re: Unofficial NHL Season-Long Thread: Puckheads Unite!

Doc Emrick

Holy shite - his parents fricked up real bad

quote:

---

Well off the top of my head you said the Pens bottom six was still terrible, when it's near the top of the league in production.

---

They have as many even strength goals as Joel Ward by himself, so let's slow down on tops in the league. Steve Downie is a PIM machine, already at 60 PIM, which is just horrible. All three players on the third line are possession black holes with RelCorsi's in the negatives and both wings in double digit negatives. Sutter is at least at -8.31, making him the msot productive bottom 6 forward. That's awful, BTW.

this team is still extraordinarily top heavy, and it's hiding a lot of weaknesses with extreme puck luck. You're never as good as you are when you're winning and never as bad as you when losing. The Pens are on a 9-1 stretch, which is great, and only a good team could go on a run that great, but they also have a PDO of 1070 right now (PDO measures puck luck, 1000 is league average). The highest PDO ever measured for a full season is 1020, so right now, the Pens are off the charts. Their puck luck will even out, as it always does (Nashville also needs to worry, BTW).

quote:

---

You also said their PK wouldn't be near as good as last year, and it's better.

---

I don't remember ever making a prediction on how their pk would do, as that kind of thing is pretty variable and hard to predict. They were at 85% last year and they are at 88.4% right now, which is essentially a wash this early. They were ranked 5th last year, and they're 4th this year.

quote:

---

You also said the Pens were a worse team this year than last, not the case either.

---

No, I said they are probably brought into the pack because I thought the rest of the division was better. Columbus has been decimated by injuries, who knows what is wrong with the Rangers, and the Caps have not seen their record catch up with the massive turnaround in their underlying stats.

The unit I criticized was the defense, as I'm not sure how they got better by losing Niskanen and Orpik and adding Ehrhoff, who is a real good player, but is just one guy.

And honestly, their defense is showing the same issues as the forwards: stars and scrubs. Maatta and Letang are killing it, but all of the other blueliners are underwater on RelCorsi. Martin and Scuderi are both in double digit negatives, which is shocking to me. Martin's too good a puck mover to be getting killed this badly on possession.

This team still reminds me of the firewagon Caps. Incredibly top heavy, suspect goaltending, terrific special teams, and an offense first philosophy. BTW, the stat I referenced about the highest PDO ever... it was the 2010 Caps. They even have that in common. I thin kthey are better than that Caps team, which had a truly putrid defensive corps while the Pens' is closer to an awesome top pair backed up by about league average (giving Martin the benefit of the doubt that he'll bounce back, while I think some of their positive performance is unsustainable, so is this negative -- Martin's a better player than his numbers indicate right now).

But compared to the other top contenders for the Cup, the Pens are a flawed team. And they essentially have the same flaws they've had for the past five seasons. They are a lot better than a lot of the league, but the demand in Pittsburgh is to compete for the Cup, given that they have two of the best players in hockey on their team.

In the past 5 seasons, they've made the ECF one time, and lost in the first round twice. The question is: is this team closer to winning a Cup? And the path through the East looks a lot easier as the Bruins have taken a massive step backwards this season, but the Pens look a lot weaker on paper than the Western contenders. It doesn't mean they absolutely can't win the Cup, the easier playoff draw will help, but they aren't as constructed as well as the Hawks and Kings (or even the Blues), and I don't think they've fixed the fundamental flaws on the team that have caused them to fail each of the past 5 years.

They've been re-arranging the deck chairs, but this is essentially the same team it has been the past 5 years. Maybe it will work this time, sixth time is a charm and all that. But I'm skeptical.

quote:

---

Penguins really need their own season long thread

---

This would be the worst

Hey, I included a photo of Ovie and Shattenkirk appearing to make out during a game. What more do you want from me? That's true love, folks.

I will note that Ovie appears to be the one doing the kissing, as he's not much of a two way player... or is he?

Is this where I enter in an unreasonable rant about CP31 or AV to break up the Pens talk?

The Lightning have their own season long thread

He was looking great up until that shitshow against the team that shall not be mentioned

quote:

---

@reallisa: Breaking news: From DA spokesperson: Just filed felony case against Slava Voynov. Charged w/one felony count of corporal injury to spouse.

---

Yikes.

Like i said, STL line has to carry the team.

Tarasenko goal (lehtera,schwartz)