Post-Game Talk: Cole's Plus/Minus: Pens vs. Kings: The 1am poop edition

[vodeni]

10 shorties only half way through the season is simply unacceptable, and it seems like it's due to the same mistakes being made over and over. why sully refuses to make the necessary adjustments is beyond me.

cause he believes that these guys can learn from their mistakes...he cannot pull geno and letang from the PP or Phil, just can't

 

[Ogrezilla]

cause he believes that these guys can learn from their mistakes...he cannot pull geno and letang from the PP or Phil, just can't

it's weird because this same group of guys with the same setup only gave up 3 shorties last year.

 

[Chuck Norris Trophy]

Geno is f***ing dog shit right now and has been for a while. what gives?

 

[vodeni]

it's weird because this same group of guys with the same setup only gave up 3 shorties last year.

exactly, they are not doing a whole alot different stuff out there. Last night was kind of fluke turnover after the face off,
I laugh when they say put two d-man, and they come with Maatta ....

We are scoring shorties because on PK if you have skilled and fast forwards that can interrupt play or block a shot, it usually turns into 2 on 1 ....all the teams in the league figure this out.

sometimes s... just happens and it happens a lot. Letnag should not peel off yesterday after CDS made that first save

 

[Randy Butternubs]

I was somewhat unhappy last night that I didn't get to watch. But when I woke up and saw the score I was okay with missing this one.

 

[CrosbyMalkin]

Same **** different game.

Difference is that their goaltending has been bailing them out or Sids line has been giving them run support. When you fail to get either of those, this is the result you get...even against one of the worst in the league.

Defensive structure is garbage. These blunders at the blue line absolutely have to stop. Enough with the over passing on the PP.

This road trip is shaping up to be an ugly one and might end with them out of a playoff spot once again...

The sky is falling! The sky is falling! I am not going to take the time but I bet I could find same type posts during bad games and losing streaks during the Cup winning years also.

The Pens outplayed the Kings but Quick stood on his head. If goaltenders switched nets Pens win this easily. I think DeSmith is not playing his best level and Quick was. Sometimes it’s that simple. Pens start pressing and make some bad decisions and you get this result.

This was Pettersson’s worst game as a Penguin but some of it was just bad luck and bad officiating. Pettersson makes a good play to get it past Carter and only 2 things could happen, 1. It gets past our players skates and puck gets dumped in deep and they call offsides or it hits our players skates and called offsides. That was the right play and the officials just didn’t follow the rules. If Pettersson does not pass it in when it went over Carter would of had a chance to steal it and have a breakaway.

While it was Pettersson worst defensive game he did make several offensive plays that led to great scoring opportunities. His offensive instincts was on display again and I thought his shot was not near as bad as some say on these boards. Some of his shots tonight had some good pace on them.

 

[Empoleon8771]

I really hope the Penguins don't go back to Malkin-Kessel, Pearson-Malkin-Simon worked really well against Anaheim and I don't want to pull the plug on it after 1 iffy game. If you want a Brassard-Kessel duo to work, you have to keep Kessel there, you can't just break it up the first chance you get.

I don't think Pettersson even had that bad of a game, either. He had that bad turnover on the Carter goal (which was a hell of a shot by Carter) and he was battling with Iafallo when it went off of Iafallo's body into the net. I don't blame him on the 2nd goal at all.

 

[Ugene Magic]

I wonder how much time zones affect the players. I traveled 2 hours west and for a little bit I was out of whack. Technically the penguins are playing at 1030 in their bodies while LA is playing more stable.

I wonder how big a difference it makes to pro athletes.

From Anaheim to LA isn't all that far and they were there for a few days already. They played at 7:30 PST. That's not it, more than playing b2b was. Considering that they played up to par for the course.

 

[vodeni]

The sky is falling! The sky is falling! I am not going to take the time but I bet I could find same type posts during bad games and losing streaks during the Cup winning years also.

The Pens outplayed the Kings but Quick stood on his head. If goaltenders switched nets Pens win this easily. I think DeSmith is not playing his best level and Quick was. Sometimes it’s that simple. Pens start pressing and make some bad decisions and you get this result.

This was Pettersson’s worst game as a Penguin but some of it was just bad luck and bad officiating. Pettersson makes a good play to get it past Carter and only 2 things could happen, 1. It gets past our players skates and puck gets dumped in deep and they call offsides or it hits our players skates and called offsides. That was the right play and the officials just didn’t follow the rules. If Pettersson does not pass it in when it went over Carter would of had a chance to steal it and have a breakaway.

While it was Pettersson worst defensive game he did make several offensive plays that led to great scoring opportunities. His offensive instincts was on display again and I thought his shot was not near as bad as some say on these boards. Some of his shots tonight had some good pace on them.

last night was on full display, there were so many opportuntities for our d-man to hit the net, Dumo had 5-6 beautiful looks, Pets, too, Maatta too, they have to start practicing putting pucks on the net

 

[Ogrezilla]

exactly, they are not doing a whole alot different stuff out there. Last night was kind of fluke turnover after the face off,
I laugh when they say put two d-man, and they come with Maatta ....

We are scoring shorties because on PK if you have skilled and fast forwards that can interrupt play or block a shot, it usually turns into 2 on 1 ....all the teams in the league figure this out.

sometimes s... just happens and it happens a lot. Letnag should not peel off yesterday after CDS made that first save

and Kessel should have kept backchecking. But yeah, it's just weird. I don't think it's a problem with Sully needing to change the PP, the players just need to be smarter. If he changes anything, it would be for accountability's sake, not because the current setup is inherently bad. But we have to be nearing that point with the 10 shorties.

 

[Ugene Magic]

last night was on full display, there were so many opportuntities for our d-man to hit the net, Dumo had 5-6 beautiful looks, Pets, too, Maatta too, they have to start practicing putting pucks on the net

They (forwards) also had multiple wide open net looks and missed all but one Jake backhanded in. They could have been up as well if not for all those misses.

 

[Ugene Magic]

I was somewhat unhappy last night that I didn't get to watch. But when I woke up and saw the score I was okay with missing this one.

It wasn't as bad as the score shows. Things were compounded by many things, the effort was there, the results weren't.

It was an entertaining game. You might find solace watching it knowing that they did try while being down and it being b2b.

 

[vodeni]

They (forwards) also had multiple wide open net looks and missed all but one Jake backhanded in. They could have been up as well if not for all those misses.

no questions, I am just pointing to the issue of our dman missing the net.

another thing I saw last night that I did not like, Kings' forwards were able to take that space infron tof CDS, we have been OK lately in boxing them out and letting the other guys shoot from angles and blue line, yesterday was a hot mess around the CDS hence a bunch of weird bounces around the net

 

[Andy99]

Is it that the Ducks "stopped defending" or that the Pens simply responded well after a brutal 1sr period?

Well it’s never ALL one or the other, but from what I saw, the ANA defense wasn’t as aggressive and determined...it’s human nature, as we see all the time with the Pens, to relax when you’re up 2-3 goals and I think the Ducks did that in the second and third...that Phil goal was just a lazy play too by the Ducks D man but credit Phil for sticking with the shot...

I get that the Pens were b2b but they were beaten to pucks by the old and incredibly slow Kings...I know G and Letang have been sloppy on the PP but that’s par for the course usually for these guys...to make it seem like a new thing is not the case...what concerns me are two things I’ve seen in the last two games...
1) the goaltending has fallen back...last two starts for CDS have been mediocre and Murray has not been sharp throughout the most recent games,and
2) the Pens are playing more wide open and not boxing out on D and not winning as many puck battles, making it harder on the goalies...
I’d like to see both of these things reversed, and soon

 

[Ogrezilla]

Murray has not been sharp throughout the most recent games

What? He gave up 4 to the Ducks, but the three games prior to that were 1 GAA, a shutout, and 2 GAA. He gave up 7 goals combined in the 7 games before the Ducks.

 

[vodeni]

another interesting nugget from the game last night:
The perenial Selke candidate Kopitar was on ice for 1 shot for and 16 against....

 

[vodeni]

Well it’s never ALL one or the other, but from what I saw, the ANA defense wasn’t as aggressive and determined...it’s human nature, as we see all the time with the Pens, to relax when you’re up 2-3 goals and I think the Ducks did that in the second and third...that Phil goal was just a lazy play too by the Ducks D man but credit Phil for sticking with the shot...

I get that the Pens were b2b but they were beaten to pucks by the old and incredibly slow Kings...I know G and Letang have been sloppy on the PP but that’s par for the course usually for these guys...to make it seem like a new thing is not the case...what concerns me are two things I’ve seen in the last two games...
1) the goaltending has fallen back...last two starts for CDS have been mediocre and Murray has not been sharp throughout the most recent games,and
2) the Pens are playing more wide open and not boxing out on D and not winning as many puck battles, making it harder on the goalies...
I’d like to see both of these things reversed, and soon

I am not worried about any of those things. Goaltending is fine and will be fine, also they will work on their defense, first pair is fine, third pair is fine, we just need that second pair to solidify...

I am more worried about our third, and fourth line...even with Kessel back to skating the last two games they are kind of pedestrian not creating much pressure, the fourth as it was last night should not be playing at all. I may be the only one not worried about our second line...I think Geno is playing fine, depending on who ends up as the third wheel there that will be the line positive every night

 

[Andy99]

He gave up 4 to the Ducks, but the three games prior to that were 1 GAA, a shutout, and 2 GAA. He gave up 7 goals combined in the 7 games before the Ducks.

It’s not just about the goals given up...he was slightly off tracking the puck and gave up some rebounds and glorious chances to the Panthers but it’s the Panthers and we got a big lead...not that he was bad but his play was just a notch below where it had been and the Ducks game was a further dip in play...I just want to see that reversed in SJ where I presume he’ll start...SJ has had pretty mediocre goaltending for a top team and we need him to outplay Jones to have a chance to win..

 

[Ginormousthumbs]

I would imagine it’s going to be Murray on Tuesday, DeSmith on Friday and Murray on Saturday.

 

[Ogrezilla]

It’s not just about the goals given up...he was slightly off tracking the puck and gave up some rebounds and glorious chances to the Panthers but it’s the Panthers and we got a big lead...not that he was bad but his play was just a notch below where it had been and the Ducks game was a further dip in play...I just want to see that reversed in SJ where I presume he’ll start...SJ has had pretty mediocre goaltending for a top team and we need him to outplay Jones to have a chance to win..

Him outplaying Jones would help, but it's not our only chance to win. We have a few other pretty good players on the team.

 

[Icarium]

I think Geno is playing fine

Get out of here, we are supposed to blame him for all the goals we conceded yesterday for some reason.

 

[Tom Hanks]

It wasn't as bad as the score shows. Things were compounded by many things, the effort was there, the results weren't.

It was an entertaining game. You might find solace watching it knowing that they did try while being down and it being b2b.

Quick was pretty much the difference. We heavily outchanced them at ES and that gap widened when including the PP. Almost half our shots were below the dots in between the hash marks.

Certainly not a game to be worried about. With those chances we’d win most nights. Being a B2B possibly some fatigue which we saw some effort issues at key times.

 

[BHD]

I agree with Ogre. During one of those games, Sully should have started the second first to send a message, or even take one of the weak links off the first one.

 

[EightyOne]

A couple, basically, breakaway goals against and a little too late offense.

It's pretty crappy result. But until they string 5+ of em together again I can't bitch too loudly.

Just know...I'm ready whenever the Pens are, haha

 

[Andy99]

it's weird because this same group of guys with the same setup only gave up 3 shorties last year.

Maybe it’s the goaltending? Wouldn’t it be nice if our goalies could stop 1-2-3 of these 2-1 rushes or breakaways...