Quote:
Originally Posted by Neil K Walk
The Penguins are like week old carp: they stink on ice.
Seriously, they're tied for last and there are so many questions:
1: what's up with Crosby's injury? "Upper body" is pretty ambiguous even if it's "not a concussion." Word is that it's a neck injury. That's almost as bad and I think a week off is overly optismistic.
2: what's up with Murray? He's mentally off his game. His glove hand has always been a point of contention.
3: what's up with Sprong? He's "finding himself" on the bench even though GM Jim Rutherford loves him and instead traded Hagelin (who was reputedly "beloved" by his teammates) to the Kings. I'm sensing that a battle between the coach and the GM is simmering to a boil and Sprong is the catalyst.
4: what's up with the team dynamics? Are they getting old and slow? Are they getting complacent? What's up with the stupid penalties then? Do they feel entitled? It's getting like the late 90s and it's only been a year or so since they last hoisted the cup. Now they're last? SMH.
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Well Neil, I share your olfactory evaluation of the Pens. They do stink. As to your questions, they're good ones. I don't necessarily have any good answers, but I'll give you my take:
1. I read this morning that Crosby's injury is neck related, and was sustained in the game against New Jersey. The reporter (Josh Yohe) also stated that Crosby was apparently okay after the game and that team officials and teammates are not overtly concerned about this being a "serious" injury.
I sure hope it's not serious because this team needs Sid on the ice ASAP!! Also having Brassard out with an injury at the same time makes the Pens center-position depth critically thin. Consider that the Pens had Malkin-Sheahan-Grant-Cullen centering their 4 lines against Tampa last night. I honestly think if we'd have had a healthy Crosby-Malkin-Brassard-Sheahan as our centers in that game the result would have been different.
2. Murray appears to be struggling mightily. Ironically, in the game last night his two best saves were made with his glove hand, but something is definitely off with his game. He doesn't appear calm and confident in net, which was his signature demeanor when winning a pair of Cups in his first two years. I don't think it's a coincidence that his play has been "off" since his father passed away during last season. By all accounts they were very close, and his father was a big influence in his life. Not sure if this is really a "sports" problem or how Murray would be best advised to deal with it.
3. Everything I've read suggests that Coach Sullivan and GM Rutherford are still compatico. Both are unhappy with the team's performance, and I think both share some of the responsibility for that performance in terms of player development/deployment and team personnel respectively. Daniel Sprong has become a lightning rod for criticism of Sullivan. His seeming intransigence regarding Sprong as a player who is not among the 12 forwards on the Pens who "can best help us win" is both confusing and disconcerting. This is a team which hasn't gotten a single goal from any of its 3rd or 4th line players since October 25th! Meanwhile Daniel Sprong, the Pens most talented forward prospect who scored 32 goals, and was an AHL All-Star last season, continues to be a healthy scratch while borderline NHLers such as Garrett Wilson (who has a total of "0 points" in his career 38 NHL games played) see regular ice time. Earlier in the season when Sullivan did allow Sprong to suit up for some games, he often got to play less than 5 minutes total per game. Still, Sprong managed to get 4 points in the very limited time he was used.
Rutherford recently traded Carl Hagelin (arguably the team's best defensive forward) because he was not producing points while skating on the top-two lines. Rutherford's stated concern about the lack of scoring from players not named Crosby, Malkin, Kessel and Hornqvist has been a repeated mantra for most of the season. Even so, I've read nothing to indicate that Rutherford is concerned with Sullivan's handling of Sprong who could possibly be the best in-house solution to the problem. There seems to be, at the least, some very strange cognitive dissonance at work here between Sullivan and Rutherford concerning Daniel Sprong.
4. With the recent trading of Carl Hagelin there's no doubt that the Pens have gotten slower. With most of the core in tact from their back to back Cup wins, there's also the fact that they're almost 3 years older on average than when they won in the 2016-2017 season. Neither trend is a good one, especially based on the identity of the team as one based on skill and speed. Either Sullivan needs to find a strategy that better fits the current personnel, or Rutherford needs to make some deals to change the personnel to find a new identity. Either way, both Sullivan and Rutherford need to be on the same page, or this season will be a disastrous one for the Pens.