Pittsburgh Sports Media Gibberish - Part IX

[SwordofStMichael]

By the way this is the same guy that started one of is 10am shows last week with

"...well PeNNS fans now THAAT Steelers season is OOOver it's the Unofficial stAAArt of HAWKy season, call with all your HAAWKy questions 412-928-9370 thaAAATs 412-928-NINE-THREE-SEVEN-OHHH"

that's You're Home Town Sports Stationâ„¢ folks

 

[ProgOg]

Articles on Bennett:

Penguins' Bennett has struggled with injuries but proven dynamic when healthy

“I don't have that second, third or fourth gear that people talk about,” Bennett said. “But if I can bring the pace of the game down to my level, throw guys off with head fakes, shoulder fakes and do things like that, it's beneficial for me.”

Bennett has meshed with Malkin, maybe better than expected. Consider Malkin a fan of Bennett's game.

“I like Beau,” Malkin said. “Smart player. Good with (the) puck. That's important for me. I like his shot. I like him (to) shoot.'

And from NHL.com: Penguins' Bennett healthy at last, showing potential

The Penguins hope by mid-February they'll have a healthy lineup featuring Patric Hornqvist and Blake Comeau, who are out and not due back until after the 2015 NHL All-Star Weekend, which ends Jan. 26. At that point the goal is to have Hornqvist and Comeau play with Malkin, and have Bennett compete for third-line minutes with Downie to play alongside Sutter and Spaling.

Bennett can elevate himself on Rutherford's planned depth chart with continued solid play as a wing on Malkin's line. He is finally getting a chance to play top-six minutes for the Penguins; now he has to stay healthy and prove he can do it over a number of games.

Anyone know if the bolded was said in some recent interview that I missed? Maybe it's just based on some prior quote by Johnston about the Sutter/Bennett pair.

 

[Asuna]

Articles on Bennett:

Penguins' Bennett has struggled with injuries but proven dynamic when healthy



And from NHL.com: Penguins' Bennett healthy at last, showing potential



Anyone know if the bolded was said in some recent interview that I missed? Maybe it's just based on some prior quote by Johnston about the Sutter/Bennett pair.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

Articles on Bennett:

Penguins' Bennett has struggled with injuries but proven dynamic when healthy

And from NHL.com: Penguins' Bennett healthy at last, showing potential

Anyone know if the bolded was said in some recent interview that I missed? Maybe it's just based on some prior quote by Johnston about the Sutter/Bennett pair.

"So does photo-bombing Pierre McGuire's bench interviews, something Bennett promised, then delivered on, when the Penguins played the Bruins on national television Jan. 7."

 

[SUBdrewgANS]

"So does photo-bombing Pierre McGuire's bench interviews, something Bennett promised, then delivered on, when the Penguins played the Bruins on national television Jan. 7."

Haha what the?

 

[BillyOcean]

I actually read that in a similar way to BillyBudd.

The Penguins want 1 puck mover and one safety valve on each line. It makes sense that you would break your pairs up in accordance to your puck movers.

Letang is unquestionably the Pens' best puck mover.

I think you could make an argument that Despres is second-best (against Ehrhoff, I don't think it's close with Martin), but I also know and accept that they'll never promote Despres over both Martin and Ehrhoff.

In that sense, it's not "is Despres good enough to move up to the 1st or 2nd pair" it's "you'd be limiting either Despres or the person he's paired with AND removing our best-remaining puck-mover from the 3rd line"

In fact, when you think of it that way, having pairs of:

Martin - Letang
Ehrhoff - Despres
Scuderi - Bortuzzo

it makes it easy to look at that article and understand why Bortuzzo and Scuderi don't really work well together.

I guess the only thing I'd question is, if this is what you really want - and I accept that it is - shouldn't Scuderi be moving up over Bortuzzo?

If Scuderi is playing fine in the context of this role, he should be able to play fine with Ehrhoff (Martin - Letang should be the top pairing with these 6players, imo). Scuderi is already playing increased minutes (and feel free to debate who you'd rather have playing 18 minutes a night between Bortuzzo and Scuderi) and Bortuzzo - Despres has worked in the past.

If this is their plan moving forward, I would hope that neither Martin nor Ehrhoff are retained.

Letang, Despres and Pouliot should play the puck-carrier/breakout role next year, and a mix of Maatta, Harrington, Dumoulin and Bortuzzo can fill out the "Scuderi" role.

If that's the case, then I think the option for trading one of the two (assuming Martin) would still be viable IF the Penguins were able to get a "scuderi" to replace them?

 

[cheesedanish87]

Articles on Bennett:

Penguins' Bennett has struggled with injuries but proven dynamic when healthy



And from NHL.com: Penguins' Bennett healthy at last, showing potential



Anyone know if the bolded was said in some recent interview that I missed? Maybe it's just based on some prior quote by Johnston about the Sutter/Bennett pair.

I hope that's true, you need at least 3 scoring lines in the NHL now a days, Sutter with BB gives you that 3rd scoring line, Geno doesn't need BB to be effective.

 

[ProgOg]

I hope that's true, you need at least 3 scoring lines in the NHL now a days, Sutter with BB gives you that 3rd scoring line, Geno doesn't need BB to be effective.

I thought that one or two of Kunitz, Comeau, Downie could elevate the 3rd line enough, with or without Bennett.

I hope they open up the wings to internal competition like they did with the callups.

 

[cheesedanish87]

I thought that one or two of Kunitz, Comeau, Downie could elevate the 3rd line enough, with or without Bennett.

I hope they open up the wings to internal competition like they did with the callups.

I just think Sutter needs BB more then Geno does.

I know fans will look at how Geno has played with BB and say how good they look together, but Geno has made his wingers look good all year, look at how Comeau has looked with Geno, he even made Ebbett and Rust look good.

Sutter can't elevate wingers like that, he needs a play maker on his wing like BB to help him. Sutter is more of a finisher then a play maker, he needs somebody on his line to set him up for scoring chances.

 

[SEALBound]

I just think Sutter needs BB more then Geno does.

I know fans will look at how Geno has played with BB and say how good they look together, but Geno has made his wingers look good all year, look at how Comeau has looked with Geno, he even made Ebbett and Rust look good.

Sutter can't elevate wingers like that, he needs a play maker on his wing like BB to help him. Sutter is more of a finisher then a play maker, he needs somebody on his line to set him up for scoring chances.

Especially with Comeau and Hornqvist on the line. Horny is your puck retriever and net front presence, Comeau if your gritty guy who Malkin can set up to shoot...and he's proven to be a decent shooter, Horny can bang in the rebounds. Both of Comeau and Horny's skill sets are ones that are not going to be polarizing to Malkin meaning Malkin has free creative range with two wingers that can adapt and be in the right place at the right time and help out in ways that encourage that creativity.

ETA: If it's Spaling-Sutter-Downie/Bennett...these coaches better have a plan to win it all through any means necessary. Given the effectiveness of Downie-Sutter-Bennett and relatively ineffectiveness / redundancy of Spaling...that could be a worse blunder than Iginla-Malkin-Neal.

 

[IcedCapp]

i don't care if Sutter "needs" BB more than Geno.

The Pens "need" Malkin more than Sutter, and I'd rather be worried about maximizing Geno than Sutter.

 

[mpp9]

i don't care if Sutter "needs" BB more than Geno.

The Pens "need" Malkin more than Sutter, and I'd rather be worried about maximizing Geno than Sutter.

Sutter can't be a nonfactor though. No matter how dominant Sid and Geno are, we still need our bottom six against deep teams. I'm not arguing one way or another, but you have to balance both needs carefully.

 

[SEALBound]

i don't care if Sutter "needs" BB more than Geno.

The Pens "need" Malkin more than Sutter, and I'd rather be worried about maximizing Geno than Sutter.

While true in some respects, I'm not sure that Comeau/Horn-Malkin-Bennett outperforms Comeau-Malkin-Hornqvist. Bennett has been great, but the production just isn't there. When teams are forced to cover Sid and Geno more, that leaves the door open for Sutter-Bennett more than it has.

Malkin is one of the players that doesn't always need the best players or the most skilled players. He needs the right players. Feds and Talbot were nothing to write home about in terms of skill. In fact, one could argue that any one of Cooke-Staal-Kennedy (or Sykora or Satan for that matter) had more skill than Talbot. But Talbot's game fit with Geno at the right time and he won a Conn Smyth with them...

If we get a more productive and threatening 3rd line in the playoffs with very little drop off to the 2nd, I'm for that. I mean, Bennett looks good with Geno...but "looks" is all its been.

 

[Fordy]

if they look at Kunitz the last four games and say "yeah let's roll with him in the top six" they are ****ing idiots

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

While true in some respects, I'm not sure that Comeau/Horn-Malkin-Bennett outperforms Comeau-Malkin-Hornqvist. Bennett has been great, but the production just isn't there. When teams are forced to cover Sid and Geno more, that leaves the door open for Sutter-Bennett more than it has.

Malkin is one of the players that doesn't always need the best players or the most skilled players. He needs the right players. Feds and Talbot were nothing to write home about in terms of skill. In fact, one could argue that any one of Cooke-Staal-Kennedy (or Sykora or Satan for that matter) had more skill than Talbot. But Talbot's game fit with Geno at the right time and he won a Conn Smyth with them...

If we get a more productive and threatening 3rd line in the playoffs with very little drop off to the 2nd, I'm for that. I mean, Bennett looks good with Geno...but "looks" is all its been.

It's been FOUR games.

I guess Crosby should have been demoted to play with Adams then, if it's based on production alone.

 

[Shockmaster]

While true in some respects, I'm not sure that Comeau/Horn-Malkin-Bennett outperforms Comeau-Malkin-Hornqvist. Bennett has been great, but the production just isn't there. When teams are forced to cover Sid and Geno more, that leaves the door open for Sutter-Bennett more than it has.

Malkin is one of the players that doesn't always need the best players or the most skilled players. He needs the right players. Feds and Talbot were nothing to write home about in terms of skill. In fact, one could argue that any one of Cooke-Staal-Kennedy (or Sykora or Satan for that matter) had more skill than Talbot. But Talbot's game fit with Geno at the right time and he won a Conn Smyth with them...

If we get a more productive and threatening 3rd line in the playoffs with very little drop off to the 2nd, I'm for that. I mean, Bennett looks good with Geno...but "looks" is all its been.

The production wasn't there when Malkin and Hornqvist played together. Why aren't you critical about that?

Sutter can't be a nonfactor though. No matter how dominant Sid and Geno are, we still need our bottom six against deep teams. I'm not arguing one way or another, but you have to balance both needs carefully.

You also can't sabotage your top 6 to make your bottom 6 better. The reason the bottom 6 sucked so bad last year is because the Penguins had a lot of guys there that didn't belong in the NHL.

 

[penguins2946*]

You also can't sabotage your top 6 to make your bottom 6 better. The reason the bottom 6 sucked so bad last year is because the Penguins had a lot of guys there that didn't belong in the NHL.

It's not really sabotaging your top-6 though. The Pens top-6 will still have Hornqvist, Perron, Comeau and Kunitz in it. If Kunitz gets his head out of his ass and Comeau can return to the way he was playing before his injury, that top-6 will be solid.

 

[Shockmaster]

It's not really sabotaging your top-6 though. The Pens top-6 will still have Hornqvist, Perron, Comeau and Kunitz in it. If Kunitz gets his head out of his ass and Comeau can return to the way he was playing before his injury, that top-6 will be solid.

I'm not crazy about Comeau in the top 6 come playoff time. We've seen Crosby and Malkin prop up bottom 6 players in the regular season only to see them disappear in the playoffs. Comeau needs to be a bottom 6 player come playoff time.

 

[KIRK]

i don't care if Sutter "needs" BB more than Geno.

The Pens "need" Malkin more than Sutter, and I'd rather be worried about maximizing Geno than Sutter.

Heaven help me, but I do enjoy it so when you become ornery.

if they look at Kunitz the last four games and say "yeah let's roll with him in the top six" they are ****ing idiots

Personally, I think we should move Perron to L3. After all, Kunitz-Sid-Horny was just so dominant early in the season, so clearly Sid doesn't need a guy who can help get him the puck or make a play with it, perhaps even moreso than Malkin.

I'm not crazy about Comeau in the top 6 come playoff time. We've seen Crosby and Malkin prop up bottom 6 players in the regular season only to see them disappear in the playoffs. Comeau needs to be a bottom 6 player come playoff time.

I'd take Comeau at L2 LW with Bennett at L2 RW over Kunitz at L2 LW every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

I swear, it's literally like people haven't watched. Malkin and Bennett against Boston = Malkin as dominant as he's been against that playoff team. Same for Montreal. The Isles game? Possession numbers through the roof, just couldn't buy a goal, although they were the Pens only line that wasn't a MINUS and, for once, Malkin not only had no problem head to head against the Tavares line but dominated possession so much that Capuano ran from the matchup.

Now, we've got the Rags (Geno usually meh with possession but good for a point), the Flyers (Geno dog **** the last 3 years except the one game he had Beau), and Chicago (Geno never sees the puck against them).

Let's see if Beau makes as much of a difference in these three as the last three against playoff teams before deciding where Beau best helps the team.

 

[Shockmaster]

Personally, I think we should move Perron to L3. After all, Kunitz-Sid-Horny was just so dominant early in the season, so clearly Sid doesn't need a guy who can help get him the puck or make a play with it, perhaps even moreso than Malkin.

KIRK don't be such a dope. We need Adams with Crosby and Hornqvist on the 4th line to "balance" everything out!

 

[Jacob]

Hahah, Bennett's hilarious.

 

[ProgOg]

Piece on Rutherford:

Perception of Penguins GM Jim Rutherford not reality

The "two or three years" comment for which Rutherford and upper management now have mild regret seemed to engender in the club's frothing fan base a suspicion that Rutherford is some kind of hired gun, just here to see the Crosby and Malkin deliver another Cup or two before he rides off, and more urgently, that he's not afraid to trade the club's future stars to get that done.

"I'm not gonna do that," the GM scoffed. "Any major trade that I'm doing, I'd run it by my bosses anyways. Like I traded a first-round pick [plus Rob Klinkhammer for forward David Perron Jan. 2]. I don't do that lightly. There's risk in that. But I traded him for a 26-year-old, not a 36-year-old. If there's a trade where I think it's one important piece which gives us a much better chance to win a championship, whether I'm here for one year or for 10, I'll decide on that basis. It won't be that I'm going to make moves just because I'm only going to be here for a couple of years; I don't work that way."

 

[Speaking Moistly]

Like I traded a first-round pick [plus Rob Klinkhammer for forward David Perron Jan. 2]. I don't do that lightly. There's risk in that. But I traded him for a 26-year-old, not a 36-year-old.

Awkward.

 

[td_ice]

Piece on Rutherford:

Perception of Penguins GM Jim Rutherford not reality

Yep, as vabm8, said...."awkward" ....haha.


And I believe him. Having that short span, whether 2 or 3 years, which can morph into longer, he has ability to think short term as long as it has long term benefit as well. Because he is not going to make moves to save his job. He doesn't have to worry about job security or money, (I would imagine) as he is on his last job. He can just worry about doing THIS JOB right.

 

[Pens1566]

i would rather have suter leading this d-corps than letang.

Way to go out on a limb there Teddy ... what about Rathje???