Penguins/NHL
The Pittsburgh Penguins have dropped two straight and had a putrid performance Saturday night against the St. Louis Blues in a 4-2 loss where the Blues out-executed the Penguins in all phases, leading Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan to blast his hockey club that they didn’t work hard enough. With a so-so soft schedule through the first five games of the season, Pittsburgh is suddenly off to a disappointing 2-3 start and the team is treading water where all the optimism coming into the season could come crashing down if the Penguins come out sleep walking against the Dallas Stars tonight and the Colorado Avalanche Thursday night, two legitimate top Stanley Cup contenders. This is a huge four-game home stand for the Penguins, especially the next two games that will give the organization a good barometer of what they have here………….
— Multiple sources say Penguins General Manager Kyle Dubas has been in awe of Mike Sullivan in how he runs this team. Sullivan has tremendous power in the organization and it’s no secret around the league that Penguins captain Sidney Crosby who is extension eligible next summer, has no interest in [hide] playing for another coach which has even strengthened Sullivan’s power in Pittsburgh. A 2-7 or 2-8 start isn’t going to sink him. The biggest question is will Dubas see what’s been obvious for a while now that the Penguins need systematic changes in how they defend away from the puck and attack offensively from the perimeter. Little has changed. Dubas has been known in Toronto to enforce some and that will be telling if the team has a so-so or poor four game homestand…….
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Rumblings, Musings, Opinion: League sources say there’s been a cordial cat and mouse game between the Penguins and Jake Guentzel’s representation on a new deal. With the cap rising to around $88 million, the Guentzel camp has been willing to wait things out and Kyle Dubas has been fine with that approach too. Could it backfire for either side? Guentzel’s lack of 5 vs 5 goals dating back almost a full season now will be something to watch moving forward if it eventually takes him of the $9 million a year price range league-wide a small crowd has believed his representation should hold firm on. The Ron Hextall regime planned to be more aggressive in trying to lock up Guentzel with a belief from the old management team that Guentzel had a desire to play in not Minnesota but To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
— Most pressure on a Penguins forward entering the next stretch of games? Rickard Rakell…….Taking off first power play unit, Rakell has to start carrying his weight. If Penguins management eyed a shakeup in adding a different style of forward in a term for term deal, To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!. Dating back to last spring, Mike Sullivan has been criticized behind the scenes from now former members of the organization that he and the coaching staff deserved their share of the blame for not getting the most out of the likes of Kasperi Kapanen and Brock McGinn. If you want to compare Pittsburgh’s bottom-6 at start last season compared to this year, the 22/23 roster sure had more skill in the bottom-6……….
Pittsburgh got the Full Kenny Pickett Experience in Sunday’s 24-17 win over the St. Louis. Pickett had under 93 passing yards through three quarters which is abysmal in today’s NFL, yet the second-year QB showed that 4th quarter clutch gene where he threw for 139 yards and the offense puts up 14 points in a fantastic Fourth Quarter………Pittsburgh out-schemed and out-executed the Rams mightily on both sides of the ball in the second half and it might have been the best play calling half of Matt Canada’s career. Pittsburgh neutralized Aaron Donald all game but for the first time in the Kenny Pickett era, Pittsburgh from a scheme standpoint were doing things the Rams couldn’t counter or weren’t prepared for………………Now things get tougher for the Steelers as some tape has started to establish what puts Pickett and the offense in a comfort zone. What the Steelers have shown is no ability to counters teams that are a step ahead of them………
Trending towards best of all time? T.J. Watt is not only a bigger game wrecker than his brother J.J. was, but we also continue to witness one of the all-time greats on a weekly basis. Is Watt on a path though like T.J. is where playoff success just doesn’t happen despite being an all-time great? Time will tell……..The Steelers leading into the trade deadline have to be all ears on pass catching tight ends. Recurring hamstring can always lead to a yearlong problem which Pat Friermuth could end up dealing with. To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
