Post-Game Talk: Pens 4 Wild 1 (+/-): 11/04/14 - No Goal!!!

[Deutschland Dangler]

The Malkin line is ass, so if BB isn't given a shot there when he is back, I think we can see the writing on the wall.

The board is going to be a lot of fun when BB starts on Sutter's wing.

 

[Gurglesons]

+Letang: Too much hating on him in this thread. He made a boneheaded play on the PP, but he was great overall in this game. I think people have this expectation of him that he's a bonehead and makes stupid plays, so when he makes one, that affirms their opinion and then they come on here and say it. He played 29 minutes in a game where we beat one of the best teams in the league 4-1 and limited their opportunities. There is no way he should be a minus

I read an article last year that was centered around this point. Players like Scuderi and Polak are often given a pass because they are "defensive" players. It is easy to be in position when you don't ever have the puck. Letang is going to have the puck on his stick the majority of the game, just like Crosby and Malkin. The more you have the puck, the more you are going to maybe fumble it occasionally. I watched the first period of Hawks and Leafs game last night and both Keith and Seabrook were making plays similar to Letang. I'd rather have a player who is dictating play then simply just playing sound positionally. Also, Dupuis overskated Letang's pass which was the reason for the short handed goal. Dupuis was the only player I'd point out as looking bad last night, every time he touched the puck it was immediately going the other way. I guess that is the issue with playing a sound defensive team is Dupuis can't go up against players like Suter and Brodin.

 

[Trepanated]

I don't care if he was just standing completely still out there without a stick; you don't change a damned thing about this power play when it's working this well. You can hate what Letang is doing, but there is literally no reason to change anything right now.

I love Hornqvist, but I really wish he'd choose to pass a little more often, he makes some weird choices on his shots. Like odd backhands from above the circles...

There's a middle ground here that would solve a lot of problems, if you wanted to keep Letang on PP1. And that is to simply let someone else be responsible for lugging the puck. It was not just the turnover he had that led to the goal, he was consistently poor in this respect all night. The power play goal came on a zone start; otherwise, the power play struggled mightily getting the puck into the zone in a controlled fashion. The goal against wasn't the only bad zone entry, it was just the one that happened to bite them.

 

[Shady Machine]

I read an article last year that was centered around this point. Players like Scuderi and Polak are often given a pass because they are "defensive" players. It is easy to be in position when you don't ever have the puck. Letang is going to have the puck on his stick the majority of the game, just like Crosby and Malkin. The more you have the puck, the more you are going to maybe fumble it occasionally. I watched the first period of Hawks and Leafs game last night and both Keith and Seabrook were making plays similar to Letang. I'd rather have a player who is dictating play then simply just playing sound positionally. Also, Dupuis overskated Letang's pass which was the reason for the short handed goal. Dupuis was the only player I'd point out as looking bad last night, every time he touched the puck it was immediately going the other way. I guess that is the issue with playing a sound defensive team is Dupuis can't go up against players like Suter and Brodin.

Agreed. I'm hard on Letang sometimes, but he was definitely a plus last night. Duper sucked.

 

[jdpitt05]

We have a plethora of 3Cs as well, and we know that they can play in that role while we don't know if Harrington or Despres can play in their role. We would definitely be a better team with Perron on the roster instead of Sutter, we can easily replace Sutter internally and we desperately need a creative top-6 winger.

Yeah the talent is there and its intriguing. I am a big fan of what Sutter brings on the PK and how he stepped up in the playoffs when the rest of the team was nowhere to found. I just think he is one of those players you want in the playoffs, especially if you give him 2 decent wingers with the depth we have. You saw last night, that 3rd line could be able to shut down top lines while chipping in offensively. But I could be wrong, Perron is definitely skilled. Though he has played in only 50% of his games the past 5 years he does seem relatively healthy now. I'd try to add without giving up Sutter personally.

 

[Gurglesons]

Yeah the talent is there and its intriguing. I am a big fan of what Sutter brings on the PK and how he stepped up in the playoffs when the rest of the team was nowhere to found. I just think he is one of those players you want in the playoffs, especially if you give him 2 decent wingers with the depth we have. You saw last night, that 3rd line could be able to shut down top lines while chipping in offensively. But I could be wrong, Perron is definitely skilled. Though he has played in only 50% of his games the past 5 years he does seem relatively healthy now. I'd try to add without giving up Sutter personally.

If we can move Dupuis down to that line or have a player like Bennett on our third line, I'm pretty stoked on our bottom six. It pushes Adams out as we would have

Dupuis / Spaling - Sutter - Downie / Bennett
Spaling / Comeau - Goc - Sill / Downie

 

[penguins2946*]

Yeah the talent is there and its intriguing. I am a big fan of what Sutter brings on the PK and how he stepped up in the playoffs when the rest of the team was nowhere to found. I just think he is one of those players you want in the playoffs, especially if you give him 2 decent wingers with the depth we have. You saw last night, that 3rd line could be able to shut down top lines while chipping in offensively. But I could be wrong, Perron is definitely skilled. Though he has played in only 50% of his games the past 5 years he does seem relatively healthy now. I'd try to add without giving up Sutter personally.

That just isn't true. He has played in 67% of the games in the last 5 years, and that is primarily due to him missing 72 games in 10-11 due to a concussion I believe. Outside of that season, he has played in 420 of 470 games over his career (and that's assuming he was injured in his first season for 20 games and not a healthy scratch). That's 89% of games, which is better than a lot of players on our team.

 

[jdpitt05]

That just isn't true. He has played in 67% of the games in the last 5 years, and that is primarily due to him missing 72 games in 10-11 due to a concussion I believe. Outside of that season, he has played in 420 of 470 games over his career (and that's assuming he was injured in his first season for 20 games and not a healthy scratch). That's 89% of games, which is better than a lot of players on our team.

Sorry maybe my numbers were wrong.

2010-2011 St. Louis Blues NHL 10 5 2 7 12 |
2011-2012 St. Louis Blues NHL 57 21 21 42 28 | Playoffs 9 1 4 5 10
2012-2013 St. Louis Blues NHL 48 10 15 25 44 | Playoffs 6 0 2 2 6
2013-2014 Edmonton Oilers NHL 78 28 29 57 90 |
2014-2015 Edmonton Oilers NHL 11 1 5 6 0 |

I saw 204 GP from 2010-11 to now. Then 339 total games. So roughly 60%. But yeah I did say he looks to be on the healthy track now as of late. I'd still try to add without moving Sutter though, just my opinion. I think we could replace most of what Martin does, but finding someone to replace Sutters PK, playoff performance, offense from a 3rd line role would be difficult. I think he's undervalued b/c of the linemates he had last year, he didn't put up attractive stats.

 

[IcedCapp]

I've been avoiding talking about Despres too often, but there was a sequence last night that perfectly displayed what this team lacks in the top-4, what they were missing last year, and why they need to give him more minutes:

3rd period, Adams and Scuderi doing their best, "no one cares about Corsi" dance, Minnesota had sustained pressure for something close to a minute. The puck goes behind the net, Minnie player gets it, Despres ragdolls him into the boards, puck free, cycle over.

Last year, the cycle would have never ended until it was either in the back of the net or the goalie froze it. But Despres has that muscle, that physicality, the kind of play you need to end the down low plays.

In short: give him 16 minutes a night, *******s.

 

[Fordy]

I've been avoiding talking about Despres too often, but there was a sequence last night that perfectly displayed what this team lacks in the top-4, what they were missing last year, and why they need to give him more minutes:

3rd period, Adams and Scuderi doing their best, "no one cares about Corsi" dance, Minnesota had sustained pressure for something close to a minute. The puck goes behind the net, Minnie player gets it, Despres ragdolls him into the boards, puck free, cycle over.

Last year, the cycle would have never ended until it was either in the back of the net or the goalie froze it. But Despres has that muscle, that physicality, the kind of play you need to end the down low plays.

In short: give him 16 minutes a night, *******s.

i know exactly what play you're talking about. i'm sick and tired of the security blanket scuderi isn't playing that bad ********. despres bails him out all game. i'm getting annoyed

 

[wgknestrick]

I've been avoiding talking about Despres too often, but there was a sequence last night that perfectly displayed what this team lacks in the top-4, what they were missing last year, and why they need to give him more minutes:

3rd period, Adams and Scuderi doing their best, "no one cares about Corsi" dance, Minnesota had sustained pressure for something close to a minute. The puck goes behind the net, Minnie player gets it, Despres ragdolls him into the boards, puck free, cycle over.

Last year, the cycle would have never ended until it was either in the back of the net or the goalie froze it. But Despres has that muscle, that physicality, the kind of play you need to end the down low plays.

In short: give him 16 minutes a night, *******s.

I have yet to see anyone out-muscle him. He is a beast.

 

[billybudd]

I've been avoiding talking about Despres too often, but there was a sequence last night that perfectly displayed what this team lacks in the top-4, what they were missing last year, and why they need to give him more minutes:

3rd period, Adams and Scuderi doing their best, "no one cares about Corsi" dance, Minnesota had sustained pressure for something close to a minute. The puck goes behind the net, Minnie player gets it, Despres ragdolls him into the boards, puck free, cycle over.

Last year, the cycle would have never ended until it was either in the back of the net or the goalie froze it. But Despres has that muscle, that physicality, the kind of play you need to end the down low plays.

In short: give him 16 minutes a night, *******s.

I don't know why he isn't getting PK time, but the way the depth chart is, he can't move up at 5 on 5, through no fault of his own.

Ehrhoff, Martin and Letang (rough third period last night notwithstanding) have all been too good to go to the third pairing and Scuderi/Bort strikes me as the worst combination that can be made with the present personnel (with Ehrhoff/Martin Scuds being the next-worst). Scuds isn't really playing poorly enough to scratch at the moment, either, so that option's probably out the window.

 

[NastyNick]

Did anyone catch the post-game commentary from Steiggy? It was hilarious how he completely downplayed Greiss's individual performance

Steiggy is a Fleury guy.. which means he can't dare compliment the backup goalie. No way. Can't plant that seed in his congregation's head.

Steiggy would do Fleury's laundry every day if it meant for a chance to sniff the goods.

 

[NastyNick]

I'll sum up my thoughts on Letang as this -
Every contender has an elite defenseman. Chara, Doughty, Keith.. Letang *could* be that guy for Pittsburgh. Hes so close to being that guy. But it seems like his brain gets in the way of what his body can do. I can't fathom what play he envisioned in his head that had Dupuis taking his limp saucer pass and dancing through 3 Wild players to score a goal. The fact that the Penguins have to fit Malkin on the other point just exacerbates Letang's mistakes.. because Kris is suppose to be the rock back there.

I'd really love what he brings if he was taken off the PP. Thats my only hold up right now.

 

[Til the End of Time]

Steiggy is a Fleury guy.. which means he can't dare compliment the backup goalie. No way. Can't plant that seed in his congregation's head.

Steiggy would do Fleury's laundry every day if it meant for a chance to sniff the goods.

does anyone remember in greiss's first game, when the game was just starting, steigerwald said something to the effect of "and now we get a chance to see thomas greiss in net for the penguins... he's the other goalie along with fleury... notice i didn't say greiss was the backup goalie." basically insinuating that greiss could challenge fleury for the starting job, i think.

i was really surprised when he said "diss" against fleury... does anyone remember that ?

 

[ProgOg]

Penguins Re-Sign Marc-Andre Fleury to a Four-Year, $23 Million Contract Extension

 

[mpp9]

Steiggy is a Fleury guy.. which means he can't dare compliment the backup goalie. No way. Can't plant that seed in his congregation's head.

Steiggy would do Fleury's laundry every day if it meant for a chance to sniff the goods.

Listening to Pens radio. Madden's doing the same thing. Basically saying, "well yeah, the Wild had 34 shots, but they weren't that dangerous".

And yet Fleury will get all the credit for every victory. And it's the team's fault when he loses.

 

[Deutschland Dangler]

Penguins Re-Sign Marc-Andre Fleury to a Four-Year, $23 Million Contract Extension

That has to be a ****ing joke?!

 

[penguins2946*]

I absolutely hate everything. WHY WOULD YOU EXTEND FLEURY RIGHT NOW????

 

[Speaking Moistly]

Listening to Pens radio. Madden's doing the same thing. Basically saying, "well yeah, the Wild had 34 shots, but they weren't that dangerous".

And yet Fleury will get all the credit for every victory. And it's the team's fault when he loses.

Fleury is one of those players that they're very weird about, like prop him up no matter what weird.

 

[SHOOTANDSCORE]

He did it in the defensive zone too. He was the closest to the puck and took one stride and just sort of gave up on it. Erhoff had to skate in and try to get it but lost the race/battle to a Minny forward. It was pathetic.

I specifically saw that one, too -- but tried to play it off in my mind that perhaps he saw Ehrhoff coming with more speed than he had, and thus backed off so as to not have two guys chasing the same puck...

Not sure whether he made the right play, or a lazy play there...

I missed the Ehrhoff one but there definitely seems to be a pattern here. I'm not sure if he is being indecisive because of the system, playing lazy/avoiding contact, or if he thinks he is James Kunitz and wants to let others grind and set up his shots.

Hopefully he corrects this part of his game.

 

[MeticulouslyDishevel]

Fleury is one of those players that they're very weird about, like prop him up no matter what weird.

I think they feel like they have to, otherwise his confidence will be shot.

 

[member 51464]

+ Greiss earned himself his first nhl.com pun headline with the Penguins


EDIT: Oh and he's critical with himself, too. Good to see.

What was the pun headline???

 

[Deutschland Dangler]

What was the pun headline???

"Greiss is nice". Pretty lame, but still.

 

[member 51464]

"Greiss is nice". Pretty lame, but still.

Yeah, I was hoping for better.