PITTSBURGH PENGUINS 5 VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS 2 (32-24-4 68 PTS)

Bye Bye Playoffs

and bye bye PDB

Reality check .. PLEASE

Ken mentioned some of this after yesterday’s game, and I also mentioned it in a past a couple days back. We are playing short handed, and the people on the ice dont have chemistry.

Chemistry isnt bought … it happens for two reasons:
1) over time, where bonds and familiarity are allowed to build – or
2) through a shared significant event that brings a team together. The Year 1 team did so well because they shared being castoffs together … the “why not us?” mentality. It’s also likely that the sad Oct 1 events also factored into it (go look up the 2013 Boston Red Sox after the Marathon bombing for another example of a team bonding post-tragedy).
The LA Lakers are suffering from some of the same kind of lack of chemistry problem: lots of stars, a sub 500 record, and several games out of a playoff spot.

Tonight, Eichel had Kolessar as a line-mate … how much ice time have those two ever had together? Do we expect a smooth top line with those circumstances? The injuries have compounded that … causing constant line changes and guys playing with line-mates they dont have a lot of time with. Trades/moves have also caused that, introducing new people and removing stability. I’m not going to argue that Schmidt is better than Pietrangelo, but we lost chemistry for the sake of talent 2 years ago. Look at which line is the most stable – the misfit line with YEARS of time together. None of them has the raw talent of the Eichel/Stone types, but they produce because they have familiarity. A few games ago there was a spectacular play where Marshy hit Karlsson who deflected it to Smith for a goal. That’s done after time to learn each other. Smith had two goals that night and the both cam from Karlsson/Marshy assists. In fact, when they’ve taken that line apart to experiment, it’s been horrible. Eichel is making great passes today, but guys like Dadonov aren’t ready for them. They just need time. Just imagine how awesome this team will be with time…I am all in on 2022-23 .

What about this year though? With 25% of this year’s scoring missing, what can we really expect? There is just too much missing and when we field a far lesser team, we can’t expect to keep up. Look at all the speed we saw tonight … it was brutal.

It’s a shame so many people have expectations as if we are running a top-notch squad out there, and want the coach gone because the results are missing. If these results came with us having Max and Martinez and Stone out there, and with Eichel, then the discussion would be entirely different. It isn’t PDB’s fault that we had a backup goalie playing back to back games, or PDB’s fault that Max P couldn’t finish the game tonight. We’re going into these games with a B+ team, and the fact is we cannot expect to have the same goal/game average as when we have our best players out there. Name a coach who takes a B+ team with inconsistent lines and can win a division. With the group we have out there, it’s a miracle if we do make the playoffs…we might even offer them congratulations. The only reason we are close is how we finished 2021.

Just my 2 cents on being practical on our expectations…

This team is going absolutely nowhere this season. I don’t think they should have a yard sale but I do think that they should aggressively try to get rid of Dadonov so we don’t have to see him again next year. As for Reilly Smith if you could actually get something decent for him like a second round pick or a useful roster player with some term then I do it. But if you’re only going to get a mid round draft pick then I keep him for the playoffs. I think and hope they could still sneak in the playoffs. I would move Mattias Janmark even if you only got a mid round draft pick.

Basically what I am saying is that they should be sellers but not aggressive sellers.

You can’t score goals from 60 foot soft flip wristers. as long as the Vgk play fancy perimeter hockey, they will continue to allow every backup goalie and no-name netminder to pull a Demko on them, a Khudobin on them.

It is so obvious that the Knights have gone from a hard forechecking team with 2 men deep and pinching Dmen, to a soft 1-3-1 neutral zone trap that de-Bores every fan and loses almost every game.

it is also obvious that certain forwards are incapable of playing with anyone but their little buddies….iow, the misfits look like crap without each other, and fragile Pacioretty (when he plays)looks like crap without Stone on his line.

The only way out is to jettison some of the high paid perimeter floaters and replace them with aggressive young forecheckers who go hard to the net and can score greasy goals. They don’t have that type in Henderson either, or in the prospect pipeline, so it will be a tough long road to recovery.

Perfect health, and a new system and coach would help, and are a necessary step one, but the basic facts about a soft team with little chemistry or leadership remain a true obstacle.

that is why McCrimmon should be fired too. He created $7 mill in cap space last summer, then wasted almost all of it on a stupid trade for a washed up soft veteran floater, and it was widely known that he was a complete failure in Ottawa.
instead of using that cap space for 3 aggressive young players, he wasted it on 63 and 26, 2 over the hill guys who personify the term SOFT.