Post-Game Talk: | Pens vs Oilers | loss | Burn the tape

[FreeBobbyFarnham]

He's doing OK as long as you don't have huge expectations. He's able to make up for positioning mistakes/bad pinches with his speed, so more power to him, but he's pretty raw in NHL experience, so it's a little early to make any long-term judgments about him. There were certainly much bigger issues on D tonight than POJ.

That's fair.

From what I’ve seen POJ and Rutta were our best two defensemen the last two games.

I agree, but that's some pretty low standards lol

 

[Jacob]

Also let’s put Poulin in tomorrow. Who cares.

 

[vodeni]

Kappy cannot turn the puck 22 seconds before the end of the second down one, easy flip, thats something that we see way too often

 

[DearDiary]

Oilers played well, but they made a lot of mistakes yet the Pens barely put up a fight to capitalize on them.

 

[Trade]

Kappy cannot turn the puck 22 seconds before the end of the second down one, easy flip, thats something that we see way too often

The whole second period stunk, but the last 3 minutes of it were impressively bad. The amount of coasting was unreal.

That Kappy turnover followed by his zero hustle effort to backcheck and cover for the f*** up is just laziness.

 

[vodeni]

Ovi keeps scoring PP goals from his office on the left wall, all while our best weapon has been sent to play behind the net, or the left wall or whatever the f*** is going on with this PP, and anyone, anyone but Letang on PP, I'd rather see Ruhwedel, Fedun, or Bartkowski, or Orpik or whoever,

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

That 2nd period sucked. We're getting the extreme pendulum swings from Letang this season so far. When he's good, he's very good, but when he's bad, he's awful. Much the same from Petry.

Draisaitl's a monster.

Ah well. CDS in against Calgary (assuming) is, uh, gonna be tough. Hope they show up and play the entire game. I don't know what the deal is there; whether it's age/stamina or what. We've seen Sid in particular kinda take games off and pace himself for the playoffs for years. Maybe they're just trying not to gas themselves by February. Probably too optimistic, tbh.

 

[bambamcam4ever]

I watched Draisaitl's goal again and Dumoulin's positioning is inexplicable. All 3 forwards are on / moving toward the left side of the ice and #8 takes a leisurely loop to the right side of the zone so he's in position to pick up no one.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Broken record time but Dumoulin remains my biggest concerns mainly because the one thing he's supposed to bring (strong defense) he's ranged from mediocre to bad at. Letang or Petry having a rough game here or there I can look past because in their good games they actually contribute what they're good at. With Dumoulin even at his best he's been "passable" and not this defensive beast we need him to be.

 

[AlphaMikeFoxtrots]

I'm not giving up showers or baths, Pens. Find another way, preferably in less whatever that was fashion.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

I'm not giving up showers or baths, Pens. Find another way, preferably in less whatever that was fashion.

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

Think this is the problem with an old team. Their peak level of play is very high but it might be hard to sustain it consistently for sixty min every game over a long season. Give Edmonton credit though, they were explosive and relentless the second half of this game.

 

[KrisLetAngry]

6 goals and McDavid didn't register a point.

 

[DearDiary]

There was also a Pens jersey thrown on the ice. It went unnoticed because Draisaitl picked it up right away

 

[Tender Rip]

There was very little we didn’t do well in the first. There was very little we did well in the 2nd and 3rd.

Starting in both cases with all the fundamentals. Forecheck, backcheck, being hard on pucks, battling on the walls, effort.

Some players were worse than others in terms of individual mistakes, but the “oh shit, they’re coming at us, whatever do we do” mindset and sacklessness in the second, that was top to bottom - and the bench.

 

[AlphaMikeFoxtrots]

My wheel of superstitions is gigantic, but boundaries gotta exist and be maintained.

 

[Angrrus]

I'll say it. That was bad

Games like this show better than any other that this core is washed out and incapable of achieving anything real. Oilers completely embarassed them as a team and firts of all our "superstars" who aren't really anything any more.

Who needs these highly paid aged stars if they can´t show up and get stuff done against good teams? Crosby Mlakin Letang Jarry and the rest of the team played like complete lazy blockheded idiots. It was disgusting to watch. And that was just the beginning of the season, when they are supposedly fresh and relatively healthy. How much less they will be able to do in april, when they'll all be hurt and weary and satiated?

Hoping to get "another shot at the cup" with this core and thus signing them to monster deals to keep them around for ages is wishful thinking. This was a wrong move. They should've moved on from Malkin, Letang and Rust and start biulding a new young team. This year Pens will once again be an embarassing toothless disaster, just like they've been in this game vs Oilers.

Not really sure what's up with them taking games off. But even if we lose in Calgary we've put together a record that rivals the best in the Metro.

Hopefully they have some bite tomorrow. Maybe they'll throw Poulin in and scratch McGinn.

Keep in mind that this os only October and the games are quite easy. The further it goes into the season, the tougher each game will become. We'll see more and more emnarassing losses and listless performances. Their record so far won't mean jack s...t. But performances like this one will mean a lot.

 

[CascadiaPenguin]

Games like this show better than any other that this core is washed out and incapable of achieving anything real. Oilers completely embarassed them as a team and firts of all our "superstars" who aren't really anything any more.

Who needs these highly paid aged stars if they can´t show up and get stuff done against good teams? Crosby Mlakin Letang Jarry and the rest of the team played like complete lazy blockheded idiots. It was disgusting to watch. And that was just the beginning of the season, when they are supposedly fresh and relatively healthy. How much less they will be able to do in april, when they'll all be hurt and weary and satiated?

Hoping to get "another shot at the cup" with this core and thus signing them to monster deals to keep them around for ages is wishful thinking. This was a wrong move. They should've moved on from Malkin, Letang and Rust and start biulding a new young team. This year Pens will once again be an embarassing toothless disaster, just like they've been in this game vs Oilers.



Keep in mind that this os only October and the games are quite easy. The further it goes into the season, the tougher each game will become. We'll see more and more emnarassing losses and listless performances. Their record so far won't mean jack s...t. But performances like this one will mean a lot.

Thank you Angrrus! I knew I was missing somebody in my recently revised "ignore" list, appreciate your head's up! Rant on dude, spittle be damned!!

 

[HandshakeLine]

lol

 

[Pens x]

I think the doomsday posts are a bit over the top, but so were the hot takes after a couple of games against poor/tired teams.

Weren’t people discussing re-signing Zucker a couple of days ago?

Thankfully, sleepy didn’t listen to HFboards and donate POJ.

We are in trouble with Dumo. That has to be addressed sooner rather than later.

Also, it would be cool if coach caveman would sit crappy vet players once in awhile.

 

[AuroraBorealis]

I think the doomsday posts are a bit over the top, but so were the hot takes after a couple of games against poor/tired teams.

Weren’t people discussing re-signing Zucker a couple of days ago?

Thankfully, sleepy didn’t listen to HFboards and donate POJ.

These downer games are indicative of nothing if they don't result in a playoff miss.
We proved that last year when we got utterly dominated by the Rangers in the regular season and then outplayed them in 6 of 7 games, scoring 29 goals.
Went cold into the playoffs too, but probably played at their highest level in a series since 2017.

Even if the worst case scenario happens and we only get like 2 points or something on this whole western swing, the Pens will recover later.
Anyone who is capable of being honest with themselves knows this deep down. I don't see a shred of evidence that we'll finish anywhere below 4th. The Metro's just not that special.

 

[Icarium]

Nothing to worry about, our players are used to be in bed by the time the second period started in that time zone, so no wonder they looked lost. We don't have any more games out West, right? Right?!?

Seriously, considering the way we defended after the first period, it's amazing we allowed only 5 more goals. Petry needs to stop thinking he is Cale Makar, Dumo needs to start thinking, period, the forwards gave up too...

At least I am now not mad about the way we wasted a 4 minute PP because we would have lost anyway with this defense. Rakell's assist and goal were beauties, too bad they came in such a calamitous game.

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

I have zero faith in Dumoulin at this point. He has too many games where he's constantly fumbling the puck or giving it away with a badly placed pass. And he doesn't really do a whole lot of "shutdown defending".

IMO if there's still one spot the Pens need to improve it's #1 LD. I don't think Pettersson or Pojo can do it and I don't think Dumoulin's that guy any longer.

Agree. He was serviceable in that spot for many years but he's a flat out liability at this point. Dumoulin's gotta go.

 

[JTG]

Ovi keeps scoring PP goals from his office on the left wall, all while our best weapon has been sent to play behind the net, or the left wall or whatever the f*** is going on with this PP, and anyone, anyone but Letang on PP, I'd rather see Ruhwedel, Fedun, or Bartkowski, or Orpik or whoever,

I have said this for 15 years. I know Sid likes playing where he does on the powerplay, but it just doesn't work. It doesn't work for Geno either. It's why the PP always seems to be clicking with one of the big 3 out. When Sid is out, Geno can rove that entire wall which makes him way more dangerous. Schultz turned into a PP monster without Letang and Sid in the lineup in 2016. Sid experiences a similar bump in play when Geno isn't on that wall and he can work from blue line to goal line.

The powerplay woes are on the star players who overpower the opinion of the coaching staff. They like playing together even though playing together is detrimental to what could be a great powerplay unit as a whole. Rather than having 1 mins of stars, they could have two evenly matched unit that were both a threat to score.

It would have been awesome to see Matheson get some time on the first powerplay when he was here. He is an unreal skater and probably had the hardest shot on the team, and unlike Letang he could put it on net.

Broken record time but Dumoulin remains my biggest concerns mainly because the one thing he's supposed to bring (strong defense) he's ranged from mediocre to bad at. Letang or Petry having a rough game here or there I can look past because in their good games they actually contribute what they're good at. With Dumoulin even at his best he's been "passable" and not this defensive beast we need him to be.

Dumo is breaking down. It's very evident to see right now. When he was younger, Draisaitl wouldn't have walked him like he did last night. I remember in 2016/17 where Ovi would try shit like that and Dumo was a brick wall. We got great hockey out of Dumo, but I think it's time to maybe flip him.

 

[Buddy Bizarre]

POJ was the only Penguin dressed tonight who ended up with positive possession stats. He may be a bit light on his skates, but his speed enabled him to shut down multiple rushes, including at least two in the third period.

I think you answered the question. POJ is probably the only defender who can keep up with some faster opposing forwards
Sad part is that you shouldn't have to be chasing like that if your positioning is sound (which it obviously wasn't last night)