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November 18, 2018, 11:39 AM ET [133 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Nobody is going to confuse Patric Hornqvist with Mark Messier. His inspirational words resulted in a meaningless third period goal and not a hat trick capped with an empty net goal. I don’t fault Hornqvist for trying to motivate his team through words. He means well, but at this point words are just Homer Simpson telling his fellow Globex employees to “work, harder?” in an effort to impress Hank Scorpio.

After dropping last night’s game in regulation to the lowly Ottawa Senators it is the Penguins who sit in last place in the Eastern Conference alongside the Florida Panthers. This isn’t a “oh they’ll snap out of it” situation. They are a mediocre hockey team who had aspirations of winning a Stanley Cup this year. The way the team is constructed also makes improving their situation incredibly difficult. They don’t have a lot of valuable futures they can trade to make the now better. They don’t have cap space flexibility at the moment to get creative with trades. They aren’t particularly strong in any one area so you can’t even trade from a strength to shore up a weakness. The offseason that was predictably bad in July has been actively bad in October and November.




Is it socially acceptable to criticize the general manager and coach or is the appeal to authority moratorium still in effect?

Is it OK to criticize “Dad”? Would anybody be upset if “Dad” went to the store for cigarettes and never came back?

“Dad” is the boomer who's been with the company for a long time and isn't on cutting edge with improvements in the industry. He keeps failing up and blocking younger employees from flourishing. Daniel Sprong is the millennial who has the degree and the skill set, but it is frowned upon if he uses those skills or hangs out with others that have similar skills.

I hear players don’t really get a hang of NHL systems until their 14th NHL season and fourth NHL team. Almost there, Jack!

One thing I won’t blame on Rutherford is the goaltending. Matt Murray has been an unpredictable train wreck. He’s killing this team right now. He is seemingly being pulled almost every other time he’s net these days and when you combine that with a mediocre roster you have a last place team. Things could be worse I guess




Assuming Casey DeSmith can be league average he needs to start every game that is not of the back to back variety for the time being. The Penguins don’t have the luxury right now for a goalie to find himself.

Tomorrow the Penguins will take on Conor Sheary and the Jason Botterill Sabres




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