Who's To Blame For Penguins Debacle?

[saintunspecified]

Poor decision making of pens D is to blame combined with discipline and consistency for nyi D. I don't think there's any other way to see this. It's been an obvious contrast.

 

[ThreeLeftSkates]

No. Who scratches Blueger for Garrett ******* Wilson? Who keeps McCann away from Sid and Guentzel even though it's been our best line?

With this change in game one, you think you would have won a game by now?

 

[Loseipeg]

Grace period

 

[Shrimper]

Half our roster

 

[Tuna Tatarrrrrr]

Crosby and Malkin both no showing.

Wonder what the @daver excuses will be? That Crosby didn’t save himself for the playoffs? Or that he was too focused on winning the selke?

I for one can’t wait to see the acrobatics for this one.

Lol yep and he is pretty much absent since the beginning of the playoffs, it's funny.

 

[mrv52]

Crosby. He is just not capable of making the players around him better, again.

 

[aufheben]

At what point this season did the Penguins look like a real playoff threat? This shouldn’t be surprising, whatever the matchup.

Edit: also, reading this thread, hating Crosby stopped being cool like six years ago.

 

[Chips]

The team has looked very stale at times the past two years even aside from the playoffs.

It's probably time to make some bigger changes. I wouldn't trade Crosby/Malkin/Letang/Guentzel/Murray but anyone else is fair game for me.

Pretty much. They’ve been far from the best team on paper even the two most recent years they won. Both years they had terrible stretches, usually early. Then they got way better late, and got hot at the perfect time.

Their defense group in particular looked like one of the worst on paper, that was before this year. Guys who sucked before came and looked great, then left and got worse again

But team defense >> who your defensman are. Obviously they’re important, but the whole team playing great masked that. Their defensman and forwards were clicking in translation specifically. All they needed was their forwards who conversely are one of the best groups in the world, to be hot. And their goalie*

Timing, and the fact that the Caps had sour history with them (matchups) was huge for them. If you flipped their season, they would have been knocked out early

 

[DitchMarner]

No. Who scratches Blueger for Garrett ******* Wilson? Who keeps McCann away from Sid and Guentzel even though it's been our best line?

To be fair, Wilson scored your only goal of game three.

 

[Tmu84]

Islanders are getting way less respect they deserve here. What a transformation for this team..

Also, what a transformation for Barry Trotz as a coach, two years ago he was considered a choker but now he has completely wiped that perception

 

[dr robbie]

I don't think anyone is going to give Crosby a free pass on this series - he's been shut down hardcore. And I'm sure people will look back on this series like the Boston series where he just flatlined.

1. Regardless, I think the horrid defense takes the cake. Horrible decisions. Mishandling every other play. Turnovers like crazy. Without the defense performing, there's little for the offense to do. Johnson can't look at a player without taking a stupid penalty. Letang, Schultz, Dumolin just take turns on who is going to make the next high risk play that turns around into an oddman rush the other way.
2. Next in line would be goaltending. Murray looked off in game 1. That just set the precedent. Once again, hard to perform when the defense looks this bad, but they needed him to steal a game to have a chance in this series.
3. Lastly, the stars didn't come to play. Malkin and Crosby have looked uninspired. Nothing seems to be working right for them. Letang looks terrible (see above). Kessel is still in preseason mode. No one is getting any lucky bounces.

 

[Super Fadio Bro]

The Isles being a better team.

 

[rocketdan9]

Matt Murray has also looked shaky

Pens trying so hard to score, lots of odd man rushes given up

 

[adsfan]

no one to blame. That the end of this team. They are falling similarly to Detroit in 2010s. Barely make the play-offs and run into a young hungry team.

now it is time to Mario to step up and ask the league to give few 1 overall picks.

Denied! Nashville needs a couple of #1 picks to punch up their offense.

 

[DitchMarner]

No one said anything about that in this thread.

It's not a question of simply losing, but a team with Sid and Malkin that won a bunch of cups recently potentially getting swept in the first round is a big deal and very much worthy of discussion. This is a discussion board after all...

They were dominant in 2016 when they won the Cup.

They pulled off another Cup win in 2017 and they deserve credit for that, but their advanced stats during that run were poor and they easily could have lost to Washington or even Ottawa.

Last year they lost in round two and now they'll lose in the first round most likely. The team really hasn't been any sort of a juggernaut since 2016.

 

[SI90]

The islanders?

 

[Loseipeg]

At what point this season did the Penguins look like a real playoff threat? This shouldn’t be surprising, whatever the matchup.

Edit: also, reading this thread, hating Crosby stopped being cool like six years ago.

This guy is backpedaling hard

 

[Nick Hansen]

God.

 

[BrookswasHere44]

Malkin and kessel are overrated unless they can play on the third line in the playoffs.

Malkin has zero seconds ever on the 3rd line

 

[Herby]

The Penguins are just getting old.

Almost all of their best players are north of 30 in a league that is more and more becoming a young man's league.

 

[zizbuka]

Don't worry, the league will figure out a way to give them a few #1 overall picks. For some reason, the NHL just loves the Pens.

 

[Price is Wright]

Bad matchup, good Islanders, Lehner being lowkey one of the best goalies in the league, and the Penguins depth just not being what it used to.

 

[Loseipeg]

Malkin has zero seconds ever on the 3rd line

Nah. Bonino was de facto 2nd line

 

[Herby]

So much for that "unfortunate matchup" that everyone kept saying about anyone who plays the Penguins in round 1....they look overmatched.

People said the same thing about facing LA in 2016 and 2018 playoffs even though they were a shell of their glory teams. Reputations last for years in pro sports, even when the product on the ice doesn't match the reputation with fans and media.

If Pittsburgh is a WC next season people will be saying the same thing.

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

They were dominant in 2016 when they won the Cup.

They pulled off another Cup win in 2017 and they deserve credit for that, but their advanced stats during that run were poor and they easily could have lost to Washington or even Ottawa.

Last year they lost in round two and now they'll lose in the first round most likely. The team really hasn't been any sort of a juggernaut since 2016.

They were still a juggernaut in 2017. 111 points and won the cup without their #1 dman Letang. Also added Guentzel that year. It's been since that summer that they've been declining bigtime.