GDT #23: Pens vs UHC

[King Colby]

Shut up. He should be relieved of his duties, yes, but I feel bad for him. It’s just, for as bad as they are, they’re still an nhl team, but they’re not competing like one.

[willeyeam]

**** fire everyone. This isn't generation X. We have sid, geno, letang, EK, rust, Rakell, Pettersson, no excuse to be this **** bad

[JC2]

Eh, I get it.

Watching this team right now is incredibly frustrating. It's the same old, same old, and there are currently no changes in sight. Expectations need to be tempered, but this team just doesn't play hard for a full 60.

I'm not going to completely stop watching them, but I'm also not going to go out of my way or adjust my schedule to catch every game.

[Trip McNeely]

Hindsight is 20/20…but it isn’t really that when Sully should have been fired this offseason. This isn’t a one time disappointment, it’s at least three years in a row of significant underachieving. A lot of coaches could have been fired after the 2021-22 season when they blew the series lead to the rangers, after two years in a row of first round playoff exits. Frankly, a significantly high number of coaches would have lost their job.

But Sullivan deserved leeway considering he was a 2 time cup champion. Then a year later we missed the playoffs in completely agonizing fashion. Then last season we play an egg essentially all season long. And now this season we are on the midst of our worst performance in 20 years.

It should have happened this summer. Now we are on the course of firing a coach midseason and hoping that history repeats itself. The problem is there’s not an enough talent on this team to expect a resurrection. And with how bad and unorganized we are defensively, I don’t see a coach making a huge turnaround without an offseason to really get the team to buy in

[mikey]

lol that’s not supposed to be a showy declaration or anything. But honestly this franchise has been painstaking the last couple of years and it’s culminating in some really ugly hockey

honest question, are you enjoying this iteration of the team?

Enjoying? Of course not. They're terrible. But I'm a diehard Penguins fan. So with that comes losses too. Sitting around waiting to see if they win a game and then watching the game is some Gen Z nonsense...

I'll continue to watch every game like always because this is my team. There aren't conditions on it. If I can survive Generation X, I can survive this without being a baby haha

[Dickie Dunn]

I would have fired Sullivan after the ridiculous losses to Columbus and Chicago to miss the playoffs. Too harsh on an excellent coach and who won this franchise two cups? Probably, but I never like the idea of a GM inheriting a coach. Instead he was "elevated" to a position where he was helping to hire his next boss, which was shockingly the most obvious and likely candidate anyways. Fine, I guess. He earned his keep and the right to further prove himself after missing the playoffs for the first time in an eternity (though lets not act like any of the post-Cup playoff appearances were worth a damn anyways), and maybe if he's involved in the new GM hiring process they'll be on the same page.

Are they though? EK65 certainly doesn't seem like a Sullivan player. He's certainly not a Jarry fan. In general, the franchise is stuck in limbo on what the hell it wants to do and what it can reasonably accomplish and now has the added complication of players who have completely quit on a coach who is apparently un-fireable.

We were season ticket holders for a long time and witnessed firsthand a lot of **** hockey. This is so much worse. This isn't a broke franchise flirting with a move to a midwestern shithole trotting out the best shitty players they could afford who worked their ass off every night but just would never be good enough. This is a roster loaded with past their prime hall of fame players and a lot of pretty pretty pretty good NHLers. They just don't give a **** anymore. We play defense like its the early **** 80s. Everything going on with this franchise right now is inexcusable.

[nocera]

Sports are entertainment. If you’re not being entertained, there’s zero shame not watching until that changes. Personally, I’ll still watch when I’m able but I’ll happily turn it off mid-game if they’re getting embarrassed. There are plenty of things to watch that would be more enjoyable.

[King Colby]

A strange twist is people calling for Dubas to go.

I have never been enamored by dubas but like wtf.

Outside of graves, hard to judge what he has done considering the hand he was dealt. He’s in phase 1 of the rebuild right now

[MR25]

I don't even know if I can place the blame for Graves on him aside from him physically signing the deal. He was only in for like a month, and still had Hextall's pro scouting team.

Hell, I don't even think they replaced the pro scouting department until like, August of this year, no?

[shafnutz05]

Sports are entertainment. If you’re not being entertained, there’s zero shame not watching until that changes. Personally, I’ll still watch when I’m able but I’ll happily turn it off mid-game if they’re getting embarrassed. There are plenty of things to watch that would be more enjoyable.

The status quo thing resonates with me. It's just the same sht every game for months now. If the organization is content with running it back over and over again why should I give them my time?

[Gabe]

I sure don't mind missing a game now to go to dinner. I use to make my schedule fit around the games.

[stonewizard51]

I'm like Mikey in that I'll keep watching no matter what however, if wifey wants to go out to dinner, I'm there. FTR I never used to feel that way.

[Trip McNeely]

One thing I think that also should be one of the nails in the coffin for Sully is how so many players are concurrently having the worst years of their career

Jarry, EK, Pettersson, even Graves (while he always stunk, really really really stinks here). I guess Poolparty is having a bit of a resurgence but it’s not too significant. And that doesn’t even include our vets like Geno and Letang, especially the latter who is playing his worst hockey in a decade imo. Yea, vets fall off cliffs sometimes but I just think it’s odd that we are seeing this all at the same time