Pens vs Hurricanes (12/22/22)

[Pabst]

Last game before a 5 day Christmas break. This is the third game against the Canes in 3 weeks, so I'll spare a long write up.

Long story short: Carolina is a solid team on both ends of the ice. They are particularly strong at shot suppression. Currently, they are the best team in the league 5 on 5, but their special teams are nothing to write home about (PP in particular).

As you can tell by their less-than-stellar goal differential and high number of OT games, Carolina loves to grind out close contests.

Andrei Svechnikov - Paul Stastny - Martin Necas
Teuvo Teravainen - Jesper Kotkaniemi - Seth Jarvis
Jordan Martinook - Jordan Staal - Jesper Fast
Derek Stepan - Jack Drury - Stefan Noesen

Jaccob Slavin / Brent Burns
Brady Skjei / Brett Pesce
Calvin de Haan / Jalen Chatfield

Pyotr Kochetkov



Sounds like no Archibald or Poehling tonight, so expect limited minutes from the 4th line yet again. Jarry currently has a 13 game point streak going (11-0-2). Pens record is 15 from Tom Barrasso. In other milestone news, Sid is currently 6 points behind Teemu Selanne for 16th all time, and 16 behind Stan Mikita. If/when he passes those two, that'll be it for a while since there's a huge gap before he gets to Paul Coffey.


Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Rickard Rakell
Jason Zucker - Evgeni Malkin - Bryan Rust
Brock McGinn - Jeff Carter - Kasperi Kapanen
Danton Heinen - Teddy Blueger - Drew O’Connor

Marcus Pettersson / Kris Letang
Brian Dumoulin / Jan Rutta
P.O. Joseph / Chad Ruhwedel

Tristan Jarry

[fractalsteel]

Keep an eye out on the line combos the first 10 minutes. Last game after #25 went down Sully double shifted #77 and #71 a good bit.
With the fourth line down two players it is going to really test them as an energy line and defensively. Not to mention the PK. Rust might end up playing more than the nearly 2 minutes he did SH against the Rangers. It would be a real pickle if he was on the top PP unit.

I'm so tired from shoveling snow today. 140 feet of sidewalk around my house, helping the neighbors and digging out stuck cars because the borough didn't plow nearly enough until most of the snow had fallen. Probably won't make it through the game.

[Pabst]

Fractal are you getting this polar vortex?

We didn't get much snow, but are currently a balmy -3 with wind chills near -30.

Freaking miserable

[fractalsteel]

Fractal are you getting this polar vortex?

We didn't get much snow, but are currently a balmy -3 with wind chills near -30.

Freaking miserable

Snow,rain,ice, snow now showers
Tommorrow the bottom falls out.
Wind gusts up to 60 MPH and sub zero temps.
I may not even go out to get the mail.

[fractalsteel]

BFJC's 1200 game.

[Pabst]

Fractal are you getting this polar vortex?

We didn't get much snow, but are currently a balmy -3 with wind chills near -30.

Freaking miserable

Snow,rain,ice, snow now showers
Tommorrow the bottom falls out.
Wind gusts up to 60 MPH and sub zero temps.
I may not even go out to get the mail.

Ugh. That's much worse than what we have.

Stay warm!

[Orangesteel]

LGP.

Balmy 21 degrees up here in Seattle.

[fractalsteel]

Well that went to shit after the PP goal.
Dumo late reacting to his man on the first goal then lost a FO in the DZ that led to the goal from around the blue line. Lousy way to close out a period.

Nice dive Staal.

[fractalsteel]

Rust has been great on the PK tonight.

Aside from the PP tally the Pens top 3 forwards have been neutralized by the Canes.

[fractalsteel]

PK fuckers tie it up.
Blueger as the catalyst and McGinn buries the rebound.

[Orangesteel]

What a goal by Rusty Bottoms.

That’s called earning your giant paycheck. He’s been playing much better. We speak your name.

[Pabst]

Wtf was that, Geno?

Why chase Slavin behind his own net? Leads to a 3 on 2 the other way and that's all she wrote

[Orangesteel]

Fucking dumbfucks.

And honestly, as good as Jarry has been he was so out of position on Staal’s wrap around.

Just a total waste of an epic goal by Rust.

[fractalsteel]

Wtf was that, Geno?

Why chase Slavin behind his own net? Leads to a 3 on 2 the other way and that's all she wrote

That was a terrible decision.
I think that Malkin isn't very good at 3 on 3. It isn't the kind of setup that he can thrive in. When on his game he takes chances and makes plays all over the ice. You can't do that in OT.
I know the fans love OT but I think it is a gimmick but you can't have these guys playing three/four hours to settle the game.
Funny thing, when it goes to OT almost all the concessions are shut down so how does that help the bottom line?

I also think that +/- should not be used in OT.

[Hacksaw Jim Duggan]

Media is catching up to the narrative that Dumpo (my nickname) has been awful for quite awhile now. Same can be said about Carter.

Much was said about the disservice the team did under Bylsma putting Iginla on his off wing. For whatever reason, the coaching staff has decided Jeff Carter is a shutdown center. This may be an even greater sin. For most of his career, Carter has been nothing more than a pure goal scorer. That's what we call asset mismanagement and lack of identity, which are absolute killers.

Sullivan is still a fine coach, but the team is stale under his watch. I think with a Boston-centric owner group, he's probably the man until Sid retires. Hextall has been patient and maybe unimpressive in some cases. He's made some rather shrewd moves, but there's a real case that the next few years will be his career defining as Pens GM. The team has an absurd amount of cap available. I'm really looking at the next 2 years after this season as the last chance for Crosby's Penguins to make some splash. This could and should mean acquiring a big dick player on defense or forward before the deadline, realizing the money is there for them next year.

Hextall has done a masterful job keeping the trio in Pittsburgh and budgeting the team through various acquisitions. There's very little fat on this roster. That doesn't mean it has cohesion and talent to excel. It needs an identity in the bottom six. I don't think that happens this year, but it should be the objective for the final years of Crosby.

Sentimentality will be tested yet again. It's time to move on from Dumpo. Hextall punted on the sentimentality question this year bringing back Malkin, Letang, and Rust. Dumpo is still a locker room leader.

Hextall has done great organizing the team financially, bringing in valuable players, and starting to build some semblance of a prospect pool through keeping his first round pick. He's gotten bigger on defense. He's gotten a top 6 forward in Rakell that has fit like a glove with Crosby so much that even stubborn sully and the man himself Sid couldn't deny the chemistry. It's time for some in-season manuevers to set this team up for next year and the next two (and maybe final) years of Crosby.

Jordan Staal is a free agent.

[Hacksaw Jim Duggan]

Media is catching up to the narrative that Dumpo (my nickname) has been awful for quite awhile now. Same can be said about Carter.

Much was said about the disservice the team did under Bylsma putting Iginla on his off wing. For whatever reason, the coaching staff has decided Jeff Carter is a shutdown center. This may be an even greater sin. For most of his career, Carter has been nothing more than a pure goal scorer. That's what we call asset mismanagement and lack of identity, which are absolute killers.

Sullivan is still a fine coach, but the team is stale under his watch. I think with a Boston-centric owner group, he's probably the man until Sid retires. Hextall has been patient and maybe unimpressive in some cases. He's made some rather shrewd moves, but there's a real case that the next few years will be his career defining as Pens GM. The team has an absurd amount of cap available. I'm really looking at the next 2 years after this season as the last chance for Crosby's Penguins to make some splash. This could and should mean acquiring a big dick player on defense or forward before the deadline, realizing the money is there for them next year.

Hextall has done a masterful job keeping the trio in Pittsburgh and budgeting the team through various acquisitions. There's very little fat on this roster. That doesn't mean it has cohesion and talent to excel. It needs an identity in the bottom six. I don't think that happens this year, but it should be the objective for the final years of Crosby.

Sentimentality will be tested yet again. It's time to move on from Dumpo. Hextall punted on the sentimentality question this year bringing back Malkin, Letang, and Rust. Dumpo is still a locker room leader.

Hextall has done great organizing the team financially, bringing in valuable players, and starting to build some semblance of a prospect pool through keeping his first round pick. He's gotten bigger on defense. He's gotten a top 6 forward in Rakell that has fit like a glove with Crosby so much that even stubborn sully and the man himself Sid couldn't deny the chemistry. It's time for some in-season manuevers to set this team up for next year and the next two (and maybe final) years of Crosby.

Jordan Staal is a free agent.

Whelp, the bolded was given to Mikael Fucking Granlund.