Hello Hail Mary Media, I am Erbie Brooks, and I will be bringing you some weekly insight into the NHL and specifically the Pittsburgh Penguins. While I will talk all things NHL, you will never catch me drooling over Connor McDavid on this site. Sure, as an individual he may be a top five talent, but the guy is a generational loser, he has lost at every level consistently. The only time he has ever won was when he was stapled with one of the game’s greatest winners, Sidney Crosby.
Below will be my first set of weekly NHL thoughts…
- I am as biased as they come, and the Penguins may have just endured one of the most deflating losses in recent memory but it’s baffling how the national media has continued to talk about this team. We were picked by all the pundits to be a bottom 3-5 team in the league but yet they said the schedule artificially inflated their early season charge. Ummmm, last I checked if you are supposed to be one of the worst teams in NHL, there is not a single easy match-up (except maybe the Sharks)
- To continue on that point, the Monday night loss against the Maple Leafs may have ended the Penguins’ season. It was one of the more disastrous games I ever seen. It’s taken a few days for me to mentally recover from what I saw, my mind got dark for the 48 hours following that performance. My biggest takeaway from the game… Owen Pickering was rightfully sent back to the AHL, I don’t care that he was a first round pick this kid might just suck. He can’t hold onto pucks, he doesn’t use his frame, and worst of all I think Ryan Graves is going to be upgrade (the worst free agent signing in Penguins history).
- The Colorado Avalanche are you Stanley Cup champions. Yes, they have 5 loser points maybe artificially making their record look better than it is, but this team is going to win it all. Edmonton will make their charge, but as discussed above McDavid is a loser. Also, no they will not win the Cup with Sidney Crosby on their roster he isn’t leaving Pittsburgh. Makar, MacKinnon, and Necas are just a nightmare for any penalty kill in the league.
- Florida won’t make the playoffs. Too many injuries. Sam Bennett was never an 8mil/year player. Everybody knew that when he signed but his playoff performances make him worth that dollar amount. Unfortunately, when he becomes your teams top line center you just are not going to be good enough.
- The Rangers might be toast too. I don’t blame Mike Sullivan, and their defensive metrics actually look incredible, but this team is just not well constructed. They need Will Cuylle and Alexis Lafreniere to be much better but it’s looking like that just won’t happen. The Rags are very similar to the final years of Sullivan’s tenure in Pittsburgh but they lack a Sidney Crosby (Panarin has seven points this season). While the team does have one of the best goalies on the planet, and a 40 year old backup playing incredibly, it doesn’t matter because this team cannot score.
- I have no idea why I saw a million tweets about Milan Lucic signing a PTO with an AHL team. He’s 37 years old, hasn’t been good for about a decade, and I’m pretty sure just last season he was allegedly accused of domestic violence.
- Matthew Schafer should unanimously win the Calder if he keeps his current pace. I do not care about Ivan Demidov and what he’s doing in Montreal… What Schafer has done on the Island is incredible. Not only is he 18 years old, but he also barely played hockey last season and he’s playing a significantly harder position on a worse team than Demidov. He won’t win it unanimously because the Canadian media controls everything (which is a discussion for another day), but he should.
- My above point is null in void if Sergei Murashov stays with the Penguins now that Tristan Jarry is hurt. If you aren’t from Pittsburgh, you may think I am smoking crack, but I was boots on the ground for training camp, this kid is the real deal (also, his AHL numbers back that up). There’s a possibility he starts and takes this Penguins team back to the playoffs. If that occurs, it would be hard to ignore his candidacy for the Calder.
- I will likely get more into trade rumors and potential trade targets in the coming weeks, but I think Alex Tuch to Edmonton is going to happen. Obviously, this trade will not matter for the Oil because their captain is destined to continue his losing ways. The team will feel obligated to do something for McDavid rather than prioritizing a goalie (Merzlikins, Saros, Sorokin???), so they will go get a winger for 97 and for the third year in a row the Oilers will attempt to outscore their defensive and goaltending deficiencies.
Thank you for reading!
Leave a Reply