GDT #81: Pens vs Hawks

[spiritfan]

Hey fellas… how’s the country club?… tickets should be cheaper in the future for us half glass full drinkers

[MR25]

Dude you literally only show up when things are going bad and it's hilarious (read: not)

[mikey]

That's what an actual loser looks like...

[Gaucho]

fire Hextall

[Nuge]

Fire spiritfan

[iamjs]

(except spiritfan)

[Gaucho]

those were the days

[skullman80]

Why is that picture so pixelated? haha.

[stonewizard51]

Stands to reason since the Pens play a pixelated style of game.

[NAN]

I woke up this morning and realized that game still sucked.

[shoeshine boy]

I was never happy that they chose Hextall for GM. I was happy that he was able to keep The Big 3 but always believed, "once a Flyer, always a Flyer." and not in a good way.

[Gaucho]

Geno pretty much acknowledged after the game that the Penguins simply are too old. Good job, Ron.

[shoeshine boy]

Geno pretty much acknowledged after the game that the Penguins simply are too old. Good job, Ron.

he's likely not wrong. I mean, what/who is leading all of these top teams? young, skilled D men. looking at the Pens, exactly who is Letang going to pass the torch to?

[Gaucho]

Geno pretty much acknowledged after the game that the Penguins simply are too old. Good job, Ron.

he's likely not wrong. I mean, what/who is leading all of these top teams? young, skilled D men. looking at the Pens, exactly who is Letang going to pass the torch to?

Petry

[Lelldorin]

Sullivan is/has been a good coach, but I am a bit concerned that some of our younger players have produced more when we have lost them - Bluegers, Mariono, Kapanen (maybe not), McCann, etc...
To be fair, McGinn has not improved since he left

I can give Sullivan the benefit of the doubt for the amount of injured D-men, but Hextall... Almost everyone on this board wanted a 1B or good backup to Jarry after last season since he can't stay healthy and what happened this year??? He also gave up a 2nd round pick and $5 million of cap space the upcoming two seasons for a player that does not seem be to able to play on the 2nd line or drive the 3rd line

[mikey]

Blugers and Kapanen have played 25 shifts with their new teams...I wouldn't count them as anything.

What about the guys that did better here? Do they count? Sheary? Scott Wilson? Kuhnhackl? Aston-Reese? Murray? Maatta produced and played more here than anywhere else...he's still 28.

[Gaucho]

Has McCann really improved as a player, though? He's obviously getting the kind of minutes now he'd never see in Pittsburgh.

[mikey]

We'll see in the playoffs, right? It's not like he didn't produce here. He did. He was on a 50 point pace here as a Penguin. He got way less in Florida. Toronto didn't keep him either. He produced (with more time, and PP time) 50 points last year in Seattle. And now he's a 20% shooter on the wing (instead of being a center) and he hit a career year...cool.

No one doubted his talent. What was doubted is how he could perform in tight spots. He's a perimeter player. He has never scored a goal in the playoffs in his NHL career. 3 assists in 12 games.

Was a goal every two games player in the O, but in the playoffs it was a goal every 3 games. 1 goal at the U18's for Canada. Never named to U20 team.

I'm just not worried about Jared McCann...

[Lelldorin]

I should have put it in the other thread instead of the GDT, my bad

I agree that Sullivan managed to enable Sheary, Scott Wilson, Kuhnhackl, Aston-Reese, Murray and Maatta to perform. He turned some of them into NHL'ers. But are the current bottom six players that much worse than S Wilson, Kuhn and ZAR?

Or have we just been unlucky since the beginning of last year's playoff series against NYR? Historically bad shooting percent combined with very untimely goals against? I usually do not like to blame a whole season on bad luck. Then again, we probably only needed five more points to play against Carolina this year...