Post-Game Talk: Cole's Plus/Minus - Pens vs. Flyers... embarrassing

[JWells16]

Can anyone tell me what Sill and Adams were doing on the ice at the end of a tie game? Sill takes a penalty (ticky tack) and then another one which leads to the game winner in OT. They should have been glued to the bench.

 

[Winger for Hire]

I'm going to go against the grain here a bit in how I think the team needs to react in these games, especially now. The Penguins aren't the refs favorite team. Very rarely do we see them getting the benefit of the calls. If they sit back and do nothing and "play their game" all that ends up happening is Flyers get a bunch of free cheap shots, especially on the star players. The refs aren't going to call their chippy play. It's not enough to let it go. Rather, when our boys get into that, we need to get MORE chippy. A couple extra cross checks, slashes, face washes, crowding in on Emery, Sill/Farnham giving a few extra pushes after the whistle...we need that. THAT is how you have to play those games.

Sill tried to get more chippy, but got called for a crosscheck. You can't do anything when the refs never call an even game- not in terms of favoring a team, but in terms of how the game is going to be called. First 55 minutes it's a free-for-all, the last 5 minutes gets called tighter than a duck's buthole.

 

[Shady Machine]

They also don't play in one of the more rougher division.

NYI
NYR
Flyers
Pens
NJD - When their on.

That's probably the toughest division in the league to play in.

HM- Columbus was coming on there.

Every game seems like a battle.

What? The Central is likely the toughest division in the league.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

tighter than a duck's buthole.

How do you know this, exactly?

Not judging.

 

[joeyjake5]

I agree with you. It was probably Scuderi's best game of the year. Adams was ok also.

Our powerplay lost us this game. And it's been losing us a LOT of games lately. We're not good enough 5 on 5 to survive without it.

As a big big Scuds critic, it was scuds best game until he became a goalie in OT. What the was he doing in the net on Claudia's goal??

 

[Winger for Hire]

How do you know this, exactly?

Not judging.

Well, it has to be watertight, right?

That and there's a time in college that I prefer not to talk about in a public forum of this nature.

 

[IcedCapp]

finally, we're getting to my area of expertise.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

Can anyone tell me what Sill and Adams were doing on the ice at the end of a tie game? Sill takes a penalty (ticky tack) and then another one which leads to the game winner in OT. They should have been glued to the bench.

I've never seen anything like the Adams stuff in all of my years following this sport.

At what point does a coach realize Adams blocks lots of shots because he's too slow to get to loose pucks and posess it?

Nothing can get him out of the lineup. Not poor play. Not being old and slow. Not assaulting his teammates.

He's the Teflon Don.

Well, it has to be watertight, right?

That and there's a time in college that I prefer not to talk about in a public forum of this nature.

Understandable.

 

[ColePens]

Can anyone tell me what Sill and Adams were doing on the ice at the end of a tie game? Sill takes a penalty (ticky tack) and then another one which leads to the game winner in OT. They should have been glued to the bench.

That's my major gripe. MJ says a lot but his actions don't match up.That's why I'm frustrated right now.

When the game was on the line - a terrible Philly team went with their stars. A much better Pittsburgh team went with Sill/Adams to freaking protect a single point. That's embarrassing. That's playing to lose the game. Chicago/LA go w/ their big guns in key moments... not scrubs. Pittsburgh tries to protect leads with Adams/Sill. That is epic. Seriously.

And that just happened. Sill took a penalty, which led to another penalty, which led to Adams playing goalie while Giroux put the puck in the net.

And the funny thing is.. one of our goals came from Kunitz/Sid PKing.

 

[WheresRamziAbid]

You haven't a clue. You don't think adding beef helps a team like the Pens? I give you Borts, a faux tough guy. The guy played a Nasty SOB role up until he met a real tough guy, Tootoo. He got smashed and ever since has reined his stuff in.

Discredit team toughness all you want. But hockey is a tough, physical sport. If you think the Pens can win a championship with skill and shrinking violets, I'm afraid I got some bad news for you.

They didn't lose yesterday because they were "out toughed". They lost because there PP was 0 for 100. If anything they should a lot of toughness yesterday. They didn't back down from ***** and kept playing physical all the way through. Even Erhoff planted someone for gods sake. They didn't tuck their tails, the didn't get pushed around they just couldn't score on the PP.

And that's without Hornqvist who is a load in front of the net and in the corners, Comeau and Despres who average 3+ hits per game.

 

[StaalForOne]

[edit]

I am not sure fans of a team who is going to certainly miss the playoffs has much to laugh at.

Here is their playoff jersey:

If a cheap shot in a meaningless game in January is all you have to cheer for, well have at it and enjoy. Congrats, you achieved the same thing as the crappy Isle team who went all neanderthal a few years ago and got fined as an organization. Be proud.

MOD

Backwards hat while golfing. Says everything you need to know about him. His stance isn't helping his case either.

Well I'll take a different perspective on things, which as usual probably won't be very popular.

It was a Tuesday night game in January. Hard to ask for a more entertaining game. We even got a point out of it, with our backup goalie.

Obviously potentially losing Letang because of a cheap shot by a scrub loser is the worst part of this game.

This team didn't lose their minds, didn't get dragged into Philly's crap. A few of our 4th liners fought a few of theirs. So what? Sid and Geno weren't involved with anything.

Hopefully this will bring the team closer together. If you noticed before Farnham and Downie's fights, they were initially involved with another Flyer. Then Schenn and whoever Farnham fought immediately came over and went after Farnham and Downie. Where was that reaction when that goof attacked Scuderi?

This team needs some legitimate size and toughness. Yes guys that can beat someone if needed, but also a few guys that will crash the net, clear the net, and be physically tough to play against. ***** all you want about Sill and Adams. I do too. But guys like Sutter, Spaling, and Goc need to be shot out of a cannon along with them. Noticed when Sill beat down his guy, the crowd was quiet, we scored, and things settled for a bit. But after every fight we lost, the flyers and their idiot fans kept feeding off it.

And for those crying about Goc being scratched. lol. He would be at the end of the bench wetting himself in a game like this.

Also if our PP wasn't downright pathetic we win this game.

Agree with a lot of this.
There were no dumb retaliation penalties so...baby steps I guess.

I'm also over the excess of mildly talented vanilla players, and the 3 you highlighted plus Arco are perfect examples. there are too many miscast guys right now, but I will give the team some slack until everyone is healthy. It would seem the team at least recognizes this. Calling up Farnham when no one was hurt for example, when is the last time someone was called up without an injured player?

I've been watching hockey for a long time and games like this have me questioning why I bother......this league promotes goons and thugs like Rinaldi and hate to say it Downy and totally lets its star players get mugged and abused to the point of injury. The league looks really bad this year and the hockey is downright boring and the officiating this year is the worst I've seen and at times seems very biased.

Its not new, the Pens tried to be the white knight, and tried to play clean nice guy hockey after the Isles debacle, and its gotten them nothing but abuse, and early playoff exits. The league obviously has no interest in detracting losers like Rinaldo from doing what they do.

 

[ProgOg]

That's my major gripe. MJ says a lot but his actions don't match up.That's why I'm frustrated right now.

When the game was on the line - a terrible Philly team went with their stars. A much better Pittsburgh team went with Sill/Adams to freaking protect a single point. That's embarrassing. That's playing to lose the game. Chicago/LA go w/ their big guns in key moments... not scrubs. Pittsburgh tries to protect leads with Adams/Sill. That is epic. Seriously.

And that just happened. Sill took a penalty, which led to another penalty, which led to Adams playing goalie while Giroux put the puck in the net.

And the funny thing is.. one of our goals came from Kunitz/Sid PKing.

When Malkin/Crosby/Kunitz/etc. can finally start on the PK, I'll be very, very happy. Just look at what Nash is doing in NY.

Really, "promote" Kunitz from the PP to the PK, Penguins. He scored a goal. He deserves it.

 

[Will Hunting]

Can anyone tell me what Sill and Adams were doing on the ice at the end of a tie game? Sill takes a penalty (ticky tack) and then another one which leads to the game winner in OT. They should have been glued to the bench.

That was interesting. So were the other decisions by Johnston. For example his timeout in OT with 50 seconds of PP left for the Flyers. He basically rested Giroux & Voracek by using that timeout, they were on the ice for the whole overtime but he gave them a chance to stay there and win the game, like they did obviously.

I mean, this was one of the worst games by the Pens coach I´ve ever seen. It was on par with Bylsma´s worst ones. Absolutely BRUTAL. It´s fine that the Pens got what they deserved. They are deserving every single slap in the face now. Every.Single.One.

 

[StaalForOne]

Can anyone tell me what Sill and Adams were doing on the ice at the end of a tie game? Sill takes a penalty (ticky tack) and then another one which leads to the game winner in OT. They should have been glued to the bench.

That last penalty was more on Malkin than Sill wasn't it? It was still pretty bad that the same PK unit was out there for damn near 4 minutes. Timeout or not.

 

[Shwag33]

Sills penalty was not ticky tacky. A cross check to the back of the neck/head should be called every time.

 

[vikingGoalie]

I'm not down with the Pens being thugs like others are advocating. Go after their stars, but do it legally.

I miss the young Kunitz who took out Timonen on a hard, legal check. He used to drive Flyer fans nuts back in the day with his physical play.

I miss when Neal played with heart and would target Chara and torture him all night in his early Pens days. He finished every check on the guy and infuriated him. Chara doesn't deal well when he is targeted like that.

That's what I wish to see again, because that's winning hockey. Resorting to thug hockey, that's for the lowest common denominator, like Philly fans.

I agree with you. But it really does come down to having an effective PP. If you are getting the calls, but your PP is this bad the other team just doesn't care. They knocked our #1 defensemen out, lost an idiot player for it and didn't give up any goals on a 5 minute major. To someone like Rinaldo / Flyers that's an awesome trade. Now you lose games because of your goonery and miss playoffs and things like that, you start knocking it off. You put chicago on a PP 6x and see what happens.

Would rinaldo / flyers make the same sort of comments if we had put up 3 goals on that major PP and won the game because of it?


To top it off the league probably will give him a slap on the wrist for it.

 

[ProgOg]

Sills penalty was not ticky tacky. A cross check to the back of the neck/head should be called every time.

And it didn't when it happened to Crosby's rips, is probably what is meant here.

 

[ProgOg]

I agree with you. But it really does come down to having an effective PP. If you are getting the calls, but your PP is this bad the other team just doesn't care. They knocked our #1 defensemen out, lost an idiot player for it and didn't give up any goals on a 5 minute major. To someone like Rinaldo / Flyers that's an awesome trade. Now you lose games because of your goonery and miss playoffs and things like that, you start knocking it off. You put chicago on a PP 6x and see what happens.

To top it off the league probably will give him a slap on the wrist for it.

You maybe picked the wrong team there. Chicago has a really bad PP. If you ever want to be less frustrated at the passing and not shooting on the Penguins' PP, watch a Chicago game. Washington, San Jose, St.Louis are probably better examples.

But even Chicago could probably score against the Flyers' PK if they had so many chances, so forget what I said.

 

[ColePens]

Sills penalty was not ticky tacky. A cross check to the back of the neck/head should be called every time.

It was almost identical to what Girardi did to Sid. It was stupid. Very dumb penalty. Especially when the ref would probably let him target the back the entire time.

 

[StaalForOne]

Sills penalty was not ticky tacky. A cross check to the back of the neck/head should be called every time.

It should be yes, but it's not.

 

[ProgOg]

I kinda want to see what they do with Sill. Fights a fight against another goon, takes a dumb penalty. Did he do something good yesterday while I wasn't watching?

I mean, they'll do nothing with him, but maybe...

 

[UnrealMachine]

That last penalty was more on Malkin than Sill wasn't it? It was still pretty bad that the same PK unit was out there for damn near 4 minutes. Timeout or not.

NO, NO & NO. Sill had one job to perform after his penalty was up - get to the bench ASAP. He deviated not once, but twice. Malkin can't anticipate a player that idiotic.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

I agree with you. But it really does come down to having an effective PP. If you are getting the calls, but your PP is this bad the other team just doesn't care. They knocked our #1 defensemen out, lost an idiot player for it and didn't give up any goals on a 5 minute major. To someone like Rinaldo / Flyers that's an awesome trade. Now you lose games because of your goonery and miss playoffs and things like that, you start knocking it off. You put chicago on a PP 6x and see what happens.

Would rinaldo / flyers make the same sort of comments if we had put up 3 goals on that major PP and won the game because of it?

To top it off the league probably will give him a slap on the wrist for it.

That's exactly what I said earlier about not converting on the PP. People are doing a piss poor job of analyzing this game. In any case, I'd like to see this team play more physical, but within the rules.

However, these comments about an eye for an eye and being predatory in regards to the Flyer stars, people need mental help. I'll just leave it at that.

Anyone who has played the game knows how that **** goes. It becomes like the Hatfields and Mccoys. The Flyers would then take out Crosby. Followed by Voracek. Then Malkin. Etc.

That last penalty was more on Malkin than Sill wasn't it? It was still pretty bad that the same PK unit was out there for damn near 4 minutes. Timeout or not.

That's on Sill. Guys always cheat off the bench and refs let it go all of the time unless the extra man plays the puck. Sill needed to skate straight to the bench and no call ever happens.

 

[Coastal Kev]

They didn't lose yesterday because they were "out toughed". They lost because there PP was 0 for 100. If anything they should a lot of toughness yesterday. They didn't back down from ***** and kept playing physical all the way through. Even Erhoff planted someone for gods sake. They didn't tuck their tails, the didn't get pushed around they just couldn't score on the PP.

And that's without Hornqvist who is a load in front of the net and in the corners, Comeau and Despres who average 3+ hits per game.

Why do you think they went 0 for 6 on their PP?? Because with all of their skill, they have exactly one guy who will continually plant himself in front of the net in Horny.

They weren't pushed around?? The first PP, Sid gets a two hander right in his Kidney?? Any response to Schenn?? Nope, not until Downie has to go with a guy out of his weight class.

I saw guys like Spaling, Bennett and Sutter staying way clear of any sort of trouble last night. They would get slashed and skate away defeated.

I find it amazing that in a town where the Pittsburgh Steelers have dominated a physical sport by being the toughest team in that sport can't draw the same correlation to their hockey team.

Look at the CFB national championship game. I saw a team in the Ducks that reminded me a lot of the Pens. Skill everywhere, but soff, so soff. They get matched up against OSU and get punched over and over in the mouth. How did all of that skill and speed work out for the Ducks?? SMASH

Please, to all posters here, you either get it or you don't.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

I'm starting to think that maybe MJ might be in a little over his head.

I really don't know how much has effectively changed on this team, unfortunately. I completely understand that enough damage was done by the previous regime that this is going to take some time. But that doesn't explain away the growing list of same-old, same-old coaching and roster decisions that we've been watching most of this season.

Time to figure things out, guy. I want to be a fan... I want to be patient... but it's really starting to get down to crunch time and he just don't seem to be getting it. He's talking a good game... but it's not translating.

I've also noticed "journalists" like Rossi and his ilk climbing on board the MJ bandwagon, lately. So that's probably a good indication that he's beginning to derail.