Post-Game Talk: No Pain No Gain, Islanders lose game, Penguins lose Players, WOOO!

[JTG]

His one timer is insane. I didn't even see that puck hit Nabby in the mask. I saw it when it settled in the corner.

 

[Fordy]

Much of what I would say has been said, and said again, so I will add just one thing.

That Iginla one timer on the powerplay will find twine a few times in the playoffs, possibly many more. What a rifle.

Iginla's shot hurts people. Last night it was Nabakov. Who wants to get in front of that?

 

[Ray Shero*]

Iginla's shot hurts people. Last night it was Nabakov. Who wants to get in front of that?

One of our star player's jaw.

 

[KIRK]

In an interview with a Swedish newspaper he told them that he said to Harmonic "Please hit me in the face so I can punch you."

http://www.expressen.se/sport/hockey/nhl/murray-snalla-du-sla-mig-i-ansiktet-sa-att/

Well, that's close enough to 'feed me more'.

 

[KIRK]

Beau Bennett showed why he is an every day NHL player right now. His defensive game, and the polish of it is still what gets me. He's so hard on the backcheck, and he's constantly finding guys who are uncovered. One bad thing I did see last night is that when he's coming down 3 strong, he doesn't go right to the post. Geno just threw a puck there and so did Kunitz and he was a step behind. He needs to go right to the far post. He probably would have had another goal or two if he did.

Douglas Murray has got to be the strongest hockey player I've ever seen. I haven't seen him budge once when someone has tried hitting him. His skating is suspect, but he's getting it done. He can move the puck fairly well, I think he has an underrated shot, and he plays within his abilities. I've noticed with him, he's really good at handing off responsibility, where a guy like Letang or Niskanen will chase a guy around the ice. Murray stays close to our net, right where he belongs.

I'll also give an up to our team defensive on Tavares. You can clearly tell that he was a targeted man, and to our credit, he spent a good portion of the game on his ass. Every single time he touched the puck he got hit, and that brings me to my lone down...


This game got out of control because the refs let it get that way. When the score was 5-0 they swallowed their whistles and let Matt Martin run around and be a clown. That dude is reserved for a cage, and that is it. He's not a hockey player. I'm not sure how the refs let a guy in the game who is running around cornering guys, pinning them against the boards, and trying to make them drop the gloves. The fact that there is a puck in the game to Matt Martin doesn't matter because he never plays it, and doesn't even look at it 99% of the time.

I hope the refs get that under control. There is one thing that can make this team lose, and that's if our key players start getting dropped for a very long time.

I'm going to give Bennett a mini pass on this one. When he's played with Geno, it's been with Neal or Iggy as the other winger. That requires a different game than when it's with Geno and Kunitz, and that's going to show with random shift circumstances last night. IF Neal is out and IF Bennett is slotted with Geno and Kunitz, then I think you'll see much better work there.

I had thought that Iggy would go up, but it just seems a lot simpler, if JJ is o'k, to keep the second and third lines as is and just slide Bennett up to L1 RW.

 

[Alesle]

In an interview with a Swedish newspaper he told them that he said to Harmonic "Please hit me in the face so I can punch you."

http://www.expressen.se/sport/hockey/nhl/murray-snalla-du-sla-mig-i-ansiktet-sa-att/

Reading that made me smile. For those interested I tried to improve the google translation of the most interesting parts below

…
Jokinen was lying on the ice and the Pittsburgh players were outraged over Reasoner’s conduct.

That's when Hamonic started grousing a bit. That got Murray to fire up.

- Oh, he had skated around earlier in the match being cocky, so I thought it was enough.

One can see on the television pictures that you said something to him?

- What I said? "Please, hit me in the face so I can punch you."

What did he answer?

- He didn’t budge and replied that he had not done anything.
...

 

[BmxHockey]

Is it me or did anyone miss Brooks Orpik?

 

[Ray Shero*]

Is it me or did anyone miss Brooks Orpik?

Maybe he could've blocked some shots here and there but I'd rather not have all them turnovers.

 

[Rocket of Russia]

There was a shift that couldn’t have shown any better the need for someone like Kunitz on Geno’s line. The puck was thrown in behind the left side of Nabokov, and Geno and Kunitz were neck and neck near the blue line as the Islanders’ defenseman went to play the puck. On cue Kunitz turned on the jets while Malkin sat back. In an instant the defenseman felt the pressure and played a pass around the boards, right to a pinching Letang, who I believe made a play to Geno who was still on the left side cruising to the net.

+Letang – he just controlled the game. From that first breakout stretch pass all the way to Neal to start the game, to roughing up Tavares, Letang was just phenomenal. When I saw him skating for the puck behind the net against Tavares I remember thinking, “no need to win the puck race there to put yourself in a vulnerable position…†and then bam, he just clocked Tavares (take not Del Zotto – that’s how you can stop and pop without throwing out your elbows). Made me look like an idiot though on that snipe job, considering my exact words spoken just prior were, “no need to rush a shot here.â€

+MAF – cool, calm, and in position, all while still showing off that incredible athletic ability. Just the way they need him to play. There was one point he pushed across the crease to stop a one-timer and it felt like he got over with a full second of time to react and get in front of it.

+Morrow&Dupuis – for all of the same reasons they’ve been getting +s recently.

+Sutter&Cooke – John who?

+Murray – same deal. But I just thought I’d note again how fun it is to watch guys just fly off of him..

+Bennett – please stay in the lineup.

 

[SirBrad]

they certainly didn't miss Orpik last night, and I am definitely not his biggest fan, but over the course of the playiffs they'll be better with him than without him (I think).

 

[lilschmied]

+ Everyone - Really hard to nitpick a 5-0 win in the POs. Yeah, there were some sloppy plays, but, they recovered and held the shutout.
+ Completely shutting down Tavares

- Islanders - The nonsense at the end was disappointing. Hope Jussi is good to go Friday.

Also, this Murray guy!

 

[cheesedanish87]

+ Glass I was one of his many haters, But hes played so much better the last few weeks, he does add grit to this team, If he keeps on playing like this he deserves a spot in the lineup.


+ Adams Hes not gonna score much, but he always raises his game during the playoffs, hes always a solid 4th liner come playoff time, that's all you can ask for.


+ Iginla I don't think he played a great game or anything, but i thought it was his best 5 on 5 game as a pen.

 

[BmxHockey]

Maybe he could've blocked some shots here and there but I'd rather not have all them turnovers.

Agreed. The D played responsibly with the puck last night.

 

[UnderratedBrooks44]

+ Glass I was one of his many haters, But hes played so much better the last few weeks, he does add grit to this team, If he keeps on playing like this he deserves a spot in the lineup.

.

Easy now. He did have a good game last night though I thought. Looked like a playoff player

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

+ Glass I was one of his many haters, But hes played so much better the last few weeks, he does add grit to this team, If he keeps on playing like this he deserves a spot in the lineup.

As much as he's been a bit more effective the past couple of weeks, he still does NOT deserve a spot in the lineup when the entire team is healthy.

It's not just Glass' play you have to take into account, but who would then sit if Glass plays. With a full lineup, that would be Beau Bennett. And regardless of whether Glass has improved or not, he's still nowhere as effective as Bennett is.

He's playing serviceable hockey and while we have injuries it's okay to dress him for his physicality. But when our roster is healthy (likely never, granted), there are 12 forwards who are better than him. Arguably 13, if you count Kennedy.

 

[Shady Machine]

As much as he's been a bit more effective the past couple of weeks, he still does NOT deserve a spot in the lineup when the entire team is healthy.

It's not just Glass' play you have to take into account, but who would then sit if Glass plays. With a full lineup, that would be Beau Bennett. And regardless of whether Glass has improved or not, he's still nowhere as effective as Bennett is.

He's playing serviceable hockey and while we have injuries it's okay to dress him for his physicality. But when our roster is healthy (likely never, granted), there are 12 forwards who are better than him. Arguably 13, if you count Kennedy.

14 if you include Vitale, which you should.

 

[cheesedanish87]

As much as he's been a bit more effective the past couple of weeks, he still does NOT deserve a spot in the lineup when the entire team is healthy.

It's not just Glass' play you have to take into account, but who would then sit if Glass plays. With a full lineup, that would be Beau Bennett. And regardless of whether Glass has improved or not, he's still nowhere as effective as Bennett is.

He's playing serviceable hockey and while we have injuries it's okay to dress him for his physicality. But when our roster is healthy (likely never, granted), there are 12 forwards who are better than him. Arguably 13, if you count Kennedy.

I agree, If everybody is healthy i would play BB over Glass, but like you said that will probably never happen, Glass has def jumped TK on my depth chart, Glass adds toughness, TK adds nothing to this lineup.

 

[Voda]

random question, does anyone think jussi jokinen looks like gary oldman?

maybe it's just me...and pardon if it's been said before on here.

 

[radapex]

random question, does anyone think jussi jokinen looks like gary oldman?

maybe it's just me...and pardon if it's been said before on here.

Gary Oldman can look like anybody, so... yes?

 

[Jaded-Fan]

+ Everyone - Really hard to nitpick a 5-0 win in the POs. Yeah, there were some sloppy plays, but, they recovered and held the shutout.
+ Completely shutting down Tavares

- Islanders - The nonsense at the end was disappointing. Hope Jussi is good to go Friday.

Also, this Murray guy!

When I think of Murray against the little guys who try and hit him. You know, the rest of the NHL. I think of this scene.

 

[Slabber Chops]

I think the story of this game was simply this: play-off experience.

One team has it and was playoff ready. The other wasn't and it showed. Then once Iginla took Nabokov out - their most experienced playoff performer - they were a goner.

It will be interesting to see how both teams come out in game 2.

 

[Lamar Latrell]

Iginla wins Flames hardest shot competition w/ a 102.3 mph blast

From 3 years ago. Fast enough to win all but 6 of the 19 NHL All-Star Hardest Shot competitions. Poor Nabokov.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

This game got out of control because the refs let it get that way. When the score was 5-0 they swallowed their whistles and let Matt Martin run around and be a clown. That dude is reserved for a cage, and that is it. He's not a hockey player. I'm not sure how the refs let a guy in the game who is running around cornering guys, pinning them against the boards, and trying to make them drop the gloves. The fact that there is a puck in the game to Matt Martin doesn't matter because he never plays it, and doesn't even look at it 99% of the time.

I hope the refs get that under control. There is one thing that can make this team lose, and that's if our key players start getting dropped for a very long time.

To be honest, I didn't have an issue with Martin. He played like he should play when his team is down by that amount, and was looking to send a message for the remainder of the series. I know that if the Pens were getting hammered badly, I'd want one of our physical guys to go out there and hit everything in sight and try and cause as much trouble as they possibly can.

The irony is some fans on the Isles board were disappointed in Martin for not actually doing more than he did. I guess it's a perfect example of how the perspective of a player changes depending on who you are rooting for.

 

[HandshakeLine]

His one timer is insane. I didn't even see that puck hit Nabby in the mask.

Neither did Nabby.

On the upside, thank god we make goalies wear helmets these days!

 

[905PENS]

To be honest, I didn't have an issue with Martin. He played like he should play when his team is down by that amount, and was looking to send a message for the remainder of the series. I know that if the Pens were getting hammered badly, I'd want one of our physical guys to go out there and hit everything in sight and try and cause as much trouble as they possibly can.

The irony is some fans on the Isles board were disappointed in Martin for not actually doing more than he did. I guess it's a perfect example of how the perspective of a player changes depending on who you are rooting for.

I agree, It adds a little fuel to the fire. Plus...It feeds Murray

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!!