OK, CP bashers, read 'em and weep. CP was ordered to bring

[ville5]

in the aging vets. Please remove your foot from your mouths.

http://msgnetwork.com/content_news.jsp? ... ice-hockey

[Mad City Mike]

in the aging vets. Please remove your foot from your mouths.

Doesn't change my opinion of him one bit.

One, this is Stan Fischler talking. His credibility is near zero in my book. He is the guy that called Marty Straka a "miserable human being" a few years back. Probably singing a different tune now that Marty is a Ranger. I generally consider him to be a senile blithering idiot.

Two, rumor also has it that Patrick was being his usual "patient" self (read, doing nothing) and Mario had to get involved to get him to do something. Had he worked at his usual pace, he would have come up empty-handed.

Three, my problems with Craig Patrick go back way farther than last summer. his draft and development record through the late 90s and early 2000s was pathetic, and a main reason why the fire sales resulted in such miserable performances. Had he drafted and developed better, the team might well have stayed competitive. But he is lousy at this unless given a top 5 pick.

Finally, if Patrick did not concur with Mario's supposed direction, he could have quit. He didn't.

[ville5]

Love that line- senile blithering idiot. Add drunken to it and you've got maven 100%. How did this guy EVER get a job in hockey?? I actually read an article one time that said Fischler uses interns to go out and get his stories. This was back in late 80s and early 90's when he was writing for the Hockey News. What a slug.

[yeltzen]

I don't think too many people were ready to jump off the Ft. Pitt bridge when they signed Gonchar and Palffy. Who would have known this would happen to them? They're two guys in or near their prime playing in a less-constricting game. The problem with CP is that he (or Mario, doesn't matter) had to bring in bums like Odelein and Poapst and Roy because Patrick has drafted and developed so poorly. On a team that had competent development, Gonchar would have just added to a stellar young blueline and Roy would have been totally unnecessary. Instead, we have a group of young D-men with some promise but very little experience.

[FlyerNation]

Love that line- senile blithering idiot. Add drunken to it and you've got maven 100%. How did this guy EVER get a job in hockey?? I actually read an article one time that said Fischler uses interns to go out and get his stories. This was back in late 80s and early 90's when he was writing for the Hockey News. What a slug.

Wouldn't surprise me. Fischler is an idiot. He's the biggest bandwagoner in the hockey media. In the 80's he was all about the Islanders, then in the mid 90's all over the Rags and lately the past few years his articles and interviews have him fawning over the Devs. He's a joke.

I remember his articles for Hockey Digest in the mid 80's where he would compare players. Always Oilers vs Islanders, Potvin>Coffey, Smith> Fuhr, Bossy> Kurri (true) and the worse article of all time is when he wrote that Trottier was the better player than Gretzky even if stats didn't back him up. He's finished so he figures coming out with "inside" scoop like this somehow still gives him cred.

[FallenHero96]

The article says "Significantly, one Pens’ insider tells us that the current crop of disappointing vets – John LeClair, Sergei Gonchar, et. al. – were imported to satisfy Mario Lemieux’s lust for one more Stanley Cup."....

I thought everyone knew that???? Of course they signed bigger names to make a run at the cup. However, I dont think Lemeiux told CP to make sure he gave Gonchar 25 million. .... I had no problem with CP signing Gonchar, Recchi, Pallfy... even Leclair. CP actually tried to sign a lot of other people... but for one reason or another, he couldnt get them. I know for a fact that he tried to sign Forsberg. But we can't blame CP for the way they all played, especially when 90 percent of you all thought we were a cup contender... even most of the media did. (Except for Pierre Mcguire, who correctly predicted we would miss the playoffs, then was quickly labelled clueless on this board).

The problem I have with CP is that I think he is guilty of trying to reach into the bag of tricks too often. The last 6 years or so he has been trying to find the hidden gem..... the one player on waivers that will have needed that change of scenery and flourish. Robert Lang, for instance. But for that one Robert Lang, we signed 20 Stephane Richer's and Steve Poapst's. And you see where it has gotten us. And I think the failure to get a decent return on the players we had to trade really hurt this team as well.

[Steve]

What was the deal with his Stratka comments a few years ago? I was watching when stratka was called "the dirtiest player in the league". (i think that was the quote).

or is it just the obvious, that this guy is just a drunk, idiot....

[Bowser]

Straka has a reputation for getting away with a lot of stick work.

[Draftnik]

CP did his best work in the late 90s IMO. Signing Lang, Straka, Werenka, trading for Slegr, trading Nedved for Kovy. Everybody points to the Cullen/Zalapski for Francis/Samuelsson trade, but Cullen was a top 10 scorer and Francis had been stripped of his captaincy by Ley(?) the week before the trade. It was only in hindsight that it became one sided.

Gonchar and Palffy were fools gold. There is no way big $$$ should be invested in such soft low character players, especially on a team with questionable work ethic before their arrival.

[Xgen]

FOR SURE called all the shots on the moves...this isn't news as any hockey fan could obviously see it was Lemieux demanding players

[penny lane]

saddest part of article was the number of cities mentioned for penguins.

i can take losing games but don't think i can handle them leaving.

[Admin]

i can take losing games but don't think i can handle them leaving.

They can't leave now. We have a new board.

[relantel]

They can't leave now. We have a new board.

If only we held that sway!

[Jesse]

They can't leave now. We have a new board.

If only we held that sway!

Let's all email Onorato tonight and tell him what a nice board RJ made for us.

That'll get em'.

If not, we'll just call up Bowser, put a Dennis Bonvie mask on Rendell, and tell Eric to Sic em'!

[imau2fan]

I'm certainly not one to bow at Stan Fischler's altar, but don't shoot the messenger............wasn't it Mario who insisted Sergei Zubov be jettisoned in favor of Kevin Hatcher?

Hatcher was washed up ages ago, while Zubov is still producing for the Stars nearly a decade later.

[relantel]

We're not yet to the 17,132 SRO sellout level yet, but 233 registered users in 4-5 days isn't too shabby. But the Pols won't listen, because many of us are not Pittsburgh registered voters!

[abigFATAss]

Please remove your foot from your mouths.

This actually makes me think less of CP. Regardless of what he's done in the past few years, he did construct two Cup winning teams and 17 straight years of playoff contention. You'd think he would be allowed the responsibility to build a winner.

Or, even better, he could've used his credentials and gathered up some balls and told Mario he would take care of it.

It's hard for me to think what could have been if CP had some balls and Mario had some confidence in management.

[bse]

Craig Patrick wasn't ordered to bring useless vets. There were many veterans that turned out to be useful elsewhere