GDT #6: Pens vs Stars

[MR25]

Jesus Christ himself couldn't turn this bottom 6 into a scoring threat.

[King Colby]

Sully is safe and yinz are all kidding yourselves. Unless the expectation is to make bad players good

[Rx6687]

Jesus Christ himself couldn't turn this bottom 6 into a scoring threat.

This is the bottom line. You might be able to keep 3 players out of what they have.. Eller for sure because he's still pretty good. But even so, that's an entire line of nothingness. Total futility. They might actually have to part with assets to get teams to take a few of those players and try to catch lightning in a bottle with a few other guys.

[Dickie Dunn]

I don't see how Sullivan isn't on the hot seat. Dubas has no previous relationship or allegiance to him. Most of the players being described as "terrible" were brought in by Dubas, most to solid fan approval. Results under Sullivan have been trending downward regardless of the mix of players. The power play is **** despite bringing in EK65. Right or wrong, its easy to say the tactics, methods, and messaging from a long tenured coach are no longer working.

[The U]

Nieto is completely invisible. No offense? OK well at least he’s physical and will crash/bang a bit and create some turnovers? Nope.

Acciari was a physical force on his previous teams. He’s a penguin now and has completely disappeared. He was bulldozing D on the forecheck on Toronto. Now we get an empty sweater?

Zohorna and Eller look fine.

DOC has spurts but can’t impact the game in any meaningful way.

Carter is the worst guy on the roster, obviously.

I’m not sure how you fix this. Colin White? Hinostroza? Puustinen? How much of an upgrade would any of these guys be? Just more of the same IMO.

These forwards have to bring SOMETHING. If you can’t score or create offense at least bring some Tanev-like crazy energy. Or create havoc with a physical forecheck. Or intimidate with size or hits or agitate and draw penalties or play like Hathaway and just be a jerk all over the ice. You can’t bring zero to the table.

[Dickie Dunn]

I don't disagree at all, but at what point does that get pinned as Sullivan not getting the most out of his players or playing to their strengths?

[Morkle]

Where’s Rakell?

[willeyeam]

Bottom six is pathetic

They played organ music in the first and we were up 1-0 after 1.

[meecrofilm]

Acciari was a physical force on his previous teams. He’s a penguin now and has completely disappeared. He was bulldozing D on the forecheck on Toronto. Now we get an empty sweater?

Eller had a quote in an interview recently where he basically said the bottom-6 is being coached to play low-event hockey, i.e. not get scored on.

Not that I think we have a ton of offensive talent there, but looking at the track record for most of them, they shouldn't look completely inept like they currently do.

[meecrofilm]

Where’s Rakell?

Also, this.

[Dickie Dunn]

Acciari was a physical force on his previous teams. He’s a penguin now and has completely disappeared. He was bulldozing D on the forecheck on Toronto. Now we get an empty sweater?

Eller had a quote in an interview recently where he basically said the bottom-6 is being coached to play low-event hockey, i.e. not get scored on.

Not that I think we have a ton of offensive talent there, but looking at the track record for most of them, they shouldn't look completely inept like they currently do.

That's **** dumb

[King Colby]

If Sullivan's seat is hot, fire him now so that Edmonton can replace woodcroft with him and I can win my futures bet

[stonewizard51]

Sully said "we've got an awful lot of hockey in front of us". I guess he's saying they'll turn it around. If not, it's going to be a looooong season.

[King Colby]

Hes right ya know. Goaltending looks great and they will win games because of it

[Morkle]

The most glaringly frustrating thing to me is the PP. EK65 is the best powerplay QB, won a Norris because of his work, and they just plugged him into the current set-up thinking it'd work.

Tear it down, completely rebuild how that PP works, and if Malkin/Sid/Letang get upset about it, point to his Norris trophy and points on special teams.

[Rx6687]

Every single thing about how that power play is being run needs to be completely changed, and whoever is in charge of it should be fired. That's where I would start. They are turning world class talent into a garbage product.

[mikey]

This power play is much more shoot heavy than we've seen, particularly last year...much much more. We're putting a lot of stuff at the net. We just don't have much going on near the net.

As much as we hate the bottom six on merit right now...I think we might need to take the chance of a guy that can really shoot the lights out. A hired gun.

[Rx6687]

I agree we did see more shooting in last night's game in particular.. and there was nobody around the net, so no second cracks. To his credit, Oettinger is one of the best and last night he showed us that.

[mikey]

Yeah, Otter is unreal. I just don't think there's a platform for luck - so to speak - near the net if Sid isn't at the top of his game (and he's not going to be at the top athletically anymore)...I just don't see anyone in the organization that can work there. Rakell has been a zilch this season, which makes it worse.

I just don't know what's really out there...Mantha, Vrana, Hoffman (not that he'll play low) just aren't a fit salary wise...guys that I've wanted over the years like Hoglander seem to be catching on on their original teams...and I'm a little scared to add a middling choice. Like...I'd go down the road on POJ for Yakov Trenin and see if I think that might help, for instance...but I don't know who is going to be out there making trades before American Thanksgiving...

[meow]

The ghost of James Neal is probably floating around somewhere

My main PP complaint is that Sid has been winding up high so much. Stay below the dots, homie. I don’t want to see you taking one-Ts from center field

Oettinger is top 3 for me. Dude is an animal in there

[Trip McNeely]

If Oett doesn’t make like 5 ridiculous saves in the first period, that could have been a blowout.

The 4th line is trash. It’s a dead horse but Carter just shouldn’t be in the league anymore. I’d really just like to see Poulin or someone with some legs get a chance on the 4th line to see if they at least start skating around like idiots. What’s so frustrating for me about this 4th line ,outside of zero chance of scoring thing, is how flat they are out there. There’s not even the whole “we can’t score but we will run around and hit you”

[mikey]

Chart says Jeff Carter is fast af, bro...



Trust the science.

[Blue Canary]

If Dubas is taking on extra roles for the time being, I’d like to see what he could do with the PP. Hell, I’d like to see what his grandma could do with the PP.

[Trip McNeely]

Chart says Jeff Carter is fast af, bro...



Trust the science.

Lol. Skating speed hmmm. I bet Eric Tangradi hit 21 mph too

Why are people keeping these stats?

[Ad@m]

If Dubas is taking on extra roles for the time being, I’d like to see what he could do with the PP. Hell, I’d like to see what his grandma could do with the PP.

I snickered 🤭