Post-Game Talk: Penguins 6, Avalanche 3 - Torch in Limbo

[Le Magnifique 66]

As currently constructed, this team could not hang with the Avs in a 7 game series, especially after going through 3 other series to get there...

The Avs wouldn't have it that much easier going to the Finals either with teams like Winnipeg and Nashville that are in their own division
Again I'm not saying we would win, but I wouldn't be surprised. This team has another level once it reaches the big dance!

 

[Shady Machine]

What's odd that he was named Captain last year, then this year, it was stripped and Justin Williams is the Captain.

Staal and Faulk were co-captains last year. Sounds like Brind'amour made the decision to change it up this year.

 

[domaug]

Avs fan here. This was probably the most entertaining game I've watched this season. Seeing Sid take over the game for 5 minutes was a privilege. The refs missed a few calls against the Avs in the end there. That slew foot was no joke and I hate to see no matter what team does it.

I hope next week's game is just as fun to watch.

thanks i hated it

 

[Shady Machine]

It's come to a point where you need to bench some guys to send a message and call up some kids to see how they do.

Guentzel, Crosby, Simon
Pearson, Malkin, Sprong
Rust, Brassard, Kessel
Grant, Sheahan, Aston-Reese

Riikola, Letang - At this point, why not.
Dumoulin, Prow - Again, why not?
Maatta, Johnson - Meh.

That D is weird. Maatta-Johnson? That's what you're going with in your "what the hell?" lineup?

 

[Shady Machine]

I'm not surprised to see that the Johnson-Oleksiak pair was dreadful, but I am somewhat surprised to see how badly the 3rd line played. I was going to say it seems like Kessel has struggled recently, but last night's game broke his 9 game point streak, so he has been producing a lot.

I just wish Brassard would start showing something. Only 1 point in 6 games since coming back from his injury and he has 6 points in 15 games on the year, 3 of which were meaningless in a 9-1 blowout. I'm starting to wonder when JR looks to move Brassard to be honest, he's getting dangerously close to 2015 Perron territory.

At least the top line continues to do well and the Maatta-Riikola pair is looking like a keeper. You may need to completely overhaul your bottom pair, but I think your top-4 may be set with Dumoulin-Letang and Maatta-Riikola.

It's possible JR just sits on it if they can stay in playoff contention until Schultz comes back. They goes:

Dumo-Letang
Johnson-Schultz
Maatta-Riikola

Not saying that's what I'd do, but unless their season is in jeopardy, he can look at his roster and blame the defense on Schultz's injury instead of roster construction.

 

[Empoleon8771]

It's possible JR just sits on it if they can stay in playoff contention until Schultz comes back. They goes:

Dumo-Letang
Johnson-Schultz
Maatta-Riikola

Not saying that's what I'd do, but unless their season is in jeopardy, he can look at his roster and blame the defense on Schultz's injury instead of roster construction.

I want to see them try this before they decide on doing anything crazy on defense. I've liked the Maatta-Riikola pair a lot since Riikola got back into the lineup, so I definitely want to stick with that. I think using Maatta-Riikola against tough competition and Johnson-Schultz against easy competition may make those pairs work. Both of those pairs have good skating talent and puck moving ability on it, so I don't think you have to worry about that.

A neat stat I just saw, Maatta-Riikola has still yet to be on the ice for a goal against as a pair. They've played over 100 minutes together so far on the year and they still haven't been scored on yet, that's very impressive. The pair doesn't have great CF% numbers, but it's an excellent pair at limiting high danger chances (6.95 HDCA/60, which is insanely good).

 

[madinsomniac]

This threads name is dyslexic... unless the pens scored three of Bylsma’s old phantom goals...

 

[Dominance]

Fire Sully.

Trade Kessel and Maatta together or separately for a top-4 D upgrade and young, capable fourth liner. Gut current atrocious bottom-6 for whatever we can get for them, use that to help rid ourselves of JJ if that’s needed. Bring up young kids.

Pray Sprong works as well with Malkin or Crosby as some of us hope he could, or shuffle top-9 RWs as needed. Seems weird to put that much faith in a regular healthy scratch, but (GODDAMMIT) he looks good whenever he manages to play. Can’t be worse than Phil, at the end of the day. Simply taking ZAR out of the lineup is a huge boost. This third line could be amazing if Rust plays like he did in the past and has been closer to as of late.

Guentzel-Crosby-Sprong
Pearson-Malkin-Hornqvist
Simon-Brassard-Rust
Johnson-Blugers-XXXXX
Grant

Dumoulin-Letang
XXXXX-Schultz
Riikola-Oleksiak
Ruhwedel

Whatever goaltender is working.

 

[NMK11]

It's really a best case scenario that Riikola really comes into his own (possible, but not given), Schultz comes back and plays well (I'd give this an 80/20 chance), and that those two and Letang stay healthy for the rest of the year (hahahahaha).

 

[Andy99]

I hope these teams face each other in the SCF.

The Pens won’t be anywhere near the SCF unless big changes are made...

 

[Gurglesons]

As currently constructed, this team could not hang with the Avs in a 7 game series, especially after going through 3 other series to get there...

Lolz.

We would tear the Avs apart with the way the plays are called in the playoffs

 

[Gurglesons]

- Just feels like they have a bunch of old Kunitz guys in the lineup right now... can’t do anything with the puck, coach loves the intangibles, every so often they do just enough to stupidly convince Sullivan they should be in the lineup.

Kind of like a bunch of boogers hanging on until they are pulled out of there...

- Crosby being in god mode is a huge catch 22. It helps them get the points they desperately need, but he’s masking the underlying issues, much like he did in the bad Shero/DB years.

- Only real positive is seeing Riikola starting to gain confidence in the o-zone.

Who are these old Kunitz guys?

Have Jake and Kessel not masked our underlying issues in the back to backs?

The fact people are acting like the Avs crushed us is just weird to me.

Like, I’m seriously doubting what game people watched.

 

[Clare2904]

Off to buy some Timbits

 

[Andy99]

Who are these old Kunitz guys?

Have Jake and Kessel not masked our underlying issues in the back to backs?

The fact people are acting like the Avs crushed us is just weird to me.

Like, I’m seriously doubting what game people watched.

The Avs were clearly the faster and more physical team...could it be b2b game? Yes, the Avs are a lot younger and that may have something to do it...
or it could be showing what we've seen so far this year in the Pens' games in the Eastern Conference...the team speed has been passed by many other teams, and yet we're still not capable of being quite physical enough on the boards to account for that and keep puck possession...a lot of this is speed moving the puck, which we don't have from the D...teams that play with good D structure can frustrate us because we're not very good except for L1 at the grinding game down low...thats what I see...we're not good enough to win consistently against those teams that get in our face, can forecheck hard etc...I don't think the team is saving itself...

we might eke into the POs but we are not a true contender unless JR can make some moves...PMD, more skill on the wings and goaltending upgrade...good god that's a lot...

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

Interesting way to judge.

You do realize that Jost, Wilson and Kerfoot is their second line right?

The third line of Nieto, Soderberg and Calvert has 14 points at EV. When healthy our third line is one of Hornqvist, Kessel, or Simon. Hornqvist has 12 ES points alone. Simon 11 and Kessel 18.

If you want to commend the Avs on something depth is not one of them.

Not to even go into PPG with Brassard Cullen and Grant.

And yet it's still better than ours, as cobbled together by Sullivan. Particularly since he makes extra stupid decisions when we're not healthy.

The stats from those 5 players don't lie. Don't expect anything different so long as this is the roster.

I agre the depth sucks but I mean.. Brassard, Rust and Sheahan shouldn’t necessarily be absolute muffins. Rust had what, 15 points at this point last year?

Sheahan was a mirage and Rust and Brass have been used terribly this year. Which is something of a trend.

How long can we keep throwing this on the players by saying "Well, they should be better than this despite being put in stupid circumstances"?

 

[canadianguy77]

Who are these old Kunitz guys?

Have Jake and Kessel not masked our underlying issues in the back to backs?

The fact people are acting like the Avs crushed us is just weird to me.

Like, I’m seriously doubting what game people watched.

Lol. I was saying that we were being severely outplayed 5 minutes into the 2nd and you were saying I was crazy. Granted it was a more even game from then on, but man...you really didn't think the Avs were outplaying us after the 1st. I don't even know what to say. It's bizarre.

 

[Gurglesons]

Lol. I was saying that we were being severely outplayed 5 minutes into the 2nd and you were saying I was crazy. Granted it was a more even game from then on, but man...you really didn't think the Avs were outplaying us after the 1st. I don't even know what to say. It's bizarre.

The 1st line was out playing us for the majority of the game. The Pens came out flat the first ten minutes then pretty much controlled the pace of the rest of the game.

 

[EightyOne]

The 1st line was out playing us for the majority of the game. The Pens came out flat the first ten minutes then pretty much controlled the pace of the rest of the game.

Too bad its goals, not pace, that counts. And without Sid, it's 6-0. So...yeah.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

Who are these old Kunitz guys?

Have Jake and Kessel not masked our underlying issues in the back to backs?

The fact people are acting like the Avs crushed us is just weird to me.

Like, I’m seriously doubting what game people watched.

Old Kunitz guys are pretty easy to identify...

ZAR, Wilson, Sheahan and Grant. Rust is looking like old Kunitz with speed and that’s tough to admit since I like him. That’s almost half your fwd group that has “intangibles” but can’t do much with the puck or create anything.

Crosby has been the biggest star masking the problems since he came back. If you want to include a couple others masking the issues, it doesn’t change the problems.

 

[Gurglesons]

The Avs were clearly the faster and more physical team...could it be b2b game? Yes, the Avs are a lot younger and that may have something to do it...
or it could be showing what we've seen so far this year in the Pens' games in the Eastern Conference...the team speed has been passed by many other teams, and yet we're still not capable of being quite physical enough on the boards to account for that and keep puck possession...a lot of this is speed moving the puck, which we don't have from the D...teams that play with good D structure can frustrate us because we're not very good except for L1 at the grinding game down low...thats what I see...we're not good enough to win consistently against those teams that get in our face, can forecheck hard etc...I don't think the team is saving itself...

we might eke into the POs but we are not a true contender unless JR can make some moves...PMD, more skill on the wings and goaltending upgrade...good god that's a lot...

We outplayed the Avs for 50 minutes. They got two flukey goals.

Hockey is a long season.

 

[Gurglesons]

Too bad its goals, not pace, that counts. And without Sid, it's 6-0. So...yeah.

We’ve trended in the right direction the last six or so games. We lost a back to back 4-3 with some no one cares goals at the end.

 

[vikingGoalie]

If we could just get solid, consistent goal tending our record would be so much better.
Murray for Fleury? lol


kidding. just stirring the pot...

 

[Gurglesons]

Old Kunitz guys are pretty easy to identify...

ZAR, Wilson, Sheahan and Grant. Rust is looking like old Kunitz with speed and that’s tough to admit since I like him. That’s almost half your fwd group that has “intangibles” but can’t do much with the puck or create anything.

Crosby has been the biggest star masking the problems since he came back. If you want to include a couple others masking the issues, it doesn’t change the problems.

So the “Old Kunitz” guys are all under 28?

It’s funny because 4 of the 5 players you cited out created the Avs all night.

Wilson 10-7
Grant 10-7
Rust 11-6
Sheahan 10-9

And then our third line and JJ and Oleksiak basically got buried hard.

Also funny how old Kunitz went to two Cup wins and a third ECF in the last three years..

 

[Gurglesons]

If we could just get solid, consistent goal tending our record would be so much better.
Murray for Fleury? lol


kidding. just stirring the pot...

I mean, aside from the trade proposition this 100% true. We probably win last night with a legitimate NHLer who # 1 saves either the Landeskog or Johnson goal and # 2 realizes enough to get set and sell that interference call on the Johnson goal.

 

[canadianguy77]

We’ve trended in the right direction the last six or so games. We lost a back to back 4-3 with some no one cares goals at the end.

You're starting to sound like Bylsma.

And just to be clear, Sidney Crosby lost a back-to-back 6-3. We had 3 lines that couldn't put the puck in the net last night, which is what really matters. A bunch of shots from 5 feet out at terrible angles aren't going to win you many hockey games. But you're so enthralled with this bottom 6 that you'll never be able to see the forest from the trees. It's almost like you have an agenda.