Post-Game Talk: Cole's Plus Minus: Pens vs. Jackets Round 1

[LOGiK]

So glad the Pens were able to shut it down. I still have flashbacks of the Sabres and Flyers game with leads late in the third.

It's kind of funny how the usual suspects are nowhere to be found when Murray has a game like tonight. I was kind of looking forward to their novels breaking down Murray's game tonight.

I don't want to jinx it because of the sample size, but Gudbranson's looking so much better than I'd expected. And it's rubbing off on Johnson as well. Maybe JR and Co. know something we don't?

Biggest surprise of the night was Sid hitting the empty net!

Surprised he wasn't attacked en route to his first game by fans with the reactions on this board.

 

[madinsomniac]

It isn't going to be so funny when he's our new assistant coach.

Nah he will end up in Philly... its the logical conclusion to his career lol

 

[LOGiK]

Nah he will end up in Philly... its the logical conclusion to his career lol

Him and Sullly tight though. If I fight for someone, we're tight.
But Tortorella f***ing hates the penguins and their pampered stars.
He aint f***ing ever coming here.

 

[EightyOne]

Torts on Philadelphia would be deadly. Dear god....no....

 

[HandshakeLine]

Have you ever been there? Columbus is actually a really cool and young city.

It's got at least 20 different kinds of sports bar and chain restaurant!

 

[3074326]

It's got at least 20 different kinds of sports bar and chain restaurant!

Columbus has awesome food. Weird comment.

I live here btw.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Columbus has awesome food. Weird comment.

I live here btw.

It's almost like people don't read post histories anymore.

 

[AlphaMikeFoxtrots]

1) MOOSE. Thrilled for him, well-earned
2) Sid
3) Bjugs and McCann continue to settle in ok, gmjr
4) saw dumo called a human fire extinguisher which honestly seems legit
5) jmfj beginning to make me eat some crow, and you know what? **** it, sign me up, crow is delicious. same with guds. i might still prefer different moves, but if they end up working they ******* work. the question remains why waste 2/3 of a season setting jj up for failure, but one thing at a time ig.
6) geno...wyd bud?

Possibly most important, provided some momentum follows, PHIL LIVES

for now. please keep at it my dude.

 

[AlphaMikeFoxtrots]

So I want Columbus to miss, out of principle, and so I'm happy. But the hockey fan in me realllllly doesn't want Columbus to miss, because the backwards thinking in the NHL will lead GMs to go "TAKING AGGRESSIVE RISKS TO WIN IS BAD"

I like that Columbus went for it. I hope it blows up in their faces, but I don't want collateral damage =/

sword of damocles

 

[BHD]

I know it's the PGT, but let’s reel it in. Some of the videos are really off-topic.

 

[Fordy]

I hope a lot of love is given to Murray and JJ tonight. Mur definitely deserves it and JJ deserves a lot for his turnaround. It is insane.

i have seen nothing but good plays out of johnson for weeks now

 

[UnderratedBrooks44]

I must have been jaded from the brief but trying days with Brassard. The team looks pretty good? The guys we got in return are actually there, ya know, doing stuff to help the team. I don't think Guds looks like a liability, at least yet. Johnson seems decent. Phil scoring finally, even a dirty goal off a carom, might be a big deal going forward. I feel........mostly positive......about things going forward this year.

It also continues to be weird how our D seems to solidify when Letang is out for long periods. I'm not doing a trade Letang thing, just saying it's weird.

 

[Icarium]

Huge win, finally some consistently good defending and still lots of complaints in the PGT. Never change, HF Pens, never change.
Great to see Kessel getting the monkey off his back but now his passing seemed off. I hate to brag (yeah, right) but I told you this team can defend properly when they put their minds to it. Let's see if they will become complacent again soon, hoping not. I don't understand all the complaining about Malkin, to be honest but I am kind of used to that. Bjugstad doesn't score much (because he takes too long to get a shot off) but has already scored some huge goals for us. I have no idea how the JJ transformation came about but I am praying to all deities that care about sports (if any) that it continue.

Long story short, as long as we play with such diligence in defence and with decent forecheck, good things are very likely to happen. But I am waiting for the other shoe to drop.

 

[ColePens]

Columbus has awesome food. Weird comment.

I live here btw.

I just want to make it very clear to you and @CarolinaBlueJacket - Columbus is an awesome town. @HandshakeLin is technically just being sarcastic, as he has been sarcastic since his first post. And whatever @shoplifter is saying is ridiculous and silly. Columbus is so similar to Pittsburgh it's unreal. In fact if I took a person who has never been to the east coast and placed them in Columbus, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland...they'd probably think the cities were all identical.

I lived on E Woodruff when I was at OSU. That whole walk way into the city is identical to Oakland but nicer. Areas like Easton are identical to suburbs of the Burgh. Beautiful area. A big mix of Pittsburghers, Ohioans, and people from Indy.


Main point - stop letting one person speak for the majority.

 

[ColePens]

Huge win, finally some consistently good defending and still lots of complaints in the PGT. Never change, HF Pens, never change.
Great to see Kessel getting the monkey off his back but now his passing seemed off. I hate to brag (yeah, right) but I told you this team can defend properly when they put their minds to it. Let's see if they will become complacent again soon, hoping not. I don't understand all the complaining about Malkin, to be honest but I am kind of used to that. Bjugstad doesn't score much (because he takes too long to get a shot off) but has already scored some huge goals for us. I have no idea how the JJ transformation came about but I am praying to all deities that care about sports (if any) that it continue.

Long story short, as long as we play with such diligence in defence and with decent forecheck, good things are very likely to happen. But I am waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I will reiterate my top point.... stop letting the minority speak for the majority. I saw waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more praise than any negativity. And the negativity is coming from the people who are negative no matter what. That's who they are in life. Just use the ignore feature.

I do not like this idea of the majority of great posters around here being lumped in with the smaller minority.

 

[Daeni10]

I love that our d is doing exactly what they did in our Cup runs. They might not be the best individual players, but right now everyone including our forwards is commited to a team defense and it clearly shows. I always thought that when everyone buy into it, you can get away with not having the strongest individual players on d. I think it showed back then and I feel like its showing right now again. And if we are playing good d and are tough to score on, Sid and co will take care of the rest. What an incredible season he is having

 

[Icarium]

I will reiterate my top point.... stop letting the minority speak for the majority. I saw waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more praise than any negativity. And the negativity is coming from the people who are negative no matter what. That's who they are in life. Just use the ignore feature.

I do not like this idea of the majority of great posters around here being lumped in with the smaller minority.

Relax, I was mostly kidding. Speaking of kidding, anyone seen Angrrus lately?

 

[ZeroPucksGiven]

For anyone who doubts Horny's contributions to this team, look at the first 2 goals. Might not ever ring up the points on the scoresheet, but those 2 goals had Horny's fingerprints all over them.
He's the guy you want to go into the playoffs with

 

[MrBrightside]

So when does Duchene arrive in Columbus? They could use a guy like that in big games.

Oh, wait.

 

[MrBrightside]

One thing that's being overlooked due to the fact they are winning is how much the 4th line is getting run over out there. The line combined for zero shot ATTEMPTS last night when on the ice together. Sullivan isn't playing them much at 5-on-5 but not sure you can exist forever playing 9-10 forwards every night.

 

[NMK11]

i have seen nothing but good plays out of johnson for weeks now

Give credit where it's due, JJ has been good for us and if he keeps this level of play up it's going to be huge come playoffs.

Gudbranson, on the other hand, looks solid, but still no where near a $4m contract. The team defense in general these past few games have been great, fewer boneheaded plays out of the back and a lot more support from the forwards. Need to keep it up for the stretch run.

One thing that's being overlooked due to the fact they are winning is how much the 4th line is getting run over out there. The line combined for zero shot ATTEMPTS last night when on the ice together. Sullivan isn't playing them much at 5-on-5 but not sure you can exist forever playing 9-10 forwards every night.

Yeah, the fourth line has had a rough go of it lately. TB has cooled off, but still looks like he belongs. Wilson has completely fallen off from his good run during the middle of the season. I think it's time to try to bring someone up who's playing well in WBS to try to find a spark there and give us some extra energy and momentum for the stretch run.

 

[MrBrightside]

Yeah, the fourth line has had a rough go of it lately. TB has cooled off, but still looks like he belongs. Wilson has completely fallen off from his good run during the middle of the season. I think it's time to try to bring someone up who's playing well in WBS to try to find a spark there and give us some extra energy and momentum for the stretch run.

I just don't even know who it would be, really. I liked Dea more than some and think he would be better than someone like Wilson, but they gave him away for some reason. Blandisi probably fits the spark/energy role but not sure he's a guy you really want playing every night. They are really lacking in forward depth right now after the top 10 guys.

 

[LittleSpoon]

I just wanna say that back in feb I said JJ would turn some heads for the better now that he’s on his natural side with Schultz. That optimistic post of the day back then is making me smile quite a bit meow. Keep it up JJ.

 

[ZeroPucksGiven]

I think you will get your wish. Jackets have only scored 1 GOAL in the last 2 games and that was against an AHL Devil's team.
Without trying to be confrontational I keep seeing a lot of hate at the Jackets. Just curious is that just joking around sports team hate it is there something deeper? You guys have no idea how difficult it is to be a fan. Just drove my kid 14 hours round trip to watch them get shut out last weekend.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-e4VLhpop0G0/U08ywlq70qI/AAAAAAACZ9A/ThCQGFVXxik/s518/dubcros.gif

 

[NMK11]

I just don't even know who it would be, really. I liked Dea more than some and think he would be better than someone like Wilson, but they gave him away for some reason. Blandisi probably fits the spark/energy role but not sure he's a guy you really want playing every night. They are really lacking in forward depth right now after the top 10 guys.

Blandisi or Johnson would be my choices. Once (if? no idea where he's at) Rust comes back I would hope it pushes ZAR out of the top 6 and we'd either have TB-Cullen-ZAR/Simon which I could live with. I think Simon has played well lately, the other three listed need to start bringing it as well.