Don't think anyone is trying to change your mind. Everyone is well aware you're a joke. Hahaha
- j.boyd919

Sticks and stones. I know I'm better than all you.

Sticks and stones. I know I'm better than all you.
- Grinder47

K bud.

Everyone is being so mean

I'll probably get skewered for this, but what about Prout? Probably wouldn't get on the ice every game but would be nice when playing bigger teams. The Cbus blog says he could be had for cheap.

Plus.... It would make Grinder happy.

By the way... To all the Lovejoy haters I hate to say I told you so. Not the greatest player in the world, but Pouliot and Cole is a nightmare.

Since so much is debated about how Pittsburgh handles their draft picks I thought I would pull some of the other top teams recent trades for some comparison, looking at 2014-now and now considering conditional aspects(a conditional 1st is consider a 1st) the Pens have traded 2-1st, 1-2nd, 4-3rd, 1-4th, 1-5th & 1-7th or 10 total picks.

Chicago - 1-1st, 2-2nd, 1-3rd, 2-4th, 1-7th = 7 total
LA - 2-1st, 1-2nd, 2-3rd = 5 total picks
Ana - 1-1st, 3-2nd, 3-3rd, 2-4th, 2-5th, 1-6th, 1-7th = 13 total picks
Wash - 1-2nd, 3-3rd, 3-4th, 1-6th, 2-7th = 10 total picks

I think it's interesting that they are very comparable to the teams that have won 5 Cups in the last 6-7 years and the team that is consider the favorite to win the Cup this year, this showing that how the Pens handle their draft picks isn't all that different than how other top teams handle their draft picks, 1 area that the Pens definitely lack behind these other teams is their ability to recoup picks through their other moves.
- jaydogg1974

Thats some good research right there. Thanks for that. I'm always curious as to who the other teams drafted with the pics the Pens traded to them but simply dont have the time to look into every single one.

On the upside, DP has a +39 in raw scoring chances in 13 games and leads the D in chances for/60 with like 34.65

Sundqvist reassigned. We're getting healthy

Sticks and stones. I know I'm better than all you.
- Grinder47

Not really. We're all nerds for being on this site to begin with.

I'll probably get skewered for this, but what about Prout? Probably wouldn't get on the ice every game but would be nice when playing bigger teams. The Cbus blog says he could be had for cheap.

Plus.... It would make Grinder happy.

By the way... To all the Lovejoy haters I hate to say I told you so. Not the greatest player in the world, but Pouliot and Cole is a nightmare.
- madmike71

Yeah I really hope DP just had a really bad game and it wasn't that he's being exposed now that he has a defenseman that isn't solid to play with anymore. God what a (frank)ing reach that pick was. We should have Filip Forsberg right now...

Yeah I really hope DP just had a really bad game and it wasn't that he's being exposed now that he has a defenseman that isn't solid to play with anymore. God what a (frank)ing reach that pick was. We should have Filip Forsberg right now...
- Victoro311

Are you referring to the Boston game?

Are you referring to the Boston game?
- j.boyd919

Yes... He's been fine in all of his other games besides his first one, although unspectacular.

Sundqvist reassigned. We're getting healthy
- Victoro311

Wish it was that beer league player Porter.

Wish it was that beer league player Porter.
- madmike71

Kinda disappointing, I agree, but Sundqvist needs development and Porter doesn't. They should be giving Sundqvist top line minutes and overwhelmingly offensive zone starts in WBS to help improve his offensive game.

Yes... He's been fine in all of his other games besides his first one, although unspectacular.
- Victoro311

I dunno, I didn't think he was nearly as bad as everyone is making it out. He was on the ice for Kuhn's goal, I thought the penalty shot call was kind of soft, on the Hayes goal-Letang left him on an island by himself falling for the guy straddling the blue line, I thought Maatta had a way worse game than DP. DP was also creating some decent chances in the offensive zone.

The bottom lines is this Without Fleury playing his best, this team is going nowhere. All the speculation of the additions or subtractions to this team are irrelevant, and right now MAF is not performing in a way that this team needs him to be. In a tight close game against a quality team he always seems to blink first. That is not how you win in this league consistently. He needs to be better and I am betting that is not going to happen. Too much inconsistency in his performances..

- holeinone

This is what I have been saying. He can be the best goalie in the NHL & then let an easy goal in - he is just too inconsistent to be 'that' goalie! 'That' being the wall of confidence that can be depended on 97/98% of the time (no goalie is perfect ).

Murray needs to play half of the remaining games as long as he can show in his first game that he can hold his own as I believe he did in his brief stint previously.

At the end of the day it's the man in goal that either wins or loses you the game - no matter how the rest are playing!

This is what I have been saying. He can be the best goalie in the NHL & then let an easy goal in - he is just too inconsistent to be 'that' goalie! 'That' being the wall of confidence that can be depended on 97/98% of the time (no goalie is perfect ).

Murray needs to play half of the remaining games as long as he can show in his first game that he can hold his own as I believe he did in his brief stint previously.

At the end of the day it's the man in goal that either wins or loses you the game - no matter how the rest are playing!
- Aussiepenguin

I understand your line of thinking but not sure how any of those moves have any effect on their ability to compete this year? None of the picks/futures would be in the lineup so there's no help there and none of the players traded would have moved the needle, maybe you could expand on how those moves directly hurt the team this year.

Also of the 9 draft picks traded away from 2012-2015 not a single player drafted with those picks has played a single NHL game and out of the list of players moved in that time frame are Sneep, Ferriero, Tangradi, Morrow, Agostino, Hanowski, Thompson, Neal, Sameulsson, Klinkhammer, Goc, Sill, Despres and Bortuzzo only Neal would be a difference maker on this unit. I know people like to hold out hope that futures will turn out to be awesome but the truth is that this notion that the Pens have somehow hurt their future with the TD moves just isn't true or accurate.
- jaydogg1974

We had a GM who couldn't draft before. He was basically awful at it and had a poor strategy of drafting PMD. We've had very few picks under Rutherford. Yet somehow we've found Murray, Maata, Pouliot, kapanen, sprong. More lottery tickets increases your chance of finding a core contributor or finding a core of your supporting casts. Maybe Shero didn't value draft picks because he was bad at drafting. Rutherford has pulled some decent guys who look like they will be starters for us.

This is what I have been saying. He can be the best goalie in the NHL & then let an easy goal in - he is just too inconsistent to be 'that' goalie! 'That' being the wall of confidence that can be depended on 97/98% of the time (no goalie is perfect ).

Murray needs to play half of the remaining games as long as he can show in his first game that he can hold his own as I believe he did in his brief stint previously.

At the end of the day it's the man in goal that either wins or loses you the game - no matter how the rest are playing!
- Aussiepenguin

I dunno, I didn't think he was nearly as bad as everyone is making it out. He was on the ice for Kuhn's goal, I thought the penalty shot call was kind of soft, on the Hayes goal-Letang left him on an island by himself falling for the guy straddling the blue line, I thought Maatta had a way worse game than DP. DP was also creating some decent chances in the offensive zone.
- j.boyd919

Exactly. He set Sid up with the perfect backdoor pass (after Sid was mauled) and he flubbed it. Then that sky pass looked pretty offside to me... so of course he was gonna get behind DP. Weak call on the penalty shot. Letang.. That was bad. Left DP out to dry and he tried blocking the pass but obviously didn't work. Maatta had the worst game out of all by far.

We had a GM who couldn't draft before. He was basically awful at it and had a poor strategy of drafting PMD. We've had very few picks under Rutherford. Yet somehow we've found Murray, Maata, Pouliot, kapanen, sprong. More lottery tickets increases your chance of finding a core contributor or finding a core of your supporting casts. Maybe Shero didn't value draft picks because he was bad at drafting. Rutherford has pulled some decent guys who look like they will be starters for us.
- sditulli

kapanen got traded, pouliot matta and murray was sheros picks. sprong though

- Reverend Killtaker

I dunno, I didn't think he was nearly as bad as everyone is making it out. He was on the ice for Kuhn's goal, I thought the penalty shot call was kind of soft, on the Hayes goal-Letang left him on an island by himself falling for the guy straddling the blue line, I thought Maatta had a way worse game than DP. DP was also creating some decent chances in the offensive zone.
- j.boyd919

The penalty shot was a horrendous penalty by Pouliot. He half-assed that slash. You either let the player go and hope Fleury makes the save or you take him out and take the penalty shot getting your moneys worth and ensuring he doesn't get a scoring chance. He did neither. He took the penalty while still letting Pastrami get a shot off and forced a good save from Fleury. I was so angry at that.

Likewise on the 2 on 1, yeah it sucks he is left on an island by Letang there, but he has to make sure that pass doesn't go across and force the shot on goal, instead he did neither, he left both options still open and Fleury didn't have a chance.

Maatta was equally bad. It was a really bad night for both. I am just hoping it is not going to become a normal thing. Hopefully both learn from their mistakes and have good bounce back games on Saturday. That is the upside here, both are young players and are going to make mistakes, which is fine as long as they learn from them.

I dunno, I didn't think he was nearly as bad as everyone is making it out. He was on the ice for Kuhn's goal, I thought the penalty shot call was kind of soft, on the Hayes goal-Letang left him on an island by himself falling for the guy straddling the blue line, I thought Maatta had a way worse game than DP. DP was also creating some decent chances in the offensive zone.
- j.boyd919

Maatta did have a worse game than DP. Maatta sucked. But Maatta has proven that he can be very good. He's had an offseason, but I still see rookie Maatta every now and then. DP, on the other hand, hasn't shown anything beyond third pairing offensive specialist. Considering where he was drafted and who he was drafted over, that's unacceptable.

As far as the goals, there were other things at work that weren't DP's fault, but he did (frank) all to help recover for his team. The first goal was an offside. Still, DP got into position at first as the last man back, but then lost Posternak and let him get behind him for a break away. Then he made the feeblest of all slash attempts to try and prevent the goal. Same concept as basketball. If you're gonna fowl a guy going up for an easy layup, take him the (frank) out to ensure he doesn't score. DP's slashes had zero bearing on weather or not Posternak's goal was going to go in and all it did was give him a free PS.

On the second one, Letang left him out to dry, and he had the correct idea of laying down to take away the passing lane, but (frank)ed it up royally. I need DP to start proving that he wasn't a (frank)ing reach.

- martox

Please explain? WTF is funny with what I said?

kapanen got traded, pouliot matta and murray was sheros picks. sprong though
- martox

And the bottom line is all of these players have yet to prove themselves or fully prove themselves at the NHL level.

Sadly my opinion of Maatta is falling. I just don't remember him being this slow. That's got to improve right? I think Sprong however is a legit top 6 wing however.