And awaaay we go:
Read of the day: Mike Johnston's weird ride through hockey. Next stop: the big time. [Yahoo Sports - Cotsonika]
"My skin, I don't have any sensation anymore, on the front, because they cut all the nerves and everything," Dupuis said Wednesday.
"When I have my equipment on, I'm fine because when I fall, I feel [the shin pad hitting the ice]. But if I don't have anything on [the knee] and I go to kneel down, I have to think about where I'm at physically, because I don't feel it when my knee goes down."
Uhh yeah, that doesn't sound so good,
Pascal Dupuis [
Post-Gazette]
The recovery for Olli Maatta has seemed to go better
"But I've been surprised at how good it's been. It hasn't really bothered me [while] working out. I've been able to do almost all the stuff I've needed to do, like in a normal summer."
Neither Maatta nor Dupuis have been cleared for the start of practices, but it's not time to do that yet, anyways.[
Post-Gazette]
All things Daniel Carcillo / Steve Downie
-
The Trib throws the weight on Rick Tocchet to try and corral these two crazy players.
- Adam Proteau wrote some dumb click-bait about Mario Lemieux being a hypocrite for bringing in Steve Downie and Daniel Carcillo despite his 2011 letter about cleaning up the game.
- Hockeybuzz (Wilson) looks at Carcillo's fancystats and deduces that Jayson Megna or Ryan Malone are possibly better 4th line options. Not sure if I agree, but it's a fun argument. To me, the best 4th lines would be the ones that at least that have elements make life tough to play against (like Campbell/Thornton in Boston or Clifford/Lewis in LA). The Carcillo experiment is almost certain to end in a train-wreck, but having him makes life more difficult for the opposition than having a Megna or Malone.
-
Pensblog smakes Proteau down accordingly.
-
Mark Madden says the Pens tried to build a team the right way, which failed, so now they need to beef up to protect Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
-
PensInitiative agrees that the added muscle is a reality of playing in a physical, contact league
-
Puck Daddy points out the Downie really hasn't been that bad of a player recently (on ice or with behavior) and shouldn't be lumped in with Carcillo in the first place
- We say that it's not right to call Lemieux a hypocrite because the situations are different from what he was talking about in 2011 (a game that devolved into violence perpetrated by a team desperate to exact revenge and stocking a roster of thugs to do so) compared to signing physical/dirty/cheap players. The NHL isn't filled with choir boys, all of these guys have dirt on their hands at some level. They are alpha males that carry around spears and have blades on their feet. It's a violent, physical game. The Penguins aren't at fault for employing violent and dirty players- players well accepted by every other team- they're going along with the flow. And if they want to be successful they pretty much have to find potential gems like Downie (a former 20 goal scorer on a 1 year, $1 million contract) and Carcillo on a tryout for crying out loud!
:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/38059642/GYI0063307642.0.jpg)