Post-Game Talk: Cole's Plus/Minus: Pens vs. Caps - The Single Hat

[Shady Machine]

Good game overall. We played a goalie playing like **** so this game could have looked a lot different otherwise. I still hate the breakout and regroups. There is just too much space between the D and the forwards.

 

[Gold Diamond]

Beating the Crapitals NEVER gets old - and in their own building, nonetheless.

Feels good man.

 

[KIRK]

Plus

+ Defense: This is by far the best our defense has played since MT days. That hurts to say that. Martin, Orpik, and Tangers are solid. I can't give enough praise to Martin this season. He admitted to his piss-poor play and he really lived up to his word so far. (Key words.. so far).

Now we get into the 3 surprises. Engo, Bort, and Despres are beyond anything I would have expected. I think Engo feels at home when he's paired with a guy like Bort. They are rough, tough, and put anyone/anything on their ass. So many times I've watched clear lanes on rebounds because everyone is on their butt.

I have no clue what happens when Nisky returns because even he was playing tremendous hockey. But I truly like 4 tough defenders in the line up.

+ Fourth Line: You guys are going to hate me for sounding like a broken record. What can I say? Every time they are out there the shift is in the offensive zone wearing down the opposition. Vitale leads the way with aggression and Adams/Glass follow through on their end, too. They are tremendous.

+ Backchecking: James Neal might have stopped 4-5 offensive chances himself, but every foreword was busting their ***** back into our d-zone today. It allows our defense to gap up and know we have numbers. Granted, it's part successful because the Caps were SO SLOW coming through the neutral zone. But they still came back and busted their ***** making it very difficult for the Caps to gain any odd man rushes.

+ Geno, Sid, Kunitz: Just a quick mention that I thought all three guys played well. Kunitz had his season opener tonight after terrifyingly bad start. Sid/Geno were out there flying and creating chances. Also.. this was one of Sid's best defensive games in a long time. He was dominant in our zone.

Also honorable mentions to guys like Sutter and Boychuk who I also thought played very well.


+ The "single hat": Crosby has done a lot in 2 games to show he wants this team together. Forced pucks to Koon for the hatty. Giving Sutter the goal. Cooke giving Engo the goal. This is ****ing awesome.

I'm glad to see Kunitz have a game like this. He needed it.


Minus

Third Period: I know we played yesterday, but we just thought Washington was going to give up. We could lose games that way. No lead is safe in the NHL. You can't just go into a 1-2-2 and dump everything.

This is where I put it on Bylsma a bit. You switched to a 1-2-2 for what reason? We sat back waaaaay too much. Gotta play 60 minutes like yesterday and put the skate on the throat of an opponent.

Cole, did it look like Washington switched to a really passive 1-2-2 to open the third and 'give' the Pens the stretch pass. They just kept picking almost everything off in the neutral zone and countering off it. Then, they got the PP, scored, and went back to the aggressive forecheck, which was the BEST thing in the world for the Pens (because the forwards then had to help get the puck out of the zone, which meant no more of the stretch passing or death).

 

[JTG]

 

[GrouperTrooper]

+'s to the D, Kunitz, Sid, Neal and Boychuk.

= Geno, he got his points but I thought he was pretty quiet, (especially considering it was a Caps game)

- Third.

 

[Ragamuffin Gunner]

my only - would be zone exits

 

[KIRK]

+ The PuppyBowl is on.

Puppies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oof, wrong kind . . . makes me think of my frenchie who passed last fall.

 

[td_ice]

I was watching the game delayed, so I did not get a chance to read any of our GDT today.

Just curious if it was noted, during the 2nd period, that POS Ribeiro taking the FO vs. Sid, turns his back to Sid and throws a wicked "accidental on purpose" elbow right to Sid's chin. It caught Sid clean. Obviously the refs didn't see it because no penalty. Just wondering if others saw the same.

 

[Shady Machine]

Boychuk earned himself another game. He created most of his chances on his own. It's just a matter of time before he starts scoring. Good pickup by Shero.

 

[nhindian]

It's just interesting to see how much difference an emotionally-invested Sid is making to this team.

He seemed dead or sleepwalking up through the Isles game, and suddenly came back to life against the Devils, and stayed emotionally invested throughout this game. And it carries over to other players (Kunitz moreso than anyone else, unsurprisingly).

Thank you Patty Elias

 

[KIRK]

I know some players who were lauded yesterday (Despres and Bortuzzo mainly) looked worse today, I'll just say this: young players on a back-to-back and playing what appeared to me to be the most physical game of the season. Washington played desperate, they were forechecking hard. Those young players will have ups and downs, this was a down. It'll get better.

As I keep saying, as long as the trend line is pointed in the right direction, then the expected short term ups and downs are o'k.

 

[nhindian]

+ Good effort in both games in back-to-back afternoon games! (Which is awesome for us Europeans) Aren't we supposed to be terrible in afternoon games?

Despite the contrary, we actually p good in afternoon games. (8-4 before yesterday or something?)

 

[SaturdayNightSlegr]

+Great win, the caps really suck though, I could see them blowing up their team w trades. Maybe Semin was the glue that held them together (pun)...

-our 5on5 transition game needs work, we had about 580 icings

 

[KIRK]

Boychuk earned himself another game. He created most of his chances on his own. It's just a matter of time before he starts scoring. Good pickup by Shero.

Strange, I didn't think Boychuk looked as cohesive with Malkin and Neal today. Not bad, mind you, just not as cohesive.

That said, his shift with Sutter and Cooke was sweet.

 

[WayneSid9987]

I was watching the game delayed, so I did not get a chance to read any of our GDT today.

Just curious if it was noted, during the 2nd period, that POS Ribeiro taking the FO vs. Sid, turns his back to Sid and throws a wicked "accidental on purpose" elbow right to Sid's chin. It caught Sid clean. Obviously the refs didn't see it because no penalty. Just wondering if others saw the same.

Yes, seen it and they chirped for a little after.

Did you notice Bortuzzo get in Ribeiro's face later in that period?

 

[GrouperTrooper]

Saw it, they only mentioned that they were mixed up when Sid retaliated. I think somebody posted that a few shifts later Bort was chirping at him.

I was watching the game delayed, so I did not get a chance to read any of our GDT today.

Just curious if it was noted, during the 2nd period, that POS Ribeiro taking the FO vs. Sid, turns his back to Sid and throws a wicked "accidental on purpose" elbow right to Sid's chin. It caught Sid clean. Obviously the refs didn't see it because no penalty. Just wondering if others saw the same.

 

[End of Line]

 

[nhindian]

So when Nisky is ready, I wouldn't hate...


Dupes - Sid - Kunitz/Boychuk
Boychuk/Kunitz - Geno - Neal
Cooke - Sutter - TK
Glass - Vitale - Adams

Letang - Despres
Orpik - Martin
Engelland - Bort

Trade Nisky for top 6 help. Waive Lovejoy.

 

[KIRK]

Pancakes beat me to it, and I know I talked ad nauseum about it in the GDT, but the breakout needs fixed. It has the potential to ruin this team, especially when the players aren't back checking to fix the issues (see: Winnipeg, Toronto, NYI games).

The breakout is susceptible to a team that lays back in a more passive 1-2-2 or comes with an all out forecheck. I think it's MORE susceptible to the passive 1-2-2 which 'invites' the controlled breakout stretch pass, but the all out forecheck also poses problems where forwards are told to break up ice when it looks like (but is hardly assured) that the puck is clearing the zone.

 

[Ogrezilla]

Strange, I didn't think Boychuk looked as cohesive with Malkin and Neal today. Not bad, mind you, just not as cohesive.

That said, his shift with Sutter and Cooke was sweet.

I would like him to end up replacing TK on the third line and making it even easier to move TK in a package

 

[td_ice]

Yes, seen it and they chirped for a little after.

Did you notice Bortuzzo get in Ribeiro's face later in that period?

Ok cool, thanks.

I didn't see that. But shortly after that point, I jumped ahead in the game, because I was so far behind the game in real time. Glad someone got in Ribeiro's face. As others have Bortuzzo is a great teammate. He is going to have your back.

 

[jmelm]

Plus

Now we get into the 3 surprises. Engo, Bort, and Despres are beyond anything I would have expected. I think Engo feels at home when he's paired with a guy like Bort. They are rough, tough, and put anyone/anything on their ass. So many times I've watched clear lanes on rebounds because everyone is on their butt.

I have no clue what happens when Nisky returns because even he was playing tremendous hockey. But I truly like 4 tough defenders in the line up.

I'm going to give a MINUS to Despres today for getting into trouble at times, but I am going to give a big PLUS to Dan Bylsma for recognizing this and making the change on defense with the pairings.


Aside from just Despres' own play, I noticed that Letang was looking very uncomfortable with him (due to lack of trust factor) and did not make some of the expected D-to-D plays that he would to a trusted defense partner. It's one thing for the coach to look at a player's own play and reward/punish his ice-time accordingly, but it's also important to see how that player's own linemates or, in this case, D partners are reacting & performing. Letang started to look more comfortable when he started getting paired with Engelland (and on some shifts Orpik), when Despres was benched or demoted to the bottom pairing with Bortuzzo.


Also, while I have been an ardent TK supporter for a long time, I am going to give TK a big MINUS for his play today and of late. I understand that there was no training camp and a lot of time off, and that TK did not have the benefit of playing somewhere overseas during the lockout. But now that we're approaching 10 games in, and soon we'll be 1/4 through the season, TK better start turning it on or else there is good probability that he may go from being a 20-goal threat who is a real anchor on our 3rd line, to possible trade fodder -- or worse, being benched and seeing his (what was fairly substantial) trade value go down the toilet. TK better start turning things around quikcly.

 

[Zatch88]

big fan of boychuk so far. As many have said, it's only a matter of time before he scores. You can definitely see his speed and Ive seen him throwing some hits and finishing checks as well. He looked good on that one shift with sutter too.

 

[KIRK]

So when Nisky is ready, I wouldn't hate...


Dupes - Sid - Kunitz/Boychuk
Boychuk/Kunitz - Geno - Neal
Cooke - Sutter - TK
Glass - Vitale - Adams

Letang - Despres
Orpik - Martin
Engelland - Bort

Trade Nisky for top 6 help. Waive Lovejoy.

Then you've only got 6 defensemen.

Then again, I suppose you could make the argument that's really all you have now with Nisky out.

 

[wheelz87]

+Kunitz. Welcome to the season! Started 2 weeks ago btw. Still think we need another winger. Kunitz has had 2 good games, let's not get overboard. But thank you for showing up.

+Boychuck. Playing like he wants to stay. Great speed and was unlucky not to get on the score sheet a few times.

-Despres. Rough one.

-PK Orpik. GET THE PUCK OUT!!!

-3rd period.

=Sid/Geno. I don't think they played bad, just want to see what everyone thinks on these two.. especially in Sid, I just do not see the burst he once had. I'm not going to say he looks slow but he just seems off. Geno has just been a bit too quiet. (beauty of a pass though) I could be wrong about these two but idk.

=Neal. I heard about the backchecking work he did, which is nice and I'll give him that. Paid to score though and idk if he even had any shots.

=Vokoun. Made some good saves, some stupid goals against. Just thought he was a bit shaky.