Post-Game Talk: | Game #III | Pens vs Habs | OTL | Whole lotta yuck

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Yeah the old Malkin/Rust chemistry seems to be building again. Those two always seemed to like playing together. Hopefully they keep heating up. I've actually liked more of what I've seen between Zucker/Malkin in the opening games but Rust was picking it up last night on that line.

Yes to all of this. The fly in the oinment is that Jeff Carter is written in stone at Center. That line is gonna be leaky unless you have a really good 2 way F to cover for Carter's lack of footspeed.

You kinda wish that Heinen could play center and that would kick Carter to wing.

I think Carter can still bring something to the table but the team needs to get over his like... fake Twitter reputation or whatever.

 

[Sorry]

Hope that dinner in Montreal was worth the loss. Absolute sluggish performance.

 

[Buddy Bizarre]

Evgeni Malkin on his second goal:

“When he turned, spin, I talked to myself like, ‘Give me, Rusty.’ … We talked after goal at bench, and he says, ‘I saw you.’ I’m not surprised. Rusty every year is better and better. He’s a really good player.”

Prior to last year, I'd say Rust was one of the more talented tunnel vision players I had ever seen. He rarely used his linemmates and when the puck landed on his stick he was either shooting it or carrying it wide and then shooting without much purpose.

Lots more patience from Rust beginning last season and his point totals reflected this. Seems like he's seeing the ice much more or the game is slowing down for him.

 

[Kristopher Letang]

5/6 points… relax.

 

[Andy99]

5/6 points… relax.

It’s not the outcome…it’s the process, my man ..lol

 

[NeedleInTheHay]

Imagine giving McGinn 13 million dollars when guys like Milano sign for the minimum

 

[Andy99]

Imagine giving McGinn 13 million dollars when guys like Milano sign for the minimum

McGinn is like getting Nick Spaling but for Kasperi Kapanen prices…

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

McGinn's greatest quality as a depth player seems to be (as far as I can tell from his time here) that he can put a little offense up on the board. He has above average hands and a good shot particularly for a depth line player. But I mean... on this fourth line and how it is generally deployed... good luck.

 

[Gurglesons]

Imagine giving McGinn 13 million dollars when guys like Milano sign for the minimum

Milano is a top six forward that sucks at defense.

 

[Buddy Bizarre]

Milano is a top six forward that sucks at defense.

McGinn is a bottom 6 F that sucks at PKing so far this year

 

[Darren McCord]

We shouldn't be paying market value for a 4th line that we can't trust for larger TOI though. Same with McGinn. He's being paid fair market value, but it's a real question if we should be paying 2. 75 per year for a guy that we can't use to his fullest.

I would rather us have a more defined 4th line that has a more solid identity. You want hitting? Get another hitter or a pest on the LW and let TB cover the defense. You want offense? Get a stronger 4RW and focus on offense.

I just think this combination of players there now doesn't play to the strengths or hide the weaknesses of the line. We're getting away with it so far, but that doesn't mean it's not something to address.

I agree with the lack of identity a 100%. But again what are you talking about here. TB has average almost 15min a game in his career. That is about what a 3rd line center plays. He is trusted for larger ice-time. He is are best pker. He has never been a minus player in his career either.

Again I get the identity thing but TB is a fine 4th line center.

 

[SEALBound]

Carter also lost the draw on the 6 v 5 EN situation where they tied it. Dude just sucks in this area.

They also need to reconsider Jake in EN situations- he was responsible for the cross ice pass and has been leaky over the past few seasons. Perhaps Rust is a better option?

Everyone except L2 owes CDS a beer.
And hopefully this game puts away any notion that Zucker can't play with Geno when fully healthy.

I mean, I get Carter taking the faceoff. Generally speaking, he's been good at them. Jake deserve some heat as he lost Caufield and let him slip by on the backdoor. To MSL credit, I bet that goal played out exactly as he drew it up. Jake got caught looking quite honestly.

Re: Zucker - I think you give people here too much credit. Never underestimate the power of low IQ grudges.

I mean in the regular season in 15-16 our fourth line to start had Bobby Farnham and Kevin Porter as regular bodies on it.

I tell ya, when we talk about how awesome that season was and what a transformation it was, the retirement of Dupuis is often forgotten. With that, the injury to Kevin Porter forced Sullivan to go to the next batch of guys that included Sheary, Rust, Kuhnhackl, and Wilson. Porter was the defacto call up and his unavailability really opened the door for that infusion of youth that was so vital.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

McGinn is a bottom 6 F that sucks at PKing so far this year

I'm pretty ambivalent re: McGinn but part of that is on Velucci. His Triangle +1 seems a bit prone to inconsistency, at least to my eyes. It seems a little more challenging to execute as opposed to Box or Diamond which (I believe) most teams use some form of as opposed to Velluci's Wedge.

To me penalty killing concepts have always been more important than the personnel.

 

[Gurglesons]

McGinn is a bottom 6 F that sucks at PKing so far this year

Can’t wait to see what Philly does in the playoffs!

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

I mean, I get Carter taking the faceoff. Generally speaking, he's been good at them. Jake deserve some heat as he lost Caufield and let him slip by on the backdoor. To MSL credit, I bet that goal played out exactly as he drew it up. Jake got caught looking quite honestly.

Yeah Jake got burned hard on that play. You're right that I can forgive Carter for being out there for the draw. It makes some sense. But if you're protecting a lead late I'm not entirely certain what Jake is doing out there aside for hunting for freebies via the EN. He was also wrong-winged on this particular play.

Honestly Sullivan made things pretty easy on MSL, there. Not a great choice of personnel and deployment.

 

[ColePens]

CDS was good but I will say that goal #1 was poop. Started the 3rd period.

It was disappointing to see a 2-0 lead blown and then the team to look the same way toward the end of the game. Our defense is different now and we look better but that result was far far far too reminiscent of the last 4-5 years.

 

[Pancakes]

They have all had their flaws offensively That's why they're on l4. You're not going to find too many scoring threat line fours in the NHL. There's a salary cap.

I liked Poehlings drive to the net last night

Not sure whats up with Brock right now but yes he needs to be better

Agree. You get what you pay for.

For what we're paying McGinn, he needs to find a way to score some goals for that line. It's early, but if he aint potting 10 goals a year he's not worth it. Ditto Teddy B

 

[Buddy Bizarre]

I'm pretty ambivalent re: McGinn but part of that is on Velucci. His Triangle +1 seems a bit prone to inconsistency, at least to my eyes. It seems a little more challenging to execute as opposed to Box or Diamond which (I believe) most teams use some form of as opposed to Velluci's Wedge.

To me penalty killing concepts have always been more important than the personnel.

Is that what I'm seeing: triangle plus 1? He needs to throw that in the trash or use it sparingly to throw a wrinkle.

And the bolded...yes!!! Perfectly stated better than I tried to accomplish the last 1.5 days. Anyone with speed or high hockey IQ can do it. It's not rocket surgery

Can’t wait to see what Philly does in the playoffs!

Cool but does that stop McGinn from siphoning $1M more than what he's worth on this team?

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Is that what I'm seeing: triangle plus 1? He needs to throw that in the trash or use it sparingly to throw a wrinkle.

I admit that I've not been paying the MOST attention to the PK but yes that's what he's been using since his hire. If I didn't catch a change in strategy I'm sure someone way smarter/plugged in that myself would have pointed it out by now during training camp and the first few games.

 

[Buddy Bizarre]

I admit that I've not been paying the MOST attention to the PK but yes that's what he's been using since his hire. If I didn't catch a change in strategy I'm sure someone way smarter/plugged in that myself would have pointed it out by now during training camp and the first few games.

To me this is different than what we've seen in prior years. And we've seen a variation of PK schemes from overloading to a passive box.

They've even used a "low triangle" plus 1 when we've played against Ovi. Essentially Scuderi or whoever was asked to shadow Ovi and we'd play the rest essentially 4 v 3

 

[SEALBound]

Yeah Jake got burned hard on that play. You're right that I can forgive Carter for being out there for the draw. It makes some sense. But if you're protecting a lead late I'm not entirely certain what Jake is doing out there aside for hunting for freebies via the EN. He was also wrong-winged on this particular play.

Honestly Sullivan made things pretty easy on MSL, there. Not a great choice of personnel and deployment.

I mean, it's Sid + Carter, our two best faceoff people. Then Jake, our best wing and best scoring threat. Not sure who else I would have put out? I would have had Sid take the faceoff though.

Where we made things easy was on that PK in OT. In the final sequence, NO ONE pressured the two point guys at any point in time and anytime they walked it in, we collapsed low. It could go into an instructional video as an example of everything to NOT do on a PK. The last 10 min of the game, from an X's and O's standpoint, was absolutely putrid.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

I mean, it's Sid + Carter, our two best faceoff people. Then Jake, our best wing and best scoring threat. Not sure who else I would have put out? I would have had Sid take the faceoff though.

Where we made things easy was on that PK in OT. In the final sequence, NO ONE pressured the two point guys at any point in time and anytime they walked it in, we collapsed low. It could go into an instructional video as an example of everything to NOT do on a PK. The last 10 min of the game, from an X's and O's standpoint, was absolutely putrid.

Yeah I dunno. To me that's a defense first, second and third kind of situation. Carter and Crosby make sense for the reasons you said. I love Jake but for all his qualities he isn't exactly what I'd call a prime Holik out there. Particularly on a wing he *checks notes* never plays ever. Jake isn't even a reserve penalty killer. So I can't help but look at it as a situation where they were hunting the EN whereas I'd have preferred they worry about them being in-zone, first.

Not the biggest deal in what is game flippin' three in the end. Just struck me as a situation where Sullivan kind of played right into MSL's set play. I agree wholeheartedly re: the OT PK. Gross.

 

[HandshakeLine]

The PK woes every year always seem to be things that should be easily fixable, we just stop doing them for whatever reason.

Part of that is the dumb triangle scheme seems to require 100% buy in all the time to work effectively and when it doesn’t, it collapses. But even when we run a more traditional PK there’s a lot of weird periods where we just decide to play static and reactive and end up getting burned until the lightbulb clicks on again that maybe we shouldn’t do that.

 

[Buddy Bizarre]

I mean, it's Sid + Carter, our two best faceoff people. Then Jake, our best wing and best scoring threat. Not sure who else I would have put out? I would have had Sid take the faceoff though.

Jake is the obvious guy to take off that unit. You certainly can't argue about Carter and Sid being out there.

That still leaves a bunch of options and I would have looked to our regular PK guys (since it's essentially a PK situation 6v5).

Poehling has some good wheels and Pks
Rust Pks
McGinn does too
Kap

There were plenty other options besides sending 2 of your 3 F's who don't PK out there (Sid/Jake).
But Sully won't deviate from it. We'll see the same trio out there next game and they'll get an EN and Sully and everyone will be like "sweet, and EN goal, it works!!"

 

[Play]

Flyers right there with us, just like old times. except it’s not Giroux and the boys the time , hey?