Seems the Pens just can't solve Dallas...

[torontoeers]

...even back to last year...looks like they finally have some goaltending, the trades Nill has made really seem to be working out at this early point in the season...although damn are they a dirty bunch! Demers with a major, and Sharp delivering a fairly dangerous hit from behind...

I am expecting to see the Kessel/Crosby experiment to end soon...our depth on the backend just doesn't seem to be there. Lovejoy is an enigma to me at this point, he doesn't seem to be the player he was a few years ago...and once again the compete level just was not there tonight imo...It was very nice to see Duper back in the lineup however!

Oh...and Sid?...FIND A NEW STICK SUPPLIER! I'm getting sick and tired of watching them break at the most inopportune time!!!! Man alive!

 

[COOL MAN]

Looks like last night's game may be the tipping point for the media to get the fire-Johnston machine rolling.

His after-a-loss comments are beginning to sound broken-record; which is usually the case with most coaches. But a local veteran blogger claims he knows "unequivocally" that Management is PO'd with the way the team is playing, and we know the NHL is among the best in the universe for sacrificing coaches (whether justified or reflex). This same blogger (who's a level-headed guy) also criticized the team as follows:

I mean, a team with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and now Phil Kessel can’t score.

It also can’t defend particularly well.

Or skate up the ice as a collective.

Or gain the opponents’ blue line.

Or muster a forecheck lasting more than four-tenths of a second.

Or shoot.

Or score.

That, my friends, is grounds for firing a coach.​

Perhaps the biggest concern I have about firing Johnston right now regards candidate availability now that Torts (who was apparently thought to be the top available replacement) is off the market. Craig Custance did a piece yesterday for espn.com regarding his view on the best 5 available candidates (again, after Torts):

Guy Boucher (Hmmm.....)
Todd Richards (guess he is available)
Ron Wilson (you know way more about him than I do)
Randy Carlyle (him too)
Craig Berube (jeez, in Pittsburgh ??)​

As you can see, I myself might not feel all that bad about Boucher (who I believe is a taskmaster); but he's apparently coaching in Europe and has some contract issues which could be a problem (though CC claims they're not insurmountable). Oh, and I read the other day that someone thought (or was perhaps, for some reason, hoping) the team would actually take a swing at Mike Keenan; supposedly, he was said to have been evaluated with some seriousness before they hired MJ.

Anyway, it sure sounds to me like the consensus is that the Pens would look for a "the-vacation-is-over" kind-of coach; and that sounds like the right move after 7 years of the Disco Dan (player's-coach) and MJ (Junior-coach) styles. Lord knows, not a single player on this roster.....let alone Sid and Geno.....has ever been put under the bare bulb by a coach since Mike Therrien got canned.

Maybe lighting a public fire under their currently-overpaid arses would be a good idea.....

 

[COOL MAN]

.
Oh...and Sid?...FIND A NEW STICK SUPPLIER! I'm getting sick and tired of watching them break at the most inopportune time!!!! Man alive!

Me too.....and so is everyone (and I mean everyone) else.

I'm about 95% sure he was using that new.....at least I think it's new this year......CCM Reckoner stick this season; but I also thought I heard Paul Steigerwald mention on the telecast last night (after he'd splintered yet another) that Sid had gone back to his old sticks for the game.

Obviously, broken sticks are epidemic in the League, and Sid is presumably at the forefront of the problem. I guess I'd been thinking since Sid made this move.....and since broken sticks are such old news for him.....that the Reckoner (among other typical updates to pro-line equipment) might represent CCM's response to this problem.

If that's indeed the case, I guess the only practical response is that it's (thus far) failed miserably......

 

[Euell]

...even back to last year...looks like they finally have some goaltending, the trades Nill has made really seem to be working out at this early point in the season...although damn are they a dirty bunch! Demers with a major, and Sharp delivering a fairly dangerous hit from behind...

I am expecting to see the Kessel/Crosby experiment to end soon...our depth on the backend just doesn't seem to be there. Lovejoy is an enigma to me at this point, he doesn't seem to be the player he was a few years ago...and once again the compete level just was not there tonight imo...It was very nice to see Duper back in the lineup however!

Oh...and Sid?...FIND A NEW STICK SUPPLIER! I'm getting sick and tired of watching them break at the most inopportune time!!!! Man alive!

Hey, at least the Pens don't have to play the Stars any more this season.

 

[COOL MAN]

Speaking of the Preds game :wink: nice to see MAF shut me up since I've not been all that pleased with his game thus far.

Wasn't until this morning I realized......though the Pens obviously were profoundly outplayed......Nashville fully doubled their SOG in the 2nd and 3rd periods. I also obviously liked PK's game winner, but especially liked Geno's beautifully-subtle trip which sprung Kessel. Glad the stripes were more focused on watching PK carry the puck than doing their job.

Meanwhile, if you haven't read it, Bennett.....who's apparently planing to return to the lineup vs. Washington.....claims he hurt himself during his own goal celebration against Montreal. Yeah, that sounds about right. Finally, it looks like Eric Fehr is currently targeting PK's triumphant return to Toronto this coming weekend for his debut.

 

[COOL MAN]

Pens waive Bobby Farnham, then claimed by New Jersey (now led by his old WB/S coach, John Hynes)