GDT: #4: Pittsburgh Penguins VS Winnipeg Jets|Part 2|The Penguins Go Full Rossi

[GoldenJet89]

i dont know if anyone cares but i thought id offer an outside opinion of tonights game from a jets fan. ive seen three of the pens games this year

theres no denying you have rediculous top end talent. a lot of teams wish they could have any one of sid, geno, letang or neal. it just seems like parts of the rest of the roster is a little dated. certainly not all but some. guys like adams, cooke, martin, were all really good players but just dont seem to fit the mold for this team right now

obviously its still a great team. but i think there needs to be a changing of the guard in a few spots. some fresh blood could go a long way.

another issue is one our teams share.. the 3rd D-pairing is worrisome. As i jets fan i was happy to see lovejoy and engelland on the ice cause that likely meant we would be controlling the play that shift.

either way i think theres a tad of overreacting in this thread. still a top level team that can be a real contender if it starts to click.

 

[billybudd]

I know, I wish they'd just have the camera from the top of the 100s on all the time. I have no use for the cameras by the boards.

Bylsma is a smart coach, probably the smartest in the league IMO. He exploited our weaknesses relentlessly last season, including back door play (Pavelec comes out too far and isn't good side to side), run and gun with lots of odd man rushes, smothering the puck carrier as soon as they cross the blue line (they never wait for reinforcements or do the pass across the blue line) etc..

I'm really looking forward to playing you guys again, to see what the coaches come up with.

Well, I think the reason some of us are so frustrated is the way you beat us is the exact same way several other teams owned us, including but not limited to: Philadelphia in the playoffs, the Islanders at the end of last season, Ottawa (spectacularly) last season, think the Leafs did it 3 times last year, though they might have only won one of those due to their horrible PK...

We've seen this exact game played before, DB has had about 7 months to do nothing but think about how to counter this approach...and we just watched ourselves beaten by the same x and o counter we saw about 12 times last year and did not see any course correction.

 

[Flair Hay]

Crosby and Malkin on Pittsburgh are so freaking dangerous every freaking shift it's nerve wracking. You guys need to get a bit younger it seems. I guess when you are top heavy in salary the depth can suffer big time.

Be thankful though guys, your team is going to go further than ours in all likelihood based on those two freaks of nature alone. Enjoy every minute of it.

Jets fan.

 

[KIRK]

i dont know if anyone cares but i thought id offer an outside opinion of tonights game from a jets fan. ive seen three of the pens games this year

theres no denying you have rediculous top end talent. a lot of teams wish they could have any one of sid, geno, letang or neal. it just seems like parts of the rest of the roster is a little dated. certainly not all but some. guys like adams, cooke, martin, were all really good players but just dont seem to fit the mold for this team right now

obviously its still a great team. but i think there needs to be a changing of the guard in a few spots. some fresh blood could go a long way.

another issue is one our teams share.. the 3rd D-pairing is worrisome. As i jets fan i was happy to see lovejoy and engelland on the ice cause that likely meant we would be controlling the play that shift.

either way i think theres a tad of overreacting in this thread. still a top level team that can be a real contender if it starts to click.

Actually, I think you'd find that most of the people 'overreacting' in this thread would agree with everything you wrote. But, there's more to it than that. There's a pattern to it. Hence, the reactions that you called 'overreacting'.

 

[Jaded-Fan]

I for one am drinking an entire bottle of Merlot. And 2/3 of the way there, and to me it is a logical reaction to what I saw tonight.

I am kind of missing the lockout now.

 

[KIRK]

I for one am drinking an entire bottle of Merlot. And 2/3 of the way there, and to me it is a logical reaction to what I saw tonight.

I am kind of missing the lockout now.

Pens never lost on ROOT during the lockout, that's for sure.

 

[Saitama]

IMO, the 2 wins were more to do with our guys playing up vs PHI and NYR than the system.

Seriously, when I watched the Pens/NYR game I was thinking to myself, "Who's ever going to beat these guys?". Had me really pessimistic about tonight's game. Could you maybe tell your guys to stop playing so frigging good against my Rangers? As for that non-call on the boarding, I was really surprised at that, I thought for sure it was a penalty!

I'm not Crosbys biggest fan, but it was pretty cool to see both him and Malkin live for the first time. (I'm a big fan of Malkin) Oh, and the guy who said to let the Pens players sleep outside because maybe that will wake them up - nobody is waking up after sleeping outside in Winnipeg in January!

 

[CorgisPer60]

I saw the teaser for it where they said he was going to visit Pens locations all over including a Pens' bar in Philly. They showed a bar when they were saying it, which ironically had a 'Flyer's Country' banner prominently hung up so no clue what the deal was. I did not see the piece though, just the teaser.

Obviously, the Flyer's Country banner is just a front for the Pens resistance movement in Philly.

 

[wheelz87]

i dont know if anyone cares but i thought id offer an outside opinion of tonights game from a jets fan. ive seen three of the pens games this year

theres no denying you have rediculous top end talent. a lot of teams wish they could have any one of sid, geno, letang or neal. it just seems like parts of the rest of the roster is a little dated. certainly not all but some. guys like adams, cooke, martin, were all really good players but just dont seem to fit the mold for this team right now

obviously its still a great team. but i think there needs to be a changing of the guard in a few spots. some fresh blood could go a long way.

another issue is one our teams share.. the 3rd D-pairing is worrisome. As i jets fan i was happy to see lovejoy and engelland on the ice cause that likely meant we would be controlling the play that shift.

either way i think theres a tad of overreacting in this thread. still a top level team that can be a real contender if it starts to click.

Absolutely agree with everything you say here. Hell, I think sometimes Pens fans forget that if you truly look at it, we aren't THAT talented. I know I know, we have the best 2 players in the NHL. I get it. Aside from Neal, no other forward strikes fear into opponents. We have kept the SAME team together since our Cup runs. Guess what.. time to mix things up. Kunitz is getting old, Dups STILL CANT PLAY ON THE 1ST LINE. TK, likewise, is a THIRD LINER. I mean hell look at Winnipeg, let's look at their offense. Antropov, Bumistrov, Kane, Ladd, Little, Wheeler. Any better than our top? No. But they can create plays on their own. They can snipe. They can dangle. We have 3 guys that can do that! Winnipeg's 3rd goal (awful defending from Lovejoy aside) friggen Brian Little does a little dipsey do and makes a beauty of a play. Who can honestly do that on our team except Sid and Geno? Our offense scores in the regular season because of them two. I hate when people bring that argument up, that we score enough goals. (And I'm not saying we don't need a D upgrade as well) Yea, Sid and Geno do. Playoffs come around and if they aren't producing we are toast because nobody else can create. We need legit players in the top 6.

 

[CorgisPer60]

Absolutely agree with everything you say here. Hell, I think sometimes Pens fans forget that if you truly look at it, we aren't THAT talented. I know I know, we have the best 2 players in the NHL. I get it. Aside from Neal, no other forward strikes fear into opponents. We have kept the SAME team together since our Cup runs. Guess what.. time to mix things up. Kunitz is getting old, Dups STILL CANT PLAY ON THE 1ST LINE. TK, likewise, is a THIRD LINER. I mean hell look at Winnipeg, let's look at their offense. Antropov, Bumistrov, Kane, Ladd, Little, Wheeler. Any better than our top? No. But they can create plays on their own. They can snipe. They can dangle. We have 3 guys that can do that! Winnipeg's 3rd goal (awful defending from Lovejoy aside) friggen Brian Little does a little dipsey do and makes a beauty of a play. Who can honestly do that on our team except Sid and Geno? Our offense scores in the regular season because of them two. I hate when people bring that argument up, that we score enough goals. (And I'm not saying we don't need a D upgrade as well) Yea, Sid and Geno do. Playoffs come around and if they aren't producing we are toast because nobody else can create. We need legit players in the top 6.

I honestly think it's a team culture thing. When you have superstars on your team, you tend to build around them, as opposed to preparing for if they are unable to produce. Not to paint parallels, but look at the problems the Capitals are having with Ovechkin. The entire team looks distorted and misguided. Granted, having a brand new coach and a truncated season like this will do nothing to help team morale or produce wins. If you can't get production from all of your lines, something needs to change.

Basically, what I am saying is if you rely on one person to do the work,you forget how to work as a team.

 

[petrskudra1]

Crosby and Malkin on Pittsburgh are so freaking dangerous every freaking shift it's nerve wracking. You guys need to get a bit younger it seems. I guess when you are top heavy in salary the depth can suffer big time.

Be thankful though guys, your team is going to go further than ours in all likelihood based on those two freaks of nature alone. Enjoy every minute of it.

Jets fan.

Where? Not in goal, not at center. At wing maybe but we're talking only 2 spots. Kunitz is 33. Dupuis, 33 as well. Neal is 25. We have a stockpile of very solid young prospects at D. This is not Detroit of last year, the core of this team is still very young.

We're $9 million under the cap right now. Winnipeg is $11 million under. And we don't have money to spend on depth? C'mon now.

When this team's game plan works, it does so beautifully. When it doesn't and Bylsma can't adjust its putrid at times.

 

[Will Hunting]

I´m still OK. Passion was there, they were focusing and really wanted to win. It was a very interesting game, much better than vs Leafs. Sometimes you need some luck, some bounce going your way. We were generating lots of offense those final 2 periods, I couldn´t believe we didn´t score at least one there. We will be OK.

Defense is mediocre, but forwards don´t help it neither. Way too many mistakes. Malkin needs to pull hiss **** together. He´s -5 for the last two games, taking lazy careless penalties and making defensive collapses. He´s one of the main reasons we lost the last 2 games. If he´s OK, we are OK. And as we all know, he will be OK.

That said, we still need to fix two problems. One stay-at-home veteran D and one serviceable Top 6 winger. We are still a playoff-team without it, but we all want more than just that.

Relax guys, at least a bit.

 

[kfjjagr]

It's funny how people are flaming Malkin.

The refs were tough on the Pens against the Leafs and Malkin/Pens then had the annual "beat the best and then return home and fail against the Leafs/Islanders".

Last night game was just bad bounces all the way. They could and should have wrapped this game up in time and I wonder i Malkin had done so, would people have been flaming him today? Sometimes the pucks don't go in and the Jets just had their fair share of Sabres-luck(the luck they had in their first 2 games).

I do not see any reason to panic or have any reason to point fingers towards the players. As the pucks failed to reach the back of the net for the Pens, then the Jets slowly build momentum and as the began scoring goals, the momentum just got bigger and bigger. Can't really blame the Pens that bad for bad bounces giving the Jets hope and then scoring goals. Also the Pens fear of failure grew as the luck was against them and the Jets kept getting closer to getting back into the game.

Most night the Pens would have had a 3-0 or 3-1 lead after a 2-0 lead. Then Bylsma could have called a timeout, but I guess he liked what he saw. I did, and just waited for the Pens to wrap it up. They didn't and we move on and let the coach work on some of the issues that any team has. No big deal.

The good thing about the Jets beating Capitals and the Penguins? We will get a nice odds, playing on the Islanders to beat them next. Jets can't handle expectations at home and the Islanders usually can play well against opponents, who are expected to beat them by the home crowd, but do not have the advantage in terms of hockey skills to do so. Two pretty even teams and great value betting against the Jets

 

[wheelz87]

I honestly think it's a team culture thing. When you have superstars on your team, you tend to build around them, as opposed to preparing for if they are unable to produce. Not to paint parallels, but look at the problems the Capitals are having with Ovechkin. The entire team looks distorted and misguided. Granted, having a brand new coach and a truncated season like this will do nothing to help team morale or produce wins. If you can't get production from all of your lines, something needs to change.

Basically, what I am saying is if you rely on one person to do the work,you forget how to work as a team.

I agree.. idk I just feel we are wasting Sid and Geno.

We have Crosby and Malkin. Washington doesn't. Winnipeg doesn't. NOBODY ELSE DOES! We are so unique in having these 2 and we're wasting it. Back in the day, Washington was winning conference titles by 20 points because of their offense. (yes I know how that ended up for them) Listen.. like it or not they were the best team in the East for a few years. I was scared to play them...

Hockey is a crapshoot. Basketball, theres 4 teams that can win a championship this year. Literally. The East is already decided and the West has about 2-3 teams that can win. It's a joke. Baseball is run by the teams that spend. (mostly) Hockey is different. It's all about simply making the playoffs and getting hot where anything can happen. So much parity and in the zone goalies can give teams nightmares. Washington put themselves in the best position to win, and it didn't work out, but probability says that more times than anybody else, they would have made it to the Cup. That's all you can do, is put yourself in the best position to succeed. And putting Sid with 2 guys with half his talent is not how you do that. You load up on talent on those top 2 lines, put me or your dog or idc who behind the bench, and you watch the fireworks go off.

I just feel we could do the exact same thing only be successful in the playoffs.

 

[#66]

Seriously, when I watched the Pens/NYR game I was thinking to myself, "Who's ever going to beat these guys?". Had me really pessimistic about tonight's game. Could you maybe tell your guys to stop playing so frigging good against my Rangers? As for that non-call on the boarding, I was really surprised at that, I thought for sure it was a penalty!

I'm not Crosbys biggest fan, but it was pretty cool to see both him and Malkin live for the first time. (I'm a big fan of Malkin) Oh, and the guy who said to let the Pens players sleep outside because maybe that will wake them up - nobody is waking up after sleeping outside in Winnipeg in January!

The Rangers game was a trap. The Pens aren't that good. Look at how other teams are playing against the Rangers.

The Rangers collapse to the point that they have 6 goalies in the defensive zone. They hardly pressure the puck at all. Thats what made the Pens look good.

 

[Lomez]

Part of the problem is we have is unrealistic expectations because we have 71 and 87 and no one else does. These unrealistic expectations are also fueled by all the press clippings from all the usual sources by writers who every year pick the Pens to win it all based on a survey of the roster (again, we have 71 and 87 and no one else does) without actually watching the Pens play much.

Fact is, unlike the hungry, disciplined teams that made the Cup finals (i.e., MT's teams), this team plays like an old, soft (I mean soff) unfocussed team. Without some sort of drastic infusion somewhere in the organization, this team is--again--destined for one and out in the playoffs.

 

[#66]

Part of the problem is we have is unrealistic expectations because we have 71 and 87 and no one else does. These unrealistic expectations are also fueled by all the press clippings from all the usual sources by writers who every year pick the Pens to win it all based on a survey of the roster (again, we have 71 and 87 and no one else does) without actually watching the Pens play much.

Fact is, unlike the hungry, disciplined teams that made the Cup finals (i.e., MT's teams), this team plays like an old, soft (I mean soff) unfocussed team. Without some sort of drastic infusion somewhere in the organization, this team is--again--destined for one and out in the playoffs.

I think the unrealistic expectations come from Disco and Shero too. They think Crosby and Malkin will get their points no matter what so why overly go after forwards.

Fully agree that this team is a pack of puffs right now. To be honest I think that falls on someone above Disco and Shero.

 

[Mr. T]

I for one am drinking an entire bottle of Merlot. And 2/3 of the way there, and to me it is a logical reaction to what I saw tonight.

I am kind of missing the lockout now.

 

[allan5oh]

Well, I think the reason some of us are so frustrated is the way you beat us is the exact same way several other teams owned us, including but not limited to: Philadelphia in the playoffs, the Islanders at the end of last season, Ottawa (spectacularly) last season, think the Leafs did it 3 times last year, though they might have only won one of those due to their horrible PK...

We've seen this exact game played before, DB has had about 7 months to do nothing but think about how to counter this approach...and we just watched ourselves beaten by the same x and o counter we saw about 12 times last year and did not see any course correction.

Wow I can understand your frustration. Obvious flaws that are related to the system that just don't seem to be tweaked. Keep in mind the Jets dealt with that all last season. You guys were by far the worst in exploiting our flaws.

I have to agree, you can't keep doing those stretch passes expecting chaos in the other teams end. That's what your game plan seems to be, and it did work at times. Whoever would recover it in the Jets end would seem stressed, and just do a weak chip out pass. But after plugging the NZ we put a stop to it. Even if you guys did break through it was very orderly, not the chaos that your system needs. It seems as though your system cannot deal with a counter. Your system almost requires a forecheck. You try to draw other teams into run and gun.

It does make for great hockey when it works.