All I want for Christmas for the Penguins

Dear Santa,

I know we are coming down to the wire. The countdown is down to days, not weeks, and soon will be down to hours. Hopefully, I am not too late. But you see, Santa, I am not writing to you on my behalf. I am writing to you on behalf of my favorite hockey team, the Pittsburgh Penguins and their loyal fans. The gifts I am asking for are for them.

1. Please Santa, can you bring the team two, young, top six forwards; a Right Wing (RW) to flank team captain Sidney Crosby and a Left Wing (LW) to patrol the port side of the fiery Evgeni Malkin. These two Centers do deserve some help. They have been trying to carry a team that has allowed its talent level to deteriorate; giving one lame excuse after another. The fault is not theirs. (I would love to be their Chiropractor – after carrying this load, this long….All I am saying is I would have definitely had a good year – financially)

I know Tanner Pearson is looking really good in a Penguin uniform, but he just hasn’t looked to be the right fit in a top 6 role. However, he does look like a legitimate threat to build a third line around.

If it is too late to get legitimate NHL calibre top six forwards, could you at least bring Bryan Rust and Zach Aston-Reese enough mojo to last long enough to get the team through the season.

2. The team really needs a top 5 draft pick too, Santa. Could you please bring them one. Even if it means trading away an overpaid aging talent, or actually falling themselves for a season (1 step backwards to take 3 or 4 steps forward). They could use that pick to address the long term need of a young top six forward (Right now I am thinking Vasili Podkolzin – but your smarter than me Santa, you pick).

3. Derick Brassard, some mojo of his own. With Patric Hornqvist coming back soon and the way Tanner Pearson is looking this could turn into a force. Maybe they won’t be the second coming of the HBK line, but solid contribution from here would be great.

4. Defensemen, Defensemen, Defensemen! My favorite hockey team is spending tons of money on Defensemen that aren’t getting the job done. They have been averaging over 40 Shots Against (SA) per game over these last three games. Please Santa, either bring some defensive acumen to at least five of these Defensemen; Brian Dumoulin, Jack Johnson, Kris Letang, Olli Maatta, Jaimie Oleksiak, and Marcus Pettersson.

Even if you bring defensive acumen to five of these players, the team will still need a Right Handed Defenseman (RHD). Please, bring the team a real RHD. It could be Ethan Prow. He is looking pretty good right now, statistically, in Wilkes Barre – Scranton (WBS). I’ll leave that up to you though Santa.

5. Our Penguins could also use Goaltending coaching like they had under Mike Bales. The team does have two or maybe even three NHL Goaltenders, but the coaching staff is failing them. Either bring Mike Buckley some of Mike Bales magic or give the team the impetus to recognize part of the decline in Goaltending may be the pathetic state of the defense, but also their Goaltenders haven’t been the same since Bales left.

6. Kris Letang could use some self control Santa. If you are not bringing a trade to free up some Cap space to be put to better use, then Santa could you bring Letang enough self control to stop making impetuous leaps into the offensive zone, bad passes, and keep him from chirping to the referees, potentially biasing them against the whole team because of his temper.

7. New Coaching or new Coaching. Santa, I thought I understood why Mike Sullivan didn’t get a Jack Adams nomination when he turned the Penguins around in December 2015-2016 and won the Stanley Cup. The team really wasn’t his. The team was built by others and he was just steering the ship. I was mistakenly became irate when Sullivan was passed over for even a nomination when defending that Cup. I still was laboring behind home town colored glasses though much of the season last season. There now seems to be very good reasons why Sullivan was passed over. With so many of the players that bought Sullivan that Cup and fame having been unceremoniously run out of town or defected before they too got dumped and this team is now molded into Sullivan’s image, well, its failing. I now see why he was passed over for the Jack Adams. I need look no further than his declining Points Percentage (Pts%) as the team transformed into “his” team, that is now fighting for its playoff life.

Season	GP	W	L	OL	Pts	Pts%	Standings
2015-16	54	33	16	5	71	.657	2nd
2016-17	82	50	21	11	111	.677	2nd
2017-18	82	47	29	6	100	.610	2nd
2018-19	33	15	12	6	36	.545	4th

* I am not saying that I want Sullivan fired for Christmas, Santa. Not if you can bring him some knowledge of how to coach. I would think some clues on what Sullivan needs can be found in his pregame interview before the Penguins – Ducks game a few days ago. Rather than trying to minimize any discussion of his serious guffaw in forcing young sniper and probably best fit for Crosby’s RW, Daniel Sprong, out of town. Sullivan kept giving lame excuse after lame excuse – backed up by a host of yes men that tried to help obfuscate the truth, including media types.

Sullivan and his yes men first tried to defend Sprong’s lack of playing time saying that the Penguins’ RW position was log jammed with high end talent and he cited Phil Kessel, Patric Hornqvist, and Bryan Rust and others. This excuse could have worked if he would have stopped after referencing Kessel and Hornqvist and he actually played both of those players in top six roles. If he didn’t reference Rust and then infer others, most people would not have thought to hard about the excuse. Sprong is not now and may not ever quite be Kessel in the sniper department (but then again, he may grow into an equal) and there is only one Hornqvist. However, it was very rare that Sullivan deployed Kessel and Hornqvist, both in top six roles at the same time. For the vast majority of the time he played one of those two players as the third line RW.

As for Rust, Dominik Simon, and the others that where implied, sorry, Sullivan, you obviously do not have an eye for talent. There are no other players on this roster, right now, who have the skill set that Sprong could bring, to fill Crosby’s starboard side.

* Sullivan then tried to defend not giving Sprong ice time by saying that the kid was weak defensively. Again, it would appear that Sullivan has a critical thinking gap. Until most recently, Matt Cullen and Riley Sheahan at least had worse defensive statistics and were getting copiously more ice time, despite being less effective defensively and offensively and Bryan Rust wasn’t hat much better defensively, but until recently couldn’t hit the ocean with a beach ball.

* Sullivan then posed perhaps the worst excuse of all. the one which really condemns his last couple of seasons of coaching. Sullivan tried to hide behind the excuse, although he recognized Sprong as a talent, that he doesn’t have the time to develop kids. Sorry Sullivan, the position of coach entails many parts, including teaching the new players. This is a truism that transcends all disciplines, civilian and military. The onus is on the man in charge to see that all personnel below him are trained well enough to succeed.

The Head Coach doesn’t have to be an expert in all spheres under his control, but he is responsible for finding a person to assist him to cover his weaknesses. If Sullivan lacks the ability and/or patience to bring along young talent, he needs to find an assistant to delegate the task. If does neither and the team doesn’t develop its own young talent it is doomed. The value in dollars of the team is only going to plummet.

Of course, in saying that he doesn’t have time to develop young talent, Sullivan could be saying that he is too afraid of losing to try and win.

Also, there have been those with whom I have talked who have said Sullivan’s ego is such that he can’t stand big personalities in the locker room. I am not sure if I believe this accusation; Crosby and Malkin may be rather humble compared to many athletes, but I would think still represent larger personalities. However, with the dispatching of locker room presences such as Marc-Andre Fleury, Ian Cole, Ryan Reaves, and now Sprong (many people have said Sprong was too large of personality as well), it is hard to totally ignore this potentiality.

So, rather than get a new Coach, Santa, could you bring Mike Sullivan; honesty, talent evaluation skills (all the way from the top down to who is on the ice with who), the ability to teach young players or an assistant that can do that for him, courage to try and win rather than the fear of losing that seems to permeate his regime, and the wisdom coexist with large personalities in his locker room and the knowledge of how to get them on his side to use them motivate the rest of the team – rather than the jealousy that caused him to throw away very important puzzle pieces.

Sincerely,
the Other Rick

Odds and Sods

While we were sleeping the New York Islanders used their game in hand to extend their lead over our Penguins to a full 2 points rather than trusting just in a tie breaker by dumping Arizona 3 – 1. Meantime, the New York Islanders gained 2 points on the Penguins by defeating Anaheim by the same 3 – 1 score, taking advantage of Anaheim on the back end of back-to-back games.

It doesn’t get any easier for our Penguins’ schedule as we close in on Christmas; next up the division leading Capitals tonight, followed by Minnesota tomorrow night, and then divisional rival Carolina on Saturday.

PS Santa 6 more points before Christmas would be nice too!