Question about Kennedy

[JQR]

Not so much "taken a step back" as "not a very good hockey player and never was except that one season where he scored more than anyone expected, and his awesome tic-tac-toe goal in the Finals."

He is a mediocre hockey player and has been exposed as same this year. His main attribute is skating fast.

His board play is good too. He just coughs up the puck after he gets it.

 

[Ogrezilla]

His board play is good too. He just coughs up the puck after he gets it.

his board play is decent.

 

[Killswitch7187]

TK must have compromising photos of Bylsma or something. I can't believe someone can suck as bad as he has and continue to get ice time.

Shero really ****ed up when he signed Kennedy over Talbot. That fluke 20+ goal season was only because the entire top 6 was injured and he was on the 1st PP unit. Losing Talbot has definitely shown how important he was to the locker room/leadership of the team.

Meh. Talbot obviously meant a lot to our locker-room but I'll still take the Kennedy contract over Talbot's. At least Kennedy's expires this summer. I have no interest in paying $1.8m for a 4C, especially when we have huge contracts on the horizon with Letang/Malkin and eventually Fleury.

I believe TK is a solid cycle player, who can chip in 30 points on anybody's third line. He's definitely no consistent 20 goal-scorer, and definitely benefited from having Staal as his center all these years. Hopefully he can get back on track, it it's here or not.

 

[IcedCapp]

Don't listen to these fools. Tyler Kennedy is the Penguins most valuable player.

 

[sovietsanta87]

Was looking at the Pens stats, and was shocked to see him sitting at just 4 points in 22 games. Is this just bad luck on his part? Reduced ice-time? Injury? Or has he just taken a step back this year?

Tyler Kennedy sucks...thats the biggest problem. Once malkin comes back kennedy should be benched.

 

[jmelm]

There`s a lot open to interpretation, so I won`t even go there, but there`s one thing I can say for sure: Kennedy is one player who DEFINITELY did not benefit from having sat out during the lockout. He`s not a naturally gifted enough player to miss half a season and not miss a beat. And I`m not suggesting he would have been awesome had he played somewhere, but I definitely think playing somewhere else in real games, producing, and perhaps gaining some confidence would have done a lot for his game.


He may get traded, or he may get benched. But if he does stay on this team this year, there`s still a very good chance that he can be a lot more productive than he has been thus far; in part because he couldn`t be much worse.

 

[Jules Winnfield]

Meh. Talbot obviously meant a lot to our locker-room but I'll still take the Kennedy contract over Talbot's. At least Kennedy's expires this summer. I have no interest in paying $1.8m for a 4C, especially when we have huge contracts on the horizon with Letang/Malkin and eventually Fleury.

I believe TK is a solid cycle player, who can chip in 30 points on anybody's third line. He's definitely no consistent 20 goal-scorer, and definitely benefited from having Staal as his center all these years. Hopefully he can get back on track, it it's here or not.

He wasn't just a 4C. He is the only other guy that had as much flexibility to play anywhere in the lineup like Dupuis (LW/RW/C on lines 1-4 if needed).

The other reason why it really irked me is that Talbot was a really good PKer and brought it in the playoffs. If Kennedy at least contributed on special teams, I wouldn't have such an issue with him. When he's not doing anything ES, he's useless on this team.

It's fairly evident now that Staal and his style of cycling is what made a good match for Kennedy. He definitely rode Jordan's coat tails.

Also, who cares about $1.8m when you look at what you get from Kennedy at $2m and Tanner Glass at $1.1m.

 

[quins]

Was looking at the Pens stats, and was shocked to see him sitting at just 4 points in 22 games. Is this just bad luck on his part? Reduced ice-time? Injury? Or has he just taken a step back this year?

He's looking pretty bad. Giveaways, chest snipes. Not seeing that fight like in years past to keep the puck in zone.

 

[WayneSid9987]

He looked alot better with Staal thats for sure.
We need his game to be here *holds hand high* and he's just been right about here *holds hand a quarter of the way down from the first position*

For me, he just has to go back to the basics. He's not a playmaker, he's not gonna snipe wristers or snapshots and pick corners, so either a)shoot hard and low to get a rebound or b) use your speed to take the puck to the net. Keep it simple stupid.

 

[KIRK]

He looked alot better with Staal thats for sure.
We need his game to be here *holds hand high* and he's just been right about here *holds hand a quarter of the way down from the first position*

For me, he just has to go back to the basics. He's not a playmaker, he's not gonna snipe wristers or snapshots and pick corners, so either a)shoot hard and low to get a rebound or b) use your speed to take the puck to the net. Keep it simple stupid.

Kennedy + 2nd for Skinner?

 

[jmelm]

Interesting note last night from Pierre McGuire on the broadcast:


After Crosby's goal, he was talking about how Sid and TK come to the rink 20 minutes early before practice every day for Sid to work on one-timers from that spot on the ice.


Now, this by itself does not mean we should keep TK or that Sid couldn't survive if, say, Setoguchi or Iginla or Perry came here instead, but it does explain why TK may perhaps have a longer leash when it comes to him being a part of this group and our line-up. Locker room chemistry, friendships and those sorts of things are important factors for a team.

 

[Skk82]

Meh. Talbot obviously meant a lot to our locker-room but I'll still take the Kennedy contract over Talbot's. At least Kennedy's expires this summer. I have no interest in paying $1.8m for a 4C, especially when we have huge contracts on the horizon with Letang/Malkin and eventually Fleury.

I believe TK is a solid cycle player, who can chip in 30 points on anybody's third line. He's definitely no consistent 20 goal-scorer, and definitely benefited from having Staal as his center all these years. Hopefully he can get back on track, it it's here or not.

I agree with all of this. Max Talbot is a 4th liner who had 2 really bad seasons (and shoulders) in his last two years with the Pens. Talbot got a chance and failed as a 2nd line winger, isn't a winger at all really, he's a 3C or a 4C, depending on the depth of the team he's on.

Kennedy, was an ideal 3W coming off a 20 goal year, which even if that reverted to his typical 10-12 goals, he was still good on the boards, forecheck, etc. At the time, it was a good gamble to give him a $2 year, $2 million contract.

To me, given Kennedy $2 million for two is a mile better than giving a 4th liner $1.75 million for five seasons.

 

[Skk82]

Interesting note last night from Pierre McGuire on the broadcast:


After Crosby's goal, he was talking about how Sid and TK come to the rink 20 minutes early before practice every day for Sid to work on one-timers from that spot on the ice.


Now, this by itself does not mean we should keep TK or that Sid couldn't survive if, say, Setoguchi or Iginla or Perry came here instead, but it does explain why TK may perhaps have a longer leash when it comes to him being a part of this group and our line-up. Locker room chemistry, friendships and those sorts of things are important factors for a team.

Important but over-played IMO. Friendship didn't have Parise even consider the Pens, and if Pittsburgh would deal Armstrong and let Talbot go (the two players Crosby had the best friendship/chemistry with) then TK doesn't stand a chance.

If anything I think it shows that TK has a good work ethic to always be there early, work on aspects of his game that the fans don't see. We see him fail to score and take bad penalties, but he probably buys himself good will from management from his off-ice habits and work ethic.

Even that is probably over-rated.