Post-Game Talk: Blue Jackets 2, Pens 1 (OT) - ****

[hooverdam]

You're making me really sad now because I know this team would wreck every single team in this league if everyone was being used in the right spot. It's not even like we're really missing much when the roster is healthy. The pieces are there already.

This is the frustrating part for me. My dad is an Avs fan so I've been following that abortion on ice this year and even they don't make me as angry as the Penguins do. They're just helpless dirt. The Penguins are completely in control of this garbage and they are choosing to put themselves in this position.

When you're injured, you say **** depth and you load up up front. I don't know how many times I have to say this: depth isn't depth when it leeches life from the rest of the roster.

This team could absolutely 100% repeat with no deadline moves, just shuffling around the roster and getting healthy. Now I don't even see them getting out of the first round, even fully healthy and with whatever stupid pylon and/or off-ice trainwreck JR wants to bring in to make everyone's lives just a bit more difficult.

It's really, really ridiculous that we're back to needing Sid or Geno to go God mode to win a playoff round in spite of the coach. How are we in this place again?

 

[vodeni]

I was pleased with this game tonight. Crappy second but very good first and third. Geno's line really good, actually I have a little more love for Bonino and his line than most of the posters here, ithought they look much better than in the past. Sid's line was so so, Kunitz is just awful coming back, he has no awareness in neutral zone any more, and he is slow coming back resulting in lost of possession all the time. jake had a good third.

Our fourth line is awful. They need to bring youth and speed, Cullen used to carry them now that he is nor playing well, they are major liability (with fehr and Kuhn)

Ithought Dumo had his best game since he got back. He was great out there. Letang kind of picked it up in the third, but he llooked awful first two. I liked Ru's game, I am fine with him on the bottom pairing, no issues whatsoever, he is strong on the puck relatively quick, whats not to like. Cole was good too.

All in all I thought we were better team not by much, but if it was a box match it was two rounds to one tonight.

and its good when you have Murray in a goal.

If we face them in PO i worry about only one player there - Bobrovsky

 

[wgknestrick]

I have no clue what Kessel and Geno are doing on 3 on 3. That was ****ing stupid. They both went to one guy... and it made no sense.

And yet the other guy on the ice with them was the only one responsible for playing D on the only player who scored. Daley was 100% at fault there. You NEVER go down on 3v3 hockey. I'm sorry. You can't remove yourself from the play for that long. It's suicide. He didn't prevent the pass, or shot, or take the man, and let him have the inside lane.

 

[EliteGoaltending]

Daley is the equal part of the reason why Daley-Maatta pairing has been a problem this season. He just not that good at defense.
You can often see him just standing and watching in Dzone or how he is getting beaten in battles. He's better off when he doesn't need to actually defend. On the first CBJ goal tonight he was just standing there and he channeled his inner Scuds in OT.
I hope Shcultz' concussion is not a serious one and that he wouldn't be out for too long, this team will need him badly.

Sully's lines are Sully's lines. Props to the players doing the most they can.
Also, not going with Crosby-Malkin-Letang trio in OT is almost a travesty, I don't care about other combos, they still can put together something solid enough, but that trio showed that they can win you games in OT and generally, they're awesome together on 3 on 3.

 

[wgknestrick]

Wolf. 4th line had a 25% shots for %. Ouch. All 3 forwards were -10 or more in shot diff.
That is a talking point tomorrow.

Murray was insane and deserved a win. He was certainly frustrated with that goal as he stopped so many incredible chances throughout the game. I still can't believe the shots were even as it seemed the Pens were Steven Seagal (Under Siege) all night.

 

[66-30-33]

Not bad we got a point, can't be all mad. No injuries!!!

 

[Rocket of Russia]

good thing they got fresh legs out there so kessel could turn the puck over and not get back on D

Seriously, Kessel really needed to maintain possession there. A fresh change against a tired CLB unit and he fumbles it.

Am I the only one that's noticed that we have a propensity to forecheck hard and try to force turnovers in ot, almost always resulting in odd man breaks against us, while every other team we play just falls back to defend once we have the puck, since most goals that happen on the 3v3 are odd man breaks?

Like am I crazy or is our ot gameplan almost completely self-defeating?

Nah, they definitely do this. It's like the impatient way to force the issue. Like playing a 2 on 1 and instead of staying in the passing lane, attacking the shooter because you're too impatient to make the right play.

Speaking of 2 on 1s, Daley did play that rather poor, but I can't say I blame him all that much. Kessel "got back" but I wouldn't be surprised that when Daley made his split-second decision to play it as a 2 on 1 it came from a quick glance where Kessel was dogging it to get back.

Hey, they got 3 out of 4 points, but damn is that a rough way to lose.

 

[MtlPenFan]

The hysteria about the team being destroyed by poor line combos and bad coaching is nauseating.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Daley ****ed up on that winning goal. What the hell was he even doing?

Murray earned the Pens a point, especially with that save he made on that breakaway with like 30 seconds left in the game. Horrible turnover by Cullen and the defense didn't do a good job of protecting the middle of the ice.

Frustrating game in that the Pens got a lot of shots, but I'm not sure how many were overly dangerous. It seemed kind of like a quantity night over quality.

Sucks that Sid used up one of his games in hand on McDavid. Doesn't help to have games in hand if you do nothing with them.

 

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

The hysteria about the team being destroyed by poor line combos and bad coaching is nauseating.

Spending $6 million on Phil Kessel and getting nothing out of him at even strength is nauseating. And don't give me some line about injuries; the lack of decent linemates to complement Sid and Geno is just one more reason to end the _BK experiment.

 

[mpp9]

I'm starting to think Sid ain't winning the Ross.

 

[mpp9]

The hysteria about the team being destroyed by poor line combos and bad coaching is nauseating.

Yeah it's gettin a bit ridiculous. This board way overestimates the impact line combinations has on a game. Especially when those same lines win us other games.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

It's also worth talking about when two combinations that Sullivan seems to refuse to go back to (Sid/Horny, Geno/Kessel) actually were producing when they were together.

Kessel's just being wasted with Bonino playing the way he is this season. Seems like the only time Phil is a threat is either on the PP, or when he basically streaks down the wing on the rush and rifles home one of his patented shots.

 

[CertifiedLurker]

The hysteria about the team being destroyed by poor line combos and bad coaching is nauseating.

True, we could all just stick our heads in the sand and pretend like Kessel's production with his most common linemates at even-strength is great and will totally be the depth this team needs to get through the post-season.

I don't care about the regular season, I care about this team repeating. Coasting through the regular season through shear star power is one thing. When the game gets tighter checking and you're looking for the matchup advantage, guess what, we don't have one because Bonino is trash and Kessel + Bonino hasn't done jack **** for 57 games and we've basically wasted the entire season trying every flipping combination in the world for all lines except where its actually needed the most.

BK has jumped the shark and the previous 57 games should have been the time to tinker around looking for a better line combo.

I'm not even being hysterical, I'm just really annoyed because I was patient for most of the season expecting that at some point Sully would realize what I noticed by game 40.

Yeah it's gettin a bit ridiculous. This board way overestimates the impact line combinations has on a game. Especially when those same lines win us other games.

Line combinations aren't some fictitious thing, we can track line combination effectiveness through analytics, the Bonino + Kessel combo has been putrid all season. Like one of the worst in the league. Malkin and Crosby are Malkin and Crosby, they will get their points through shear willpower and ability regardless of their linemates. When the playoffs come around, if you're lines are ****, thats a lot more reliance on Crosby and Malkin to dominate, which isn't the greatest strategy.

 

[Erz8771]

We were pretty tired. Its ok guys.

 

[ncm7772]

We were pretty tired. Its ok guys.

That's the ongoing excuse!

 

[deakka]

1p is ok i guess. What irks me is that MM should hve had 1 goal against stat wise. but it ended up being 2. i could have lived with if we lost in the SO. MM deserved better

 

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

The reality is this; We're not as bad as some people think, and we're not as good as others think.

Is this team capable of winning the Cup again? Absolutely. No question about it.

Does this team still have glaring holes that could lead to an early exit from the playoffs? Absolutely.

There's a middle ground, and that is where the truth lies. As is, we're going to need Sid, Geno, Kessel, Letang and Murray to go nuclear to get back to the Finals. Even healthy, we have issues that ideally JR has isolated and will be addressing. But again, even if JR doesn't make a big splash to change the complexion of the team or add a big name, we have the horses to go all the way. It's just not going to be easy, as if it ever would've been.

 

[TheGoldenJet]

The Bonino-Kessel duo continues to be putrid. Malkin-Hornqvist continues not to work. Kunitz continues being there.

Fix the lines Sully!

 

[TheGoldenJet]

It's also worth talking about when two combinations that Sullivan seems to refuse to go back to (Sid/Horny, Geno/Kessel) actually were producing when they were together.

Kessel's just being wasted with Bonino playing the way he is this season. Seems like the only time Phil is a threat is either on the PP, or when he basically streaks down the wing on the rush and rifles home one of his patented shots.

This x1000. Sullys lines cost us bigtime tonight in a 4 point game

 

[Captain Hook]

Pretty thrilled to earn a point. Really thought it would be an uphill battle with the injuries and the fact we were playing a back to back situation coming off such a grueling physical game against Winnipeg.

The NHL's 3 on 3 OT and shootouts are really exciting but very gimmicky. You're going to win some of those and lose a bunch too. Luckily 3 on 3 and shootouts go away in the playoffs.

 

[Randy Butternubs]

Good thing the Pens did well on faceoffs.

 

[zantiubraun]

This is the frustrating part for me. My dad is an Avs fan so I've been following that abortion on ice this year and even they don't make me as angry as the Penguins do. They're just helpless dirt. The Penguins are completely in control of this garbage and they are choosing to put themselves in this position.

When you're injured, you say **** depth and you load up up front. I don't know how many times I have to say this: depth isn't depth when it leeches life from the rest of the roster.

This team could absolutely 100% repeat with no deadline moves, just shuffling around the roster and getting healthy. Now I don't even see them getting out of the first round, even fully healthy and with whatever stupid pylon and/or off-ice trainwreck JR wants to bring in to make everyone's lives just a bit more difficult.

It's really, really ridiculous that we're back to needing Sid or Geno to go God mode to win a playoff round in spite of the coach. How are we in this place again?

Because we are obviously not in that place this fanfabe just overreacts to everything everytime and goes full concesus-mind-mode

 

[Brunosan]

I'm surprised nobody else saw that the snow shower to Murray's face on the OT winner came direct from Kessel. The last slow-mo replay they showed looked to me like Murray was tracking the shot around the screen but got just NAILED by the snow/slush storm to the face and ducked his head slightly down just before the puck sailed over his glove. I have a hilarious looking screen cap. I'll try to link to dropbox, but nof sure if it will work:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/a08hpbx3lesl1hg/20170217_205423.jpg?dl=0

 

[NewAgeOutlaw]

The hysteria about the team being destroyed by poor line combos and bad coaching is nauseating.

The line combos have been bad for quite awhile, all the way back when the team was completely healthy. You are just burying your head in the sand if you think it hasn't been a problem.

This team is very good and a cup favorite, but I'm not gonna act like there are no issues. The playoffs are less than 2 months away and there are a few question marks with the team:

The breakout has been poor all year and they can't beat a trap

The defensive zone coverage has been a mess all year

Bonino

When healthy, is Rust gonna still be with Crosby instead of Hornqvist?

Does Kunitz go back to the 4th line when healthy?

Poor years from Dumo, Maatta, and Daley.

This is not an echo chamber, these are legit questions about weaknesses that are very real. If you can't stand criticism of the team, then maybe this website is a bit too serious for you, try the Pens fb page which is full of cheerleaders.