Ryan Wilson: Superstitious Sid turns 33 + Jack Johnson facts! Superstitious Sid turns 33 + Jack Johnson facts!

Oh yes... let that rage flow through you Ryan Wilson

The really bad thing is that the Pens have three more years of JJ after this season. I am assuming he will be bought out the last season but still, even two more years is a frightening prospect.

The best way to mitigate his badness is to keep him in the pressbox permanently. Since that is unlikely the next best thing would be to put him on some sort of rotation where he plays every other game or something.

Unfortunately I can't see Sullivan benching him tonight.

I will say that Jarry has been better at pulling out the "miracle saves" necessary to bail out JJ. Hopefully he is able to tonight.

I can't stand Torts but he really made Rutherford look like a fool regarding JJ.

Wow I had totally forgot about Oleksiak. Too bad he had that fight against Wilson and was gone soon after.

I can't stand Torts but he really made Rutherford look like a fool regarding JJ.
- PghPens668771

What did Torts do to make Rutherford look like a fool?

Yeah but Lafrenier is Canadian so this is different.
- Victoro311

so true

Lafreniere extends the Crosby/Malkin era by quite a bit. And friends just imagine the butthurt league wide.
- stackthepads

IDK Lafreniere can't stop Sid, Geno, and Letang from aging. No doubt he helps in future years, but I don't think he keeps us from falling out of contender status in another year or 2. And maybe next playoffs, we do have a big injury. As bad as we've been, I still think the talent is there to compete and wouldn't want to waste a year.

Now watching the conspiracy theorists go nuts, that would be fun.

Hedman for Johnson and 20 1st round picks.

The really bad thing is that the Pens have three more years of JJ after this season. I am assuming he will be bought out the last season but still, even two more years is a frightening prospect.

The best way to mitigate his badness is to keep him in the pressbox permanently. Since that is unlikely the next best thing would be to put him on some sort of rotation where he plays every other game or something.

Unfortunately I can't see Sullivan benching him tonight.

I will say that Jarry has been better at pulling out the "miracle saves" necessary to bail out JJ. Hopefully he is able to tonight.

I can't stand Torts but he really made Rutherford look like a fool regarding JJ.
- PghPens668771

I'm guessing one more year until they try to move him unless they see that as one of the "sacrifices" they need to make for a flat cap.

By the end if next year, I predict POJ will take his spot like Marino took Gudbranson's. Unlike Riikola, the organization is too high on him to block him with JJ.

Now watch them decide JJ on his off-side will be a good first partner to mentor POJ like they think he was with Pettersson and Marino. 😒

If the Pens lose to MTL how crazy do you guys think the annual Malkin trade rumors will be?
- Rinosaur

I think the narrative of Malkin’s bounce back year has been so strong that it won’t actually be too crazy this year. I think we could get some Letang stuff though. Marino’s been so good that it’s pretty crazy that people still manage to overrate him. I think the combination of the Marino love affair and the fact that yinzers love to poop on Letang will lead to some very annoying chatter.

Johnson’s a Michigan guy? I knew I (frank)ing hated him.

What did Torts do to make Rutherford look like a fool?
- jmatchett383

I can’t recall if Torts responded to Rutherford, but he’s referring to when Rutherford insinuated he had some insider knowledge as to why Torts pressboxed Johnson in the playoffs and that it had nothing to do with JMFJ’s on ice performance. Really it was Rutherford who made Rutherford look like a fool.

IDK Lafreniere can't stop Sid, Geno, and Letang from aging. No doubt he helps in future years, but I don't think he keeps us from falling out of contender status in another year or 2. And maybe next playoffs, we do have a big injury. As bad as we've been, I still think the talent is there to compete and wouldn't want to waste a year.

Now watching the conspiracy theorists go nuts, that would be fun.
- Tojo.

If lafreniere is as advertised then he comes in as an NHL ready superstar. In a year he would be the Pens most dominant player.

The front office could pivot from all out competing now while Crosby/Malkin are still first line players to competing in 2-3 years when they’re both middle six players.

I can’t recall if Torts responded to Rutherford, but he’s referring to when Rutherford insinuated he had some insider knowledge as to why Torts pressboxed Johnson in the playoffs and that it had nothing to do with JMFJ’s on ice performance. Really it was Rutherford who made Rutherford look like a fool.
- Victoro311

I think getting JJ was at the request of Crosby.

I think the narrative of Malkin’s bounce back year has been so strong that it won’t actually be too crazy this year. I think we could get some Letang stuff though. Marino’s been so good that it’s pretty crazy that people still manage to overrate him. I think the combination of the Marino love affair and the fact that yinzers love to poop on Letang will lead to some very annoying chatter.
- Victoro311

I hope not. I think Letang has played pretty well. It's sort of bizarre to see him cleaning up Dumoulin's mistakes for once.

There are some core players having a bad series right now, but I wouldn't want to move any of them. Need to accept it's been a weird post-season and some guys don't have their timing. I'd love to see a full season to experiment with things like where Guentzel and Zucker should play.

What did Torts do to make Rutherford look like a fool?
- jmatchett383

https://www.hockeybuzz.co...n-Jim-Rutherfod/177/93741
https://archive.triblive....k-johnson-jim-rutherford/

Basically, Torts benched JJ during CBJ's playoffs in 2018. When the Pens signed him that offseason, Rutherford made this comment (cited in the second article):

Rutherford said he didn’t think Johnson had a bad season last year, noting that he knew why the Blue Jackets scratched the defenseman down the stretch and it “wasn’t because of how he was playing.”

The implication is that it was a personality conflict or something like that between JJ and Torts. CBJ's GM and Torts both clearly stated that it had to do with his play. I am certainly not an expert on CBJ's 2017-8 season but time has obviously proven Torts correct and Rutherford very, very wrong. Even before the signing it is fair to assume that both Torts and Kekalainen knew much more about JJ than Rutherford.

Speaking of playoffs, the really sad thing is that the last time the Pens looked dominant in the playoffs was the 2018 playoffs, before signing JJ. While they did lose to the Crapitals that series could have gone either way and the Crapitals had very favorable officiating. The team has yet to look great in the playoffs since signing JJ.

I think getting JJ was at the request of Crosby.

I think that is part of the problem of getting him out of the lineup.

@ jmatchett383

Hope this helps, reply function is cooperating me with. This was on RW's blog two years back which should explain a bit in here. Either way I would say that CLB had the last laugh

https://www.hockeybuzz.co...n-Jim-Rutherfod/177/93741

I think have a superstar on an ELC for 3 years would also be huge for them to plug other holes in their roster, specifically a 3c and 4/5 defensemen. I don't think this team is far away from being great, but there are some tweaks that are definitely necessary, which Lafreniere would greatly help.

If lafreniere is as advertised then he comes in as an NHL ready superstar. In a year he would be the Pens most dominant player.

The front office could pivot from all out competing now while Crosby/Malkin are still first line players to competing in 2-3 years when they’re both middle six players.
- stackthepads

It might work out as you say, I just see too many future problems to work around. Like how do you deal with Malkin, Letang, and Rust all being UFAs the same year and no cap raise? They'll probably need to cut Dumoulin loose after his deal and hope Pettersson and POJ can fill the 2 and 4 spots. Not a lot of talent in the pipeline.

Maybe Lafreniere balances all that and the aging stars out, but that's alot. I'd rather keep going now as that's still an 87.5% chance of not getting him. I suppose at least next year they'd be better, I just don't see the window extending much because they guys aging are better.

This team completely moved away from the thing that won them two cups. They brought in worse bottom 6 pieces and got slower and less puck-handling ability on defense.

The other problem is Crosby/Malkin/Letang arent 27 or 28 years old anymore, even 29/30 years old. As they age, you will not be able to rely on them as much as you could years ago.

The biggest problem is trying to re-tool this offseason. Not only dont the Penguins have a lot of assets, the salary cap not moving up like people expected will harm the Penguins' ability. Ideally, you could have found a way to dump Bjugstad and Johnson. I wouldnt even mind moving Hornqvist, but I know they wont. Rutherford will have to find low-risk/high-reward guys like he did with Hagelin, Bonino, etc.

I think its 50/50 Johnson is sitting today. We will learn a lot about his future here based on whether he is in the lineup today.

Ideally, we have the #1 overall pick on Monday.

It might work out as you say, I just see too many future problems to work around. Like how do you deal with Malkin, Letang, and Rust all being UFAs the same year and no cap raise? They'll probably need to cut Dumoulin loose after his deal and hope Pettersson and POJ can fill the 2 and 4 spots. Not a lot of talent in the pipeline.

Maybe Lafreniere balances all that and the aging stars out, but that's alot. I'd rather keep going now as that's still an 87.5% chance of not getting him. I suppose at least next year they'd be better, I just don't see the window extending much because they guys aging are better.
- Tojo.

Pens really are not in that bad of a position cap wise, I do not think Malkin and Letang get significant raises combined over what they are making now, and between the expansion draft and trading/expiring contracts they should be able to keep Rust. Also when the cap does rise in 3-4 years, it likely will be significant from the combination of a new US TV deal and the expansion team.

Pens really are not in that bad of a position cap wise, I do not think Malkin and Letang get significant raises combined over what they are making now, and between the expansion draft and trading/expiring contracts they should be able to keep Rust. Also when the cap does rise in 3-4 years, it likely will be significant from the combination of a new US TV deal and the expansion team.
- abasin

I actually don’t think they will take raises. I think they’ll take three years at their current cap hit.

It might work out as you say, I just see too many future problems to work around. Like how do you deal with Malkin, Letang, and Rust all being UFAs the same year and no cap raise? They'll probably need to cut Dumoulin loose after his deal and hope Pettersson and POJ can fill the 2 and 4 spots. Not a lot of talent in the pipeline.

Maybe Lafreniere balances all that and the aging stars out, but that's alot. I'd rather keep going now as that's still an 87.5% chance of not getting him. I suppose at least next year they'd be better, I just don't see the window extending much because they guys aging are better.
- Tojo.

I thought the Pens were going to benefit the most from the 4 month layoff. Older players got some rest, guentzel able to get back into the lineup, coming into the playoffs healthy.

But when I look around the league the older teams are having a really hard time right now. The younger teams are almost up to speed while the Pens look like they’re skating in quicksand. We have no jump.

That said, the next round would be against Boston who look just as slow as us, so there is potentially enough games to get the timing and legs back before running into a younger team.

But man 12.5% chance at getting another generational talent really is appealing.

I thought the Pens were going to benefit the most from the 4 month layoff. Older players got some rest, guentzel able to get back into the lineup, coming into the playoffs healthy.

But when I look around the league the older teams are having a really hard time right now. The younger teams are almost up to speed while the Pens look like they’re skating in quicksand. We have no jump.

That said, the next round would be against Boston who look just as slow as us, so there is potentially enough games to get the timing and legs back before running into a younger team.

But man 12.5% chance at getting another generational talent really is appealing.
- stackthepads

Blackhawks dont agree with this.