The 2022 - 2023 Penguins Thread

Steeltrap said:

Let's see....We have 6 defenseman, NY has 6 defenseman. Malkin took a stupid penalty....but Malkin had only (only?) 4 penalty minutes (2 penalties). Now, I watched the game up to the last 15 seconds of the 1st period....when, on cue, the Pens gave up goal #2. I then turned to basketball....and it didn't matter who was playing.

When I turned the game back on, it was 6-0.

Again.....we have 6 guys rostered on the D. They have 6 guys rostered on the D. Is it the quantity....it's the quality?

So...I just tossed some numbers on a spreadsheet....'cause I usually have a spreadsheet for anything. The average age of the Pens defense is 30. The average age of NY defense is 26. The defenseman who played the most for the Pens (LeTang..age 36) played 24.23. The defenseman who played the most for NY (Miller...age 23) played 22.55 .

Now, I'm not going to say that Letang is a bad player. He's not. He's a good player. But age "catches up" with everyone. Also, one man does not carry a team...in any team sport. And hockey is one of the toughest "endurance" sports with the average shift of...what?...from 45 seconds to 90 seconds.

I can't blame the team or the coach. But I can blame Hextall. Now...Hextall gets his marching orders from the ownership group. So, I have zero knowledge of what that discussion is.....but I have to think the "ownership group" wanted to keep Crosby, LeTang, and Malkin....along with Carter. I think that's what happens when non-hockey guys get involved in hockey decisions. Look at the Dallas Cowboys.

It's all over for this year. They may make the first round.....but after that I have no visions of Stanley.

Click to expand...

It’s not just the age of the players it’s their style of play as well. None of the Pens defenseman have the ability to clear the crease make a big hit is also struggle to move the puck out of their own zone when trapped. They also get injured a lot. Why is that? Age could be a factor but it is also because they are soft and get punished easily by the other team on the forecheck. Letang has all the elite superstar physical capabilities, but has always lacked a strong hockey IQ Same can be said about Malkin. And as they get older and slower, they don’t have the ability to recover from their dumb decisions and mistakes anymore. Hockey is literally a game in which, as you grow older and lose a lot of your physical abilities, you must become a smarter overall player and not put yourself into bad positions, they also get rattled very easily and it’s been that way their entire career. And I’m sorry, but Brian Dumoulin is finished. And the funny thing is the three defenseman that were brought in to be physical are all injured right now. Petra, Rutta, and Kulikov…

There is a lot of blame to go around. From management to coaching to the players themselves Sullivan has a history of being very stubborn and refusing to play certain players that management has brought in. Certainly players have a much shorter leash while others seem to be able to get away with anything. It just seems unbelievable to me that Sullivan wants to play the fast style that one them back to back Cups yet the roster has to be one of the slowest in the NHL right now. And I’ll say it again. The speed game with small under size skill players is not what is successful in the league right at this moment. They caught lightning in a bottle in 2016 and 2017, but the league is geared towards bigger more physical players at all positions. It would be one thing if they had a smaller roster, but still had speed and quickness and skill but instead they have a small roster that is slow as molasses Soft as butter and can’t seem to finish any goal scoring opportunities that they get. So Sullivan will bench a guy like Kap but continue to give big minutes to guys like Carter and Dumolin. It boggles the mind.

And once again the goaltending is not great by any means but the team in front of them gives them no chance night in a night out. They consistently see odd man breaks, breakaways, guys wide-open in the slot, dudes, camping out in the crease, basically guys just rolling around on covered in the defensive zone. If you don’t think that that mentally starts to wear on the goaltender when he’s given no chance night in a night out to make saves them I don’t know what to tell you.

It’s an ugly situation from top to bottom, and nobody seems to be anywhere close to coming up with a solution.

HIt is incredibly rare and lucky that Sid and Geno are still playing at this high of a level and staying healthy ar this aged . And the Pens are just urinating it well away with terrible team management and coaching. Outside of a couple top 6 players, this team is full of warm bodies. It would at least be one thing if the bottom 6 were a shutdown group or brought some thump and energy to their shifts, but they are just 6 blank faces who do nothing well and are overall, unremarkable.

But even the top 6 has major flaws. Jake still shows flashes of great play but I honestly believe that the abuse he takes (because of his size) and that nasty shoulder injury a couple seasons ago has really altered his game. He looks very passive most nights (especially against bigger, heavier teams), and his body language when he gets frustrated is bad. Rust looks like a guy who got paid and now doesn’t care most nights. That tantrum last night when he blocked the shot on the PP and then took himself out of the play, leading to the winning goal illustrates that. He even called himself out for that poor excuse after the game. Rakkel looks ok most nights but is inconsistent. Zucker is probably the best winger they have right now. He crashes in on the forecheck, battles hard all over the ice, finds openings to get shots off, etc. BUT, he is oft injured. Sid flashes moments of brilliance but also looks like he just gives up and takes games off when he gets frustrated. Malkin is still the same old Malkin. He has been pretty good this year but still loses his mind and does dumb things too often. And him and Letang consistently torpedo the PP with their blue line shenanigans.

And as always, the D corps is undersized, make bad decisions, can’t clear their own end, etc…

The rest of the east is getting bigger, faster, younger and more hungry. Meanwhile, the Pens are getting smaller, slower, older, and more content. What is management and the coaching staff thinking?