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Sestito Hopes to Earn a Job


Polaris922

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by Sam Kasan 


 


This morning, the Pens announced that forward Tom Sestito will attend training camp on a professional tryout contract.


 


There’s no mistaking the role Sestito would fill with the Pens if he earns a spot on the team. He’s huge (6-foot-5, 228 pounds), loves to play physical and will drop the gloves when needed. There’s a reason Sestito, 27, has collected 432 career penalty minutes in 137 regular-season games.


“I want to be a fourth-line guy, power forward,” Sestito said. “Hit as many bodies as I can and deter a guy from taking a run at the 90,000 stars on the team.”


 


Among the Pens’ 90,000 stars are Sidney CrosbyEvgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel. It behooves the team to keep those stars focused on using their talents on the ice and not on the post-whistle extracurriculars.


 


Sestito wants to be that guy keeping the opponents in line. The Pens re-signed Bobby Farnham in the offseason, another player that could fill that job with his hard play and agitating style.


 


So if Sestito is to fill that role with the Pens, he’ll have to earn it. He’s only in camp on a tryout and will have to show Pens management that he deserves the job.


“I know it’s just a tryout, but I feel like when the exhibition games come along I’ll feel like a part of the team and hopefully contribute,” he said, “and hopefully my services will be necessary.”


 


Sestito, who met with the Pens brass and players last week, left for Pittsburgh this afternoon. He’ll join the rest of the group of players that have been informally skating at the team’s new practice facility in Cranberry until camp opens in mid-September.


 


“It’s a lot easier to go to camp when you skate with the guys a couple weeks before,” Sestito said. “It should be a fun time.”

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If he is not the worst player in Hockey today he is in the conversation. The Pens can absolutely do better. If they are wanting someone to fill the role vacated by Downie there has to be someone better available. Hell, bring back Darius Kasparaitis, and he is what, pushing fifty?

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I'm thinking they want a healthy scratch they can employ just where the stars get mauled and interfered with all the time (Philly, Rags, Bruins).

 

Maybe stop employing some of the dirtiest players in the league and others may not feel the need to employ those types when their stars get mauled by the Cookes/Neals/Downies? 

 

It's hilarious Pens fans always bring up protecting their stars while their team ices some of the worst offenders in the intent to injure dept.

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Maybe stop employing some of the dirtiest players in the league and others may not feel the need to employ those types when their stars get mauled by the Cookes/Neals/Downies?

It's hilarious Pens fans always bring up protecting their stars while their team ices some of the worst offenders in the intent to injure dept.

Goons have their role on every team. Granted that role is diminished, but still. We have three of the best forwards in hockey now as far as scoring talent. Of course they're going to have someone to play the McSorley role. Would you prefer a straight up goon or a James Neal knee to the back of the head? Funny you mention Downie... A former Flyer. And Rosehill was such a great power forward for you guys, I forgot.

It's laughable the great hypocritical stance you take on this, following the Flyers. Lord help us you guys worship Pronger and yearn for the 70's...

I don't remember Sostito ever being discussed as a dirty player when he protected the Sedin twins... But put on black & gold and suddenly...

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@Polaris922

 

 Pens fans in general have this skewed fantasy "we only have goons to protect our innocent superstars" mentality. The reality is you've had some of the dirtiest players in the league pretty much every year. Heck Malkin and Crosby can both be dirty. (So can Giroux, I won't pretend he isn't)

 

I hated the Rosehill acquisition. I'm glad Rinaldo is gone. But I also know they weren't on the team just because the Pens were going to sic Matt Cooke on our stars...and as much as the Pens pretend they're only protecting theirs, the fact is they ice guys who are proactive offenders.

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@Polaris922

Pens fans in general have this skewed fantasy "we only have goons to protect our innocent superstars" mentality. The reality is you've had some of the dirtiest players in the league pretty much every year. Heck Malkin and Crosby can both be dirty. (So can Giroux, I won't pretend he isn't)

I hated the Rosehill acquisition. I'm glad Rinaldo is gone. But I also know they weren't on the team just because the Pens were going to sic Matt Cooke on our stars...and as much as the Pens pretend they're only protecting theirs, the fact is they ice guys who are proactive offenders.

Then you must also give them credit for getting rid of some of those same guys when they're going too far and won't change their ways (i.e. Neal, Cooke).

Honestly ALL teams that are competitive do it to protect their star players. What other reason would they have for having a speed bump on a high scoring team? Maybe you believe teams do it just to do it. I think that's their purpose.

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@Polaris922  With the Flyers luck, Sestito will become the next Patrick Maroon. He will become the miracle, the guy who everyone thought was crap, but ends up somehow, someway being useful. It is just our luck. Everyone thought Maroon was a nobody, but I KNEW he had very nice hands, and if he could just get a bit better in the skating dept, he would end up being a respectable player. He did improve his skating ever so slightly, just enough to make him a non liability every time he touched the ice. Sestito really is crap, his hands don't come close to Maroon's, but our luck says he will somehow magically turn things around.

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@Polaris922  With the Flyers luck, Sestito will become the next Patrick Maroon. He will become the miracle, the guy who everyone thought was crap, but ends up somehow, someway being useful. It is just our luck. Everyone thought Maroon was a nobody, but I KNEW he had very nice hands, and if he could just get a bit better in the skating dept, he would end up being a respectable player. He did improve his skating ever so slightly, just enough to make him a non liability every time he touched the ice. Sestito really is crap, his hands don't come close to Maroon's, but our luck says he will somehow magically turn things around.

Maroon was leading the Phantoms in scoring when he was dismissed for being a malcontent and a negative influence on the club and clubhouse.

His hands had nothing to do with it, nor did people think he was "crap" or a "nobody"

He got the kick in the posterior he deserved and likely never would have been the player he is, which, quite frankly, is a guy with one playoff outbreak.

Even with that, he's not even Ville Leino yet.

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Maroon was leading the Phantoms in scoring when he was dismissed for being a malcontent and a negative influence on the club and clubhouse.

 

 I had no idea Maroon was doing that well for the Phantoms. He got traded after losing it on the coach, no?

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by Sam Kasan 

 

This morning, the Pens announced that forward Tom Sestito will attend training camp on a professional tryout contract.

 

There’s no mistaking the role Sestito would fill with the Pens if he earns a spot on the team. He’s huge (6-foot-5, 228 pounds), loves to play physical and will drop the gloves when needed. There’s a reason Sestito, 27, has collected 432 career penalty minutes in 137 regular-season games.

“I want to be a fourth-line guy, power forward,” Sestito said. “Hit as many bodies as I can and deter a guy from taking a run at the 90,000 stars on the team.”

 

Among the Pens’ 90,000 stars are Sidney CrosbyEvgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel. It behooves the team to keep those stars focused on using their talents on the ice and not on the post-whistle extracurriculars.

 

Sestito wants to be that guy keeping the opponents in line. The Pens re-signed Bobby Farnham in the offseason, another player that could fill that job with his hard play and agitating style.

 

So if Sestito is to fill that role with the Pens, he’ll have to earn it. He’s only in camp on a tryout and will have to show Pens management that he deserves the job.

“I know it’s just a tryout, but I feel like when the exhibition games come along I’ll feel like a part of the team and hopefully contribute,” he said, “and hopefully my services will be necessary.”

 

Sestito, who met with the Pens brass and players last week, left for Pittsburgh this afternoon. He’ll join the rest of the group of players that have been informally skating at the team’s new practice facility in Cranberry until camp opens in mid-September.

 

“It’s a lot easier to go to camp when you skate with the guys a couple weeks before,” Sestito said. “It should be a fun time.”

I'm hoping should he make the team that he doesn't take stupid penalties needlessly a k.a Steve Downie
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If he is not the worst player in Hockey today he is in the conversation. The Pens can absolutely do better. If they are wanting someone to fill the role vacated by Downie there has to be someone better available. Hell, bring back Darius Kasparaitis, and he is what, pushing fifty?

 

As a Lithuanian, I thank you for mentioning Kasparaitis.

 

Too bad he's too old for the NHL.

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