I was one of them! I loved when Puustinen got the chance and generally speaking I was overall impressed and happy with his game. Again, I would love to be wrong here, but with the current roster and prospect pool, it's no hard to suggest that he might get squeezed out.
I just don't see enough "oomph" or force in his game to believe that he will have a super productive long-term NHL career.
Relax, mate. It's Puustinen. It's not like I'm saying, "This Crosby kid will struggle" circa 2005 or something. This is a seventh-rounder who's already outplayed his draft position.
Sorry mate, I confused you with this other wanker that was literally whining incessantly that Puustinen was even brought up or talked about. Really sorry mate.
Puustinen's issues according to Sullivan when he never called him up the season before was that his defense wasn't good and he wasn't quick enough, both things that were debunked when he was called up this past season. When Puustinen was with Malkin and Bunting, it had this right mix to that line where Bunting did his best Kunitz/Horny impersonation and Geno looked more like his old self and Puustinen was the 3rd cog that was filling in the gaps of being playmaker and decoy and all three looked so damn good together.
The only time Puustinen didn't look good was when he was forced to his off wing with Malkin and Smith, understandable, Smith was a disaster for long stretches last season.
Also those 16 games with Malkin - He had 8pts, all assists, but 8pts and if anyone paid attention to his game, Puustinen is definitely a play driver, he's creating those chances for his linemates.
So, with Malkin, Puustinen was a 40pt player, as a rookie. Acting like 16 games is a lot is f***ing hilarious, Puustinen played 52 games last season, 30% of his games were with Malkin and another winger that really didn't work all that great, a smaller % was with Bunting and Malkin and they looked good as a trio and that's a lot fewer games. Also, there was no game on February 26th, they played February 27th - Ask me how I know, oh f*** I was f***ing there.
Also
@Empoleon8771 you say he played with Geno in all of those games? Might want to check ice times bud, or you know, even just the line-up to remember.
Dec 8th - Smith - Malkin - Puustinen
Dec 12th - Smith - Malkin - Puustinen
Dec 13th - etc
Dec 16th - etc
Dec 18th - etc
Dec 21st - etc
Feb 22nd - Smith - Eller - Puustinen - RUH ROH RAGGY...
Feb 25th - Doc - Malkin - Puustinen
Feb 27th - Doc - Malkin - Puustinen
Feb 29th - Doc - Malkin - Puustinen
Mar 2nd - Doc - Malkin - Puustinen
Mar 3rd - Smith - Malkin - Puustinen
Mar 5th - Smith - Malkin - Puustinen
Mar 7th - Smith - Malkin - Puustinen
Mar 9th - Smith - Malkin - Puustinen (Sullivan started with Bunting, Crosb, Rakell LOL, typical of Sullivan to pull away a winger from Geno or did you want to pretend that doesn't happen either)
Mar 10th - Smith - Malkin - Puustinen - Sullivan never put Bunting back with Geno, where he looked best, because Sully is a f***ing twat.
There were moments when Sullivan switched up Bunting with Malkin but mostly kept the same shit with Smith.