke.
Heinen is an epic waste at 1m given we have lads in wbs that deserve that time over him.
Rakell was a great trade and re-sign.
Rust re-sign looks terrible due to utilization by Sully
Letang this team needed to let go but even JR wasn't allowed to deal Crosby's best friend on the team.

Which one is killing us?

The core that you know he was likely told to keep intact?

Granlund has had barely a dozen games and Sullivan is using him in an archaic bottom 6 utilization that is bizarre in comparison to other teams.

He hasn't moved a 1st to dump these players either.

Is a 3.125m/yr for 1 more season player that Sullivan keeps using incorrectly really destroying us? The issues you and others have aren't with Hextall as much as how Sullivan has made each one of those players you dislike or call a bad signing or trade, look awful and there's a ton of proof of it being him considering how many have rebounded elsewhere almost instantly.

Hextall has his warts like literally every gm. All the others have tenure to out weight the bad with more good with more years.

Our fan base is spoiled and ridiculous.

 

[Gurglesons]

Lol Desmith is not at practice.

 

[Pancakes]

Which bad signing? With context show me at the time of the signing which one was bad. Just so we can properly discuss this since having differing opinion is not allowed here.

Carter was re-signed after having a 40+ season as the 3c and had 4 goals in 7 games on the Pens in the post season. Hardly a back breaking one.

Rutta has been good when healthy.
McGinn was utilized poorly and was moved.
Kapanen was utilized poorly and was moved.
Archibald has 50000 hits according to the Pens stat bloke.
Heinen is an epic waste at 1m given we have lads in wbs that deserve that time over him.
Rakell was a great trade and re-sign.
Rust re-sign looks terrible due to utilization by Sully
Letang this team needed to let go but even JR wasn't allowed to deal Crosby's best friend on the team.

Which one is killing us?

The core that you know he was likely told to keep intact?

Granlund has had barely a dozen games and Sullivan is using him in an archaic bottom 6 utilization that is bizarre in comparison to other teams.

He hasn't moved a 1st to dump these players either.

Is a 3.125m/yr for 1 more season player that Sullivan keeps using incorrectly really destroying us? The issues you and others have aren't with Hextall as much as how Sullivan has made each one of those players you dislike or call a bad signing or trade, look awful and there's a ton of proof of it being him considering how many have rebounded elsewhere almost instantly.

Hextall has his warts like literally every gm. All the others have tenure to out weight the bad with more good with more years.

Our fan base is spoiled and ridiculous.

Rutta was fine, but I would call the Rutta and Petry moves lateral moves at best. I don't think we're any better off than we were with Matheson and Marino. We're not worse off, but we're not better. To add onto that, Petry is old as f*** and that deal might look worse by the year as he gets older. He ain't getting any better than he is now. And he might get worse.

McGinn was a bad signing. He wasn't anything special in Carolina and he was even worse here. Kapanen sucks and has had the same warts everywhere he's gone.

Archibald has been good.

Heinen was actually a good signing. 1 million for what he brought last year...I've got no reason to second guess that one. It hasn't worked out, but it was a fine gamble for that cheap.

Rakell was great, agreed.

Rust has been bad, but I didn't hate the signing. Ditto Letang.

Granlund has been a terrible move. It looked bad on paper, and it's worked out poorly on the ice.

Carter has been bad. In fairness, I defended the signing at the time. But it's not my judgement that's in question here.

Keeping Dumo when everyone knew he was done last year, bad.

Trying to move (and thankfully failing to move) Marcus Pettersson...bad.

Do I agree that player usage has been bad as well? Absolutely. Sully deserves to go right along with Hextall.

I don't think Hextall has been a complete and utter disaster but he's just swung and missed on so many deals. When you add it all up, the only overwhelmingly good moves he's made are signing Malkin (which he almost f***ed up), and trading for and signing Rakell. Everything else is at best a middling move and at worst an outright bad one.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Lol Desmith is not at practice.

Net empty?? Not like we’d notice…

 

[Turin]

Lol Desmith is not at practice.

The ECHL goalie strategy

 

[Pens x]

It’s so peculiar that some of you keep trying to argue one of Hextall or Sullivan is more to blame. They are both horrible at their jobs and need to be replaced asap. People blindly defended these two idiots until only recently. How anyone liked Sully after the Habs play in series is mind-boggling. I’ll never understand how anyone defended Hextall, and how you didn’t see he was terrible immediately after the expansion draft.

Quit bickering about which idiot is more to blame. Both are simply atrocious at what they do.

 

[Turin]

Jfresh just posted that the Pens have shot 5% and have an .870 save% since March 1st. That's why you can't afford to choke away games at the rate they did, PDO can get you even if you flip a switch. Not saying it's all luck - they aren't good shooters and their goalies have been bad.

 

[GregR]

Guy stopped the Penguins all night but he couldn't stop the hangover from after the game.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Jfresh just posted that the Pens have shot 5% and have an .870 save% since March 1st. That's why you can't afford to choke away games at the rate they did, PDO can get you even if you flip a switch. Not saying it's all luck - they aren't good shooters and their goalies have been bad.

I don't know if they track stats for it, but it feels we lead the league in unscreened shots from distance. I think that's part of what affects our team shooting percentage and why we'll rack up 40+ shots but not many seem like threats to go in. The opposition goalies can almost always see them because we don't have guys in or around the front of the net blocking the goalie's sight lines.

 

[Turin]

I don't know if they track stats for it, but it feels we lead the league in unscreened shots from distance. I think that's part of what affects our team shooting percentage and why we'll rack up 40+ shots but not many seem like threats to go in. The opposition goalies can almost always see them because we don't have guys in or around the front of the net blocking the goalie's sight lines.

That, combined with the fact that nobody is a sniper on the team, and way too many shots come off the sticks of guys like Pettersson and Dumoulin.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Guy stopped the Penguins all night but he couldn't stop the hangover from after the game.

This team sucks so bad they give their opponents norovirus

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

That, combined with the fact that nobody is a sniper on the team, and way too many shots come off the sticks of guys like Pettersson and Dumoulin.

I got so angry seeing how many of the "prime" chances versus the Sens went to Dumoulin. And each time he'd refuse to shoot and instead skated around the back of the net with it before losing it.

I think it's pretty obvious why Dumoulin is always left wide open by the opposition. They're better off double teaming Sid/Geno and leave Dumoulin wide open than if they each covered a man.

 

[Andy99]

good article…

What to expect when you’re expecting (goals)

Finishing problems and failures to meet expectations have plagues the Pittsburgh Penguins this season

www.pensburgh.com