- the Sutter hate is getting comically bad. After seeing Staal Goof Troop his way around the ice tonight, we all had a great big reminder of why he frustrated us so often.
This is what frustrates me about this board. So many have one collective mind that it becomes the popular and accepted thing to do to pick a guy to hate on and run with it. Then when he actually plays well they are all so used to looking for the negative it quickly becomes amplified and the poor dead horse continues to have the living hell beaten out of it.
Brandon has definitely deserved heat for his play at times this year but tonight is not one of those nights (regardless of how Staal played).
Mr. Jiggyfly said:
- tonight Dags looked like the guy I didn't like much in pre-season. I was hoping not to see that guy again.
Now this is a guy who deserves some heat. Dumb penalties and really wasn't effective anywhere else. A definite liability for the Pens tonight.
Mr. Jiggyfly said:
- someone tell me why DB ever broke up Bort/Maatta?
Are you REALLY asking a question which you of all people know the answer to already?
On second thought, there might not be much of an answer as I find it difficult to believe that he has logical reasons for a variety of his decisions so there is that.
As for my thoughts, I mean... Comon... Megnatron... Dude. He needs theme music from some 80's anthem song every time he starts skating up the ice. Maybe "Man in Motion" from St. Elmo's Fire. Or "Please Hammer, Don't Hurt Em". That kid was so scary great in his second NHL game. Unreal the confidence he came in with considering how timid and uneventful his first game was. In fact, that is what most amazes me other than his play. The huge gap between how he looked from first to second game. The funny thing is that neither of the plays where he got a point tonight were even in the top 3 plays he made tonight. That move on Harrison was just like... nastiness. As was the one behind the net. I re-wound my DVR and watched both in slow mo a few times. This is even a little better than the Megna that I'm used to watching.
+ Bylsma. Hey, he gets bashed constantly on here. He needs to get some actual credit for when he does a few things right. Like tonight, moving MD off of Malkins line and bumping Megna up in his spot after he undressed Harrison. He also reunited Rolli Maartazzo (yes, that name is patented and copyrighted so don't any of you dare try to use it without paying royalties) which was obvious. Though I don't think he would have done it had Scuderi not been injured. There is a shift with about 15:00 left in the third which just shows you some spectacular, smart hockey. Most casual fans won't appreciate its greatness but watch Määtta closely if you have it on TiVo.
- The need to actually take advantage on the scoreboard when we dominate like we did in the first period. Instead, Kunitz takes a penalty, followed by another dumb and unnecessary penalty by Adams which killed the flow and the momentum we had built.
- Kunitz was bad. He goes off-sides far to often, is incredibly transparent in his offense and half the time I am asking myself, "What in the wide wide world of sports is he thinking"? Speaking of offsides, Malkin (once) and Crosby (twice) threw unnecessary dekes and stick handled right at the line going into the offensive zone putting players offsides. Come on guys, you know better. I bet no one will harp on that as they are far to busy watching for Letang to double clutch on the power play so they can go on about what a dumb player he is.
- Adams. Geez. Obviously the shorthanded 2 on 1 with Sid was botched beyond all recognition but there was another play where he had Letang flying in from his right going in to the offensive zone and it would have been a breakaway. Adams never even saw it because he had tunnel vision (or no vision) on his left winger and forced a pass to a guy who was covered.
- I don't complain about Refs that much but Damn, these guys were horrid tonight. The Kunitz foul was bad. The Adams call he was forced to make as Adams stick broke. But not throwing Staal out of the Faceoff circle for such an obvious and huge infraction was bad. And it's amplified because Staal wins the faceoff and Carolina scores. Then Juice gets smacked right in the face pretty damn hard with Harrison's stick and it's another obvious call which went uncalled.
Finally, dammit. I don't complain about this much either but Errey and Steigy are so incredibly moronic that it was difficult to listen to. It was almost as bad as a Tostitos commercial (if you haven't seen any, they are terrible. Especially the one where there is a debate going on and a dancing, singing bag of chips interrupts the debate... Or the one where the annoying couple somehow thinks that someone's apartment is a resteraunt and the tenants are waiters. I won't buy Tostitos from now on simply on principle... Wow, that was some tangent).
Yeah, Errey is a little dumber than Steigy. I mean I expect for announcers to get names wrong. But repeatedly? For guys ON THE DAMN TEAM YOUVE BEEN COVERING FOR YEARS???? News flash guys, Staal isn't on our team anymore. That would be Brandon Sutter. And both of you called him Staal tonight. In Erreys case, more than once. Also, try to get the play right if you're coming back from commercial and you're going to do a quick analysis of it. Especially if it's a goal. Especially if you've already shown it 4+ times. Errey, it was never going to be icing had Megna not touched it because, A: He was behind the defense and nearest the puck, and B: It was going directly towards the goal. It never would have made it to the line, so no... Megna did NOT prevent an icing by getting to it first. And Megna was not playing defense on that one shift Steigy. That would be Letang. Numbers are similar and I realize how you could get confused considering that they play opposite positions and you haven't called about a million games which Letang has played in already.
Lost in all of this season has been how incredible Maffy has been this year. Even his demeanor is noticeably different. I know, I know. People are going to point out that he's done this before and it's the regular season and I understand that. I get it. Still, I think this is the best he has ever looked to start a season and like I said, he has never had such a calm and steely demeanor.
Nice win Boyeeee!
