Post-Game Talk: Cole's Plus/Minus: Pens vs. Flyers - HOCKEY IS BACK!

[ColePens]

Plus

+ Sutter: The only negative thing I could say is his faceoff wins in the d-zone. The positives? Everything. I love all the small things he does. He focuses so much on defense and it works. He's a great player and I'm telling you right now he's 100% going to make me forget about Staal. His attention to detail is beyond anything I expected.

+ Defense: Martin/Orpik was awesome. That was Martin's best game in 2 years. Not even close. He was incredible. Despres made rookie mistakes but was physical and gritty. We need that. Engo/Nisky/Letang were great. All played above what I expected. That defense was great.

+ Bylsma (PK): Our PK was ****ing awesome. They sniffed out what killed them last season. They didn't chase (outside of the first PK) and we stole their time away. It was flat out awesome. huge props for them seeing that.

+ Geno: Thought he was beast mode most of the night. He looked like the freshest player out there. HE just looked so in-season ready.

+ Fleury: He wasn't great, but damn good. Keep it simple, #29.



Minus

- Dustin Jeffrey: If you are fighting for a spot, don't come in playing like that. Complete and utter garbage. He can be cut for all I care. That was a pathetic performance.

- Sloppy play: Both teams... to be expected.

- Kunitz: He looked lost. I'm giving a grace period to get ready for the season.

Click to read more...

 

[HandshakeLine]

I'd like to give Adams alone + for his pking. He gets a lot of grief because of his age and his role, but let's be honest, without him on the pk in the third, we'd have lost this game. That was a great clear.

Jeffery, however, should have been scratched.

 

[Get To Our Game]

Agreed on everything, Cole. First line was looking rusty/sloppy/whatever. Martin was very good, and I was very happy with the defense in general. Despres looked solid, as well.

 

[Sureshot]

+ Neal, Sutter, Martin, Fleury, Adams (for that clear)
- Jeffrey

 

[ColePens]

I'd like to give Adams a + for his pking. He gets a lot of grief because of his age and his role, but let's be honest, without him on the pk in the third, we'd have lost this game.

Jeffery, however, should have been scratched.

Definitely missed Adams. Good call. He played a good physical game. Same w/ Glass. I actually think Glass brings this team something it needs. He has more speed than I expected. He's physical, too.

 

[shureshot66]

I'll let Cole (and others who are much better at it than me) rate the individual performances. May I just say how refreshing it was to see the Pens actually play hockey against these guys instead of... whatever the hell that was in April.

General sloppiness on both sides to be expected. Makes me cringe thinking about how some of these guys are going to look tomorrow night in the third at the Garden.

Oh, and congrats to Fleury. Solid game and the well-deserved honor of the all-time franchise wins mark.

 

[KIRK]

Plus

+ Sutter: The only negative thing I could say is his faceoff wins in the d-zone. The positives? Everything. I love all the small things he does. He focuses so much on defense and it works. He's a great player and I'm telling you right now he's 100% going to make me forget about Staal. His attention to detail is beyond anything I expected.

+ Defense: Martin/Orpik was awesome. That was Martin's best game in 2 years. Not even close. He was incredible. Despres made rookie mistakes but was physical and gritty. We need that. Engo/Nisky/Letang were great. All played above what I expected. That defense was great.

+ Bylsma (PK): Our PK was ****ing awesome. They sniffed out what killed them last season. They didn't chase (outside of the first PK) and we stole their time away. It was flat out awesome. huge props for them seeing that.

+ Geno: Thought he was beast mode most of the night. He looked like the freshest player out there. HE just looked so in-season ready.

+ Fleury: He wasn't great, but damn good. Keep it simple, #29.



Minus

- Dustin Jeffrey: If you are fighting for a spot, don't come in playing like that. Complete and utter garbage. He can be cut for all I care. That was a pathetic performance.

- Sloppy play: Both teams... to be expected.

- Kunitz: He looked lost. I'm giving a grace period to get ready for the season.

Cole, I'll make more comments later. But, did you get the impression that Geno played with the puck management and backtracking of a guy who's spent the last 4 months playing for Paul Maurice?

 

[HandshakeLine]

Also, while not a spectacular game by either, I thought the rookies generally played better than not. Tangradi showed some potential and was instrumental in the 2nd goal. Despres recovered fairly well from a terrible start.

Both are going to be long-term, season long projects if they stick here on the big club.

 

[yuri28]

+ Geno: Thought he was beast mode most of the night. He looked like the freshest player out there. HE just looked so in-season ready.

+ Fleury: He wasn't great, but damn good. Keep it simple, #29.

I don't agree with you about Geno, Cole.
I thought he was average overall with some good things but also some really bad play.
Sid was not much better and even had some unusual turnovers for him.

About Flower, if only he had played at this level in the last POs....

 

[KIRK]

I'll let Cole (and others who are much better at it than me) rate the individual performances. May I just say how refreshing it was to see the Pens actually play hockey against these guys instead of... whatever the hell that was om April.

General sloppiness on both sides to be expected. Makes me cringe thinking about how some of these guys are going to look tomorrow night in the third at the Garden.

Oh, and congrats to Fleury. Solid game and the well-deserved honor of the all-time franchise wins mark.

For all of the cringing and sloppiness, in a way, this game was the best thing for Flower. He had the kitchen sink thrown at him, and he stood tall. Very, very encouraging.

 

[MichiganWolverines]

The Flyers miss Jagr on their PP.

 

[Karnage420*]

+martin - probably the player of the game, looked like he did 2 years ago - huge relief
+niskanen - looked great

-despres - some of the worst puckhandling ive ever seen. hopefully that just comes with confidence
-tangradi - just useless.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Sid and Geno both look like they're adjusting back to the NHL. Sid's a notoriously slow starter, so I'm not worried. Geno looked generally like Geno, but he was helped by Neal having a great game and Glass/Tangradi (eventually) becoming more physical.

 

[ColePens]

I can't talk enough about our PK. It was all a schematic change that threw Philly off. HUGE props to Bylsma. They took away that cross-ice pass that killed us last season. Tremendous stuff. Absolutely tremendous. Lav never had an answer for it. It won us the game.

 

[TorstenFrings]

+++++++ Sutter cannot have enough plusses. No one is making me forget Staal, but that boy is awesomesauce. I love him.

+ Nisky. He`s got it going on this year. Watch him.

- DJeffs, stop making me hate you. I believe in you. Get it together.

- Chemistry on the PP. They need to find a better groove on this. I liked Neal where he was, but it did not connect quite yet.

 

[Common Sense]

+ Niskanen, Martin, Neal, Fleury, Engelland, Sutter, Cooke
- Despres, Kunitz, Jeffrey

Mixed feelings about this game. Great first period then hanging on for dear life the rest of the game.

 

[hctopcheds11]

The players who really stood out to me were Neal, Sutter, Martin, Letang and Fleury.

Didn't like much of anything about 87's line.

 

[AgentM]

For all of the cringing and sloppiness, in a way, this game was the best thing for Flower. He had the kitchen sink thrown at him, and he stood tall. Very, very encouraging.

Good point. It also had to be good for the confidence of our PK to shut this team out after that series in the spring!

 

[ColePens]

Crap! Completely forgot Tangradi. He played a solid game. He does some small things like crashing corners and being physical. Where he messes up is when he doesn't keep his feet moving. He needs to keep grinding in the corners and come back to the defensive side.

Outside of that, good showing by the big dog.

 

[PartyatMarios]

Good solid game all around. Loved Letang all day. Can't believe what Glass brings to the fourth line. The difference between him and Asham is huge. He has speed, checking, and just looks so much quicker.

 

[HandshakeLine]

- Cole calling Tangradi "Big Dog"

 

[Frederick Stanley]

+ Fleury kept us in the game this time
+ Overall D, everyone played a solid game. I really think Nisky played a good game paired with Letang. Keep the pairings and don't change anything. Let them find their chemistry together.

- I think Jeffrey isn't gonna be here any longer, Vitale is an upgrade over him.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

The guys who needed a bounce back after last season/playoffs largely had strong games. Martin, especially, looked good, as did Fleury and Orpik.

Sutter looked really good tonight. Great defensively, and showed some nice offensive touches. I don't know if his top end is as good as Staal, but I think he's going to be a good replacement for him on that third line in a checking role.

I thought Tangradi was decent in the offensive zone, but he looked pretty bad in the defensive zone, particularly at getting the puck out when it came around to him. Until he can clean that up, I actually don't mind Bylsma playing Glass or one of the other grinders on the Malkin/Neal line when the faceoff is in the Pens' zone.

I'm not sure if Sid looked average because of the long layoff, or because his wingers showed zero creativity out there. Probably a combination of both. But I think these are the types of games we'll see from Sid when he's not in beast mode if he's going to be flanked by wingers lacking offensive creativity.

Overall, it was a really high tempo game and entertaining to watch. Real playoff-like atmosphere. Glad to see the boys come out with the 2 points.

 

[yuri28]

To be honest, apart from the first period, we were overall pretty rusty and got dominated by the Flyers.
I hate Giroux but you've got to admit he is an awesome player.
As someone else said it though, it seems like the Flyers missed Jagr on PP a little bit.

 

[JQR]

Aside from the previously mentioned plus/minuses:

+ Cooke - some great big hits, and clean hits.

- Tangradi - flat flat flat. For such a big guy, he is so damn timid.