Post-Game Talk: Game 2 .... Oh boy. (Mod Warning #5)

[MichiganWolverines]

I'm sorry, but this is ridiculous. I don't know how anybody could have watched the 2 games in this series and come up with size and toughness as this team's fatal flaw. They are larger than the Bruins and it is not making a lick of difference.


We need a savior, there is only one thing Bylsma can do.

How is it ridiculous? The team lacks a big bodied fourth line player. Too many under-sized bottom-six wingers are on the team.

 

[MtlPenFan]

I don't think being bigger and nastier would help much, either.

To my eyes... the Penguins are clearly winning that battle. They've been piling on the hits and punishing every Bruin's player they can at every opportunity. It obviously hasn't worked.

Actually... I think this obsession with proving that they are bigger, badder and tougher than the Bruins has been some of the reason they have dropped these two games in such spectacular fashion. They are running around looking to tattoo someone and not actually concentrating on playing the game.

Chicago model is the best.

FAST, MOBILE defensemen. But nah, let's pretend it's still the 90's.

 

[AquaticBirdman]

And you are doing the exact opposite, defending Sid for his piss poor effort while calling out Malkin. All we ask for is consistency.

Huh? When the hell did I defend Sid? I said numerous times that last night was probably the worst game I've ever seen him play in a Pens uniform :S

 

[AquaticBirdman]

How is it ridiculous? The team lacks a big bodied fourth line player. Too many under-sized bottom-six wingers are on the team.

Yes we need another immobile player that handles the puck like a grenade.

 

[NewAgeOutlaw]

How is it ridiculous? The team lacks a big bodied fourth line player. Too many under-sized bottom-six wingers are on the team.

They are a bigger team than Boston, they have outhit Boston, Boston has made them look foolish in every other aspect of the game. They do have big fourth line players, but do you really think, just for size's sake, that this fourth line:
Mcintyre-Vitale-Glass
is better than
Morrow-Vitale-Adams?

 

[AquaticBirdman]

Agreed. I just don't know why you are just pointing out Malkin when other players have been just as bad/worse.

People are doing the same with Sid as well. Isn't that standard quo with star players in general?

 

[plaidchuck]

Chicago model is the best.

FAST, MOBILE defensemen. But nah, let's pretend it's still the 90's.

Isn't that what Letang is?

 

[cheesedanish87]

Some of you guys are so negative, we were scoring a bunch of goals before, there wasn't a need to change the top 6, now that we stopped scoring DB will make some changes to the top 6.

 

[SteelFish87*]

Shelly Anderson @pgshelly
Penguins drill worked on getting puck up ice & scoring chance

stretch pass!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

looooooooooooooooooooool

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Some of you guys are so negative, we were scoring a bunch of goals before, there wasn't a need to change the top 6, now that we stopped scoring DB will make some changes to the top 6.

OK... maybe they will. I hope they will.

But if this is the case, why practice with an absolute hodge-podge of lines instead of actually skating with the new combinations? Gamesmanship? Little late for that, I think.

 

[Pens17]

"The Great Deflator" once again letting in a backbreaker after a potential momentum swing.

What a profound and insightful assessment of a devastating goal against (AGAIN)!

 

[Terrapin]

I don't think being bigger and nastier would help much, either.

To my eyes... the Penguins are clearly winning that battle. They've been piling on the hits and punishing every Bruin's player they can at every opportunity. It obviously hasn't worked.

Actually... I think this obsession with proving that they are bigger, badder and tougher than the Bruins has been some of the reason they have dropped these two games in such spectacular fashion. They are running around looking to tattoo someone and not actually concentrating on playing the game.

I think it would help a ton. I'm not talking about icing 6 Steve Macintyre's, just to check and fight people. I want a few guys that are not afraid to go to the net, or clear our net. Honestly, in these last two games, do you remember more than 1 or 2 occasions when we had anyone within 5 feet of Rask? Either they're being coached not to, or they're too timid to. Probably both, and I can't say I blame them. If you were Tyler Kennedy, Brandon Sutter, Joe Vitale, Dupuis, etc, would you try screening Rask knowing Chara, McQaid, etc are going to beat the hell out of you?

 

[MtlPenFan]

Isn't that what Letang is?

Letang's just a moron. Has nothing to do with his ability to skate or move the puck. Stupid is stupid.

Throwing a blind pass up the middle because you feel it's worth the risk of a turnover to send the Mighty Brooks Orpik on a breakaway has nothing to do with natural ability, and everything to do with what's in your head.

In this case, it's either rocks, or helium.

 

[NewAgeOutlaw]

More on size, the Bruins fourth line, on average, weigh 204.67 pounds, the Penguins fourth line? 204.67

 

[plaidchuck]

Letang's just a moron. Has nothing to do with his ability to skate or move the puck. Stupid is stupid.

Throwing a blind pass up the middle because you feel it's worth the risk of a turnover to send the Mighty Brooks Orpik on a breakaway has nothing to do with natural ability, and everything to do with what's in your head.

In this case, it's either rocks, or helium.

My point was the Pens entire system is built on the PMD mentality.

 

[cheesedanish87]

OK... maybe they will. I hope they will.

But if this is the case, why practice with an absolute hodge-podge of lines instead of actually skating with the new combinations? Gamesmanship? Little late for that, I think.

Yes its gamesmanship, allot of teams have back from 2-0, most teams that win the cup have to deal with adversity, last year was the exception.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

The team needs more net front presence badly. That's difficult to debate.

I just don't really think that they can try to "out-tough" Boston any more than they already have. I don't see that as the tale of this series, at all.

I also don't think you have to be the size of a small sedan to go to the net. Look at how Crosby used to play. It's a combination of reinforcing that from your coaching/leaders as a recipe for success along with simply a want to do it from the player, himself.

Also... it's difficult to establish a net-front presence when all of your scoring chances are off the rush/one and done.

 

[NewAgeOutlaw]

It is amazing how our usual net-front guys (Kunitz, Morrow) have seemingly forgotten how to plant their ***** in front of Rask's face. I would kill for a Tomas Holmstrom clone on this team.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Chicago model is the best.

FAST, MOBILE defensemen. But nah, let's pretend it's still the 90's.

That's the problem when you employ guys like Mark Eaton on your top pairing. He's neither fast nor physical. He's basically a #6 or #7 playing on the top pairing.

It hasn't helped that one of our supposed mobile guys, Niskanen, has been complete garbage the entire playoffs. He hasn't seemed the same since Okposo KO'd him in Game 2. I think Murray would be okay if his partner was mobile and could do the majority of the puck lugging. Unfortunately, Niskanen's been terrible and so Murray's warts are showing more.

Chicago's top pairing is just the perfect pairing. Keith and Seabrook are exactly what we lack. Seabrook, IMO, is the key. He's basically the best attributes of Niskanen and Orpik wrapped in one package. And Keith is our Letang, except he seems to be better defensively and doesn't make as many boneheaded decisions.

 

[MichiganWolverines]

They are a bigger team than Boston, they have outhit Boston, Boston has made them look foolish in every other aspect of the game. They do have big fourth line players, but do you really think, just for size's sake, that this fourth line:
Mcintyre-Vitale-Glass
is better than
Morrow-Vitale-Adams?

I never mentioned dressing Steve MacIntyre or Tanner Glass, I was mentioning big fourth line players that can actually play hockey (I know you were being sarcastic). The speedy forwards are not getting the job done when fore-checking. All of there hits have been late and ineffective. We need a big big fourth line player who can take up space, and deliver punishing checks.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

[/B]

Yes its gamesmanship, allot of teams have back from 2-0, most teams that win the cup have to deal with adversity, last year was the exception.

Boston already knows exactly how all of these guys play together... that much seems glaringly obvious. I don't think it would hurt to actually participate in a mandatory, structured practice with all planned lines for the next game intact. That way they could... I dunno... actually work on some meaningful things as a line.

And yeah... I realize that there have been plenty of teams that come back from a 2-0 hole. But after a two game home performance like that? I dunno, man. I'm just gonna enjoy it for what it is, to be honest. Bonus hockey.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Oh and just to re-iterate an above point with a post of it's own:

Niskanen has been horrific all playoffs. Yikes. Get that guy out of there FFS... I'm not even mad, anymore. I just feel bad for him.

 

[Ugene Magic]

Unless the NHL makes major changes to the game via Goalie Equipment or Ice surface size, the Pens do need a major overhall. Enough with the 6ft soft, good puck moving Dman. Enough with a very soft 4th line that is more about their faceoff ability and skating rather than size and nastiness. If the Pens are to win again, they need to change their whole mindset of what style will win in today's NHL. SKill with Nastiness is the recipe.

Great post.

This has to do with their system and how they feel it should be played and what parts are needed to play it. Puck moving D-man are needed, but only one per pair for the top two d-pairs. The bottom pairing should be just PKing and smashing players protecting the net.

This won't happen until DB is gone. Hustle is what wins you games, trying to avoid an entire zone isn't gonna work in the playoffs.

 

[NewAgeOutlaw]

I never mentioned dressing Steve MacIntyre or Tanner Glass, I was mentioning big fourth line players that can actually play hockey (I know you were being sarcastic). The speedy forwards are not getting the job done when fore-checking. All of there hits have been late and ineffective. We need a big big fourth line player who can take up space, and deliver punishing checks.

I just don't see it. That is like problem number 400 on this team's list of problems. Again, the Penguins fourth line weighs the exact same as the Bruins fourth line.

 

[UnrealMachine]

Shelly Anderson @pgshelly
Penguins drill worked on getting puck up ice & scoring chance, another has a forward parked in front of the net.

These are some mighty advanced tactics to be introducing at this point in the season. Did he borrow them from The Mighty Ducks trilogy or that Simpson's episode where Bart and Lisa are on rival hockey teams?