Post-Game Talk: Cole's Plus/Minus: Pens vs. Canes - They cannot close the deal. They just cannot.

[Jules Winnfield]

The Pens can’t win important faceoffs for the life of them.

Kessel hasn’t been the same since Tocchet left.

The PP needs to get their shit together.

The entire team defense late in games has been atrocious recently.

What in the f*** did Letang say that was so bad that a ref kicked him out of the game knowing the likelihood of going to the shootout and he’s out #1 SO guy that always leads off? I don’t think I’ve seen a ref kick someone out for words at an important point of a game where both teams essentially are playing a playoff game. Are you f***ing serious?

Our shootout attempts all lacked viagra.

 

[2wayPlay]

The Pens can’t win important faceoffs for the life of them.

Kessel hasn’t been the same since Tocchet left.

The PP needs to get their **** together.

The entire team defense late in games has been atrocious recently.

What in the **** did Letang say that was so bad that a ref kicked him out of the game knowing the likelihood of going to the shootout and he’s out #1 SO guy that always leads off? I don’t think I’ve seen a ref kick someone out for words at an important point of a game where both teams essentially are playing a playoff game. Are you ****ing serious?

Our shootout attempts all lacked viagra.

Probably said something about his Mother. With a no no word in front of Mother

 

[thecore]

Sullivan should tell Phil if he doesn’t at least try to use his body to protect the puck he will HS him and ruin his iron man streak lol. Oh, and really tired of watching him pull up when coming into the zone with speed and look for the trailer every single time

 

[BHD]

There was actually a chart that showed Hags was used a lot here at the end of games and was pretty much our best guy in late game situations.

There may have been some differences. To what extent and how much, who knows maybe not a huge difference.

Even if that's accurate, it seems that no matter what, they're going to blow it. As @ColePens said, it's mental.

 

[Jules Winnfield]

Probably said something about his Mother. With a no no word in front of Mother

Meh. Refs have been called worse in the heat of passion.

If that offended him, he should get a job making balloons for the elderly.

 

[Pancakes]

I only saw the first but at least we got a point. Even were Montreal to win their game in hand on us they'd still be four points back of us with one less ROW as well, so we're sitting pretty good here.

Just gotta keep grinding away and getting points. 5-6 more should get us in I think. Tough two games coming up but our final 4-5 should very manageable.

 

[thecore]

I don’t think this team is mentally weak. It just doesn’t make any sense. I think it’s been some bad luck at the end of games. We will probably score a few 6 on 5 goals next week.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

Sullivan should tell Phil if he doesn’t at least try to use his body to protect the puck he will HS him and ruin his iron man streak lol. Oh, and really tired of watching him pull up when coming into the zone with speed and look for the trailer every single time

Now that Kessel has bumped Adams out of the top spot I don’t much care about his streak anymore.

I can sleep easier now knowing Adams doesn’t have that record.

Thanks for the permanent eye twitch Bylsma.

 

[Jules Winnfield]

Sullivan should tell Phil if he doesn’t at least try to use his body to protect the puck he will HS him and ruin his iron man streak lol. Oh, and really tired of watching him pull up when coming into the zone with speed and look for the trailer every single time

I’m fairly certain at this point Sully is willing to tank this season if it means Phil looks like ass and it gives him a justification to beg JR to trade him.

He’s been terrible with Malkin all year so he keeps the bobsie twins together no matter how bad they look together. He can’t be that blind unless he’s doing it to make a point.

 

[vikingGoalie]

Murray's a bro, and he's saying the right things to the media, but he's wrong. This team's gotta have his back just like he's had their back.

Rake him over coals if that's what makes you feel better, but do it when he deserves it. He has done more than enough to give this team a great shot to win lately. Even with his rough game (.692) against the Blues, he's still got a .930 SV% in March. He's doing his job at a more than adequate level, in my opinion.

i agree to an extent. the difference is when the puck is literally in your glove and you cough it out that is different then a back door tap in because your d lost the guy. that said, murray was pretty damn good in this game. If he had closed it out all of us would be saying he was excellent. But he screwed up a routine save (but made a bunch of difficult ones) that cost us the game. Goal tending is not a "fair" position. It's not fair, he played really well most of the game. But he got out played by petr f'in mrazek. Some of that is on our shooters, but his paddle saved at least 2 sure goals. When is the last time we scored on a goalie because we shot it right into his glove and he dropped it out for us to put back in or continue play until it went in? Right now we make every scrub goalie look like they have a force field.

As far as having Murray's back. Johnson literally saved his arse in OT with a kick save and a beauty. At some point Murray has to make every save he is supposed to the entire game. Certainly the main problem is that our 3rd line which was starting to look like HBK reincarnated has stopped scoring, our top line which had looked utterly dominate looks just ok now, and our 2nd line is now devoid of Malkin.

 

[ChaosAgent]

Sullivan should tell Phil if he doesn’t at least try to use his body to protect the puck he will HS him and ruin his iron man streak lol. Oh, and really tired of watching him pull up when coming into the zone with speed and look for the trailer every single time

The player he passed for his record was Craig Adams. That should tell you something about how meaningless the streak is.

Cal Ripken was a great player because he was. Not because he played 100% of his games and not 95%.

 

[JimmyTwoTimes]

At the very least take him off PP1 and let him focus solely on his 5on5 play.

And the 3rd line has been good but theres no reason not to try McCann - Bjugstad - Kessel just to see if those two can get him going again the way Hags and Bonino did.

 

[Pengu]

They might actually still miss the playoffs cause of all the last minute chocking. Or face Tampa or the caps in the 1st round...Infuriating

 

[2wayPlay]

They might actually still miss the playoffs cause of all the last minute chocking. Or face Tampa or the caps in the 1st round...Infuriating

Pending on what NYI Carolina do we are starring at the 7 seed right now. Game at home vs Carolina could be for that 3 seed

 

[ChaosAgent]

There are things to say aside from Kessel's "play", Murray's glove hand, Murray generally and the team's 6-on-5 disasterclasses.

+++Jake, as usual.
+++the D, for 57 minutes. Really solid effort, don't want Maatta back.
++Dumo defensively additional to all the other defensemen

+/-Sid. Average offensive game by Sid standards.
+/-Rust. Looked Sheary-esque with the good plays mixed in with the fumbling over the puck/his skates. Better than his last game.
+/-At times I get confused and think that Garret Wilson may be a 4th line plug with the slightest bit of skill. I certainly like the way he forechecks A LOT. Then he attempts to finish and I'm like nahhhh.

--Hornqvist. Invisible.
--McCann has gone a little cold recently.
-Dumo not attempting a slapper at least once on his 3-4 clear cut looks where he fired wristers straight at Mrazek.
-Blandisi reminds me of one of those X-Generation guys that can skate like the wind but has no hockey skill whatsoever. He makes Hagelin look like Lemieux skill-wise.

 

[2wayPlay]

Horny is up there with Phil for suckiest Pen over the 2nd half of the season. Imagine if those two guys were playing even remotely like 2016 level. We would be tough to beat

 

[lastcupever75]

replaying that tying goal, that does now look like letang's man.

If you want to blame someone on that play, look at what rust was trying to do. block a shot by kicking up his knee (soccer ball style) to block the point shot.
he was the wing on the side where the rebound went. if he plays it straight up, he's in position to knock the puck away

edit. watched it again from an angle in back of murray and rust may have actually screened him on the play trying to get and arm / leg knee in the way of that puck

a dumb move. and thats what's been killing them lately trying to close out games.

tying goal flyers game - flyer forward wide open in our defensive zone behind our forwards. why isn't every one of our forwards already in the defensive zone with 20 seconds left in the game?

winning goal vs flyers. its all been detailed, we know Sid screwed up. Shit happens. not a smart decision he made there on.
they need to play smarter

 

[2wayPlay]

Have to give JR credit for one thing this season besides the Panthers trade. This defensive corps with Tanger back is actually pretty good. Don’t know if JJ and Grub can keep it up and continue into the playoffs but this grouping is pretty solid. I thought that would be are undoing. It’s actually been blowing games and secondary scoring.

 

[JimmyTwoTimes]

Have to give JR credit for one thing this season besides the Panthers trade. This defensive corps with Tanger back is actually pretty good. Don’t know if JJ and Grub can keep it up and continue into the playoffs but this grouping is pretty solid. I thought that would be are undoing. It’s actually been blowing games and secondary scoring.

And shows how important Sid has been. Not a coincidence we have 3 straight losses coming during his worst stretch points wise with 1. So if we do go on another run to end the season with Crosby picking it up again...

The Hart race should be closer than most expect. Still think Kucherov will get it but Sid should be a close 2nd. At 93 points right now....8 games left. Would like to see him finish with 10-12 pts in those last 8.

Whats more important tho is the fact he needs to suck it up and play with Hornqvist come playoff time. We all know it works..weve seen it last year when nothing else was(PH with 11 pts in 10 games). And it also allows the chance to let Rust play on the 2nd. Not to mention see if we can get Phil going by having McCann - Bjugstad.

Guentzel - Crosby - Hornqvist
Blueger - Malkin - Rust
McCann- Bjugstad - Kessel
ZAR - Cullen - Simon

Would be the best lineup imo.

 

[Tom Hanks]

Even if that's accurate, it seems that no matter what, they're going to blow it. As @ColePens said, it's mental.

Yeah it might seem a bit rough right now but on the season we are 35-2 when leading after 2 periods.

 

[Andy99]

Yeah it might seem a bit rough right now but on the season we are 35-2 when leading after 2 periods.

We weren’t leading after two here, though...game was tied...I’d be interested to know our record when we’re leading by only one goal going into the last three minutes of the game....also, what is our record when behind by one goal in the same situation? Because it seems to me that most teams are better closing out games or tying games up in the last few minutes than we are...

 

[Tom Hanks]

We weren’t leading after two here, though...game was tied...I’d be interested to know our record when we’re leading by only one goal going into the last three minutes of the game....also, what is our record when behind by one goal in the same situation? Because it seems to me that most teams are better closing out games or tying games up in the last few minutes than we are...

We’ve lost 4 games this season when leading during the 3rd.

 

[Beau Knows]

This is a frustrating team right now. They don't seem far from being a tough opponent for just about anybody they could face in the playoffs, but it also looks like they could just as easily flame out in 5 games to almost anyone.

Not a lot of time left to figure things out. I really don't want to see Washington in round 1, they need to finish strong and get the Isles.

 

[Son Goku]

curious what are Murray’s numbers since December?

 

[Andy99]

We’ve lost 4 games this season when leading during the 3rd.

The post-gazette article said they lost four just in the last month...I was thinking about how many they lost all season...does anyone keep these stats?

Mike Sullivan preaches positivity after Penguins' latest blown lead

See second to last paragraph...