The Pens Thread

Welcome back. Just figured i would get this thread started to have a place to shoot the **** and talk about the Pens like we have every year on this site. Its almost time to drop that puck. After a 113 day lockout it appears to be time to drop the puck and hopefully the Penguins can make up for that disappointing playoffs series against the hated Flyers last year. Can't wait to see Sutter in Staal's old spot and maybe Despres in Michalek's. The rest is pretty much the same. Asham out, Glass in. Who will claim the top 6 winger? Tangradi, Bennett, Kennedy? Someone has to. But complaining about wingers will be better than complaining about the lockout. Without there being much of a preseason things could be changing a lot with the lines/lineup.

Seeing how the top 6 plays out will be interesting. Will they keep the Malkin-Neal-Kunitz line together? Or will they reunite the Sid-Kunitz-Dupuis line? I know it would be hard to break up the NHL's best offensive line, but I think it might be for the best of the team. It wouldn't be right to have a 50 goal scorer, a 40 goal scorer, and a 25ish goal scorer on the frist line and then have Sid play with Dupuis and TK. Although, if TK knows his role on that line and can get Sid the puck, that line could cause some havok with their speed.

I wouldn't be surprised to see the Pens make a trade early on and I definitely expect them to try to make a move before the deadline (whenever that is). They have plenty of highly rated defensemen prospects and desperately need another top 6 winger (a guy like Kunitz, not necessarily a big goal scorer). Just need to find the right trade partner.

I'm excited to see Sutter. I mentioned before that I was a big Staal fan, but I think he got into the offensive mindset too much. I think Sutter will know his role and be more like that shutdown 3rd line center. It was cool to see a guy like Cooke score 19 goals, but I'd rather see him score 12 and be part of the shutdown 3rd line that helped the Pens make it to the finals 2 years in a row.

I wouldn't be completely against bring in Gonchar to fill that void a defense. It all depends on how well the young guys are progressing. And if it helps resign Malkin Shero might have to do it. The down side is Gonchar will be 39 when the playoffs start this year so you can't expect to much out of him. His biggest asset would probably be the PP. Penguins have the cap space and his contract expires after this season. And maybe Gonchar could stick around in a similar role as Bill Geruen and work with the younger players. From some stories I read Gonchar work with Eric Karlsson and he is off to a great start of his young career. If Malkin really is enjoying himself playing back home in Russia the Penguins might have to give in to the star player a bit in hopes of resigning him. This is an important year for Penguins/Malkin. Next season (Malkin's last under contract) he has a NMC. Shero has to figure out if it is possible to keep Malkin AND Crosby. You can't expect Malkin to sign for as much of a team friendly cap hit as Sid did because he can't get the same amount of years. With the new CBA he can sign a max of 8 yeas with the Penguins. If you take Crosby's first 8 seasons of his new contact it works out to an average of 10.8 million per season. So maybe you could get Malkin for 8 years and 80 million for a cap hit of 10 years?

Someone said Joe Morrow is really struggling, whish is suprising the way he looked in exhibition games last year.

Seeing how the top 6 plays out will be interesting. Will they keep the Malkin-Neal-Kunitz line together? Or will they reunite the Sid-Kunitz-Dupuis line?

Bylsma said the top two lines will be Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis and ???-Malkin-Neal ... neither is considered the top line.  He said there is an open competition to play with Malkin and Neal.

Either way, if the Pens have a problem, it won't be scoring goals.  I'm not worried about the top 6 forwards. 

Bylsma said the top two lines will be Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis and ???-Malkin-Neal

Yeah I heard that on the radio today. I agree with it, but now I really don't want to see TK get the last spot. I would really like to see someone with some defense awareness to go along with Malkin and Neal. I'm one of the few who think Malkin is pretty good defensively, but he takes a lot of chances (as all great offensive players do...including Crosby). It would be nice to have someone there to kind of clean that up. I don't think Neal and/or TK are that guy. Kunitz is no Selke nominee, but I think he is defensively responsible. Moreso than TK and Neal anyway. 

Unfortunately, I'm not sure they have someone in the organization to fill that need. Cooke and Jeffrey are about the only ones who I can think of that possibly could, but they still need to have some offensive game. I'm not sure Cooke or Jeffrey have what it takes.

I agree Pete.  I would rather see it be someone defensively responsible, so Malkin and Neal can do their thing.  I actually think Jeffrey would have been a very good candidate before his knee injury.  He didn't seem to recover well last season ... maybe this is the year.  But he's also a natural center too.  I think the top two candidates are TK and Tangradi ... not sure either is ideal.

Also, I think Malkin can be very good defensively ... it's up to him to want to.  I would love to see him kill penalties ... with his reach and size, I think he would be a good one and score as many as 10 SHG's a season.  But that's just me.  

People tend to forget that when he was drafted, people thought Ovechkin would be the best offensive player, but that Malkin would be the best all-around player in that draft because of his defense.  Malkin was Team Russia's best defensive forward and penalty killing forward on the team that won the Gold in the World Junior Championships that year.   

Agree on Malkins defense. Didnt he lead the lead in takeaways not that long ago? I do think that is where he thrives though, that transition game. I dont see him ever being a shut down guy because he will always be looking to take things the other way, and that will undoubtably cost you, no matter how talented defensively you are. Not that I am complaining, when you have that much offensive talent, you dont have much of a choice.

I agree. Malkin does seem to get goal crazy sometimes and he's not always the smartest hockey player (the couple of seasons where he took way too many stupid penalties, for example). That's why I think coaching is very important for Malkin. Sid doesn't need a coach. He knows what he needs to do and he'll do it. But Malkin really benefits from a coach demanding him to play defense. When Therrien was here, he used Malkin on the PK more and instilled the defense first mindset. As a result, Malkin was good defensively and as Sea said led the league in takeaways (or was at least near the top). But with Bylsma beating "go north as quickly as possible" into his head, he hasn't been quite as good defensively.

I still think he gets the "lazy, no defense Russian" label unfairly put on him by a lot of people though. He hasn't been great defensively under Bylsma, but nobody has except for when they had to be when Sid and Malkin were both out. He's not in Datsyuk's class defensively by any means, but he's nowhere near someone like Ovechkin doing figure 8's in the defensive zone doing nothing but looking for the breakout pass.

But anyways, I'm getting off topic, I think I would go with Cooke until someone else steps up. Then I'd put Tangradi on the 3rd line with Sutter and TK. That gives Tangradi some offensive skill to play with and maybe he can prove himself when he's not playing with Adams and Asham/Park/Vitale/etc.

It also sounds like they are going to give Bennett a shot. From what I read, he has the skill, but they think he needs to become more physically mature. Anyone know anything about his defensive abilities?

According to TSN's website Paul Martin is questionable for the start of the regular season because of post concussion syndrome. It shows it as being updated yesterday. Not sure how reliable it is since players and team doctors have seen each other. Unless Martin has been on the ir throughout the lockout in which case he was getting paid and able to see the team doctors. I like Martin. Slightly over paid but most free agent signings are. He looked good his first year and had some struggles last year but he is nowhere near as bad as some make him out to be. I thought he would bring a little more offense, but he is a good skater with puck and makes nice breakout pass. But you have to figure he won't be here for all 3 of the remaking years left on his contract. With the cheaper young talent on the backend he will either be traded or bought out before his final year which is the same year Malkin and Letang need new contract. Or maybe after this season. Next year the cap drops and the Penguins only have 7 forwards and 5 defenseman signed with about 12 million to sign another 6 forwards and 2 defenseman.

The only thing I could find about Bennett and defensive ability when on hockey futures. "For now Bennett needs to continue refining the defensive side of his game as well as continue to get stronger." But your guess is as good as mine as to when that was written. The WBS Penguins should place some games at Consol ever year. Maybe try one game and if it is successful then go for 2-3 the next year and leave it at that. I would go to check the out. I'm sure a bunch of other fans would as well.

I hope Dustin Jeffrey is given a legit shot at playing with Malkin and Neal.  

Keep in mind he's still only 25 ... he had produced at a point-per-game pace in the AHL for 117 games before being called up two seasons ago.  And in 2011 he scored 7 goals and 12 points in 25 games with the Pens ... while playing on the 4th line.   

He struggled last season coming off reconstructive knee surgery to repair his ACL.  We see a guy like Malkin come back the way he did last season, and we think that is the norm ... the fact is guys like Malkin are the exception.

Jeffrey has been playing in Europe, and he has 11 goals and 23 points in 20 games over there.  Granted, that's not the NHL, but he has been playing, and he has been productive. 

Does Jeffery have to clear waivers to get sent down this year? That could play a big part.

Paul Martin showed up for informal team practice at the Consol today so I guess it he is good to go. Looked like Craig Adams ran the "practice".

"There are 18 players taking part in the Penguins informal skate. Forwards Sutter, Adams, Kennedy, Dupuis, Jeffrey, Vitale, Crosby, Glass, Cooke, Kunitz and Neal, defensemen Engelland, Martin, Niskanen, Lovejoy, Orpik and goaltenders Fleury and Vokoun." From the Pens site.

It looks like Brain Burke got fired as GM of the Leafs alittle bit ago. Weird timing.

"There are 18 players taking part in the Penguins informal skate. Forwards Sutter, Adams, Kennedy, Dupuis, Jeffrey, Vitale, Crosby, Glass, Cooke, Kunitz and Neal, defensemen Engelland, Martin, Niskanen, Lovejoy, Orpik and goaltenders Fleury and Vokoun." From the Pens site.

I think we take it for granted as Pens fans how much dedication these guys show.  This is a great turnout for an "informal" session ... camp doesn't officially open up until Sunday.  Other teams aren't even having these session and/or they are only getting like 5 or so players to show up.

There have also been about 7-8 guys who have been routinely showing up and "practicing" together during the lockout.  It's easy to say these guys should do this, but not everyone does. 

It looks like Brain Burke got fired as GM of the Leafs alittle bit ago. Weird timing.

The Leafs almost make the Cleveland Browns look functional ... almost.

The Leafs almost make the Cleveland Browns look functional ... almost.
Or vica versa!
Actually, I wanted to know who that is in your new avatar, Crow? I don't recognize them, haha?

CUP4PENS     

Haha ... very funny, Igloo.

BTW, the end of their Grace Under Pressure Tour CD has a medley of YYZ/2112/Tom Sawyer followed by Vital Signs followed by a medley of Finding My Way/In The Mood to close it out.

The whole concert is good, but if you can find an MP3 of just that part ... that 20 minutes of music is ridiculous. 

Something that crossed my mind earlier today is how teams will manage their goaltending rotation in a compressed season.  I think last season Marc-Andre Fleury burned out; not having a reliable backup to spell him a break during heavier work loads hurt.  The Penguins have a great tandem going into this year, however, and with every team figuring to play about every other day, I expect coaches to lean more heavily on those rotations to succeed.  I think that gives the Pens an advantage over teams with less depth in net.

The Penguins defense wasn't bad throughout the regular season.  Ironically they played much more responsibly when players were hurt.  When they finally had a healthy roster, it was as though Bylsma wanted to flex that offensive muscle to send a message to the league and defense was tossed to the wayside.  And when you break a habit, you're not going to just get it back.  Hopefully that lesson was learned.  I'm looking forward to seeing what the Penguins put on display this season.