Post-Game Talk: Bolts 6, Pens 3: Sid and His AHL All Star Team Come Up Sheary

[Iffyiffiffer]

They played with passion, but even if Fleury played great, the talent disparity is just too much for Sid to overcome.

Pathetic team. No wingers like always, Kunitz is 58 years old, traded away all the defense. Cycling the coaches doesn't matter. Pathetic team composition. Bad drafting. Analyzing per game performance is academic.

 

[Iffyiffiffer]

what happened to lovejoy, I barely saw him out there in third

Who cares? He's nobody. He's 87 years old and we traded a 23 year old large, good skating defenseman away for him for no reason. Pens = joke.

 

[66-30-33]

Glad i missed this game. Tomorrow Crosby hits 900 points!

 

[systemsgo]

True but at least with Scuderi you can wrap him up in a bunch of "experience" and "mentorship" BS. I'm not sure how you sell Cole. He's not young enough to be a prospect and not old enough to be some experienced leader. He's not physical. He's not some offensive dman with warts. He doesn't give Lovejoy's orgasmic interviews. He's literally just a warm body with a fairly lousy contract. I mean I'd love to be proven wrong but I can't imagine Cole fetching us anything of value. Just getting his contract off the books would be a solid return I guess.

He has a powerful shot, although I don't think that's going to be a huge factor for teams

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

When your 2C is Matt Cullen and your goalie doesn't have a good game, chances are you aren't going to win. So I'm not surprised by the result.

It would be nice for Kessel to light it up a bit, though, while Geno's out. Sid's already carrying a 200 lbs. weight on left shoulder, so he could use some help offensively from the other remaining star.

 

[SprootsMasterFlex]

Fleury, Hagelin, Kessel, Kunitz were horrible. Hagelin has no shot whatsoever. No way he will survive playong in the top6 without contributing any goals. With his contract, I'd rather have 1 more year of Kunitz. I hope Rutherford ships him to Calgary for Hidler. That would be sweet.

 

[UnrealMachine]

Was at a dinner and couldn't be too rude, but was Kunitz out there on the PP as the 4th ****ing forward on every try?

Yes, they went with the double net-front presence. Kunitz then had one of the worst stick-handling-a-hand-grenade-on-a-mine-field turnovers at the blueline you'll ever see, 90+ seconds into the PP, and it led to a short-handed breakaway goal. Root then went full-Root and cut to a blame shot of Hornqvist after the goal for some reason.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Sid's goal was good. Other then that...ehh.

 

[Tumty]

Sid is creating TON of opportunities to Horny and Kuni. I mean, havent seen that on a while, and still he is scoring! Good. Kunitz and Horny has to score more. That much chances, gotta get goals.

 

[Human]

Sid is an alien. that is all...

 

[madinsomniac]

Trade kunitz now... his goals given up by stupid plays has far exceeded his goals created all year... he wont be played on the third line so he must be moved...

 

[WayneSid9987]

Trade kunitz now... his goals given up by stupid plays has far exceeded his goals created all year... he wont be played on the third line so he must be moved...

Yea, they really just need to find something for Kunitz.
At worst, i'll take nothing coming back(any pick or picks) and playing Cullen or Rust or Bennett or eventually Sprong) in the top 6 instead.
Kunitz is that useless at this point.

Find a team he'll waive to and just get it done.

 

[WayneSid9987]

And MAF's play is pretty worrisome.
We can add a LW and a top 4 D and it wouldn't matter with how MAF's playing.

Seems like his brain went into hibernate mode at the All-Star break.

 

[Son Goku]

Man, if Crosby played like this all year he'd be in the points lead, not Kane. They'd at least be tied. Crosby has been great. Way to prove everyone wrong.

 

[Still Apps]

+ Sid is beautiful
+ got 3 goals from our top two lines
+ AHL bottom 6 played effective keep-away most of the night
- we have an AHL bottom 6
- PP configuration
- Fleury's evil twin impersonation

game notes: the only ice Plotnikov is likely to see is in a can with a Smirnoff label
Conor Sheary quickly approaching puberty
who'd bet a dollar that our current bottom 6 will score a goal before
Kunitz retires

 

[Terrapin]

Youth and speed! This team sucks. You got a defense that to a man cannot play actual defense and avoids contact like the plague. A bottom 6 that has an average size of a junior high kid, and 3 of the 4 top 6 wingers are floaters constantly seeking out soft spots.

This team, as always, is Sid, Geno, and Fleury. Sid struggles early, we suck. Geno is injured, we suck. Fleury has bad games, we suck.

And one more thing about these injuries. Fehr is very injury prone. Bennett is the frailest person on Earth. Letang and Maata are always hurt. You can't have a roster of high upside, injury prone guys, and get mad when they're always out of the lineup. What's that definition of insanity again??

 

[Shrimper]

Glad i missed this game. Tomorrow Crosby hits 900 points!

Breaking Jagr's tally too.

 

[AquaticBirdman]

Don't know about you guys, but I find myself being a lot less upset about losses these days than I was under Johnston. I suppose that it's because when we lose now, the team is actually still giving max effort and making a game out of it? Especially considering the fact that we're presently playing with 6 AHL call ups in the lineup...

For the life of me I still can't comprehend what Sullivan's beef is with Plots. I can understand you having your preferences from certain tactical standpoints, however when you're missing so many forwards due to injury, wouldn't it make sense to at least TRY him in the lineup ahead of 1 of the 5 AHL forwards you've been looking to? How Porter gets preference over him is baffling.

 

[AquaticBirdman]

Pouliot looks good. And i have no idea where that leaves Cole.is he even movable with that contract?

The cap hit is very movable. The term however....meh. Kinda hard to sell dman that's been a healthy scratch for the past month or so.

 

[golfortennis]

Yea, they really just need to find something for Kunitz.
At worst, i'll take nothing coming back(any pick or picks) and playing Cullen or Rust or Bennett or eventually Sprong) in the top 6 instead.
Kunitz is that useless at this point.

Find a team he'll waive to and just get it done.

One problem. The only possible value Kunitz has to any team is a big cap hit that can help get them to the floor. And those teams are not going to be ones he waives the NMC for.

Although Scuderi did get traded, so I guess there is hope.

Man, if Crosby played like this all year he'd be in the points lead, not Kane. They'd at least be tied. Crosby has been great. Way to prove everyone wrong.

Nope. I wish I could say you were right, but look at how many games he would have had 4-5 points if guys could finish. I agree with your sentiment on the improved play, but when you're passing to guys who couldn't hit water off the side of a boat in the ocean, your points total just won't be what it should be.

 

[MrWilson*]

...2 assists and +2 during a 6-3 loss and the haters are still yammering on and on. It really makes my day to come here and laugh at these posts. "trade Kunitz" "Kunitz is useless" "its Kunitz' fault" blah, blah, blah....all rubbish.


Carl Hagelin...worst game I've seen by him as a Penguin, maybe ever. Better than Kunitz?? Um...not in this universe. Wow, just wow.

Phil Kessel..."phils gonna step up, drive his line, etc etc" Phil is a lazy, one trick pony. He can wait in the corner with Gomer Pyle and stuff his face with jelly donuts until Malkin returns.

MAF **** the bed in this one--PERIOD--with the help of 62 and 81.

I hope 14-87-72 can keep the next one close or this Florida trip is gonna be a stinker.

 

[vikingGoalie]

good lord Fleury. I'm huge MAF supporter especially after bales worked his magic. but when your star goalie gives up 4 goals on 14 shots it doesn't matter if you are playing the Syracuse Crunch you are going to lose.


Really we put up 3 goals against Bishop, who is averaging less then 2 against everyone else, we out shot them. For periods of time we really hemmed them in with our speed.

I'm not saying this game is completely Fleury's fault, but if we have 2015 fleury we win this game. Period.

 

[Hophog]

Honestly, I put a lot of this one on Fleury. The team was absolutely dominating until they suddenly found themselves down heading into the second. Is it an excuse to play poorly? Obviously not. But it is demoralizing to play that well only to find yourself down because every other shot against is going in. I mean, the goals weren't all directly on him but at some point your starter has to step up and make the big save. Fleury made none tonight.

All that said, Fleury's been a beast the last two seasons so I think he's earned the right to have the odd off night. Let's just hope it doesn't become a trend(I don't think it will).

I'm not sure what the answer is but this has been happening since the 2010 playoffs that we lost to the Habs. It seems as though anytime the Pens come out and dominate zone time and shots the other team gets one or two cracks and scores. I still remember dominating the Habs and anytime they managed to get a shot in our end it was in the back of the net. The Ottawa game reminded me of the Flyers game where every shot from the blue line finds the net or is tipped in. It's almost as though Fluery is built to keep a poorly playing team in the game but terrible at stopping the puck for a team that is playing the right way.

Like you said, he's certainly earned the right to be given time to work his way out of it but I can't help but see the similarities between our game now and most of our early exits during the Bylsma era.

If we are going to limit teams chances against us and if they are going to score a lot of long shots from the blue line that are tipped it's hard not to consider Murray and his big body where the tipped shots our more likely to hit him even when he can't seem them.

 

[Saints11]

Plus, you have a 36 yr old trying to stick handle the puck at the blueline, loses the puck, oh well's it and the shortie turns the game around. But, the PP remains the same. Accountability is only for young Russians!

 

[Saints11]

...2 assists and +2 during a 6-3 loss and the haters are still yammering on and on. It really makes my day to come here and laugh at these posts. "trade Kunitz" "Kunitz is useless" "its Kunitz' fault" blah, blah, blah....all rubbish.


Carl Hagelin...worst game I've seen by him as a Penguin, maybe ever. Better than Kunitz?? Um...not in this universe. Wow, just wow.

Phil Kessel..."phils gonna step up, drive his line, etc etc" Phil is a lazy, one trick pony. He can wait in the corner with Gomer Pyle and stuff his face with jelly donuts until Malkin returns.

MAF **** the bed in this one--PERIOD--with the help of 62 and 81.

I hope 14-87-72 can keep the next one close or this Florida trip is gonna be a stinker.

You are caught up in numbers and clearly did not watch the game! Did you fail to see the turnover which turned the game around. Clearly, there are those out there with rose-colored glasses. At least they cannot be accused of Ageism. Blame everyone else, but, not 14.......he is a God. Give me a break!