AHL: Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins: '24-'25 The Players Sully Hates

[eXile3]

Well I got fan seats not scout seats (7 rows behind the dot on the Pens shoot twice corner), so not the best view but.....

Blom: I was in Philly for his Jarry special, so I was really hoping to see Big Mush (?). Anyway, dude is just fighting it atm. His game was....bouncy. Poor rebound control through the first two periods. Very quick laterally, but just a bit uncontrolled, turning those micro movements into macro. And as aggressive as he was side-to-side, was a little too deep on a few occasions, including the first goal (which was still a rip to be fair).

VK: Little chippy from him tonight, which was unexpected. Had a guy give him a shot on the way back to the bench once, showed off his flow after mixing it up in a net front scrum. Got a 10 minute misconduct after a big to-do

Pono: got 5-and-a-game for boarding late in the 1st which started the aforementioned big to-do. It was a bit of a shove in a dangerous area, and the dude went face first into where the boards meet the glass. The other guy just wasn't expecting it. Or I'm a homer.

McG: pretty non-descript game. Got a bunch of pk work with Poulin. We all know if he makes it it'll be as a complimentary piece and not a play-driver. Made a couple nice little plays. The foot speed doesn't concern me as much as the puck skills, tbh. A lot of missed/fumbled passes, both giving and receiving. The ice was pretty rough to be fair. You can see the IQ though. Made a real nice forechecking play where the defender clearly beat him to the puck but he read where the D was going to go and stripped him.

Poulin: you can see why it might be tough for him to carve out a bottom-6 role. Seems like he's prone to a brainfart or two fairly regularly. This game it was an inexplicable giveaway in the D zone which led to a great chance, and then after a long shift he iced it short of the redline when he easily could've gained it first.

Broz: fine. Almost had a sick between-the-legs goal. There were so many penalties and nonsense that he (nor the game, really) never really found a rhythm.

Hayes: you can see the waterbug quality. I immediately thought Sheary with a bit-less skill but not prone to falling down. His goal was a straight-up screen on the goalie's part. It was such a nothing shot and he didn't react until the puck was in. I lol'd when it happened.

Pickering: very solid. He also had one shift where he was wheeling around the o-zone with the rest of the team, which was really nice to see. He's not gonna be a 40-point guy in the show, but you'd at least like to see him hit the 20-30 range consistently, so shifts like that are why it's important he get this time in WBS.

Knyzhov: had no idea who this dude was, but he stood out almost every time he was out there. Very smooth lateral-skating, and very much the 6'3" he's listed. Super solid defensively. Nothing going on offensively, but it's not like he was hal gill with the puck or anything. Got 5 and a game for fighting after the Pono shitshow, I guess for escalating the situation? Shame, I was looking forward to seeing more of him.

Also, Hollowell is hilarious, I kept on going "wait which forward is 81?" Rover extraordinaire. Felt like he played the entire 3rd.

We’ll have that projected top 6 winger turned into a replacement grinder in no time.

 

[Empoleon8771]

We’ll have that projected top 6 winger turned into a replacement grinder in no time.

"I hate how this team plays shitty players who are only in for their PKing"

Team tries to teach McGroarty how to PK, so he can be a future top-6 winger for them that can also kill penalties

"I hate how this team is trying to turn McGroarty into a replacement grinder"

It's funny how this board alternates between "PKing is an easy skill to learn, they should let Puljujarvi learn how to kill penalties" and "They're going to ruin McGroarty by teaching him how to PK".

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

As always, it's never been about McG learning to PK but the implication that PKing is such an imperative and sacred art that young guys need to be proficient at it in order to be given a spot in the lineup and allowed to develop at this level.

Nobody cares if guys like McG, Broz, Koivunen learn to PK and add it to their game as a supplementary thing. It's the constant "well ya gotta have your lame as f***, do absolutely zero guys like Acciari and Nieto cuz otherwise how would you assemble a real NHL lineup y'know?" bullshit that's a front for a coach who is either incapable of, or simply refuses to coach prospects and young guys who aren't screws stripped down to nothing but zero event hockey thralls plodding around the ice. If a guy doesn't arrive as basically a finished product like Marino or Jake, this coach has no time for 'em. That's why people roll their eyes at the "he has to learn to PK" stuff. It's a different version of the same bullshit mindset of Sullivan saying he was looking forward to fixing EK's game the summer after he scores 100pts as a blueliner and wins the Norris. Yeah bud, we know, the thought of creativity or flow makes you projectile vomit and sob uncontrollably. We get it. We've been seeing it for near on a decade now.

Allow a young guy to get used to the speed and strength of the NHL game while giving him a spot to play in a role he's been successful at for his entire hockey career and hopefully will be moving forward? Accepting that there will be bumps along the way and growing pains? No, no. Make up some bullshit about how crucial PKing is to a young guy trying to break into the league, knowing that your GM has stocked the bottom 6 full of journeyman losers who do nothing to help win games now or into the future, so there's a built in excuse to not have to do any real coaching work.