Post-Game Talk: Penguins Beat Canadiens 1-0

[Shwag33]

Just a couple notes:

Fleury: It really sucks he got hurt because he was having one of his best games I've ever seen. He was so consistent and looked poised. He wasn't going crazy and flopping. His rebound control was great. Positioning was superb. He challenged shooters and ate pucks in his pads. He even made the big save when needed.

Major thing - he wasn't trying to be flashy. He was just solid. That's the goalie we need.


Just some notes:

Morrow: I was surprised by his speed. People made him seem like Hal Gill. He was actually on the forecheck hard and good in the corners. When Geno comes back... I'm actually excited.

Beau: How sick is his backhand flip pass? Unreal. I want him getting more minutes. 4th line isn't enough. He throws his body around and plays great defense, too. We have a true gem in him.

Cooke/Glass: Both players really piss me off. I hate Glass.. he's just worthless. Cooke really has his good/bad plays. We need him to forecheck extremely hard and backcheck harder. He really doesn't do that. I miss the old Cooke.

Sutter: I love how consistent the kid is. He's a stud defensively and his offensive flashes have me wanting more. I can't believe this kid was as advertised. He's so damn good.

Pretty good post. Disagree on cooke kinda, he at least made it his job to go after gionta the rest of the game. 1 goal game so he went after him as much as possible without taking a stupid penalty. The old cooke would have put us short handed.

 

[froods]

The amount of people *****ing. MTLpens, and a few others is crazy.

We have the most self-entitled *******s of fans you could ever have. 13 game win streak, GM sucks, Coach sucks. It's really embarrassing.


Not even constructive criticism, like outright complaining and *****ing; its like this team has 9 wins total.

Thank you. Absolutely the truth. You are not more intelligent than Bylsma or Shero. Please give it a rest.

 

[SteelFish87*]

remember, Cooke is playing through an injury

 

[chethejet]

Well Bylsma has to do something more than lose in the first round this year. Injuries played a big role in the Pens not realizing a potential dynasty. But all things being equal, the Pens will never approach dynasty status with Bylsma as head coach. He simply isn't good enough. Last years playoff collapse proved that beyond any doubt.

 

[Dying Alive]

The amount of people *****ing. MTLpens, and a few others is crazy.

We have the most self-entitled *******s of fans you could ever have. 13 game win streak, GM sucks, Coach sucks. It's really embarrassing.


Not even constructive criticism, like outright complaining and *****ing; its like this team has 9 wins total.

Thank you. Sometimes I think I'm the only one around here who doesn't see much to complain about right now.

 

[shizno*]

First off I will take TK over BB once the playoffs come,experience matters,TKs stats are right on par with a 82 game season.

Glass and Adams are guys you need come playoffs,I garentee both will score goals in the playoffs.

It amazes me that a guy who has 2 goals gets so much praise on this board.

Nawww man you play rookies any chance you get over veterans; especially in the playoffs! I mean look at how the Flyers rode their rookies to the cup last year!!

 

[Shady Machine]

Looked like his ribs connected with the post. Gionta pushed Kennedy into flower

Not true at all. Kennedy basically rammed Fleury over. He tripped over Gionta, but not because Gionta did anything wrong. Kennedy is an idiot.

 

[Shady Machine]

I can see why Bylsma hired you on as a coaching consultant. BB has played 19 NHL games. Before that, he played 35 AHL games (this season). Last year, he played a total of 10 games for Denver before turning pro. We are playing a team that has a chance to catch us for 1st overall in the conference, it's a 1 goal game & you want to put a rookie in a situation where his ****** up ratio is pretty high. Genius strategy there. I like the kid, but I'm not willing to put him in a position to fail & neither is the coaching staff. They are doing the exact same thing they did with Jagr when he was a rookie. He isn't ready for top 6 minutes yet...

This would all be fine if that was his playing time consistently. The truth is, his ice time and role decreased significantly with the acquisition of Morrow. He WAS playing in the last 2 minutes of 1 goal games. He showed the coaching staff he was reliable defensively and could play in every situation so your analysis is off. Personally, I'm not surprised or that upset about the demotion but him not being on the 2nd PP unit is inexcusable.

 

[Zbynek]

First impression is that Morrow looked pretty damn sluggish out there. He skates like a 45 year old beer leaguer. Yeah, we don't need him to skate at a Dupuis level, but man, there were times out there where I was facepalming hard. I know it was just the first game but I can't help but think that it's going to be hard for this guy to adjust to Bylsma's fast-paced system.

On the plus, he knows how to move his weight. He made some smart hockey moves (which of course, Steiggy praised the **** out of) along the boards and a few clears out of our own end, but other than that, was practically invisible in the offensive zone. Again, it's tough to say anything for sure until Malkin comes back.

How underappreciated is Mark Eaton right now? Who could have expected this guy to come back to Pittsburgh in the way he did, and play like he has? He's been straight up solid for us. Really loving our defensive depth right now. Not sure how Douglas Murray is gonna fit into all of this, but as the '09 cup run showed us, Bylsma is not scared to dress 7 d-men when he has to. If that means benching Tanner Glass, then I'm all for it.

You can knock on Byslma all you want, but personally I think he's making the right moves with Bennett. You CANNOT overexpose Bennett to the top-6 right now. The moment he fails in that role is the moment we risk his confidence. He's a rookie, and he's getting played like it. I have no doubt in my mind he'll creep his way back up to the top-6 come playoff time. He just has to continuously prove it, like a rookie should.

Go Pens

 

[Shady Machine]

I have to say too that I know he's probably on his way out of Pittsburgh and I'd be surprised if he's still a Pen after the deadline but Tyler Kennedy has been one of our best players the past two games.

Especially tonight. IMO after Sid he was our best forward tonight.

Yeah injuring Fleury was such an awesome thing. Go TK

 

[LetangInTheSO]

First impression is that Morrow looked pretty damn sluggish out there. He skates like a 45 year old beer leaguer. Yeah, we don't need him to skate at a Dupuis level, but man, there were times out there where I was facepalming hard. I know it was just the first game but I can't help but think that it's going to be hard for this guy to adjust to Bylsma's fast-paced system.

On the plus, he knows how to move his weight. He made some smart hockey moves (which of course, Steiggy praised the **** out of) along the boards and a few clears out of our own end, but other than that, was practically invisible in the offensive zone. Again, it's tough to say anything for sure until Malkin comes back.

How underappreciated is Mark Eaton right now? Who could have expected this guy to come back to Pittsburgh in the way he did, and play like he has? He's been straight up solid for us. Really loving our defensive depth right now. Not sure how Douglas Murray is gonna fit into all of this, but as the '09 cup run showed us, Bylsma is not scared to dress 7 d-men when he has to. If that means benching Tanner Glass, then I'm all for it.

You can knock on Byslma all you want, but personally I think he's making the right moves with Bennett. You CANNOT overexpose Bennett to the top-6 right now. The moment he fails in that role is the moment we risk his confidence. He's a rookie, and he's getting played like it. I have no doubt in my mind he'll creep his way back up to the top-6 come playoff time. He just has to continuously prove it, like a rookie should.

Go Pens

Agree with pretty much everything here. When it comes to Morrow, I'm of the opinion that he could be a decent ingredient on the Malkin/Neal line (once Malkin is back). If he can basically play the role of Kunitz on that line (i.e. muck it up in the corners and retrieve some pucks), they could gel nicely. Alternately, he could do fine on the 3rd line...

 

[Zbynek]

Not true at all. Kennedy basically rammed Fleury over. He tripped over Gionta, but not because Gionta did anything wrong. Kennedy is an idiot.

The time to trade Tyler Kennedy is now.

 

[LetangInTheSO]

The time to trade Tyler Kennedy is now.

Tyler Kennedy has negative trade value. Three games of inspired play with his job on the line don't change that...

 

[Shady Machine]

Penalty Kill

He's not that good at it. Jeffrey or Vitale could do very well on the kill. Plus Vitale if our best face off man. That is critical on the PK. But he's not over 30 years old so there's that.

 

[Le Magnifique 66]

Not true at all. Kennedy basically rammed Fleury over. He tripped over Gionta, but not because Gionta did anything wrong. Kennedy is an idiot.

Ya I first I saw it from another angle(RDS) and it seemed Flower went into the post, from the TSN angle you can see Kennedy cracking Fleury in the head.

 

[KIRK]

All of this.
I don't care what anyone says about veteran leadership (actually, I really do, but the point will stand).
If we end up not playing Bennett, Despres and Vitale in the playoffs because we have acquired veterans, then we are making ourselves a lesser hockey team.

Acquisitions might well have been made with Boston in mind, but we got skated into the ground against the Habs in this one, and it was pure luck that we won. Geno helps, Letang hopefully getting back to speed helps (I have never seen him as slow as tonight)... but that was a a really slow Pittsburgh team out there except for the first line.

Thanks to goalies and thanks to Sid. That's the win today.

Two words come to mind as I envision a Morrow-Malkin-Neal line: DAMN and SLOW.

 

[Random Hero]

Thank you. Sometimes I think I'm the only one around here who doesn't see much to complain about right now.

I'm glad to see the optimists / guys who don't think they are smarter than our league leading coach and GM come out of the woodwork and voice their opinions. Maybe if enough of us band together we can eradicate some of the awful negativity that has made this board such a pain to read this year.

The team is 1st in the conference, on a 13 game winning streak, a game or two away from getting the MVP of last season back AND just bolstered their lineup by filling basically the only holes they had. They have insane depth on defense (system-wide and in every mold) and have young players playing higher quality hockey than anyone expected this soon. We should be happy as fans right now. Getting psyched about what should be an awesome playoff run. Instead we're *****ing about our lineup / team because obviously we know more than our NHL coach / gm.

I know every fan base hates their coach. I know the Pens have had some tough playoff exits the last few years. But jesus, the negativity on here makes it borderline unreadable.

 

[KIRK]

Tanner Glass should have been a good signing. We needed a simple north/south physical player. If he continues looking like this, hopefully Shero's acquisitions force him out of the lineup.

If he plays over Bennett in the postseason, I'll lose it.

A couple more games like his last few, and I'll be saying the same about Eaton and Despres.

 

[IcedCapp]

S. Crosby (Penguins - C): Goals: 1, Assists: 0

B. Orpik (Penguins - D): Goals: 0, Assists: 1

C. Price (Canadiens - G): Saves: 24, Save Pct.: .960


How were these the 3 stars?

I know that Fleury was hurt, but he was still the 1st star.

 

[Le Magnifique 66]

I'm glad to see the optimists / guys who don't think they are smarter than our league leading coach and GM come out of the woodwork and voice their opinions. Maybe if enough of us band together we can eradicate some of the awful negativity that has made this board such a pain to read this year.

The team is 1st in the conference, on a 13 game winning streak, a game or two away from getting the MVP of last season back AND just bolstered their lineup by filling basically the only holes they had. They have insane depth on defense (system-wide and in every mold) and have young players playing higher quality hockey than anyone expected this soon. We should be happy as fans right now. Getting psyched about what should be an awesome playoff run. Instead we're *****ing about our lineup / team because obviously we know more than our NHL coach / gm.

I know every fan base hates their coach. I know the Pens have had some tough playoff exits the last few years. But jesus, the negativity on here makes it borderline unreadable.

Totally agree but at the same time that what fans do and it's not just us Pens fans, it's every fan base

But I agree, there are times to be happy and this is one of them, 13 game Win streak and not much to complain about, I'm sure the other 29 teams fan base would love to be us right now

 

[KIRK]

Morrow was not nearly as slow as I was expecting after hearing the doomsayers. He has perfectly adequate speed to play his game.

I thought he was very effective tonight considering first game in our system, and travel day yesterday. He was physical, clearly had Subban off his game, and drew a penalty from him. Morrow is clearly not afraid of anyone, and has the same veteran clout Guerin had. The guy doesn't have to fight to intimidate, and I think he was a great pickup. I expect the same from Murray. Do we really think that more scoring is what's needed on a line with Malkin and Neal?

And Neal had a much better game tonight than some recently. He's just not going to get the puck in his high % shooting areas without Malkin, so let's chill on that. His line is not giving up goals, and he's doing better on back pressure than he has in the past.

No, we needed an ideal complement so Malkin and Neal could score more at ES.

And, while I appreciate that Morrow has speed that is perfectly adequate to play his game, what I-- and a lot of others-- have been hoping for is a winger who will enable Malkin to play HIS game.

Morrow circa 2010 would've been the guy for that. Morrow circa 2013 is Gary Roberts in 2008, a guy who doesn't belong in the top six.

Just a couple notes:

Fleury: It really sucks he got hurt because he was having one of his best games I've ever seen. He was so consistent and looked poised. He wasn't going crazy and flopping. His rebound control was great. Positioning was superb. He challenged shooters and ate pucks in his pads. He even made the big save when needed.

Major thing - he wasn't trying to be flashy. He was just solid. That's the goalie we need.


Just some notes:

Morrow: I was surprised by his speed. People made him seem like Hal Gill. He was actually on the forecheck hard and good in the corners. When Geno comes back... I'm actually excited.

Beau: How sick is his backhand flip pass? Unreal. I want him getting more minutes. 4th line isn't enough. He throws his body around and plays great defense, too. We have a true gem in him.

Cooke/Glass: Both players really piss me off. I hate Glass.. he's just worthless. Cooke really has his good/bad plays. We need him to forecheck extremely hard and backcheck harder. He really doesn't do that. I miss the old Cooke.

Sutter: I love how consistent the kid is. He's a stud defensively and his offensive flashes have me wanting more. I can't believe this kid was as advertised. He's so damn good.

I really hope you're right. And, if you're not, I really hope Bylsma is quick enough to recognize it like he was in 2009 but was not in 2010.

 

[IcedCapp]

I'm glad to see the optimists / guys who don't think they are smarter than our league leading coach and GM come out of the woodwork and voice their opinions. Maybe if enough of us band together we can eradicate some of the awful negativity that has made this board such a pain to read this year.

The team is 1st in the conference, on a 13 game winning streak, a game or two away from getting the MVP of last season back AND just bolstered their lineup by filling basically the only holes they had. They have insane depth on defense (system-wide and in every mold) and have young players playing higher quality hockey than anyone expected this soon. We should be happy as fans right now. Getting psyched about what should be an awesome playoff run. Instead we're *****ing about our lineup / team because obviously we know more than our NHL coach / gm.

I know every fan base hates their coach. I know the Pens have had some tough playoff exits the last few years. But jesus, the negativity on here makes it borderline unreadable.

It's okay to disagree. Disagreement is the spice of life. Many of us disagree with the bolded. I like the Murray acquisition, but hate that it's pushing Despres to the press box. I like the Morrow acquisition, if it's part of a bigger plan to bring in another scorer.

Whether you're an optimist or pessimist, we all want the Pens to win. If you can get past thinking of the "pessimists" as just being negative for negativity's sake, you might see that there are actual concerns. 13 wins or not.

 

[Shady Machine]

Tanner Glass should have been a good signing. We needed a simple north/south physical player. If he continues looking like this, hopefully Shero's acquisitions force him out of the lineup.

If he plays over Bennett in the postseason, I'll lose it.

Prepare to lose it.

 

[Le Magnifique 66]

No, we needed an ideal complement so Malkin and Neal could score more at ES.

And, while I appreciate that Morrow has speed that is perfectly adequate to play his game, what I-- and a lot of others-- have been hoping for is a winger who will enable Malkin to play HIS game.

Morrow circa 2010 would've been the guy for that. Morrow circa 2013 is Gary Roberts in 2008, a guy who doesn't belong in the top six.

Well with Shero's comments of possibly adding another player (top 6) it might be cause they would like to have Morrow on the 3rd line

 

[KIRK]

It's amazing to me that you 1) Said you'd take TK over Beau and 2) Say you can't understand why people praise a guy with only 2 goals when you praise a guy with less goals than Brodeur.

I don't even know where to begin with your post unless you only posted it to get a reaction. It's just all sorts of wrong.

I think you found a place . . .