eco's bones
Registered User
Quinn did play Pionk on the penalty kill--he gave Shattenkirk very little and DeAngelo even less. It really comes down to all three of them being weak physically and/or shaky as f*** defensively and Quinn deciding Pionk was the best--or maybe he was just the one who was going to be thrown into the fire--the sacrificial lamb so to speak. Someone has to do the dirty jobs--someone has to take the worst assignments.
We can say Pionk sucked all day long and there were times last year when he looked shellshocked but there is still a question of how well DeAngelo or Shattenkirk would do with a steady diet of Ovechkin, Crosby, Matthews, Barzal, MacKinnon, Bergeron, Barkov, Patrick Kane etc. etc. etc. ad nauseum + lots of penalty kill time?--because it's game after game after game that Pionk was put into that role and eventually he drowned--not going to deny that but to use a military analogy it's like blaming your rear guard in a retreat for getting killed....and really I don't think the other two would have done any better and in a way I think Quinn did Tony a favor by not even giving him those kinds of matchups.
