Post-Game Talk: Cole's Plus/Minus: Pens vs. Cats - If you give a moose a muffin

[Gurglesons]

Marcus Petterson is going to be a legit top 4 d-man. He is 22 in technically his rookie season, playing great defensively and getting better offensively. Has a +15 rating as a rookie d-man.

Forgot the part where he is doing this despite playing with Jack Johnson.

 

[LOGiK]

Are the Penguins going to have 90s night this year?

 

[Vyruz Reaper]

Murray is now tied for the 11th best save% in hockey this year. Just throwing that out there, in case anyone doubts him. He's back, the elite Matt Murray is back.

That makes it over .920?!?

 

[Vyruz Reaper]

That makes it over .920?!?

Stat Check..


He is now 16th in the league with a .917 and higher than Fleury who sits at 23rd with a .912

 

[LOGiK]

Stat Check..


He is now 16th in the league with a .917 and higher than Fleury who sits at 23rd with a .912

Why'd you change your cats with laser beams avatar?

 

[StroShow]

A rook in his 3rd year of NHL games.
Same loophole of Murray? How can you be a rookie twice?

2nd year, he played 22 games last year. The cut off for Rookie status is 25 games played in a season. So technically this is his rookie season.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

I don't buy the Murray is back.
The team is back.
Can the team just have a squat and Murray will save the team? The team was playing so terrible, Murray was terrible, it was an onslaught.
I mean, look at the hawks game, Smitty wasn't stellar, the team yucked it up hard. So now Smitty sucks or what? Get what I'm saying here? All the Murr praise is just self aggrandizing ... 'I knew he'd be back' bull ****

If you think Murray is playing exactly the same now as he was at the beginning of the season, and his "better numbers" are entirely due to the team playing better, then I have no idea what to tell you.

 

[LOGiK]

If you think Murray is playing exactly the same now as he was at the beginning of the season, and his "better numbers" are entirely due to the team playing better, then I have no idea what to tell you.

Never said that.

 

[AlphaMikeFoxtrots]

Potvin was talking the Selke up on the Panthers' feed. Canadian media would jump on the bandwagon, but I remember a few American media whining about him winning the CS in 2016 ("career achievement award", etc).

As much a toss up as it was with Phil, theoretically the CS isn't just about points, and he dominated in ways that didn't always reflect in the box score. And some folks are always just eager as **** to give any of those awards to anyone else for...reasons.

Eta: were those guys crying about Doughty's Norris? Probably not.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Some on this forum were ready to cut ties with him already. Good thing our GM doesn't have the patience of a 3 year old child.

With some things, he has good patience, but then there are things he shouldn't have patience for.

But with Murray, what I never understood about his handling was how he would be back from injuries so fast, like something...no...everything about that was f***ing wrong. A practice or two and bam, he was in a game again.

Now they're letting him play and get into a groove - which a lot of us (me included) were vocal about to get him on track, but little did we know he had some surprise injury that was really bothering him and after that, he's been back to his normal self.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

That just doesn't compute for me. Look at how well pens played, until hawks game. So now smitty is trash cause the team abandoned playing for it?
A team sport is so hard to pick one player to be the cause. Murray no doubt sucked it up, so did the team... leap frog if you want to, but it works in tandem.

I am all for Muzz being back to his old self and getting a ton of games, but they can't lob him an easier game vs DeSmith, but I get it if they're just continuing to build confidence, but at the expense of another goalie kind of sucks.

Like you hope Murray gets the Ducks, DeSmith gets the Kings. Let them both have a solid night, with Murray getting a slightly tougher match-up.

 

[LOGiK]

With some things, he has good patience, but then there are things he shouldn't have patience for.

But with Murray, what I never understood about his handling was how he would be back from injuries so fast, like something...no...everything about that was ****ing wrong. A practice or two and bam, he was in a game again.


Now they're letting him play and get into a groove - which a lot of us (me included) were vocal about to get him on track, but little did we know he had some surprise injury that was really bothering him and after that, he's been back to his normal self.

So you think it was a concussion that hindered him for the long while?
I donno. But whatever it is, he came back from that injury hot to trot.

 

[LOGiK]

+++++ Team: Yes... just the word team. There were so many moments in this game where the team was more important than the individual. Sid, Kessel, and Geno were pathetic on the powerplay? No worries. PK and Matt Murray will pick them up. It was their time to give back anyway. Sid gets punched behind the net? No worries, Riikola came in without hesitation to make sure that stopped. Sheahan gets a cheap shot? No worries, Pets will drop the gloves to step up for his mate. Florida wants to take a couple cheap shots? No worries, ZAR will lay the hammer down to stop that nonsense. Horny goes down to injury? Guys step up. Major props to ZAR. Major props to Rust.

This is an important step for the Pens. I felt this was one of their strongest team efforts in the sense of guys picking one another up. It was far from pretty. So the fact they had one another's back and made it through was nice. It was nice to see the stars almost at rock bottom being picked up by mates who deserved to give it back. Think about when Rusty was down in the dumps. The team had his back. Now he's giving it back consistently. I love it.

++++++ Murray: Oh come on. This could have been a 7-5 game. Murray was amazing! That was 2016 level. That was 2017 level. Just a beast of a game by Mur. He holds the fort down and the team gives it back. I do not have enough words for #30. That was one hell of a performance.


+++ Pets, Letang, Maatta, etc.: Strong game by the defense. Riikola struggled for the first 30 minutes but he found his game late in the game. Pets had a monster game. Letang had a monster game 5 on 5. Dumo was a rock. Maatta looks like a new player when he's with Riikola. They really work well together.




- The obvious issue was PP1 with Kessel, Malkin, and Sid. Who gives a ****. Stars have bad games. The team picked 'em up. We do have to figure 71 out, though. He cannot put together consistent efforts.

Team effort:

 

[Turin]

Refreshed? More like evolving.
This 20'ish game stretch from him has been the best 200 foot game I've seen from any player in my whole life, most likely. He's playing like a sage. A master.

Hunting guys on the PK like he's 20 years old. Diving shot blocks late in games. Encouraging teammates on the bench. Calling huddles on the ice and giving clear instructions. 40 goal pace. +21 at the mid point. Minimal PIM's. Constantly setting up grade A chances. Being selfless when he knows the teammate across from him needs the goal. 55.7% face-offs. Getting physical after whistles to give his team a jolt. I could go on man...

You couldn't create a better Captain in a test tube. It's inspirational. What a privilege it is to watch him every night.

He may not win the Art Ross but even if he finishes 15 points behind, you could still make a very strong case for MVP.

It’s making me wonder if we’re going to see a lot of weird statistical anomalies regarding “decline” as this generation ages. Crosby’s generation trains and eats differently than the previous one and there’s more info avalaible to him.

 

[Ogrezilla]

 

[LOGiK]

Was going to say.. ROCK N ROLL

 

[froods]

2nd year, he played 22 games last year. The cut off for Rookie status is 25 games played in a season. So technically this is his rookie season.

Murray is still a rookie? Lol.

 

[LOGiK]

Murray is still a rookie? Lol.

No. 13, 49, 49 gp, 19 now and counting.

 

[Peat]

1) Let it play out. Waaaaaay too early.

2) Doesn't even sniff the tops.


It's early. I am going to celebrate what we see in Pets. I really like his ability. I thought Oleksiak would progress further last year and he didn't. I want to wait and see it play out. Let's just be happy it seems to have worked and go from there. No need to define it yet. We have plenty of time to look back and define it.

I dunno man. I agree its way too early to be talking about this but if - big if still - if he fills out his frame and progresses and becomes the Dumo mk2 we think he can, only hitting it earlier and with more cost controlled time, then I think the trade will be up there with Rutherford's greatest hits.

But way too early to tell.

I don't buy the Murray is back.
The team is back.
Can the team just have a squat and Murray will save the team? The team was playing so terrible, Murray was terrible, it was an onslaught.
I mean, look at the hawks game, Smitty wasn't stellar, the team yucked it up hard. So now Smitty sucks or what? Get what I'm saying here? All the Murr praise is just self aggrandizing ... 'I knew he'd be back' bull ****

I thought I just saw the team take something of a squat for a solid 30 minutes or so with Murray bailing them out and I don't think its the first period I've seen recently where Murray's been making stops where nobody would have blamed him if he hadn't made it.

I don't want to detract from the team when I say that - they've definitely been better defensively since breaking the slump, no question - or from what DeSmith has done for us this season. But Murray's form since returning from injury has been phenomenal and its mainly about him. You can see it in his numbers, you can see it in the way he plays - aggressively up to the top of his crease, quicker going post to post, tracking everything. I don't really see any other way to put it other than it looks like he's back.

 

[Ugene Magic]

Where were you?

It better be good.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

I suspect a majority of the people down on Murray when he was struggling were MAF fans.

I had the Fan on a couple months ago and the one host was an admitted MAF fan, and he was going on how Murray is just an avg goalie that basically got hot twice.

People like that continue to ignore that Murray was recalled not because of some unfortunate injury, but he forced his way up through record breaking play in the A.

He was arguably the best goalie prospect in the world before his recall.

The whole got “lucky” thing is tiresome to me.

 

[Ogrezilla]

Where were you?

It better be good.

Work trip. Was out to dinner with work folks most of the game.

 

[Icarium]

A really fun game to watch except for the PP. Both teams were hilariously bad even though these are supposed to be two of the best PPs in the NHL. At least ours didn't concede any shorties... thanks Murray.

Guentzel's smart play on the second goal is an example why he deserves every cent of his new contract, he is much more than just someone to score tap-ins off Crosby passes. And what can you say about Rust, when he is on, he is on. Pearson and Pettersson are really solid players, we needed players who play responsibly in the defensive zone and got them, and they are now starting to produce offensively too, kudos to JR.

Nice to see we can win 5-1 without Geno, Kessel and Brassard doing much offensively but it would be nice for one or two of them to go on a hot streak soon. Hopefully we won't underestimate the Ducks and will annihilate them.

 

[The Old Master]

Side note, when the heck did Icedcapp return?

he's like one of those hideous disease's. only the symptoms disappear, but he never go's away.

 

[TheGuiminator]

I don’t get how Sid looks so refreshed at 31. It’s his skating that just looks miles better than last year. He almost ended Ekblad’s career on a spin like it was 2007.

Maybe that’s really why JJ is on this team

The last time I saw Crosby that dominant was during the 12-13 season. He’s a step above everyone now and it’s fun to watch. Like you mentioned, it’s really refreshing to see him on top of his game like that in his 30’s. After the « disappointing » season of last year, I thought we’d see the beginning of his downfall, but I was fortunately wrong

But how did he got so great again? Maybe his last playoff run gave him a boost of confidence? Or is it the unbelievable OT goal he scored against Edmonton that sent him back on track ? I don’t know but since then, he scored 48 points in 34 games.