This 4 on 4 is everything that is 100% wrong with this team. Just sitting, passing, passing, passing. Looking for the perfect and pretty pass and shot. This is on coaching, abject failure.
OT: The forgotten PENS
- Thread starter NCanton Panther
- Start date
Yay!!! Sidney Crosby got an assist tonight! YAY!!! On a meaningless empty net goal.
If he doesn't want to be here I am completely okay with that. But have the courage to tell the Penguins so they can make the moves to help the franchise moving forward.
If he doesn't want to be here I am completely okay with that. But have the courage to tell the Penguins so they can make the moves to help the franchise moving forward.
Big whoopie deal. Only 5 points out of the wildcard. These guys shitted away those games in hand. This is a below mediocre hockey team.
They rarely fire coordinators, they just don't renew their contract. Rooney doesn't believe in paying people for not working. He probably thinks that Working From Home means you're a housewife.
Turds. No talent. NYR’s shorthanded game was more lethal than this lots PP.
I’m not sure if it’s Sullivan or that there just isn’t any talent. Or both
I’m not sure if it’s Sullivan or that there just isn’t any talent. Or both
I thought the Pens gave really good effort against the Rangers yesterday and some of our players were very good ..... unfortunately the Rangers have more talent/speed throughout the lineup then us and are outstanding at scoring off the rush in transition ..... when the Pens started turning the puck over it led to odd man breaks which fed into the Rangers strength ..... add to that, the Pens structure and defensive positioning was bad far to often ..... well it led to 7 goals for the Rangers ....... after the score was tied 3-3, the Rangers quickly scored 2 big PP goals to go ahead 5-3 ....... also, Quick outplayed Jarry and was really good in the 3rd period to shut down any comeback by the Pens......
If the Pens are going to compete against a team with size, speed, talent, physicality, and goaltending like the Ranger, they have to be highly structured, positionally sound, very disciplined, good specialty units and get good goaltending ......
The video below illustrates some of what I'm talking about (go to the 52 second mark of the video to start the play I'm talking about) ....... The Rangers get the puck in their own zone and transition up ice ....... in our end, Crosby and Pettersson double team a Ranger down low leaving Fox, the eventual goal scorer, all alone in the right circle ...... then instead of releasing and going out to help defend Fox, Sid skates behind the net away from the play and leaves Fox all alone to skate into the slot and score (poor defensive zone structure/positioning) ...... to make things worse, watch Jarry ...... when Fox takes the puck to the low right circle, Jarry appropriately goes into the rVH position on the near post to defend against a bad angle shot, but when Fox brings the puck toward the low slot, Jarry never moved out off the post ...... Fox skates 10 feet (or more) with the puck laterally toward the slot and Jarry never moves ..... when the puck is moved that far , the goalie has to move and change his positioning which Jarry did not, therefore he was off angle, out of position and gave up a huge amount of open net ...... and a goal ! ...... from where the backhand shot was taken, the proper positioning for Jarry was out near the corner of the crease (where the curved outer part of the crease meets the side of the crease that comes out perpendicular from the goal line) or slightly to the right of that area ....... he stayed in the rVH on the goal post the entire time ..... even if he can't get all the way out, the closer he can get to that position the better his chance for a save (if he gets all the way out, the puck hits him in the chest) ....... so poor defensive structure/positioning and less than solid goaltending led to a goal....
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I texted to some buddies yesterday something of the following: "For the first time since 2007, I can legitimately say some of these teams are just much better than the Penguins, as the Rangers certainly are."
Probably has been the case even prior to this season ......
Just as an aside, I like the Pens new 3rd line so far ...... Reilly Smith, Eller, Puustinen ..... think they have played well lately.
Way deeper analysis than I'm capable of initially analyzing! You're definitely passionate GMan! I was just really disappointed with that game. They showed spurts and yep, talent, like you mentioned, in the end usually rules the day but they are so prone to committing dumb turnovers that lead to sticky situations.
Their PP is pretty useless, they should just decline it and play 5 on 5. Malkin, is he done or injured or something else? Regardless, he has no business being on the PP anymore.
Oddly enough, they sit just 6 out of a Wildcard spot. And of course we can all look back and wonder. What happens if they don't blow it @ Calgary. Lose in OT @ Ottawa. Others I cannot remember, but when we do that, we are just kinda trying to patch potholes with peanut butter. The "if they'd have just won this one, that one" excuses are for bad teams.
This is a very bad team, with not much talent and a coach that is either too stubborn to adapt his style to what he has or is just kinda going through the motions until the offseason.
In the end, us as Pens have been spoiled rotten. It's time to put that spoil to bed and rebuild for the future. I'm looking forward to the offseason to see what Dubas can do.
And one person I'd definitely trade is Jarry. Didn't like him being re-signed and he seems like he just sagging. Now, who can blame him with the weak support he gets, but he is a piece that can get more pieces.
Former penguin Kanstantin Koltsov passed at 42 from suspected detached blood clot.
Unfortunately Line 2 is absolutely worthless now. Malkin is just a sinkhole on both ends.
Well another awe inspiring performance so far. PP limp as usual. Not 1 single guy in front of the net the entire PP. NJ could and probably should be up 3-1 or 4-1 right now.
And something that just tells me this team is extremely tame and soft. About the 15 minute mark in the 2nd. Jarry freezes a puck. Whistle blows. NJ players slaps Jarry's glove trying to jar it loose. Nothing happens. Oh wait O'Connor chest pushed and 1 arm pushed the NJ guy.
How about stand up for your goalie, drive your glove into that guys face and right into the glass. Send a message that you actually care about your goalie.
And something that just tells me this team is extremely tame and soft. About the 15 minute mark in the 2nd. Jarry freezes a puck. Whistle blows. NJ players slaps Jarry's glove trying to jar it loose. Nothing happens. Oh wait O'Connor chest pushed and 1 arm pushed the NJ guy.
How about stand up for your goalie, drive your glove into that guys face and right into the glass. Send a message that you actually care about your goalie.
Devils 5 Pens 2, Final ......... DONE !
I'd like to see what Ponomarev, Poulin, and St. Ivany have, call them up.
Agree with "Allan McMurray" .... stand up for your goalie.
Will be interesting to see what Dubas does in the off season.
Would like to see what Koivunen has, get him to WBS Pens next season at latest, not yet ready for Pittsburgh Pens but may be ready in 2 years hopefully...... his reported height and weight of 5'11", 161 was when he was drafted ...... now 6'0", 182 and with improved skating and strength, he has 56 points in 59 games in highest pro league in Finland ...... they say he has large upside especially offensively, 20 y/o ..... we'll see if he is for real or not.
I'd like to see what Ponomarev, Poulin, and St. Ivany have, call them up.
Agree with "Allan McMurray" .... stand up for your goalie.
Will be interesting to see what Dubas does in the off season.
Would like to see what Koivunen has, get him to WBS Pens next season at latest, not yet ready for Pittsburgh Pens but may be ready in 2 years hopefully...... his reported height and weight of 5'11", 161 was when he was drafted ...... now 6'0", 182 and with improved skating and strength, he has 56 points in 59 games in highest pro league in Finland ...... they say he has large upside especially offensively, 20 y/o ..... we'll see if he is for real or not.
My boys always have my back. Guy slashed at my glove two weeks ago and about 20 penalty minutes were dished out from the aftermath.
Old, slow, soft. Been that for for at least a couple years. Pens now have numerous Jack Johnson contract commitments. Good luck! By catering to the core, with unrealistic visions of grandeur since 2018, the Pens have prolonged the agony. Particularly regarding the contracts to Carter, Geno and Letang, the managed this worse than the Kings and Blackhawks. They've even tied their own hands in being able to bring up young guys from WBS.
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Right now.....consider losses to be a good thing.
Sullivan needs to be terminated immediately. His team, the team he coaches and instructs blew a 4-0 lead.
I don't care if they owe him money. He is so far removed from being an effective coach with this team. New blood, new ideas are needed.
I don't care if they owe him money. He is so far removed from being an effective coach with this team. New blood, new ideas are needed.
When up 4-0, I said to myself ‘better institute the trap/ left wing lock or they lose’. They lost. On the bright side, a top ten pick is on the horizon. Other than that, there is no bright side. They suck. Crosby is still amazing. Letang and Karlsson…wow, just wow.
Yep.
When you have a 4 goal lead with <4 minutes left in the 2nd period no professional should need to be told red line then dump,we obviously dont need any more offense to win.
And anyone who makes plainly stupid plays (ie Karlsson or anyone else) should have their azz plastered to the bench a few shifts if they don't get the message,I don't care if the name is Malkin,Letang,or anyone else. If you're the boss,you need to act like one.
The lack of discipline, self or coached,is unbelievable based in the age of these guys.
This isn't a HS Freshman team.
When you have a 4 goal lead with <4 minutes left in the 2nd period no professional should need to be told red line then dump,we obviously dont need any more offense to win.
And anyone who makes plainly stupid plays (ie Karlsson or anyone else) should have their azz plastered to the bench a few shifts if they don't get the message,I don't care if the name is Malkin,Letang,or anyone else. If you're the boss,you need to act like one.
The lack of discipline, self or coached,is unbelievable based in the age of these guys.
This isn't a HS Freshman team.
Outside of Sid and maybe Rust none of these guys plays with a sense of urgency. They seem to be dispassionate and disconnected and I think that rubs off on the rest of the team. Adding a guy like karlsson to this group was a mistake as he feeds into that vibe
For this team to have any chance in Sid’s remaining years they need to encourage Letang and Malkin to either retire or move on. I’m not sure you could get
Much for either in a trade but it would be
Addition by subtraction.
I mean.......they cannot bring Sullivan back. There are good hockey coaches out there. Need new voice, new systems, new methods. Sully won't change. Sully would be great for a team like NJ.
I mean FSG is massive conglomerate, they can easily buy Sullivan out.
Because if they are serious about money, the Pens are gonna start to lose them money if changes aren't made.
Couple comments and some analysis ........
- Pens played really well the other night in the 4-1 win over Carolina and I enjoyed seeing some younger guys playing ..... 7 of the 18 skaters were 25 y/o or younger and they brought a much needed energy level ..... the 4th line of Poulin-Gruden-Puljujarvi did a nice job ...... Puustinen and DOC have shown this year that they can play in the NHL in the top 3 lines ...... POJ has not looked that good this year until the last several games when I thought he has played better and St. Ivany has been solid since coming up from WBS recently ...... St. Ivany has played a simple game and you can tell is a little hesitant to get too involved offensively but he has some size, skates well, and defends well ..... he looks to have some promise ........ I want to see more of these 7 young guys and Ludvig for the remainder of the games this season !
- Sid has 7 points total in the last 2 games and is still amazing !
- Bunting has been doing well with the Pens and brings an element they need on the forecheck and around the net ...... he has scored 6 points in 10 games with the Pens but he is not Jake Guentzel.
- Graves has been a major disappointment this year with the Pens but when given sheltered minutes on the 3rd line he has looked better ..... the problem is that his salary cap hit of >4M is too much for a 3rd line defenseman.
- Analysis ..... there was a good article that I saw today by PensBurgh about Jarry that stole some of my thunder as I did an analysis of our 2 goalies last week and just never got a chance to post it, so I'll post an updated version now ...... the PensBurgh article shows how over Jarry's career he has done well the 1st half of the season and poor the 2nd half and it is a recurring theme/problem ...... I'm just going to talk about both goalies this season ...... the eye test says that both Jarry and Ned played very well the 1st half of the season (Oct thru Dec) and were a very good tandem during that time keeping us in games, but both have played poorly the 2nd half of the season (Jan to now) ..... Ned did have a great game against Carolina 2 nights ago but has played very poorly overall the 2nd half of the season ...... below are the 2 goalies rankings among top goalies in advanced stats for the entire year, 1st half of the year, 2nd half of the year, and so far in March ...... I'm going to use delta SV% (dSV%), goals saved above average (GSAx), and high danger SV% (HDSV%) .......
- Stats for the entire year as to where our goalies rank among top goalies .......
TJ - dSV% - #19, GSAx - #17, HDSV% - #46
Ned - dSV% - #36, GSAx - #36, HDSV% - #51
- Stats for the 1st half of the year ........
TJ - dSV% - #13, GSAx - #8, HDSV% - #46
Ned - dSV% - #11, GSAx - #19, HDSV% - #37
- Stats for the 2nd half of the year .......
TJ - dSV% - #35, GSAx - # 37, HDSV% - #46
Ned - dSV% - # 49, GSAx - #46, HDSV% - #51
- Stats since 3/1/24 ......
TJ - dSV% - #41, GSAx - #45, HDSV% - #51
Ned - dSV% - #42, GSAx - #41, HDSV% - # 49
The stats confirm that both goalies were good the 1st half of the year and poor the 2nd half, TJ over the year has played like a top 20 goalie and Ned a top ~35 goalie, both are having difficulty stopping high danger shots ..... if you look at past seasons stats, TJ almost always plays well the 1st half of the season (and has thus made the all-star game because of it) and poorly the 2nd half ..... some of this is because of injuries that pile up over the season but he also appears to wear down as the season progresses ...... not sure if a different conditioning program would help or if the Pens need a 1 and 1A goalie situation that some teams have now where the games would be pretty evenly split between the 2 goalies might help ..... the other option is to trade for another starting goalie ...... the problem with HDSV% is a little unclear as TJ has had a better SV% on these shots in the past ....... problems with HDSV% can be multifactorial but are often from poor movement leading to poor positioning or problems with particular save selections (glove. blocker, 5 hole, etc.) or just playing too deep in the net, etc. ....
- Will be interesting to see if changes in the goalie room occur over the summer ...... Joel Blomqvist is lurking at WBS but not sure he is ready yet for next season ..... he may be the long term solution.
- Pens played really well the other night in the 4-1 win over Carolina and I enjoyed seeing some younger guys playing ..... 7 of the 18 skaters were 25 y/o or younger and they brought a much needed energy level ..... the 4th line of Poulin-Gruden-Puljujarvi did a nice job ...... Puustinen and DOC have shown this year that they can play in the NHL in the top 3 lines ...... POJ has not looked that good this year until the last several games when I thought he has played better and St. Ivany has been solid since coming up from WBS recently ...... St. Ivany has played a simple game and you can tell is a little hesitant to get too involved offensively but he has some size, skates well, and defends well ..... he looks to have some promise ........ I want to see more of these 7 young guys and Ludvig for the remainder of the games this season !
- Sid has 7 points total in the last 2 games and is still amazing !
- Bunting has been doing well with the Pens and brings an element they need on the forecheck and around the net ...... he has scored 6 points in 10 games with the Pens but he is not Jake Guentzel.
- Graves has been a major disappointment this year with the Pens but when given sheltered minutes on the 3rd line he has looked better ..... the problem is that his salary cap hit of >4M is too much for a 3rd line defenseman.
- Analysis ..... there was a good article that I saw today by PensBurgh about Jarry that stole some of my thunder as I did an analysis of our 2 goalies last week and just never got a chance to post it, so I'll post an updated version now ...... the PensBurgh article shows how over Jarry's career he has done well the 1st half of the season and poor the 2nd half and it is a recurring theme/problem ...... I'm just going to talk about both goalies this season ...... the eye test says that both Jarry and Ned played very well the 1st half of the season (Oct thru Dec) and were a very good tandem during that time keeping us in games, but both have played poorly the 2nd half of the season (Jan to now) ..... Ned did have a great game against Carolina 2 nights ago but has played very poorly overall the 2nd half of the season ...... below are the 2 goalies rankings among top goalies in advanced stats for the entire year, 1st half of the year, 2nd half of the year, and so far in March ...... I'm going to use delta SV% (dSV%), goals saved above average (GSAx), and high danger SV% (HDSV%) .......
- Stats for the entire year as to where our goalies rank among top goalies .......
TJ - dSV% - #19, GSAx - #17, HDSV% - #46
Ned - dSV% - #36, GSAx - #36, HDSV% - #51
- Stats for the 1st half of the year ........
TJ - dSV% - #13, GSAx - #8, HDSV% - #46
Ned - dSV% - #11, GSAx - #19, HDSV% - #37
- Stats for the 2nd half of the year .......
TJ - dSV% - #35, GSAx - # 37, HDSV% - #46
Ned - dSV% - # 49, GSAx - #46, HDSV% - #51
- Stats since 3/1/24 ......
TJ - dSV% - #41, GSAx - #45, HDSV% - #51
Ned - dSV% - #42, GSAx - #41, HDSV% - # 49
The stats confirm that both goalies were good the 1st half of the year and poor the 2nd half, TJ over the year has played like a top 20 goalie and Ned a top ~35 goalie, both are having difficulty stopping high danger shots ..... if you look at past seasons stats, TJ almost always plays well the 1st half of the season (and has thus made the all-star game because of it) and poorly the 2nd half ..... some of this is because of injuries that pile up over the season but he also appears to wear down as the season progresses ...... not sure if a different conditioning program would help or if the Pens need a 1 and 1A goalie situation that some teams have now where the games would be pretty evenly split between the 2 goalies might help ..... the other option is to trade for another starting goalie ...... the problem with HDSV% is a little unclear as TJ has had a better SV% on these shots in the past ....... problems with HDSV% can be multifactorial but are often from poor movement leading to poor positioning or problems with particular save selections (glove. blocker, 5 hole, etc.) or just playing too deep in the net, etc. ....
- Will be interesting to see if changes in the goalie room occur over the summer ...... Joel Blomqvist is lurking at WBS but not sure he is ready yet for next season ..... he may be the long term solution.
The Pens PP is the 2nd worst in the NHL this season (31/32) and Karlsson has been the point man for most of the year on the 1st team PP ...... it just has not clicked as expected on the PP when they brought him in ..... but to be fair, the Pens have tried all kinds of combinations on the PP without much success so can't blame it all on Karlsson ...... I missed the 1st period tonight but Letang was supposed to replace Karlsson on the 1st PP unit (they have tried this before) .....
lol. Another blown two goal lead. Losers on the shootout and completely outplayed in three on three overtime.
This is not the right coach for the team. Likewise, some of these players have checked out. They shouldn’t be this bad. Changes must occur.
Agree, more of the same ..... blow a 2 goal lead in the 3rd period, didn't play well in OT, and lost in shootout.
2 of the Columbus goals were directly related to mistakes by Letang who looks worn down and the third goal was St. Ivany getting beaten to the outside low followed by poor positioning by Ned leading to him being beaten to the short side.
It certainly looks like we need a full coaching change but wouldn't be surprised it might be the assistants only.
Still interested to see what player changes that Dubas makes over the summer.
This whole 2 goal thing is not the exception. It's the norm with this team and with this staff. I would love to see a whole new regime.
Like you, I'm excited and interested to see what Dubas has in store for the summer.
The fact that they keep Sullivan is proof that no one cares, not even Dubas or the ownership group.
Seriously. Playing for nothing at this point, so I’d like to see more of Poulin, Gruden, even Marc Johnstone, etc. and sit Carter. He’s not coming back next year, so what do they owe him?
I don’t wish ill on Graves, but thankfully his injury has allowed both St Ivany and Ludvig to be in the lineup.
They are going to blow the lottery pick aren't they? But it is fun watching Sid play.
