Pens are flying

[Billy Kvcmu]

I haven't said that the Toronto are the favourites, but they are part of a challenge and would be stupid to think one can just walk over them.
Toronto can match up Pens offensively and they aren't the top contender in the East, and so neither are the Pens. Even with the elite offense they are challengers. That's how good the high end of East is.

There are multiple elite teams rigth now, and 1 or 2 more with the right deadline additions.

At worst this year you have to go through 3 elite teams just to get to the finals.

Neither Columbus or Rangers were build on superstar talent with crazy depth. I would gladly take those teams over the path Bruins are looking at this season, Toronto, Tampa, Pens/Washington.

So excuse me for not being scared the most by the Pens.



I don't give a damm about their regular season, explain how they had the superstar power and depth of these current top teams in the East?, Florida won the Atlantic some years ago, were they elite?
No.

You can't just trust your elite offense to be enough this time, there are teams who can match up offensively, and teams who can match up offensively with different level depth on defense.

I can’t believe what I just read
So after the past three seasons
There are still ppl on this board, questioning Penguins’s ability winwin a cup....

Good day sir

 

[BB88]

I can’t believe what I just read
So after the past three seasons
There are still ppl on this board, questioning Penguins’s ability winwin a cup....

Good day sir

Where did I say they have 0% chance?

Just that excuse me for not being the most scared of the Pens.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Where did I say they have 0% chance?

Just that excuse me for not being the most scared of the Pens.

We can discuss Toronto after they win a playoff series.

 

[Gurglesons]

Where did I say they have 0% chance?

Just that excuse me for not being the most scared of the Pens.

Guarantee every single team in the East does not want to play them. They’ve won two of the last three cups and lost to Washington due to serious injuries to Kessel, Malkin, Hagelin and Brassard.

The fact you are underselling the only team to go back to back in the last twenty years that has the same all star pieces is just insane.

I’m glad Kucherov is tearing up the league and Ovechkin is killing it in goals. Both of those teams have been beaten by healthy Pens squads the last couple years.

Last years Pens / Caps match-up was won on lucky bounces and the Pens shooting themselves in the foot. Capitals finally got over them, but it wasn’t like the Caps ran through them.

Sid, Malkin and Letang live in infamy if they win the cup this year. They are a dynasty no ifs and buts about it. 3 cups in 4 years. You don’t think they are going to be hungry for it? They can finally prove they are the best team of this era and they have a GM who is willing to make any move possible to get them there.

And they’ve already won f***ing three cups together. How are you doubting this squad?

Jake - Crosby - Rust
X - Malkin - Hornqvist
X - X - Kessel
X - Cullen - X

Dumo - Letang
Maatta - Schultz
X-X

Murray

They have the basic structure of their cup winning teams still in tact. Good chance they don’t win this year, but like you’re seriously doubting the best team in the last ten years?

 

[Hank Plank]

Didn't an Eastern Conference team beat both Pittsburgh and Tampa in the playoffs last year?

Who's on top of the Metro standings right now?

The Defending Stanley Cup Champion Washington Capitals.

Wow this is amazing you should make a thread about it, one that has Washington Capitals in the title.

 

[Ms Maggie]

East is a helluva lot more dangerous today than the last time you won.
The Columbus& Rangers examples are a great example of that.

There are teams with elite players, and depth, not just the Pens.

How many times are you going to post the same thing? Is this a Tourette's thing?

 

[CanadianPensFan1]

We can discuss Toronto after they win a playoff series.

Yeah. Losing again to the Bruins tonight.

Brings me joy.

 

[Icetime]

Wow this is amazing you should make a thread about it, one that has Washington Capitals in the title.

Maybe you should read the OP before you post?

 

[Foots]

Guarantee every single team in the East does not want to play them. They’ve won two of the last three cups and lost to Washington due to serious injuries to Kessel, Malkin, Hagelin and Brassard.

No Backstrom, no Wilson, no Burakovsky. No problem.

 

[Gurglesons]

No Backstrom, no Wilson, no Burakovsky. No problem.

Hot take from a squad that is 1-3 in playoff series against our core.

 

[Foots]

Hot take from a squad that is 1-3 in playoff series against our core.

What did I say that wasn't true?

 

[Gurglesons]

What did I say that wasn't true?

Caps are gods. You right.

 

[Foots]

Caps are gods. You right.

LMAO

 

[Frank Drebin]

When has their defense scared anyone, on any cup run in their history? It’s becoming a running gag people throw out there it seems...

For those that don’t know, even their 91 and 92 teams had bluelines that were compiled of many no names and rookies.

Paul Coffey
Larry Murphy
Ulf Samuelsson
Kjell Samuelsson

 

[Hank Plank]

Maybe you should read the OP before you post?

I was a bit harsh I apologize. No sarcasm.

 

[GoldOnGold]

Tbh there is no such thing as "weak competition" in the cap era since the league overall has became so balanced with incredible depth and parity. As for the pens, this was the path to their three cup winning runs in the Crosby/Malkin era:
2009:
Round 1: Beat their lifelong arch rivals in Philly; very even match-up could've went either way
Round 2: Beat a loaded Caps team led by peak Ovechkin which went the distance
Round 3: Beat Carolina, who won the cup a couple yrs prior and defeated two great teams in Boston and New Jersey in the two rounds prior
Finals: Beat the defending champs who took them out the previous year in the Red Wings. The Wings overall were a juggernaut for the entirety of the 90's and 2000's decades, and even into the early 2010s

2016:
Round 1: Beat a Rangers team who had beaten them two yrs in a row and had the 3rd best record in the East
Round 2: Beat the President's trophy winning Caps who had 120 pts in the RS and were viewed as the most loaded team in the cap era
Round 3: Beat the defending Eastern conference champs in Tampa
Finals: Beat a great Sharks team who convincingly went through West and featured 4 of the top 5 playoff scorers that year. Also, with the Caps finally winning one in 2018, the Sharks are now the greatest cap era team to never win a cup

2017 (without Letang the whole way):
Round 1: Beat a Blue Jackets team who went on a historic 16-game win streak and finished with the 4th best record in the whole league
Round 2: For the second year in a row, they eliminated the same stacked Caps team who again won the Prez trophy with relative ease; some even considered the 2017 Caps to be even better than the 2016 Caps
Round 3: Ottawa was their weakest opponent on paper, but their style of play, which had shades of the early 2000's Devils, turned out to be a match-up nightmare for the pens
Finals: Beat a Preds team who lost just 4 games coming into the finals, had the best defense in the league and more than anything, had the hottest goalie in the world who seemed unbeatable at the time.

Additionally, these are all the goalies that the Pens had to score goals against to win their B2B cups:
Henrik Lundqvist - arguably the greatest goalie in the cap era
Braden Holtby (2x) - won Vezina trophy in 2016
Red-hot Andre Vaseilevsky
Peak Martin Jones
Sergei Bobrovsky - won Vezina trophy in 2017
Peak Craig Anderson
Peak Pekka Rinne

All in all, I really don't know where this "weak competition" theory came from

Rinne sucked in the SCF, not sure why you would include him.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

Paul Coffey
Larry Murphy
Ulf Samuelsson
Kjell Samuelsson

Paul Stanton
Jim Paek
Gordie Roberts
Peter Taglianetti
Randy Hillier
Grant Jennings

Coffey also wasn’t there for the second cup, he was moved to LA for a first that went to Philly in the Tocchet/Samuelsson trade.

 

[Maestro84]

Rinne sucked in the SCF, not sure why you would include him.

Rinne in the 2017 playoffs had a 1.96 GAA and .930 save pct%....even though he got shelled in 3 of the 4 Predators losses in the finals. That’s how dominant Rinne was in the postseason that year. His play is what helped the preds lose just 4 times before the finals, along with a sweep of the Blackhawks

 

[GoldOnGold]

Rinne in the 2017 playoffs had a 1.96 GAA and .930 save pct%....even though he got shelled in 3 of the 4 Predators losses in the finals. That’s how dominant Rinne was in the postseason that year

Yeah, but it was easy for the Pens to score on him. He didn't play anything like he had earlier.

 

[Maestro84]

Yeah, but it was easy for the Pens to score on him. He didn't play anything like he had earlier.

He played well in games 3, 4 and 6 though. Plus Rinne was the main reason why a lot of ppl picked the preds to win it all that year coming into the finals

 

[GoldOnGold]

He played well in games 3, 4 and 6 though. Plus Rinne was the main reason why a lot of ppl picked the preds to win it all that year coming into the finals

Do you know his overall save percentage for the series?