wgknestrick
Registered User
- Aug 14, 2012
- 5,971
- 2,899
this isn't the planned bottom-6. It'll look different when one of Bennett and Jokinen, as well as Kobasew and Dags are healthy and in the lineup
"Teams like the Penguins need to find bargains in free agency, as well as have players ready to step in from the farm system to help round out the roster on the cheap."
"Since 2007, the Penguins have drafted just one forward that has appeared in more than 35 NHL games for them, Dustin Jeffrey, a player who has been relegated to healthy scratch status for much of the season"
"A potential third line of Jokinen, Sutter, and D'Agostini seems infinitely more potent than their current options. It is just a matter of waiting for it to finally happen."
An entire article with the correct answer is in the very last sentence.
This is laughable, the writer points out all of the Penguins negatives to think they're in trouble. For example this quote...
Man if only Ray Shero was smart enough to know he should do that, oh wait he did. Matt D'Agostini and Chuck Kobasew each signed to contracts for league minimum, $550,000. Also, this quote...
What a convenient number to choose, 35. I'll choose another number, 31 NHL games. You know who has played that many games in the NHL? Beau Bennett, an injured player right now who is important to our team's forward depth.
I'm sure every team has better options when their players come back from injury, very solid analysis. I have an idea, how about when our team gets healthy, we keep Jokinen with Malkin and Neal and put Bennett on the 3rd line with Sutter and D'Agostini/Kobasew? And there you go, our options are "infinitely more potent" than Conner, Zolnierczyk, Engelland, etc.
Do you scout for the Penguin's 3rd and 4th lines? You are certainly defensive about it for no apparent reason.
Do you scout for the Penguin's 3rd and 4th lines? You are certainly defensive about it for no apparent reason.
It's the ****ing bottom six.
You guys obsess about the bottom six way too much. Sort of like the overreaction about loss of a draft pick. OMG, we lost a second rounder, there goes the next Mario. 2nd rounders have about a 15% chance of any sort of a career at all. The same thing is going on here.
The difference between the best bottom six and most of the others is not all that much. They are bottom six for a reason, and teams that usually have cracker jack bottom sixes have 'em because they suck and do not spend much on the top six.
Agreed about the draft picks, mostly because Shero is the GM so a second round pick for the pens is pretty worthless. But when Jeffrey is your best forward drafted for 6 years or so, there are serious issues.
It's the ****ing bottom six.
You guys obsess about the bottom six way too much. Sort of like the overreaction about loss of a draft pick. OMG, we lost a second rounder, there goes the next Mario. 2nd rounders have about a 15% chance of any sort of a career at all. The same thing is going on here.
The difference between the best bottom six and most of the others is not all that much. They are bottom six for a reason, and teams that usually have cracker jack bottom sixes have 'em because they suck and do not spend much on the top six.
I just think this article is stupid, for example, what does Chicago's forward depth look like without Hossa, Saad and another forward like Shaw or Kruger? It's obvious the Pens bottom six isn't good right now with the likes of Zolnierczyk, Conner, etc. But with a full lineup, there's really not much room to complain, I know fans want size and grit, but with a fully healthy lineup of...
Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis
Jokinen-Malkin-Neal
Bennett-Sutter-Kobasew/D'Agostini
Glass-Vitale-Adams
Jeffrey, D'Agostini/Kobasew
I don't see anything wrong with that lineup that suggests the Penguins need to change something. The article suggested that we didn't do any bargain hunting in free agency, we did. It also suggested we didn't draft a forward who has played more than 35 games, I've pointed out that (while true) it's a very convenient number for the author to choose just to prove their point, if he subtracts his number by just 4, you have Beau Bennett, a young solid top 9 forward drafted by the Penguins in 2010. If you include post season, Bennett has played 37 NHL games.
I know fans may want grit, toughness, etc. in the bottom 6 and that's fine. IMO we have that with our 4th line. But this article tells me that the Penguins aren't doing their jobs, when in fact, they are doing their jobs. Even without Bennett, D'Agostini, Neal and Letang we are 7-2. People say we lack depth, but our team still finds a way to get the job done.
You mis-read the article IMO. It wasn't really criticizing what the Pens have done, but rather recognizing the challenges when you allocate 50% of your cap space to 5 players.
I completely disagree. Chicago, LA, and Boston's bottom 6's are all superior and were major contributors to their cup runs. Out bottom 6 in 2009 was important as well.
That said, we do have a few guys that could make our bottom 6 more effective if we focused on filling out Crosby's right wing.
I never said that they were not better. I said that the difference is not some huge chasm. Say like the difference between Crosby and Malkin and other team's top two players.
In a cap world you usually have to make choices, and our choice was to spend the money on Malkin, Crosby, Neal and Letang. Good choice IMO.
but we should have traded Malkin to keep Cooke - Staal - Kennedy
Come on Eyes of Orpik, it's very tough to justify Shero's drafting. Besides Bennett, name one respectable forward that Shero has drafted since Staal when we had the #2 overall pick. You all know Erik Johnson would have been drafted by Shero if St. Louis hadn't screwed the pooch.
Hahahaha!
You... aren't serious, right?