Post-Game Talk: Penguins 4, Golden Knights 2 - Cough Drops and Hot Dogs for Everyone?s

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WayneSid9987

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Nov 24, 2009
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And yea up front, Sully/Recchi need to do alot more experimentation.
Flipping similar style RW'ers in Horny/Rust atm ain't it.
 

Peat

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Jun 14, 2016
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The Pens doubled up goals on the powerhouse VGK missing players to injury and using their back-up goalie.

Clearly, all of the issues have been solved.

Time to do a fresh cover of We Are The Champions for next June :sarcasm:
 

Mr Jiggyfly

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Jan 29, 2004
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- Riikola just finds friendly tape with such ease. He and Letang regaining his form have me really stoked.

- I can’t believe they sat Maatta. If the org loves Maatta as much as I heard and they sat him, does that mean Sprong could get a shot in reverse bizarro world?

- Big O has to get better in his own zone. Maybe watching Riikola will help him...

- I don’t get the whole fascination Sullivan has with Rust and Crosby... it doesn’t work. It’s f***ing stupid and always ends the same way.

- Cullen looks slower than he did in preseason. Don’t know if he’s hurt or what... hopefully he is.

- Hags is poison in the line two well.
 

Pancakes

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Everyone *****ed, panicked, and whined about the Pens losing one game. The caps looked like the best team in the world to start the season and are down 6-0 on a back to back.

Sound familiar? A tired Cup winner? It's okay to look around from time to time and realize it's not just the Pens that some of this stuff happens to. :)

edit: Shouldn't say everyone. There are a lot of great patient posters. Just not @KIRK :sarcasm:

That said, the Devils have to be the absolute worst team to catch on the tail end of a back to back. That team will skate you into the effing ground and have speed for days. I'm sure that's what they did to Washington tonight.
 

Peat

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Jun 14, 2016
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And yea up front, Sully/Recchi need to do alot more experimentation.
Flipping similar style RW'ers in Horny/Rust atm ain't it.

Its 3 games in with an average of 4 goals a game. I know the lines look imperfect but a bit of patience with the process isn't a bad thing.
 
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xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Sep 5, 2008
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I touched on it in the GDT but I'll revisit it here; If Sprong's effort as far as his all-around game goes, his production and chances created despite minuscule ice time, and offensive potential in addition to those factors do not grant him a shot in the top-9, there's really no hope for the kid here, imo. Sid's line's a mess. Geno-Phil, while producing, are a mess together. Simon's still Simon despite a handful of good pre-season games. I dunno.
 

The Greatest 101

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Dec 10, 2013
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Maatta, like Sheary, is definitely not missed lol. Unfortunately we have held on to him for too long. Now the whole league knows how flawed the guy is.
 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Sep 5, 2008
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Dumo-Letang is a lock, and it should be. Riikola was a stud tonight despite playing with, arguably, our worst blueliner in the lineup. If he could have that much of an impact alongside Schultz, it might be a catalyst to reignite Schultz's game--which would, without question, be gigantic for us.
 

PensandCaps

Beddy Tlueger
May 22, 2015
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Maatta, like Sheary, is definitely not missed lol. Unfortunately we have held on to him for too long. Now the whole league knows how flawed the guy is.


Maatta definitely is missed. Especially when you got A guy like Oleksiak taking his Minutes. As Maatta is much much better than him.

Maatta is a solid top 4 Dman. The hate on here is absurd just because he is slow. He's coming off a 29 point year to go along with sound Defensive play.

Guess it's easier to just say he is slow and sucks instead of actually paying attention to his overall play.
 
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EliteGoaltending

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Jan 7, 2016
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But on the minor note...the more things change the more they stay the same.
Lots of people were excited about our group of forwards going into the season, I wasn't. I think we see the same thing from last year in this very young season.

It was disscused on this board last year, that the mix doesn't seem right and there's a lot of questionabal fits. Combine this with Sullivan's unwillingness to change/mix things up (unless the first line is struggling; then he puts Rust there) and you get the same old cr*p.
 

ColePens

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Mar 27, 2008
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Everyone discussed issues we've been facing for two seasons that don't seem to be improving and relying on your big guns (and goalie) to bail out a team that's wholly inept defensive night after night is not a recipe for success.

I went ahead and fixed that for you. :laugh:

You see it with the Caps tonight and you DEFINITELY see it with the Knights this season. People just don't get it if they haven't played the sport. The mental toughness to do the small things, have natural sense of urgency, play consistent, be confident, etc... it's so difficult at the NHL level. The breaks that were going to Vegas last year are not going for them and they can't catch a break now. They are missing some easy fundamentals like sticks on the ice last night, puck support, 2 way defense, etc. And they have a BETTER team. That is how difficult it it. And the 10% of annoying Pens fans come in here and whine and act like it's only the Pens who go through it.

Oh and our defense is still far far far from where we need to be. The commitment to team defense is just not there. That neutral zone, gap control, and lane control was still nowhere where it needs to be and that's after four days of film to discuss it. There were glimpses of great individual defense (Geno on 1 shift that led to his pass to Kessel) and some other plays, but we still flubbed outs and have terrible d support (outside of Sprong).
 

Ugene Magic

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Oct 17, 2008
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Maatta definitely is missed. Especially when you got A guy like Oleksiak taking his Minutes. As Maatta is much much better than him.

Maatta is a solid top 4 Dman. The hate on here is absurd just because he is slow. He's coming off a 29 point year to go along with sound Defensive play.

Guess it's easier to just say he is slow and sucks instead of actually paying attention to his overall play.
Maatta is not missed against speedy teams and Vegas is that in spades.
 

SHOOTANDSCORE

Eeny Meeny Miny Moe
Sep 25, 2005
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Three added notes:
...
2. Anyone else notice how Brass and Sid INSTINCTIVELY were on the same page? They saw things similarly. Nobody else can stick on RW with Sid-Jake. Maybe give Brass a look?

...
Agreed. I was coming here to mention the same thing. I immediately got the feeling that there could be something there.
 
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Empoleon8771

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Aug 25, 2015
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One positive I'll note: I love how the Penguins ran with their defensemen tonight. All of Johnson, Oleksiak, Schultz and Riikola were separated by 25 seconds or less in terms of ice time, all were around 18 minutes TOI. That is exactly how they should be running with their defense, they should be having a 2A and 2B pairs. I didn't like how they were using Johnson for 22 minutes a night and giving Oleksiak 13 minutes a night to start the year.

JJ isn’t any faster than Schultz...don’t know what you’re seeing...

Johnson is a dramatically better skater than Schultz is. Schultz is slow.
 
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xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Sep 5, 2008
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You see it with the Caps tonight and you DEFINITELY see it with the Knights this season. People just don't get it if they haven't played the sport. The mental toughness to do the small things, have natural sense of urgency, play consistent, be confident, etc... it's so difficult at the NHL level. The breaks that were going to Vegas last year are not going for them and they can't catch a break now. They are missing some easy fundamentals like sticks on the ice last night, puck support, 2 way defense, etc. And they have a BETTER team. That is how difficult it it. And the 10% of annoying Pens fans come in here and whine and act like it's only the Pens who go through it.

Oh and our defense is still far far far from where we need to be. The commitment to team defense is just not there. That neutral zone, gap control, and lane control was still nowhere where it needs to be and that's after four days of film to discuss it. There were glimpses of great individual defense (Geno on 1 shift that led to his pass to Kessel) and some other plays, but we still flubbed outs and have terrible d support (outside of Sprong).
It's an 82 game season. Everyone's going to make mistakes and put forth lackluster games from time to time, but that's entirely different than two solid years of terrible defensive play as an entire roster and living/dying by the sword, so to speak, with offense from our big guns.

I am genuinely starting to wonder if they're tuning Sully out. It's a complete 180 from the style, system and discipline he put into place when he first got here.

As for Vegas, I think they were always going to struggle this year. That team, imo, was a classic case of guys playing on adrenaline and with a huge chip on their shoulder--to a man--in order to make their old teams regret giving them away (or paying Vegas substantial assets to take them, in some cases). That's a fire lit inside of their bellies that I don't think is going to carry over. I think you're gonna see a Vegas team around the middle of the West, fighting for a playoff spot.
 
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