Post-Game Talk: Cole's Plus/Minus: Pen(alties) vs. Devils - 2 big points lost

[Big McLargehuge]

I don't know, Big. That third goal was a bit crap. He could have saved that. He still played great hockey, but that was a **** goal.

It was the only savable of the three, yeah...but I'm more willing to give kudos to Bernier for establishing himself atop the crease, which didn't allow Fleury to get the angle he wanted.

Unfortunately for us the vast majority of other goalies in the league would have just skated into Bernier and had the goal waved off.

 

[Shockmaster]

+ 1st period

+Bortuzzo and Despres: These two played well and are getting better

+PK through first two periods: They were out there much more than they should have been and at least kept the Penguins in it through two periods

-Malkin: Enough with the boo-boo face and suck it up. Taking too many dumb penalties

-Refs: Most penalties the Penguins took were deserved, but now it seems like they can't tell a clean hit from boarding

-Penalties: As stated earlier, refs weren't good, but many of those penalties were deserved. This team at times shows lack of discipline and gets frustrated too easily.

-Boarding calls: I agree the refs should call them more in the interest of player safety, but we're seeing players embellish those calls now. I'd like to see the NHL start fining those players and embarrassing them for it.

 

[Cardboard Orpik]

Thank god for the refs. A game of hockey was on the verge of breaking out, thankfully they shut it down before anything happened though.

 

[Pancakes]

I don't know, Big. That third goal was a bit crap. He could have saved that. He still played great hockey, but that was a **** goal.

I have trouble caring about that third goal because the game was lost after the first period the way the Pens were playing. Short of Fleury jesusing his way to the shootout there's no way we were winning that one.

 

[JimmyTwoTimes]

Fleurys 3rd goal was bad, but not blaming him today. He made a ton of solid saves on the pk throughout the game. Refs kept calling them( not even going to argue whether good or bad, I don't care) and it caught up to our pk...and eventually fleury. While brodeur was able to stay on his game..and make key saves. That was the recap..no need to look into this any further. Very glad we are playing them again tomorrow night.

 

[Gooch]

So many penalties that they werent even being explained what they were for towards the end. I'd just see another penguin in the box and some more PP time added to the counter for the Devils. It was a horrible watch and while maybe the penalties were technically deserved they're also ticky tacky in the sense that you see it go on not called all the time and makes for a horrible watch the moment one officiating crew decides to take a stand.

 

[SprootsMasterFlex]

Very few +s indeed.

Overall a very uneventful game. Waste of a Saturday afternoon. I won't make the same mistake tomorrow night.

We need a righthanded talented winger badly.

 

[scrappylilnobody]

Also a + to Fleury. We took tons of penalties and he kept us in the game as best as he could. Can't really put any blame on him for this one.

 

[IcedCapp]

Sometime during the season every single team is gonna get screwed by the refs. Today was the pens day to get screwed nothing u can do about that. Saying that i still think NJ was the better team and deserved the win.

I have no way to evaluate the validity of the last sentence. The Pens looked great until the endless march to the box started.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

+ we won't have a problem with the Devils tomorrow if we can trick the refs into calling the rulebook instead of inventing their own rules.

We got frustrated by the constant and often undeserved parade to the box.

 

[sf expat71]

That was a pretty poor game. Not sure what game the refs were watching...
Minus- the refs, geno, Sid, Neal, glass, ... Pretty much everyone.
Plus- despres. Bort. Ummm... That's about it.

 

[domaug*]

+ Engelland and Bortuzzo for looking like grown men

- everyone else for throwing tantrums over a slew of terrible calls

 

[wheelz87]

- geno
- maf (3rd period$
- not playing against Holtby
- the Boychuk experiment has run it's course. Find a solution Shero, outside of the organization
- dumb penalties

Lost in this whole game, pens were up 1-0 and Boychuck missed an empty net. Different game if he scores. Time to get a real player on that line, because that line has been ****

 

[BHD]

**** this game.

 

[Til the End of Time]

i like how despres just got the puck and fired it on the pp. letang/crosby/malkin would have done some fancy passing crap that would have done nothing.

i like how the young guys are playing simple tough hockey, not trying to be too fancy.

also i like the snarl to bortuzzo's game. people said he had a bit of a mean streak in wbs, but seemed to suggest it's not a nightly thing. are we seeing adrenaline/youthful exuberance causing him to be such a mean player, or is this really his standard play? more snarl than i expected/had heard about.

 

[Darth Vitale]

+ Despres

- Just about everyone and everything else, couple "OK games" in there but it doesn't matter.

-- Refs Worst game I've seen in years, against both sides. And there were some doozies last year. A couple of the calls were legit and Geno was undisciplined the entire game, trying to do too much and getting frustrated in the process, but overall the calls were absolute ****. If this is the way the NHL intends to call games (where you literally cannot hit someone on the boards, cannot even touch someone with the stick (everything's a hook now), cannot put your hand on another player at any time)... I don't really see a reason to pay for the privilege of watching. This isn't hockey right now the way the league is calling every freaking point of contact.

 

[Tasty Biscuits]

Meh. Gonna be a few stinkers like this throughout the season. Just glad it wasn't at home at a game I paid to see.

 

[Sideline]

It was the only savable of the three, yeah...but I'm more willing to give kudos to Bernier for establishing himself atop the crease, which didn't allow Fleury to get the angle he wanted.

Unfortunately for us the vast majority of other goalies in the league would have just skated into Bernier and had the goal waved off.

He overplayed the angle on one of the first two goals. That let to the rebound being "unsaveable."

 

[PensFanSince1989]

It was the only savable of the three, yeah...but I'm more willing to give kudos to Bernier for establishing himself atop the crease, which didn't allow Fleury to get the angle he wanted.

Unfortunately for us the vast majority of other goalies in the league would have just skated into Bernier and had the goal waved off.

This. Was it save able? Probably. Was he also been screened and legally impeded? Yes. It wasn't a terrible goal, especially considering how much play was in our end and the never ending PK.

Fleury played very well in this loss. Can't do much when your team is in a constant parade to the penalty box. He was key in killing the first few hundred pk's.

 

[Zen Arcade]

One of the worst officiated games I've ever seen. Both calls on Vitale and the interference call on Engelland, just atrocious.

 

[bradshaw06]

after watching the last few games, i never want to hear how much the pens announcers are homers, every teams announcers are homers.

 

[Shockmaster]

It was the only savable of the three, yeah...but I'm more willing to give kudos to Bernier for establishing himself atop the crease, which didn't allow Fleury to get the angle he wanted.

Unfortunately for us the vast majority of other goalies in the league would have just skated into Bernier and had the goal waved off.

More ammo for the Fleury bashers then.

"He doesn't dive! He's no good! TRADE FOR WINGARZ!!!!!!!!!!"

 

[MtlPenFan]

The refs were bad, but our team discipline was just as bad.

Wrong. You have no idea how hard it is to play when you're not even sure what you're allowed to do anymore.

This was an abortion of a game.

 

[Pancakes]

I really like Despres and Bort but I feel like giving them a + is being way too kind this game. They played badly. They couldn't break the puck out to save their lives, especially Bortuzzo who kept coughing it up.

It happens. It was their first bad game all year. Lets not be kinder to them than they deserve now. If Martin/Orpik played like those two we'd have been all over them.

 

[KIRK]

Meh, **** happens, and you're not going to win them all, especially when Brodeur goes into God mode. Pluses and minuses are pretty obvious (will add Orpik to the obvious MINUS column for chasing on the first two goals against, especially the first one, instead of staying where he's supposed to be).

Really, what I draw from the game is the same thing I've drawn from pretty much every tight checking game involving the Pens: The only two holes on this team are in the top six. Sid needed someone to step up and help him out. And, with Geno and Neal flying the first half of the game, it seemed to me that Boychuk was doing as much as the Devils to slow them down.