MONDAY’S PENGUINS BUZZ
Derrick Pouliot is not ready for the NHL and has no business to start the season with the big club. That’s something I’ve been saying for over a month now and many outside of Pittsburgh feel the same way.
Is Mike Johnston who loves Pouliot and has coached Pouliot for six seasons starting to see the light?
After being on the ice for three goals against vs the Blue Jackets and continued struggles with his reads and gap control, Johnston was not sugar coating the situation when he said Pouliot is not a “regular NHL player.”
“He’s not a regular NHL player,” Johnston said following the 4-2 loss to the Blue Jackets. “He’s a guy who’s played games.”
Johnston knows Pouliot better than anybody and this might be a tactic to push Pouliot but the guess here is no.
Johnston is one of the most intelligent hockey people out there. There’s no way he can look at Pouliot and feel he’s ready to contribute on a regular basis, because he’s not.
And you have to wonder if Johnston is thinking in reality that a slow start to this season and in this division, he’ll be out of a job by December. That is the reality of the situation. There’s going to be no free passes this season for Johnston, one of the NHL’s lowest paid coaches, in year two.
He’s not in position to let Pouliot learn the NHL game if there are six other better options right now.
Everyone wants to run him out of town because of the cap hit and poor analytics but Rob Scuderi is the Penguins fourth or fifth best option on the backend right now. That’s where things really are with this group.
What was telling with Johnston’s evaluation of Pouliot Saturday afternoon was being critical of the areas Pouliot should be better at, notably the transition game and moving the puck.
“The first period, he wasn’t getting to loose pucks quick,” Johnston said. “The other thing about his game that I see is he’s [hide] hanging on to pucks way too much. He’s got to move it faster and move it cleaner.”
Tonight in Quebec Pouliot will be back in the lineup and paired with Kris Letang. Smart on the Penguins to get him back in and paired with Letang, but nothing he does tonight should change what needs to happen and that’s a couple more months in the minors for the young blueliner.
MORE BUZZ
— Puck moving defenseman David Warsofsky is causing some serious discussions in the organization. One Penguins source called him this year’s “Taylor Chorney” and that he’s someone who could become a factor with the big club at somepoint this season.
— Nick Bonino will make his preseason debut tonight vs Montreal. The coaches have wanted to give Bonino and Perron a look together and that will happen tonight. The plan is to play those two together vs Montreal and Wednesday vs Detroit. Perron has seen no time with Evgeni Malkin and Patric Hornqvist in camp.
— The Lineups for the next three games – courtesy of the Penguins —
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I wonder if Geno told the coaching staff that he doesn’t like playing with Perron, and therefore Rutherford went out and got Plotnikov? I would think putting Plotnikov on the 2nd line would warrant the price tag, because why would the Pens pay the kid just shy of $4mil to play on the 3rd line? Perron must be in the dog house, and is the ‘odd man’ out. What is funny is that I keep hearing bloggers say, ‘Plotnikov is a 3rd or 4th liner.’
Perron came to camp in far better shape. Johnson and Perron identified what he needs to do better. They did not attempt to move him in the off-season. There is nothing here that suggests he is in the doghouse. What we do see is a Russian player that Malkin is high on here because A: the kid may add something and B: I am sure Geno is not opposed to playing with a countryman. Add to that the idea of Perron being on the 3rd line with Bonino and for the time being another player capable of 15 to 20… Read more »
If I was Perron, I would be slightly annoyed. When I mean the ‘doghouse’, I mean he isn’t getting any looks on the 1st or 2nd line after he was brought in to help the star centermen. Now he is flanking Bonino. Some Russian gets hired. Never played a game in the NHL, and now he looks to take the 2nd line spot. Sure it makes the team deeper from an offensive standpoint, but I don’t see Perron being happy on the 3rd line for a longer period of time. Perron is in a contract year also, isn’t he? Wouldn’t… Read more »
Maybe the reality of starting in the A will give him the motivation to work on the intricacies missing from his game. Playing in the A would also prevent shattered confidence as he does experiment. Beyond that it allows us to keep a couple of waiver eligible and more NHL ready guys. This is not necessarily a bad thing.
Took pens close to 10 mins to get their first shot on goal and it came from scuderi this is going to be a long match to watch
The unfortunate effects of not having crosby malkin kessel on the ice. Is dupuis playing? Last I read on twitter he wasn’t participating or left day skate.
Still thinking maybe spilt maata and letang up. Together they would be an awesome pairing, but the other pairings will be less than adequate. Would you rather have one great pairing and two below average or 2 decent to good and 1 less than average?
Wow very well said. Here’s a thought have the balls to actually respond instead of just giving a thumbs down…
I’ll give you thumbs up
Thumbs down
Agree splitting them will balance more the Defense unit because I still have a hard time to be comfortable with the D pairings that pens got for the season
It’s a very small sample size but I think Cole/Clendening have the ability and look of a solid 2nd pairing and Lovejoy/Dumoulin could be an average 3rd pairing. If they make the right decisions they should be able to have a great 1st pairing, a solid 2nd pairing and a good 3rd pairing, something I thought was impossible just a few weeks ago.
I like where your head is at here.
hey NPL10 in case you take a break from your hot dog Snacks , watch habs vs pens game and let me know how different the crowd is vs the pens museum Crowd
if you guys think this place is a circus https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/maple-leafs-ban-radio-announcers-from-flights–will-call-games-off-tv-185919235.html
LMAO. After loading up the backend through the draft what do the pens have to show for it. Scuderi is still a top 4 defenseman with this group. The Despres trade wipes out any positive moves this team has made.
Or maybe shero eye for drafting def was terrible. The only one that panned out so far was maata. That’s saying something.
Yes this is true Doesn’t appear any of the guys we drafted are more than 5-6. Harrington/morrow are both trending that way. Then again a lot of good d prospect picks end up getting squandered by the team that drafted them. Development frustration happens all the time – Depres/Cole/nisky….one team spends all the work paying the guy his initial contract and wasting a pick then basically gives the kid to another team Cleandening may fall in that camp too. Future quality 3-4 guys seem to get lost all the time in their mid-20s for relatively small returns Developing forwards seems… Read more »
To be honest pouliot was drafted higher than projected. All the reports had him I read had him going 15-20, but then again nhl draft is a crapshoot.
Pouliot was the top pick moving defenseman so yes shero reached.
Terravanian or Forsberg would have been the better pick.
Decent chance we could have taken Maata at 8 and gotten pouliot with the later pick
Seriously Google it man. Nhl and hockey’s future had him ranked in the teens.
Didn’t contradict you said shero reached for top puck moving dman which Pouliot probably was.
That being said still overall good first rounds. Maata grades out as top 6 in his class and pouliot has been ranked fairly well about top 15 in his class if the draft was redone
My bad read it wrong. Although hindsight is 20/20. Would’ve loved either of the two you mentioned
Yeah one in a million you sur hope one is going to pan out from the rest of the clowns and that Bennett is a waste as well by December he will switch his spot with Fehr and be on the injured list
Gogo has been good in Dallas although I still make that trade 100x out of 100.
In what way? Despres was a #5. The pens have enough of those.
Despres isn’t a #5 in this group of pens’ dmen. He’s a 3-4
Anaheim has him penciled in as a 3/4. I think they evaluate dmen better than we do
Just to pile on Zack, pens don’t have enough #5 dmen. They have a ton of 6-7 guys.
chlorophyll — more like boreophyll, right?