Post-Game Talk: Cole's Plus/Minus: Penguins vs. Leafs in a Pond Hockey Game

[ColePens]

Plus

+ Sidney Crosby: I hope I'm not exaggerating, but this might be the best I've seen Sid. That includes the tear he was on before he got concussed. He's killing it in the corner and every 1 on 1 battle. His vision is unreal. He's also playing great defensive hockey. There is nothing I can say bad about him.

+ Beau/Despres: I love our rookies. They play such good solid games and most importantly - do not make DUMB mistakes. Despres has special vision. He sees the lane that the puck has to go through and comes up with the best way to get it there. Whether it's the boards, glass, or straight pass... he does it.

+ Geno Line: I think everyone looked dangerous tonight. They are really starting to click. Beau is the missing piece on that line and Geno/Neal are starting to trust him. I like where this line is going.



Minus

- Everyone scores!: Why can't we get through a game 2-1 or for crying out loud a shut out? If it's not our defense, it's our goaltending. If it's not our goaltending, it's awful defense. If both of those things are good, we will probably give up a SHG. I just don't get it. We can't win games unless we score 3+ because right now we are at the bottom of the standings in goals against at roughly 3 goals per game. That's awful.

This team really reminds me of the Caps from the last 4+ years.

- PK: Special teams is hurting us right now. We aren't even making it interesting. Giving up goals within 15/30 seconds of the start. We need huge faceoff wins in the d-zone. The only 2 going out there should be Crosby and Vitale (hahaha). Our PK before tonight was ranked #20. It's getting worse.

- Fleury: I hate blaming anything on him, but those goals tonight weren't anything special. He plays great then comes back down. It's been frustrating w/ our goalies this season.

- Third Line: We used to have the best third line in the game and right now Cooke, Kennedy, and Sutter are not on the same page. They just look out of sync with no real purpose out there. I think we all know TK sucks this season, but I also don't like what Cooke brings to that line. They just don't do anything for me.

- Powerplay: Needed some special teams goals tonight.

- 4th line/Coaching the 4th line: Let's not even get into a Vitale debate... but let's talk about the ******** that Glass provides in general. Or the ******** that Dan Bylsma plays these ****ing guys against top lines. Or the ****ing ******** that we see this line continue to get major minutes at the end of games.

- Potential Geno [shoulder injury]: Speaks for itself.

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[Pfnf]

sid just showing why he is the best player on the planet, dominating every shift

 

[Jacob]

My issue with at least two of the goals Fleury gave up is that they weren't like, perfectly placed shots just inside the post. They were more like a foot inside the post.

Our PK looks pretty bad.

 

[Crafton]

+opening up a lead against the rest of the division

-Hot Stove. there wasn't even a stove. let alone a hot one.

 

[fragmag]

So much to discuss...

+ Sid and the first line, wow they were dominant
+ Bennett, kids going to be a winner
+ Depres, love this guy

- Glass, it's ok to get a point ya know
- special teams - WTF?!?! come on man!

 

[AccuracyFive]

I can't believe Sid only got one point tonight.

 

[bathroomSTAAL]

+opening up a lead against the rest of the division in the standings.

-Hot Stove. there wasn't even a stove. let alone a hot one.

wasn't even a hot samovar

 

[Candyman]

- Kunitz point streak ends.

 

[Frederick Stanley]

Looks like Sid is no longer rusty

 

[DoktorZaius]

Crosby is only going to walk away with the goal tonight, but again, the guy did enough to earn a 4 point night.

 

[Ugene Magic]

Sometimes when I'm watching the D-man covering our net it's like a lot of the kids I help coach in Dek hockey, they make a play and then just stop and watch.

Orpik with an assist and +2.

 

[Kaptain]

Is Malkin confirmed to have a head problem? I was hearing shoulder.

 

[66-30-33]

Sucks Malkin probably has a shoulder injury, will probably be gone a while. Hope it's nothing serious, he did not look happy at all.

 

[Malkinstheman]

+Sunshine made a bunch of great passes and scored a great goal
+Sid, WOW. Is there anything he cant do? Hes everywhere on the ice.
+Martin, calm as always
+The top two lines as a whole are doing extremel well ad have great chemistry
=fleury, meh. Made a few key saves but let in a few softies
-the third and fourth line are really struggling, we need to put more nergy into them
-pk, everybody just stands around
-WHERE IS THE DEFENCE? 6 out of 9 games we've given up 4 goals
-geno may be injured
I really think now that we need to make our defense tougher, our wingers are okay(bumping dupuis down wouldnt hurt, hes been invisible evrybody else is great)

 

[Omnomnomnom]

1) Anyone heard anything about the Malkin injury other then Healy saying it was his shoulder?
2) Why is Tanner Glass on this team? The guy can't even skate. In the first period alone he missed at least two wide open pucks because he couldn't start up fast enough.

 

[Wes C Addle]

- Everyone scores!: Why can't we get through a game 2-1 or for crying out loud a shut out? If it's not our defense, it's our goaltending. If it's not our goaltending, it's awful defense. If both of those things are good, we will probably give up a SHG. I just don't get it. We can't win games unless we score 3+ because right now we are at the bottom of the standings in goals against at roughly 3 goals per game. That's awful.

You really should be able to win a game when you score 4 goals. Heck, you should be able to win with 3 most of the time. I'm glad they won, but this type of hockey isn't going to get them very far come playoff time

 

[WayneSid9987]

BB just has a top six winger hockey brain. Once his body fills in, he'll be like a mini-Perry imo.

 

[wheelz87]

+Crosby. Best player in the world. My god, the little things he does.. it's just spectacular to watch.
+Sutter. Thought he had a great game. He is really being dragged down by his linemates, namely TK. Would love to get Sid a big time winger and have Dupuis down here for some relief.
+BB. My goodness is this kid good! 2nd best passer on the team? Wow are his hands unreal. Kid has been more noticeable on the 2nd line than Neal.
+Despres. What's not to like? Yo DB, find another player to scratch.
+Letang. Another good game.

-PK. Just keep letting teams set up shop with zero pressure. The results aren't going to change.
-4th line. You guys SUCK.
-DB. Speaking of which, stop playing your 4th line against the other teams 1st with under 4 minutes left in the game. The ******* **** are you ******* thinking??? Tanner Glass centering a PK???? PLAY BB in OT!! He deserved it.
-Fleury. 1st goal, why are you not down? 2nd how do you even get beat blocker side from there? 3rd goal, not a good goal at all. MacArthur lefty shot on the left wing. Gotta save it.

 

[radapex]

My issue with at least two of the goals Fleury gave up is that they weren't like, perfectly placed shots just inside the post. They were more like a foot inside the post.

Our PK looks pretty bad.

The only goals against I caught were the 2nd and 4th. Fleury didn't have much of a chance on either of those IMO. Perfect screen on the 2nd and an unfortunate bounce off a shot block on the 4th.

 

[Nei1ey*]

---- This team doesn't have a killer instinct, plain & Simple. Even though we won, i'm mad that we let it get to OT. Blow a 2 goal lead twice. We're making almost every team we play look like the flyers on offense.

I don't see how anyone can have confidence that we can win the SC with this defense and Fleury playing like this.

 

[mashsoccer37]

+ Going 7-3-0 in the last 10 games despite giving up 40 goals. We clearly have some things to work on like Cole said earlier (mainly our passive PK), but we are crushing teams 5 on 5. If we can devote the next few weeks to becoming more aggressive on the PK, I think we can beat out Boston for the top Eastern Conference seed.

+ Sid/Phaneuf matchup... That was a great, physical matchup to watch. Phaneuf has been a beast lately, and would have looked like a total beast again tonight against any other player, but Sid was on a different planet. Seeing him dominate all over the ice, but especially along the boards tonight shows that he is clearly 100%

+ Refs keeping the whistles in their pockets. Felt like we really benefited from a few non-calls. Sid's trip looked like a legit trip to me, even though they may not jive with some here. I think we tripped Kessel twice in the third that wasn't called. I'm not talking about Reimer's dive either, that was BS. Another PP for Toronto may have ended this game in regulation.

+ MAF in the shootout.. He is just a beast in the shootout. And those shots by Neal and Crosby were silk.

+ MacArthur shot... Curl and drag with a defenseman screening, off the post and in. Sick shot. That shot was slightly Ovechkinish

- Letting JVR make the crease his office. He had his legs up on the desk and everything. JVR was primarily responsible for both their PP goals.

 

[MtlPenFan]

Note to Fleury...

Stop being a ****ing headcase, you're an NHL vet now, not some 18 year old. You know you're good at shootouts, so you play like a boss because you're confident.

Be that guy DURING the 60 minute game.

Note to DB...

You're allowed to shorten your bench.

 

[KIRK]

BB just has a top six winger hockey brain. Once his body fills in, he'll be like a mini-Perry imo.

Not just a top six hockey IQ. He's got the IQ to play with Geno. Not easy task to do it. Geno trusts him. Too bad Bylsma doesn't trust him on say the PP.

 

[electricsleep]

--Tanner Glass has the hockey sense and hand eye coordination of a an enforcer. Seriously the guy can't even maintain a cycle. All he does as swat at pucks along the boards hoping he gets something on them. Say what you will about Adams but at least he can cycle, get in shooting lanes and score once in a blue moon. I'd much rather see a Adams, Vitale, Jeffery 4th line. Also that 4th leafs goal was on Glass. He went chasing the point man leaving the right circle open. He should have been there to tie up Kessell. I have no idea why Shero signed him for two years. Give me Asham or Rupp any day.

 

[cheesedanish87]

This team has allot of issues right now with the PK and MAF. Not saying MAF has had a bad year but its hard to feel real comfortable with him feels like he could blow up at any time. Does anybody have any idea what DB thinking to have Letang on PP instead of Martin? When a coach makes a dumb decision you can at least figure out what hes thinking for doing something but i have no idea what his line of thinking is on this. By the way cant see us winning tomorrow such an emotional game tonight cant imagine pens having much left in tank tom.