The Penguins’ Nightmare on Fifth Avenue

I love October. Not only does it signal the beginning of hockey season, it is Halloween time. It is the time of ghosts, goblins, and ghouls. As far back as I can remember, I have always loved to watch horror movies, especially in October, especially at Halloween. I have a large library of Horror films in different formats, ranging from old silent movies like Nosferatu, through the Universal Studios classics, Hammer Studio remakes, and 1970s slashers, I love them all. However, Mr. Rutherford and Mr. Sullivan, I am not sure I like how you guys are trying to combine 2 of my favorite Fall entertainments.

I understand that you have to build suspense, characters have to get attacked by the creature, one by one to get the viewer on the edge of their seat. Pretty much in the opening frame we have Johnny saying to his sister “They’re coming to get you, Barbara”, pointing toward the zombie stalking through the graveyard. Unwittingly, Johnny was right, the zombie attacks Barbara. Johnny comes to her defense and loses his fight with the living dead. Barbara runs away in shock (looking sort of like the way Mike Sullivan often looks on the bench). And we get treated to a scare fest and the seminal Zombie movie.

It should be mentioned that the actor playing Johnny wasn’t the star of the movie. He wasn’t a supporting actor either. His name doesn’t even appear in the credits. Someone should have pointed this out to the Penguins that making Evgeni Malkin an early casualty in this horror film was not a good idea.

Also, I always loved the comedians’ take on horror movies making fun of how the dumb actors advance the plot with stupid moves and self-inflicted wounds. The group always splits up, forgetting about safety in numbers, so that they can get picked off one by one. And of course there is always the cute girl who slips and falls at the worst time, running from the monster.

As our Penguins are now fighting to salvage a four game home stand and get themselves back to 0.500, let’s remember this started in the off-season.

• Mike Sullivan couldn’t make nice with star forward Phil Kessel who never seems to miss games, so GM Jim Rutherford traded him for a prospect that may still be 2 years away and a mediocre forward, Alex Galchenyuk that is now on the Injured Reserve (IR) list.
• The plot thickened even more when Rutherford signed Brandon Tanev to put the team over the Cap again. I am liking what I see from Tanev, but Rutherford still hasn’t solved the financial end of signing him, all these months later. Luckily he gambled and won, he was able to sneak Casey DeSmith through waivers to buy a little time to try and straighten out the mess that he, himself, created.
• Then Rutherford signed several marginal RFA players to one way contracts so that they now have to clear waivers to be sent down to Wilkes Barre – Scranton (WBS).
• Next Sullivan opted to start the season with 9 Defensemen on the opening roster. Part of that may have been from Rutherford’s poor financial planning, but I am pretty sure Chad Ruhwedel can get through waivers to open up some wiggle room. Even if he doesn’t, and although I think he is a serviceable 7th Defenseman, let’s face it, 7th Defensemen aren’t that rare of a commodity that they can’t easily be replaced. I would rather not lose Ruhwedel but Sam Lafferty and Kasper Bjorkqvist played well enough in the preseason to earn opening roster spots and at worst would be pressuring Zach Aston-Reese, Dominik Kahun, and Dominik Simon to produce.
• Now, if you believe what the rumor mill churns out, Rutherford is now trying to shop Erik Gudbranson. Gudbranson will never be confused with Bobby Orr but since he has been here, no one has been taking liberties with our Goalies. If this rumor is true, please, please, please, someone stop him. For our Goalies’ sake, someone stop him.
• Also, apparently Sullivan really doesn’t get it. Yesterday, Sullivan decided to reward Simon for missing the net after 2, count them, 2 golden scoring opportunities muffed, in the waning moments of the Winnipeg loss, by putting him up on the top power play (PP) unit. Yes, eventually, Simon will probably score a goal, but at what cost? Anaheim has a solid Penalty Kill (PK) and Whitehall native John Gibson just may be the best Goalie in the league right now and our coach is saddling his team’s top PP unit with a player who dragged the team’s shooting percentage down from 9.9% to 7.8% when he was on the ice last season.

Any other player than Simon, with over a season long scoring drought would hve found himself plying his trade in the AHL, but Sullivan elevated Simon to the top PP unit. It makes me wonder if Sullivan realizes that Anaheim isn’t Team Italy, Team France, or Team Great Britain, the teams Simon padded his stats against during this past Spring’s IIHF’s Tournament. Anaheim is an NHL team, an NHL team boasting one of the best Goalies around.

Sullivan, I am hoping your gambit works out but I am not hoping for your sake. I am hoping for the sake of the black-n-gold. I caution you though, if it does work out tonight, it may just be random chance that it worked. Long term, it is a design for failure.

If moving Simon up to the Top PP fails, it may not be Simon’s fault, but it will still be yours. You will be the one that didn’t put the best players out there. You will deserve all the heat you get, if the media is honest.

In the end, I do love Halloween. I love Horror movies, but I may have to watch tonight’s game through the finger’s covering my eyes. A 1 – 3 home stand may be too frightening even for me. Yes, they are only 4 games, 4 home games of 41 across the season, but it will be rather difficult to make up those lost points on the road at the end of the season.

Come on Sid, wake me up from this nightmare.

Go Pens!!!!