GDT: Qualifying Round: Canadiens vs. Pittsburgh - Game 2 - Mon Aug, 3 8:00PM SBA-Toronto (Habs lead 1-0)

[Ugene Magic]

Broadcast:
NBC, CBC, TVAS

SEASON SERIES
December 10, 2019: 4-1 Canadiens
January 4, 2020: 3-2 Penguins
February 14, 2020: 4-1 Penguins

Qualifying Round
(Habs lead series 1-0)
Aug 1, 2020: 3-2 Canadiens



I'm not going to read too much into Game 1. First game that matters in months and they started off well enough. Both teams had their moments, the Pens won the special teams but lost at even strength. The Pens will have to be better on the PP to get full advantage in the series. They had plenty last game and only converted on 1-7 chances. I thought they challenged Price with shots, but the quality or secondary chances were not there enough. Just keep plugging away, he's not invincible.

STARTING LINEUPS
(Lineups subject to change)
​

Tatar - Danault - Gallagher
Drouin - Suzuki - Armia
Byron - Kotkaniemi - Lehkonen
Weal - Domi - Weise

Chiarot- Weber
Mete - Petry
Ouellet - Folin

Price





Guentzel - Crosby - Sheary
Zucker - Malkin - Rust
Marleau - McCann - Hornqvist
Aston-Reese - Blueger - Tanev

Dumoulin - Letang
Pettersson - Marino
Johnson - Schultz

Murray

​

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[Ugene Magic]

I'll be at Kennywood today. I'll update as I can.

LGP!

 

[Turin]

Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
Zucker-Malkin-Hornqvist
Sheary-McCann-Tanev
Marleau-Blueger-Rodrigues

Dumoulin-Letang
Pettersson-Schultz
Riikola-Marino

Do it.

Or sub Rod for Lafferty.

 

[EightyOne]

May God have mercy upon their souls...

 

[Beau Knows]

Horny should for sure be moved up the lineup, none of the "skill" wingers are really doing anything out there, at least we know he'll find a way to contribute.

One thing I actually wish our coaching staff would take from the DB era is playing Geno and Sid together once in a while. They just couldn't find a way to break out last night, maybe playing them together a few times could get something going.

I know it makes JR look bad because of his contract, but JJ has to sit. I still think this can be a good team, but not with him around.

Price was good, but not unreal. The Penguins should have won that game, so I'm not stressed quite yet.

 

[wheelz87]

Ugh..

Murray didn’t do anything wrong to lose the net. And that’s what I hate most. We should have won even though he was shaky. Jarry should be in net, even though I understand why he isn’t. And again, Murray didn’t necessarily lose that game. I just didn’t have any confidence in him, and game 1 did nothing to alleviate that for me.

Sheary gets **** on more than anyone, and everyone thinks Kahun is a god and future HOF. Having said that, he’s GOTTA be better. I really don’t mind him. He can be a slippery player who does possess skill. But man he was bad. (and so was jake) Is there a move to be had here? Neither laff or erod are really first line guys. Obv Horn but I think that’s only if we go down 2-0.

Easiest move to make is one of the above in for Marleau, I suppose. Did he even play? I hate to single him out, when there were very few, if any, positives. But he was invisible.

JJ needs to go. Now. Before he puts up another -2 and loses game 2.

**** man. First 10 minutes were beautiful and then we just wilted. The 4 line wave attack was exactly what I wanted to see. And then the third period/OT sets in where we just looked dead. How were we the more tired team? At no point were we more dangerous. And that’s scary. We’ve seen this in the past where we know the inevitable. What team could have the stars we do and be so bad down the stretch?

Were there any interviews post game? Any quotes? Can someone please ask who’s the genius who leaves horny off PP1?

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Honestly, just fix the PP. We can bitch and moan about all the other issues (a lot of which are perfectly valid), but at the end of the day our anemic PP cost us Game 1. If the Pens score even once on that 5on3, we're talking about the Pens being up 1-0 in the series.

 

[TKalltheTime]

If little to nothing changes, Pens try too hard and get throttled 6-1...

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Welp ... so much for any hope of seeing less of that pairing.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Welp ... so much for any hope of seeing less of that pairing.

"Over-backchecking"

What does that even mean

 

[Andy99]

"Over-backchecking"

What does that even mean

it means they sucked but he doesn’t want to say that..what good does it do the team to outright tell the media that that pair sucks?

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

"Over-backchecking"

What does that even mean

In the context of the OT winner, I think he's referring to the fact all three of the BART line collapsed too far close to the net and left the points open, so when the loose puck squirted out to the point to Petry, none of them were on him and he was allowed to take a couple of strides in while they were flat footed.

Bieksa made a similar comment about that play on the CBC broadcast.

Not saying it's entirely true, but on that specific goal I kind of see what he means, even if I don't necessarily think the Schultz/Johnson pairing played it very well either.

 

[Al Smith]

Welp ... so much for any hope of seeing less of that pairing.

This lineup is what Sully is comfortable with and he's going to live or die in this series with it, barring injury. I guess he could see the abomination that was the PP without 72 in front of the net, but if he didn't change it after going 1/5 (with the goal coming from the second unit), including the 5 v 3, there's at best a 50-50 chance he'll put 72 out with the first unit and put Zucker on PP2.

 

[Jaded-Fan]

 

[Empoleon8771]

In the context of the OT winner, I think he's referring to the fact all three of the BART line collapsed too far close to the net and left the points open, so when the loose puck squirted out to the point to Petry, none of them were on him and he was allowed to take a couple of strides in while they were flat footed.

Bieksa made a similar comment about that play on the CBC broadcast.

Not saying it's entirely true, but on that specific goal I kind of see what he means, even if I don't necessarily think the Schultz/Johnson pairing played it very well either.

I actually think that makes a lot of sense and is a good comment by Sullivan. It just sounds weird to describe that as "over-backchecking", but I understand what he's trying to make.

I guess that saying "over-backchecking" is a nicer way to say "the wingers blew their assignments on the point". And after re-watching the two goals, he's totally right on that. The 4th line wingers were miles away from Petry on the OT goal and Kulak on the 1st goal, they got way too deep and left the points completely open. The first one was made even worse by ZAR, because he ran into JJ as JJ was trying to get back to Kotkaniemi in front of the net. ZAR was way too deep and basically set a pick on JJ.

 

[JackFr]

I actually think that makes a lot of sense and is a good comment by Sullivan. It just sounds weird to describe that as "over-backchecking", but I understand what he's trying to make.

I guess that saying "over-backchecking" is a nicer way to say "the wingers blew their assignments on the point". And after re-watching the two goals, he's totally right on that. The 4th line wingers were miles away from Petry on the OT goal and Kulak on the 1st goal, they got way too deep and left the points completely open. The first one was made even worse by ZAR, because he ran into JJ as JJ was trying to get back to Kotkaniemi in front of the net. ZAR was way too deep and basically set a pick on JJ.

Aston-Reese was only that deep because JJ had made an insane play and was way out of position though. Looks to me like he was trying to cover for the defender's aggression. And then of course Johnson decides that checking the player with the puck into the net. ZAR's not blameless on that goal but it is way more on Johnson than any of the wingers.

 

[TKalltheTime]

"Over-backchecking"

What does that even mean

My f***ing GOD... the Pens are doneZo. Wow. Just WOW!

 

[Empoleon8771]

Aston-Reese was only that deep because JJ had made an insane play and was way out of position though. ZAR's not blameless on that goal but it is way more on Johnson than any of the wingers.

ZAR was already in that position before Johnson went for that hit. ZAR moved less than 10 feet in the time between when Johnson went for the hit and when he ran into Johnson.

From what I can tell, ZAR was at the edge of the circle right before Johnson went for that hit and ended up basically at the faceoff dot. He barely went deeper after Johnson went for the hit, he was already too deep in the first place. If ZAR was back to cover for the other defenseman, he was also in the wrong because Blueger was already back doing that.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

I actually think that makes a lot of sense and is a good comment by Sullivan. It just sounds weird to describe that as "over-backchecking", but I understand what he's trying to make.

I guess that saying "over-backchecking" is a nicer way to say "the wingers blew their assignments on the point". And after re-watching the two goals, he's totally right on that. The 4th line wingers were miles away from Petry on the OT goal and Kulak on the 1st goal, they got way too deep and left the points completely open. The first one was made even worse by ZAR, because he ran into JJ as JJ was trying to get back to Kotkaniemi in front of the net. ZAR was way too deep and basically set a pick on JJ.

Yeah, I kind of noticed the same thing real-time when I saw the play develop. Sure, Johnson and Schultz both ending up in the left corner for some reason was weird, but I also thought the forwards all had tunnel vision about collapsing closer to the slot and totally forgot that they are also responsible for the late man, which just so happened to be Petry.

 

[OldCraig71]

Wake up Penguins, we deserve Lafreniere!

 

[JackFr]

ZAR was already in that position before Johnson went for that hit. ZAR moved less than 10 feet in the time between when Johnson went for the hit and when he ran into Johnson.

From what I can tell, ZAR was at the edge of the circle right before Johnson went for that hit and ended up basically at the faceoff dot. He barely went deeper after Johnson went for the hit, he was already too deep in the first place. If ZAR was back to cover for the other defenseman, he was also in the wrong because Blueger was already back doing that.

I agree that ZAR is too deep on that play, but that's a very consequential 10 feet considering we're talking about a collision here. Johnson goes for the hit and gets completely walked, Aston-Reese drifts deeper in the zone to cover for him, they collide when Johnson has to book it back to the net, then Johnson makes an absolutely idiotic play in front of the net.

ZAR ends up looking clueless (in part because he always looks clueless even when he's making the right play, which is one of the reasons people on here hate him so much), but he's a pretty definitive second on my "1st goal blame power rankings.

 

[Empoleon8771]

I agree that ZAR is too deep on that play, but that's a very consequential 10 feet considering we're talking about a collision here. Johnson goes for the hit and gets completely walked, Aston-Reese drifts deeper in the zone to cover for him, they collide when Johnson has to book it back to the net, then Johnson makes an absolutely idiotic play in front of the net.

ZAR ends up looking clueless (in part because he always looks clueless even when he's making the right play, which is one of the reasons people on here hate him so much), but he's a pretty definitive second on my "1st goal blame power rankings.

I mean if ZAR is playing his position, Kulak doesn't even get that shot on net

I mean sure, Johnson deserves the majority of the blame because he hit Kotkaniemi into the puck and knocked it in because of that, but ZAR's not exactly far behind there. ZAR being that far out of position in the first place allowed for that shot to even get through, and then he made it worse by running into JJ while being super out of position. Not only that, but ZAR also did a bad job at covering for JJ if he even tried to do that. If he wanted to cover for JJ, he should have gone in front of the net because Blueger was going towards the puck carrier after the Habs player chipped it around Johnson.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

I mean if ZAR is playing his position, Kulak doesn't even get that shot on net

I mean sure, Johnson deserves the majority of the blame because he hit Kotkaniemi into the puck and knocked it in because of that, but ZAR's not exactly far behind there. ZAR being that far out of position in the first place allowed for that shot to even get through, and then he made it worse by running into JJ while being super out of position. Not only that, but ZAR also did a bad job at covering for JJ if he even tried to do that. If he wanted to cover for JJ, he should have gone in front of the net because Blueger was going towards the puck carrier after the Habs player chipped it around Johnson.

Do either of those goals happen if the BART line just did their job instead of trying to do Johnson/Schultz's?

The OT goal, in particular, I think I'd blame more on the trio the more I think of it simply because all three basically decided to play defense. It would have been fine if one of them covered the slot to cover for Johnson/Schultz being in the corner and the other two stuck with their coverage of the point. But all three sort of backed way in, allowing Petry way more room than he should have had.

 

[TKalltheTime]

History repeats itself. Bylsma levels of stupidity & stubbornness. Wow.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Do either of those goals happen if the BART line just did their job instead of trying to do Johnson/Schultz's?

The OT goal, in particular, I think I'd blame more on the trio the more I think of it simply because all three basically decided to play defense. It would have been fine if one of them covered the slot to cover for Johnson/Schultz being in the corner and the other two stuck with their coverage of the point. But all three sort of backed way in, allowing Petry way more room than he should have had.

I don't think the OT goal was from that line trying to do Johnson and Schultz's job, I think they just made a really bad play defensively and got completely fixated on the puck. ZAR was the last guy back, so he f***ed up by not picking up the trailer, but Tanev also f***ed up by being too aggressive defensively. Tanev should have just let Johnson take the puck carrier , but he instead tried to knock the puck carrier off the puck.

I think both Johnson and Schultz played the OT goal correctly, as did Blueger. Johnson broke up the pass and took out the puck carrier, Schultz covered his guy that went into the corner and Blueger covered the other Habs forward in the slot. ZAR and Tanev both botched it, ZAR more than Tanev but both of them botched it.