I can’t recall the last Pens post on here, seems like it’s been a while.
I guess that’s understandable given the current losing streak, getting blown out by Florida yesterday and falling further and further from a playoff spot.
I’ve never been one for completely blowing it up anytime over the last few years but it is now obviously at that point. Never a good sign when they are so bad that no one is even discussing them.
With each loss, the Pens Playoff hopes continue to dwindle and unless there is some unexpected turnaround, it doesn't look like they will make it ...... I don't think Dubas has decided yet if he is going to be a seller at the trade deadline but it is looking more and more like he may be, again unless some turnaround .......
So many problems with this team ...... Sid's line is the only one that has consistently scored goals, Geno is declining and his line playing poorly and not scoring, the bottom 6 is much better defensively but just as poor at scoring as last season ...... other then L1 we can't score goals.
The PP is awful ..... if it was just average we probably would have won 3-5 more games and would be talking about the Playoffs ..... pass the puck more quickly, shoot more, get traffic in front of the net, create chaos ....... it's not rocket science .....
Lack of physicality is obvious and we are average speed wise now ....... good structure/positioning is not consistent and leads to high danger shots against as well as odd man breaks ......
Rakell has had a very disappointing season ..... he hasn't put the puck in the net nearly as much as we need him to .........
I have no problem with replacing Sullivan ..... a change is probably needed unless some miracle turnaround happens the rest of this season ..... let's see how the season ends ......
I'm not sure if it is the coaches and/or General Managers fault but evaluate how the moves Dubas made have worked out so far (with the caveat that things may get better) ...... Karlsson has been pretty good but not great and we needed him to be great, ..... Reilly Smith was hot the first month and has played poorly since then and has performed well below expectations ...... Ryan Graves also has had a tough year and not performing as expected saying he has a hard time with the Pens breakout system and positioning system and he offers little offensively ...... Lars Eller has been solid defensively but has little offense left in his game ...... Noel Acciari also has been OK defensively and offers some physicality but very little offense ...... Alex Nedeljkovic has been an upgrade in goal as backup, enough that he may end up signing elsewhere for next season ...... Ludvig has been an OK pickup off waivers by Dubas as a 3rd line defenseman but nothing special so far although he is young and could get better, I'm concerned that he has had multiple concussions already in his career...... other players that Dubas brought in like Nieto, Hinostroza, Koppanen, Shea, Hellberg, Johansson, Pitlick are either in the AHL, out of the organization or not much of a factor ...... main point is that the bigger name players that Dubas has brought in have underperformed significantly to date (we can hope they pick their games up and play up to expectations or better but so far not so good) and the new role players for the most part haven't worked out ..... and, of course, the farm system is largely devoid of talent .....
The goalies have overall played very well ..... Jarry has played around the Top 10 level so far .....
Just the Pens luck, Geuntzel now hurt and out maybe 4 weeks which means the team has lost a top 2 scorer and it will be harder to trade him now before the trade deadline (which is 3/8/24) if that's what we want to do ...... the Pens would likely get the best deal for Geuntzel if traded before the trade deadline, doubt any team will offer anything for him if he isn't at full health before the trade deadline ...... they could trade him around the draft in June but that would be a no go unless a new contract is worked out with the new team before the trade is completed, and as of July 1, 2024, he is a free agent and we get nothing except 6M in cap space for him ...... the other option is to resign him but that may be cost prohibitive .... what a mess.
Dubas is going to have to decide what he is going to do at the trade deadline over the next week or two at the most ..... will be interesting to see his game plan.
