☣☣ OFFICIAL GDT PENS @ SENS 4/7 7:30 ☣☣

Postby **Gaucho** » Wed Apr 08, 2015 7:43 am

The PP is killing them. It is baffling and sad and depressing and maddening and disgusting.

Postby **columbia** » Wed Apr 08, 2015 7:45 am

This sums up my current reaction:

Postby **Gaucho** » Wed Apr 08, 2015 8:36 am

Stone and Hoffman, a 6th and a 5th round pick. Who knew you could actually find decent forwards in later rounds.

YouTube · Postby **mikey** » Wed Apr 08, 2015 8:47 am

Stone, in particular, is incredibly intelligent. Just not overly skilled or a good skater. These gems exist, but we have other priorities in terms of attributes when we draft I guess...i'm not sure what those are to be honest and I respect the process, but some choices aren't just baffling with clear hindsight, they're baffling at the time.

But that's another topic. Back to finishing my bowl of Corn Flakes and bleach...

Postby **Gaucho** » Wed Apr 08, 2015 9:06 am

You can never have enough dumb cack-handed smurfs.

Postby **meow** » Wed Apr 08, 2015 9:10 am

Stone, in particular, is incredibly intelligent. Just not overly skilled or a good skater. These gems exist, but we have other priorities in terms of attributes when we draft I guess...i'm not sure what those are to be honest and I respect the process, but some choices aren't just baffling with clear hindsight, they're baffling at the time.

But that's another topic. Back to finishing my bowl of Corn Flakes and bleach...

I've always said that scouting intelligent players is infinitely more difficult than scouting skilled players. Skill jumps out at you the first time you see a player play. Intelligence takes some time of seeing smart play after smart play - even then, it sometimes takes seeing it happen game in and game out to really appreciate how smart some players can be.

YouTube · Postby **mikey** » Wed Apr 08, 2015 9:12 am

That's correct.

Postby **shmenguin** » Wed Apr 08, 2015 12:02 pm

i'll take your word that stone is smart, but he's doing things that our smart players aren't capable of.

no knock on sutter, since he's been overall pretty great lately (aside from last night), but he isn't going to get into a dirty area and make things happen like stone can.

YouTube · Postby **mikey** » Wed Apr 08, 2015 12:07 pm

Right. Intelligence is an attribute, like anything else. You and I could have the same IQ...but if I don't apply myself, and you do, we're probably going to have different life paths...

Postby **tifosi77** » Wed Apr 08, 2015 7:53 pm

LOL...Caufield just said nobody wants to play the Pens in the playoffs! And, i think he was serious!
It's this line of thinking that pervades in so many places that's poison to this franchise. It's like they have no idea how dire this is.

Just speaking as a former player, if I had my choice to play a 7-game series against an underachieving team with great players and a mediocre team with mediocre players, I'll take the matchup vs the mediocre players 100/100 times.

Postby **columbia** » Wed Apr 08, 2015 7:56 pm

The problem (amidst injuries) is that the Pens have mediocre players, who are underachieving.

Postby **Sarcastic** » Fri Apr 10, 2015 1:02 am

Lol some of you are silly. Want to blow up the roster? Makes sense. But the idea that trading players for warm cups of beer is just silly. Control the explosion. Shift the focus in age to a younger roster. Allow age to walk and look to add youth in free agency and through trades. See what's available, but don't maneuver just to maneuver. Lovejoy was bad, but he's been good overall. He's going to be big for the Pens in the next few seasons. You have a few young defensemen coming up that will relieve the pressure on the cap when you save 6 million when Martin and Erhoff leave. You can reinvest that into the forwards. That opens up the world to you. The only player I trade for a warm cup of beer is Scuderi. And mostly that is just to dump contract.

Lovejoy will be 32 next season. He's not going to suddenly become a great d-man. He looked fine for a short while, but now looks like the 7th defenseman he was before he left. He has not played well for a some time now. Either way, he's a 5th d-man at best and nothing to shed a tear over. There should be a better FA for his money. I'd give him up for a late pick, as he has no bigger value.

What Penguins must do is shed those several big contracts they have: Kunitz, Scuderi, Dupuis, Sutter. Everything starts with that and nothing gets done without it. Since we don't have many young forwards ready to step in, maybe except for Sun (who might be a replacement for Sutter), we'll mostly have to turn to the FA market. But we can't keep the problem players and their contracts.

The situation Penguins are in is not good.