Penguins/NHL
PRE-GAME BUZZ
“He’s a guy with so much energy,” Mike Johnston said today about Pascal Dupuis.
In training camp the Penguins plan was to play Dupuis on the third line with Nick Bonino, manage his minutes a bit, and that’s where he’s likely to start tonight vs the Dallas Stars, though, he did practice with Matt Cullen yesterday. “I’m going to manage his minutes, even if he’s having a great game. I’m still going to try to and manage his minutes,” Johnston said.
How much Dupuis has left in the tank offensively remains to be seen but it’s only going to be a matter of time before Dupuis forces his way onto one of the top-2 line left wing spots, pretty much by default with the way David Perron and Chris Kunitz have been playing for a while now dating back to last season and it becoming clear that Sergei Plotnikov is not top-6 winger material and should never have had those expectations placed on him.
“Excitement,” said Dupuis of returning tonight. “Went through training camp, [injury] obviously healed quicker than I thought it would. Good to finally get back out there for a real game.”
EVALUATION PERIOD
The Penguins 3-3 to start the year have beaten teams they should (Ottawa, Toronto, Florida), lost to a Cup contender in the Canadiens, a playoff contender in the Stars and were badly outplayed against a young Coyotes team.
The record represents their play through six games — Up and Down —
These next three contests have the Penguins facing two legitimate Stanley Cup contenders in the Predators and Capitals, and it won’t be a surprise if the Stars off to a 5-1 start evolve into a Cup contender as the season progresses.
A couple areas to watch for the Penguins tonight and next couple games.
High Quality Scoring Chances 5 v 5 – The Penguins had 37 shots vs the Stars in the season opener but they had few prime scoring chances 5 v 5, which has been the case for much of Mike Johnston’s tenure. This is the one area they have to become much improved this season if they’re going to be a serious contender months from now. Majority of the Penguins goals 5 v 5 this season have been perfect shots — Kessel down the right side vs Arizona, Malkin on two occasions down the right side against Ottawa, Toronto respectively, Bennett vs Montreal in beating Price, Sprong with a perfect shot past Anderson in the high slot.
Lindy Ruff’s group was very well prepared on defending the Penguins system on Oct. 8 as once the puck got kicked out to the outside, Dallas collapsed to the middle and were willing all game for a Crosby, Malkin to drop the puck to a Scuderi, Cole or Lovejoy trailing the play for a low percentage shot. [hide] Lindy must have spent some time reading Johnston’s book this summer.
The low goal numbers have been extremely concerning dating back to last November but what you want to see against these Cup contending teams is the Penguins getting sustained offense in the low slot and in around net.
PRE-GAME
— It appears Daniel Sprong doesn’t have enough clout to miss a couple practices and be able to play. Despite skating today he will not play due to an organization decision. Basically Sprong is sitting because the team feels he is at fault for not taking care of the visa issue.
— 12 Forwards who will dress tonight are Chris Kunitz, Sidney Crosby, Phil Kessel, David Perron, Evgeni Malkin, Patric Hornqvist, Pascal Dupuis, Nick Bonino, Bryan Rust, Kevin Porter, Matt Cullen, Sergei Plotnikov. Lines at TBD.[/hide]
These are the kind of games were changes are made after. As in bye bye coaching staff
Margirine on ice skates is harder to play against then this team
This Dallas team is to fast for pens. Got to love the museum atmosphere and malkin tonight.
Maybe it’s me. But if you run a major sports organization with foreigners on team. Someone in the front office should be also aware of all visas of all their employees. I blame Morehouse
While I don’t understand sitting Sprong, it really doesn’t effect his 9 games – so whatever.
he gets to sit because they need dupuis going and sprong is young so he gets the hook and not burn 9 games only when needed
I haven’t had time to look it up since our last conversation but I stand by my belief that it is 9 team games not 9 games dressed so yes the last game and tonight count against his NHL time. Otherwise teams could drag it out 40, 60 or even 82 games simply by not dressing the player.
It would be kind of silly for an organization to withhold a player from valuable game development and make him.ride the pine for 40 games don’t ya think.
I stand corrected, the rule was recently changed and these games don’t count for Sprong.
I’m not sure of the rule but isn’t there a time limit for an organization ization to send a player back to juniors??
If by recent you mean at least the last CBA then yes lol
If this is true that Sprong is benched because they feel he is at fault would be ridiculous. How an organization like the Pens didnt have someone on top of this is embarrassing. Yeah its happened before, but usually only at the trade deadline. Lets also not forget Dupuis is a 36 yr old guy who is coming off of a torn acl and blood clot issues. Im not sure how you can really have any big expectations for him, but hoping for the best.
Jay, you have a nice, wet mouth
Please tell me you’re not about to make me squeal like a pig.
the only wet mouth here is you you giant KFC bucket .now go sell some Hot Dogs while your mom is busy with gangbang party at her house
I’m curious what will happen with scuds. It is clear that he doesn’t fit well with Johnston’s system but the fact that he was scratched is a good first step. Also like Geno on the PK. Johnston seems to be making changes this season vs sitting still and waiting to be fired. Only 6 games in. Will be interesting to see where we are at the 20 game mark.
Way too early to evaluate Sid & Geno playing on the PK but through 6 games it’s had zero effect. 6 games is too small of a sample size but so far they’ve produced 0 SH goals and they kill rate is pretty much the same as it has been for years.
New ownership might not be a bad thing as this group has shown numerous times that they don’t know what they are doing.
What has been shown to suggest they don’t know what they are doing? None of us know any of the details about the situation and why they have been handled the way they were let alone whether those decisions were right or wrong. We also don’t know that new ownership would do anything differently or if those changes would be better or worse so this post is dumb on ever level.
They did a real good job with Sid’s concussion and DB’s firing just to name a couple. Good old Jaydogg the guy who argues with his wife during sex.
What evidence do you have that they mishandled those situations? All you or any of us know are the results, we have no clue what the process was that led to those results so how can you possible say they’ve shown they mishandled them when you have no clue what they actually did?
they did a good job with DB’s firing he deserved it after wasting the organization and the talents prime years. now he may continue that in Buffalo and ruin Eichel
He has more wins this year than that worthless Canadian Babcock, so I guess there’s that.
This is not a post supporting Mike Johnston. I am undecided on him, as its hard for me to separate player non-performance from coaching non-performance during his tenure. That said, this continued line about Johnston’s offense being centered around generating scoring chances for the D is completely off base. Anyone who has played high level hockey and understand hockey systems, understands that trailing D men is a smart move. They aren’t meant to be a the first option, but against a good defense it is extremely valuable to be able to generate shots from the back end and crash the… Read more »
Shennigans! Common sense and knowledge of the game can’t and won’t be tolerated!
#banjgregg23
This dude is the new Jaydogg
As a long time reader, fist time poster, I’m not sure how to take that comment. I have noticed, that no one is actually taking on the merit of the argument though.
Good 1st post
It was a compliment to you jgregg for actually having an intelligent, rational and informed opinion and busting on the rest of the idiots that normally post.
The visa issue for Sprong really isn’t a surprise, I’m not sure anyone felt he would still be in the NHL at this point so there’s no reason to think it should have been handled sooner. This just furthers my opinion that he has been informed he will be staying in the NHL for the season, if that isn’t the case then this is easily the worst handling of a situation I’ve ever seen, if he only players 7 of 9 potential games just so that he could play 2 more games before going back to juniors then everyone in… Read more »
Sprong can still play 9 games (even if its 9 of the first 11, or 12, or 13, or…). Its all related to games. I’d like to see Sprong on left wing. How he looks there is determinative of whether he should stay, imo. If he can’t play left wing then I hesitate to keep him here because he won’t get a sufficient opportunity to develop playing less than 10 minutes per night.
Good point on sprong jgregg. Not much point playing sprong for 10 minutes a night and burning a year on the entry level deal but if he could play well on left wing could turn out very good for the pens giving them more options. They would have to play him there soon though to find out….unless they have decided to keep him all year already.
@sweedpen, the pens didn’t help sprong because they want him to fail. They should care less about Kunitz and dupuis and their 09 boys. Youth gets in the way. That why the pens are 1 and done at best. They’d rather lose with the boys than rock the boat.
Sprongs playing time has nothing to do with kunitz or dupuis
when will fleury get a night off i really hope this team has a good plan to get a decent back up for fleury. jerkoff is not the answer .Ramo on waivers
How do the pens NOT have people taking care of those things for players? It happens every year for someone it feels like. Its not like he can hurry on the process either. If he applied for it all he could do was wait
Mario’s wife renewed SIDS visa…just saying….country cluuuuuuuub
Yeah pens, let’s trust a 12th grader to renew his visa.
You guys get pissed at me but this is the crap I’ve been complaining about for years. The get a really talented kid and bench him but they are kissing dupuis rear end when he should have been shipped out because he can’t stay healthy for more than 5 games. Don’t worry. The pens are going to turn sprong into the next Bennett so they don’t rock the country clubbers apple cart.
Because this is any different than TB scratching Drouin in favor of Morrow last season or Arizona sending Strome back to Erie already while keeping Vermette & Gordon on the roster. The simple fact that you think things like this only happen in Pittsburgh and nowhere else even though it’s a very common occurrance around the league just shows how little you understand about hockey.
Because it happened in those 2 cities and here doesn’t mean the act is right JD. I am with Yoda on this one, someone in the organization should have caught this……much like a certain GM should have lottery protected a certain 1st rd pick. Ignore these things and it empowers poor decisions to continue
Are you fucking kidding me? Sitting Sprong because of this? You mean the team couldnt help with that at any point because… you know… he is fucking 18 and doesnt really know. Great treatment of the teams best player through the 1st 5. Fucking appalling
Got to love the mind set here… rumours of a bad attitude coming in, he destroys the rumours. Seems to be a dream and how do we treat him? by fucking him out of what little ice time he gets. Thats a good way to create problems with the relationship. Getting tired of the team and how it handles personnel… waited to long to fire DB but didnt have the fucking balls to do it when they moved on from Shero… good grief
I heard Sid felt threatened, thinking thatsome hot shot rookie could come in and steal his thunder. Thats why theyre really sitting him.
Nice lol
How does this affect Malkin? I have to assume he’s the player your saying was the best player through the 1st 5 games because the pecking order so far has been 1) Malkin 2) MAF 3) Everyone else by a large margin.
Malkin was very quiet in the 1st two games maybe three… Sprong has played about half as many minutes as Malkin and not even a 5th of the PP time. Sprong from game 1 to when he was sat was looking very good. All things considered ya its clear that over the last few Malkin has definitely stepped up but you can’t ignore how good Sprong has looked virtually every shift he has taken.
Its inportant to remember that Sam is fat.
its important to remember npl left stan and he has finally reunited with Micheal SAM
pipe down, chubby.
yoda come playoff dupuis will be a factor and sprong will be a ghost so get used to the normal lineups. Fehr should be ready by mid November too
Sit sprong. 18 year olds should never ever get a shot. I’m super pumped for the injury prone geezer instead!
beerman