Penguins truly see themselves as a top contender
The Pittsburgh Penguins enter a season for the first time since 2014-2015 where how they view themselves internally is much different than how other coaches, executives view them around the league.
Jim Rutherford talking up the Penguins hasn’t just been GM talk in a General Manager trying to prop up his group through the media….. He truly believes this is a top-5 Stanley Cup contender who has as good of a chance as anybody to win the Cup.
The view of the Penguins on the other end of the spectrum is that it’s a group you shouldn’t discount if certain things break their way, but a pretty good consensus among evaluators is that it would be more surprising that the Penguins finish 1st/2nd Place than a 4th/5th place type finish.
They’re closer to being a middle of the road team than an elite team.
The Penguins, though, believe they made ‘significant’ additions or changes that have them back in elite contender status.
Although the league has moved into more of a ‘heavy’ style of play again, the Penguins remain obsessed of rekindling that 2016 model of a speed/puck pursuit game lines 1-4.
Starting with the top-6, they believe this roster starts to resemble that on paper.
Pittsburgh feels countering a heavy game is with speed/puck pursuit and it’s a reason they’ve placed a much higher value on how much impact they feel Kasperi Kapanen will have in the top-6 than others might. Pittsburgh looks at it as having a winger group in the top-6 that’s going to be relentless in pursuing the puck with the likes of Jason Zucker, Bryan Rust and now Kapanen.
Signing a cone in Cody Ceci surely takes some of this away, but the view has been the same on the backend where the Penguins determined this off-season internally that to counter teams that exposed them down low in the defensive zone and in trying to breakout the puck against good to elite forechecking teams, was to get more speed defensively to exit the zone efficiently that saw them willing to take on the albatross contract of Mike Matheson’s.
Rutherford, according to a source, see’s the Matheson addition as a To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
— The bottom-6 has serious concerns of being able to carry it’s own weight offensively. The analytic defensive metric obsessed organization, though, is giddy about the 3rd-4th line center combo of Teddy Blueger/Mark Jankowski and believe they have the best mix they’ve had in years of two-way players who can be trusted in defensive situations, produce just enough offense, with intrigue of possibly being able to mix in some younger higher-end talent as the season progresses.
Still, there’s very little talent in that group of players who can create individual 1-on-1 offense that will put more pressure on the top-6 to match or exceed expectations.
— Then there’s the goaltending situation.
A combo of Tristan Jarry/Casey DeSmith doesn’t scream great confidence. Is Jarry the real deal?
The Penguins certainly think so, but a common denominator in the organization is that getting Matt Murray out of the room is an addition by default. Not Marc Andre esque but players love [hide] playing for Jarry, and that’s something Rutherford & Co just felt was missing with Murray and his teammates last season. [/hide]
What are the odds that Letang gets hurt / covid in under 5 games?
Barzal resigns for 3 yrs / $7 million aav
That’s a good signing.
Not the Bobby Ryan’s, parise ones
Um, ok.
Other than goaltending they are not a better team on paper and the stars are a year older
Npl sucksss so does the democRATS
Pens NEED SCANDELLA if they want any chance to win this year.
Suck me loser no they dont ……just like we don’t need blow job 233
never mentioned him once since last year although he played well…unlike our defense……
Gross
Wow there is more gayy people then npl here
yeah its blow job tj233 bj233
Well, seems someone has a certain something on their mind. Sorry man, my door doesn’t swing that way.
its a saying bro..like fuck you, fuck off, suck me, BLOW ME ,GO FUCK YOURSELF THOSE KIND..LOL
whatever Scandella loser
your the one that has BJ in your title go figure..
You are on here just to nedle people….you never post anythinh worthwhile.
oh we need scandella ..that was over a year ago let it rest.
.He helped Montreal an St. louis and is better than any Penguins defense-man not named Dumoulin Marino or Letang
No Sam just you…
Thats what you are..an annoying pimple of society..
pens are finishing dead last. tom wilson will concuss them out of contention by february. they are going to suck. lets not forget malkin and letang also blow. it is hopeless.
I Agree with Tom Wilson, Alex Ovechkin, cheap shot T.j. Oshie and now Chara break out the advil for Capital contests..
Well, you’re closer to being correct finally… I mean considering you’ve been singing this exact same tune since 2011.
You just needed the core to reach their mid 30s before it’s started to matter lol.
Expectations should be lower this year. I won’t be shocked to see them miss. I doubt Nj is better, Buffalo hasn’t proven shit but it’s hard to see the rest being worse. It could be tight… that’s what happens… it’s called age.
It is hilarious that you’re still beating the drum about toughness being the issue… moving away from the game that made them the games best to cater to simple meat bead minded who think this is the 70s WHA was literally the beginning of the mistakes that led to the window closing faster than it maybe should have. You’re still trying to sort this out and it’s sad
Let me guess tomorrow morning will wake up and see democRATS won. Georgia too.
Thank god that a-hole Trump and his fat ass, long haired toothless, red neck supporters will soon fade back in t their holes… on to hockey: WHY RUTHERFORD HAS PASSED OUT THIS OFF SEASON…..He has missed out on good players that an help the current roster with speed, skill, and the are affordable. Players like -Haula, -Duclair, -Anthansiou, -Granlund, -Soderbrrg and others.. Some good young layers like Drew OConnor, Poulin, Pierre Oliver Joseph and others coming but not quite ready. We got rid of tough teams lik Carolina and Columbus but added Boston and a improving Buffalo team…It is going… Read more »
Disgusting Canada lost to these arrogant fuckkss
Yup, 4 times in a row in gold medal games… 2004, 2010, 2017 and now in 2021. It’s not arrogance when you keep backing it up. Being a Habs fan you would not know much about that.
Whatever you say donut boy
Truth hurts.
The only thing that hurts here is your tummy. Chubster
Knight > Price
Your dreaming Knight hasn’t proved a thing just like Jim Craig remember him? he was spencer knight all hype and nothing in the NHL..we will see
But in no way shape or form is he better than Price at this point he hasn’t proved a thing…
New year, same boring material.
Sometimes will beats skill…Lake Placid, 2004, 2010, 2017, 2021…ever heard of Rocky Balboa… They didn’t fear Canada and for some reason Canada didn’t seem flowing on all cylinders.
So Finland, United States, Canada all have three gold this past decade..3 super powers now in junior Hockey. not disputing that Canada is the best hockey nation they are but U.S hung in there..
So who are you rooting for exactly?
Canada seemed uninspired for most of this game. They picked it up late here but they are about to do a Patriots impression if they can’t get going here in the third.
I know penguins are better without Fraud Murray. But jarry and Desmith are not convincing just because jarry had a hot run last year doesn’t mean he is the guy yet he has to prove just like I wasn’t sold on fraud murray here when bandwagons here were jumping up and down on his Dickk just because he won 2 cups by never playing full seasons As I said before goalies like Fleury that plays many games year in and year every year making sure team makes plays in playoffs don’t grow on trees So jarry and desmith have a… Read more »
MAF is an elite regular season goalie and an extremely problematic playoff goalie who can give Jekyll and Hyde a run for their money. The Pens did not win cups bc of him, they won cups in spite of him. His playoff numbers would have gotten most goalies traded after the playoffs or replaced… oh wait… Fleury is the guy you want in the regular season in goal and the goalie you want on the bench / locker room during playoffs runs to keep things relaxed. As for the Golden Knights run, that was anger and a will of rejection… Read more »
Ellie regular season goalie? Average to below average individual stats and never a Vezina nominee. Hardly elite. He was average when average was good enough.
I don’t even need to read his post… let me guess, MAF left and that was the end of the Pens?
How did Henrik Lundquist do in his career. 1 final appearance?
Oh forgot penguins have to win the cup every year so the goalie is consider amazing
How is Price doing in his career?
You do realize even when they won the cup in 09’ he was outplayed. If the Pens had HL in goal they probably would have won more cups. MAF’s playoff meltdowns were epic. He is the reason they lost more playoff series than they won. Keep slurping Fleury’s protein kool-aid Sam(e).
Penguins also would’ve won more cups if they didnt have DB as their coach and less washed up slow players in the line up. Shut down Crosby and Malkin and the series were often over
This could be evidence JR is probably ready to pack it in. I mean ya, vs some of the chicken little donkeys that have populated the site that have screamed it’s over forever and that certain players should “go back to Russia” (you two know who you are) I’ve been pragmatic and even optimistic for sometime. We can see the adjustments after the last cup flew in the face of what this team was actually doing. It led to a lot of knee jerk reactions on the trade market that moved out decent assets (Sundqvist, Oleksiak, Kahun) for utter crap… Read more »
If the Pens are in the playoff race this year you can set your watch to another 1st round pick being traded.
We don’t even have a 1st this year I believe.