My thoughts on this game
Anderson was awesome yet again but you wish he would have made a save in the shootout, just hope losing that extra point doesn't come back to haunt us when game #48 is over. Hard to ask for more from him when he has posted a .970svp though.
Borocop had a great game. I thought he might struggle against a team that has players like Crosby, Malkin and Neal, but Boro was physical and still had good positional play. If he keeps it up, its going to be really hard to take him out of the lineup.
I thought the pairing of Phillips and Benoit was just too slow tonight. They seemed to have a lot of trouble getting to the puck first in the corners and had problems breaking out. Might be worthwhile to send Wiercioch down to the AHL to keep playing once Lundin comes back and run Benoit as the 7th D. I don't think Wiercioch deserves to be sent down but he might lose the contract game and as much as I like him, I believe Boro has outplayed him. Its nice to have 3 physical guys on D when Boro plays too. If you would have told me before the game that Boro would have played 18 minutes and be a +1, I don't think I would have believed you but he stepped up to the plate.
Greening seemed to finally play physical tonight and ended up scoring so overall I thought he had a great night, hopefully he can keep it up. Loved him manhandling Letang behind the Pens night. On the other hand I thought Lats was absolutely terrible. He just seems fat and out of shape. Gets in position for good chances but can't bury anything. Hopefully its just a confidence thing but he's looking like a disappointment
so far.
One thing I really can't believe is how bad Condra is at scoring, he really makes Stone hands Kelly look like a sniper. He has been playing so smart the past few games but always manages to ruin the play at the very last moment. Still he's proved to be very useful in a bottom 6 role and I think if he keeps playing this way, then he might have a good future with the team. Before the season started I figured he wouldn't be around too much longer with all the other prospects coming up over the next few seasons.
Another player that just continues to impress is Kyle Turris, he's just so much stronger on the puck and always creating chances, I think he might get around 35 points this season while still being a great 2-way player, playing PK and PP. Starting to really love the guy and he's still young enough to keep on improving.
Overall I would say it was a good effort by the team but they just didn't get into the dirty areas around the front of the net enough, a few bounces didn't go the right way and that hurt too. Karlsson's shot on the goal line was just brutal, inches away from being in the net and then the ref blew the whistle while he could see the puck too, would have been an interesting mad scramble if the whistle wasn't blown.
But really there shouldn't be much to complain about. 3-1-1 start to the season is very stellar. Top 5 in the east in P% is great and the team is 2nd in the league in even strength play. PP and PK are both top 10 in the league, so if the team can take less penalties and draw more then that would be a big help because I think the current ratio is unsustainable as shown here:
http://www.nhl.com/ice/teamstats.ht...usPenaltyKillSeconds&viewName=penaltyKillTime