Official GDT: Pens vs Bruins 4/13/25

[DelPen]

Lines outside #1 I don’t like at all. Would rather see:

Rakell-Malkin-Tomasino
Dewar-Ponomarev-Puustinen
Heinen-Kopanen-Hayes

[Victor]

Don't expect Sully to make sense

[Zalapski33]

Tomasino playing on Line 4 just shows how little this Top 2-3 Coach thinks of him.
Why not give Ponomorev a bump up to Line 3 and have Heinen and Hayes get the scrap minutes on Line 4?

[Puck-Lurker]

Sullivan is past expiration date

[Zalapski33]

Ponomorev has had some jump early on his Even Strength and PP shifts.Quick and engaged.
Would be great to see Koivunen and him get on the board today.

[Zalapski33]

Letang gets out worked off the boards and beat in coverage leading to the last second Boston Goal.
Had a 1st Period that is par for the course by him with giveaways,a lazy penalty and terrible awareness all on display.

[Zalapski33]

Phantom Tripping Penalty Call on Koivunen.No way is that a trip.

[Zalapski33]

PK with no clue on the coverage and its an easy PP Goal for Boston.This is on its way to a blowout now.
7th Slot in the Draft looking like its there.6th a possibility.

[FLPensFan]

Letang gets out worked off the boards and beat in coverage leading to the last second Boston Goal.
Had a 1st Period that is par for the course by him with giveaways,a lazy penalty and terrible awareness all on display.

Really hoping that Dubas recognizes this summer that, in addition to the many, many negative event plays that Letang and Karlsson bring, they are no longer top 10-20 offensive d-men in the league. EK65 is 12th in points by a defenseman, and he's had his second consecutive lowest point output in a non-injury season. Letang is ranked 53rd in points for a defenseman. Grzelcyk has 8 more points than Letang. Letang is on pace for his lowest point total since 13-14, and that was an injury season...and he's had 4 other shortened seasons (injury, COVID) where he STILL managed to beat this season's total output.

Not only have their point totals declined, but their ability to skate and play defense has also started to decline. Quite simply, they aren't good defenders and if the goal is to retool and be competitive next year or the year after, both of these guys CANNOT be on the team next year.

Yoda says: Much work this defense needs.

[Antonio]

Thank god we signed Letang until he is 41. No one could ever have seen that as a bad move.

[Pens4Life]

Lines outside #1 I don’t like at all. Would rather see:

Rakell-Malkin-Tomasino
Dewar-Ponomarev-Puustinen
Heinen-Kopanen-Hayes

Koppanen isnt NHL center, Tomasino got back after injury and he was in Sully's doghouse lately. Hayes is currently better offensive C than Poni, so it makes sense to have them as 3C and 4C.

[Zalapski33]

Letang gets out worked off the boards and beat in coverage leading to the last second Boston Goal.
Had a 1st Period that is par for the course by him with giveaways,a lazy penalty and terrible awareness all on display.

Really hoping that Dubas recognizes this summer that, in addition to the many, many negative event plays that Letang and Karlsson bring, they are no longer top 10-20 offensive d-men in the league. EK65 is 12th in points by a defenseman, and he's had his second consecutive lowest point output in a non-injury season. Letang is ranked 53rd in points for a defenseman. Grzelcyk has 8 more points than Letang. Letang is on pace for his lowest point total since 13-14, and that was an injury season...and he's had 4 other shortened seasons (injury, COVID) where he STILL managed to beat this season's total output.

Not only have their point totals declined, but their ability to skate and play defense has also started to decline. Quite simply, they aren't good defenders and if the goal is to retool and be competitive next year or the year after, both of these guys CANNOT be on the team next year.

Yoda says: Much work this defense needs.

Agree completely.4 Consecutive Years of Retooling and spending a ton of Money on this Defense thinking that Letang was a Top Level Elite Guy.
Sympathetic Loyalty instead of honestly assessing where he was in his career and where it was heading without addressing it.
Not having any decent Defensive Type Defensemen is a huge weakness that continues to lead to this Team being a Non Playoff Group.

Hopefully Pickering and Brunicke are able to change this going forward.

[Pens4Life]

PK with no clue on the coverage and its an easy PP Goal for Boston.This is on its way to a blowout now.
7th Slot in the Draft looking like its there.6th a possibility.

We are 8th, still can be 9th... Doubt teams behind us will win much in last 2-3 games.

[Victor]

PK with no clue on the coverage and its an easy PP Goal for Boston.This is on its way to a blowout now.
7th Slot in the Draft looking like its there.6th a possibility.

If they indeed lose in regulation today, Pens will have 78 points with one game remaining, so they would get 80 points max. If Buffalo win some games, Pens can move to 7th in the lottery draft. They will be no further than 9th though.

[Zalapski33]

Tomasino with a nice play to get that set up for the late Rakell PP bounce in Goal.
Rakell has had a terrific Year.Deserves all the Puck Luck there is.

[Zalapski33]

Another Phantom Penalty Call.
Letang didn't Board the Boston Forward in any way whatsoever.

[Zalapski33]

The Guaranteed Sully Coached Team Inept Play with the Empty Net gives the easy ENG Goal to the Bruins to finish off this one.
Lost to the Team that has been Tanking for 3-4 Weeks.
Served its purpose via Draft Position.

[Victor]

Rakell with a new-career high of 35 goals. He also matched his previous point total record of 69.

Koivunen now has 5 assists in 6 games.

[DelPen]

Really hope Koivunen can get a goal in the last game in a 3-2 loss.

[KG]

Letang is a major issue going forward. He’s clearly lost a step and can no longer play top pairing minutes.

The entire d Corp needs to be blown basically.

And if the kids are supposed to get a look to play in meaningless games, how come young Koly can’t get in on D??

[pfim]

Letang gets out worked off the boards and beat in coverage leading to the last second Boston Goal.
Had a 1st Period that is par for the course by him with giveaways,a lazy penalty and terrible awareness all on display.

Really hoping that Dubas recognizes this summer that, in addition to the many, many negative event plays that Letang and Karlsson bring, they are no longer top 10-20 offensive d-men in the league. EK65 is 12th in points by a defenseman, and he's had his second consecutive lowest point output in a non-injury season. Letang is ranked 53rd in points for a defenseman. Grzelcyk has 8 more points than Letang. Letang is on pace for his lowest point total since 13-14, and that was an injury season...and he's had 4 other shortened seasons (injury, COVID) where he STILL managed to beat this season's total output.

Not only have their point totals declined, but their ability to skate and play defense has also started to decline. Quite simply, they aren't good defenders and if the goal is to retool and be competitive next year or the year after, both of these guys CANNOT be on the team next year.

Yoda says: Much work this defense needs.

They certainly don't give the forwards or goalies any chance in a game.

Some of the angles that Karlsson takes on simple d zone entries by the opposition scream that he doesn't give a crap about defense. I've never seen a defenseman look so poorly on simple plays. How someone can have so much great lateral movement with the puck, and none whatsoever without, makes it obvious he's phoning it in.

Letang should be getting less minutes and Karlsson more, but that would be even more disastrous I think.

[Victor]

I doubt Sully plans to reduce Letang's icetime. It took him forever to move Dumoulin down the lineup when he came back from injury and Dumo wasn't part of the core. I expect more of the same next season.

I wonder if Letang is playing through injury, even though he would have no reason to. It's likely that his play is simply declining. He turns 38 next week.