Bjugstad looked like prime Staal over there. Pretty cool to see and perfect 3rd line center
Post-Game Talk: Cole's Plus Minus: Pens vs. Preds - Face to face with the demons and the demons win again
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Paulie Gualtieri
R.I.P. Tony Sirico
- May 18, 2016
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12 games now and Gudbranson is still rock solid. Maybe all he needed was a competitive environment.
Scandale du Jour
JordanStaal#1Fan
Cool beans, but he doesn't have that nice French-Canadian smile though.
Ogrezilla
Nerf Herder
Best case scenario we get 2 seed and play NYI as the 3. That team is completely falling apart I could see us winning that in 5
That's just not a credible argument in these parts
Tbh, neither is the knowledge that we're railing against a seemingly set decision, or even one that has been taken and can't be taken back. I would like the court room to turn its attention to the many, many threads about Daniel Sprong as Exhibit A in this case.I think the answer here lies in where you say "This is the best is has been all season". And that's the part baffles me.
The team defence is the best it's been all season. The actual blue line itself? Eh. I don't know about that. We're getting better results, but I don't see how it can be the best when we're bigging up the goaltender pretty much every game and things have only gotten really good since the forwards started noticeably playing great. Plus, I really struggle to call a defence that's playing a big part in a large ES goal drought the best its been.
Maybe you're right though. But I'd be giving out even more if I thought this was the best the defence is capable of as a unit. Being really good at one thing and alarmingly subpar in others is a big potential issue waiting to happen; arguably it just has.
If he could only finish with more consistency, that would be great. But he has looked very good, and was especially noticeable last night. That trade gets better and better each game.
The only thing is Cole, I so want to say Murray was great, because he was actually great for all but one real stinker of a goal. The demon for the last few games is a stinker goal that ties up the game.
The other demon is that we just are not scoring. BUT the other team is not scoring either. Nashville is not exactly devoid of talent, Rinne was better then Murray in this game for most of the game. Even with Nashville's d-corp, we actually had more high danger chances and better in almost every statistical category.
Pittsburgh Penguins @ Nashville Predators, 2019-03-21
We had 12 high danger chances to their 4. A 54.37% corsi for us is really good. We just couldn't finish. I would put out there that while Murray was really really good, Rinne was actually better.
Thing is that is very encouraging for Murray save percentage by month this year.
Jan -> .917
Feb -> .920
March -> .933
So definitely trending upwards. i think it's a two fold Murray playing better and better team defense, as our defense has saved certain goals each of the last few games. We start to actually scoring more and we will start dominating teams again.
I am not bashing Murray to much, I just have a bit of PTSD for him letting in that really bad goal in game 6 against the Caps, which allowed the Caps to play a trap/counter game the rest of the way. I suppose giving up a bad squeaker is better then giving up 2 goals and losing in regulation. It's just those type of goals against are a bit maddening.
ZeroPucksGiven
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- Feb 28, 2017
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UnrealMachine
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You are essentially a verbose, smoke & mirrors version of Ragamuffin Gunner (who has a great gimmick, btw). Murray has given up 4 regulation goals over the last 3 game while the Pens have scored 4 themselves yet you just can't help yourself.
Empoleon8771
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Or maybe Schultz is just playing bad and the pair's bad possession stats fall mostly on the puck mover for that pair. There's another thought.
A 1.8 g/60 (that's 8th worst in the league) for 5v5 scoring across the entire team should qualify as broke imo.
So how do you improve Schultz, given that he's a very important part of the team? You look at his surroundings as well as his personal play and form, right? The presence of a guy who has been a possession and scoring drag on pretty much everyone he's played with kinda sticks out...
Both you and Pixies can be right on this. But in both cases, I'd say the obvious answer is the same and that is to break up the pairing.
WayneSid9987
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- Nov 24, 2009
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It wouldn't surpise me in the least if we got the dreaded JJ-Guds 3rd pair(Olli goes in for MP and Olli-Schultz is pair 2). Heh.
Watch it happen and be awesome. lol
Watch it happen and be awesome. lol
The puck will go so much from D to D across our blue zone that it'll be like watching a game of pong.
ncm7772
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ncm7772
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Anyone else realize the Pens haven't scored a first period goal in SIX games? Would be nice to change that.
Tom Hanks
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- Nov 10, 2017
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We actually get a lot of high danger chances (4th in the league only Car, SJ and VGK are better). We just aren’t converting them (27th in the league).
It’s the finishing that’s been a problem.
We get a lot of high danger chances, but most of them are contested shots against a set goaltender who's frequently free to come to the top of his crease. Still good chances, but its not a huge surprise if they're not flying in.
What we're not getting is a lot of 2 v 1s, 1 on 1s, juicy rebounds where the goaltender is completely out of position... chances where its easier to score than not unless the goaltender performs a miracle (like Mrazek denying Cullen that rebound).
Sure, with better finishing things would be going better... but better chances would make it even better than that.
I'd really prefer if he had let in an average number of goals, like two or three, over the first 55 minutes, then one in the last five. Definitely preferable.
Empoleon8771
Registered User
No, you just hope Schultz can snap out of it, the same way you're hoping Kessel and Hornqvist snap out of it. Their struggles are due to their own play, just switching up who they're playing with isn't going to impact them as individuals not playing well enough. I think people overestimate how much changing lines impact slumping players.
Tom Hanks
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You can probably throw Corsi out when analyzing this team. When I’ve seen the heat maps teams are kept out wide for most of their shots. Schultz coming back from injury so that’s fine but thought he was disappointing last year. Hopefully that’s not a trend and opens up discussions of Phil for D and Schultz for a winger.
UnrealMachine
Registered User
Marcus Pettersson improved his 5on5CF% by +5.85 with this one weird trick...
That makes no sense to me. Hornqvist's struggles would be less pronounced if playing with linemates who took more dmen away from the front of the cage/dmen who actually have good slap shots. Kessel's struggles would be less pronounced if he was playing with guys/a system that produced breakaway chances regularly.
And Schultz will probably play better with a d partner who doesn't slow the game down and can activate in the offensive zone and isn't constantly making him the outlet so its easy for the opposition to predict.
I think if you're actually denying that environment affects performance, or that linemates count as environment, you need to take a step back from defending Johnson as you're it looks like you're just saying whatever defends him rather than what makes sense.
Did I not say that Murray was great for most of the game? All but that squeaker in fact?
Did I not point out that Murray's save percentage has increased every month this year?
Why don't you give a factual argument on the Nashville game on how Murray was better then Rinne? he had 4 high danger chances against the whole game to Rinne's 12. Personally I *did* think he was very good in this game (see said it again). I am guessing you don't get the whole how a late bad angle real stinker of a goal is just, um, not good?
Are you saying that you are 100% confident in Murray in a 1 goal contest in the final few minutes of a game right now? I am not saying there is a better solution and I do like DeSmith but Murray is flat out better now. I am merely pointing out that yea, several times now we are still playing a good defensive game, keeping shots to low % areas and we are giving up the goal. Slice that however you want that is a fact.
I did also say (reading is kinda important) that the other demon here is we just gotta put the puck in the net. We got 12 high danger chances and scored 1 time. That stinks. I did think that Rinne had some spectacular saves in this (as did Murray).
How many Fleury bashers on here that that was the thing with him? That he would make spectacular save after save, and then go mishandle the puck behind the net in OT against columbus and lose us the game? How is this scenario any different? I challenge you to go look at the stats in that game and compare them to this, you won't see us dominating the jackets, quite the opposite in fact. Still when a player takes a routine play and fails in such a way that costs (or almost costs) the game it kinda stands out. Whether it's letang being 50 feet out of position or a Murray letting in that goal. It takes their body of work for the game and tarnishes it a little.
You can hold our stupid PP up as a big reason we are in these positions late, whoever thinks our zone entry is good needs to be fired. That drop pass zone entry is just not working but we keep trying.
So yea, the stars are not putting the puck in the net like they should, they are accountable for that.
Does that mean that Murray is completely unaccountable for a really bad goal because he played great otherwise? Is that really your whole argument? Still (once again I'm saying it) Murray is our best chance in net, he has a sparkling save percentage in March, partly because he is just flat out more focused and better, partly because our team defense is better. But these little lapses in concentration that give up bad goals, they lose playoff series if they happen at the wrong time. We do not have a better option Murray is playing well enough for us to win, especially if we start scoring more.
But if you are not at least a tad bit concerned then you are not a student of the game and you are ignoring our own history in the playoffs.
Icarium
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- Feb 16, 2010
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What a relief... third game in a row we blow the lead late but this time we got the second point. But if the D plays that way, good things will happen, the forward group is too talented to score so few goals on a regular basis. We were scoring at will a mere week ago, after all. Line 1 seemed to be on the ice all the time and creating chance after chance but with quite a few chances for the opponents too, Line 3 created a lot as usual but couldn't score, Line 2... well Kessel had some chances but Errey was reduced to praising some mediocre shot along the ice from the slot (which was never going to go in on a netminder as huge as Rinne) because there was nothing else to praise about Kessel's game. McCann has come back to earth, Blueger is actually playing best on that line and he hasn't been too noticeable either.
A minus for the PP, that shorthanded chance they allowed with about ten minutes to go was a real amateur hour, the same mistakes over and over.
It's different because MAF did it for years. Murray for what, five games this season?
A minus for the PP, that shorthanded chance they allowed with about ten minutes to go was a real amateur hour, the same mistakes over and over.
It's different because MAF did it for years. Murray for what, five games this season?
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