Post-Game Talk: Cole's Plus/Minus: Flyers & Pens

[#66]

Scuderi became a hell of a lot better than he was supposed to be, and he was developed at the same time as the players you mentioned.

Yeah but if you follow Scuds, I'm an Apple Core guy, he had to go outside the Pens to do it and it was based pretty much on his skating. You could always see the sense there IMO.

On the ice! Critique his performances, want him traded, consider it a blemish on the organization that he hasn't been.... I won't say a peep.

But no one here, I think, has enough knowledge of what Fleury is like as a person to use ad hominem stuff as the reason to grill him. To me it simply disqualifies otherwise most often valid criticism. It seems childish if not simply stupid.

Fully agree. I think MAF is a quality person and always puts the team first.

Again I think some of his character flaws even lead back to the Pens. Blowing off mistakes instead of working on them and this don't worry about it attitude has been around the Pens for a long time. Some players have it built into their character to iron out their flaws... others need to be groomed. Players like Whitney, insanely skilled, and MAF were never groomed at least not the right way. That was the Pens yoyo period and you could see flaws coming a mile away.

I remember watching Whitney make mistakes in WB and thinking its part of the learning curve. The I went to a game in Hartford and Whitney looked like Scuds. He rang pucks up and off the glass all night and looked scared to try anything skilled. It was as clear as day that the Pens missed the boat on correcting mistakes and letting a player do the things he should to make him great.

 

[JTG]

Yeah I have problems with pucks going through goalies more than beating them. The thing is that I've always felt that MAF could never focus on pucks because the play around his net was so weak.

Look at that Flyers series from 2 years ago. MAF looked good in game one, gave up the winner to Voracek on a back door play and always seemed to overplay the back door the rest of the series. He was making moves to go cross crease before the puck was even there. What goalie wouldn't turn to crap that way? Look at "The King" now that he doesn't have 5 shot blockers in front of him.

I have said that for years that a goaltenders success is primarily dictated by the defensive system in front of him. Now that is two fold. Brodeur when Jersey was winning Cups played behind one of the most staunch defensive systems ever. Now he didn't see a ton of shots, but throughout the course of the game, he had to keep his focus. Fleury has always done best with more shots. That's what was sort of concerning to me with Martin coming in and implementing some things, that if Fleury's shot totals went below 30, I thought he may have some issues.

Flower does seem more in control this year. I saw he gave up that marshmallow yesterday, but for the most part, he's been spot on. The one thing I've never understood about his technique is why he would consistently overplay post to post. He'd get from one side to the other, but he'd just keep on sliding wayyy out of his net.

I'm hopeful, and the post below is spot on.

No he wasn't. He was considered more technically sound, but never more physically gifted.

Schremp was a crap skater who was physically weak and didn't get the whole aspect of actually having to play, you know, defense. He had sick hands, but wasn't physically gifted. He had physical limitations, that in the end, held him back.

MAF is gifted and proved he can be a championship goalie. That's exactly why we should keep hoping he gets his **** together, because as I keep pointing out, the alternatives blow.

I mean, you are bagging on MAF, but want a slow head case like Emery to backstop this team?

That's almost as good an idea as drinking Drano.

 

[AquaticBirdman]

Can't believe Niskanen actually 6 points in 8 games...