Pre-Game Talk: Pens @ Dallas

[KIRK]

i don't think many Pens games make it shootouts this year.

Why not?

EDIT: Never mind. Misread.

 

[HandshakeLine]

No, but why should that stop us?



Porter head fake to distract from pregame discussion about what Kunitz's role will be tonight . . .

It's evilly brilliant in its simplicity.

 

[Jag68Sid87]

i don't think many Pens games make it shootouts this year.

Agreed.

 

[madinsomniac]

Dea deserved the shot, IMO. Cullen can play both wings.

Lol with Duper down, Cullen is probably the top backup in case something happens to Kunitz... he is the right experiance age, at least

 

[SidDidNothingWrong]

I was listening to the Sirius NHL station and Potvin said something very interesting. We all assume that because of Sid, Geno, and Kessel that we will dominate 3 vs. 3, but we underestimate the vanilla-ness of the NHL. Other coaches will find a way to, I believe he used the words "dummy," or "cheap," 3 vs. 3, like put out 3 defensemen so that they play super conservative and eek out a shootout.

 

[SHOOTANDSCORE]

I don't understand why they dont just use Sundy.....

Farnham is playing and Porter will just be in the pressbox as insurance on the road. Farnham missed most of camp so they'll want to get him up to speed and evaluate him. They want Sundqvist to play top minutes in WBS for a bit.

 

[madinsomniac]

I was listening to the Sirius NHL station and Potvin said something very interesting. We all assume that because of Sid, Geno, and Kessel that we will dominate 3 vs. 3, but we underestimate the vanilla-ness of the NHL. Other coaches will find a way to, I believe he used the words "dummy," or "cheap," 3 vs. 3, like put out 3 defensemen so that they play super conservative and eek out a shootout.

I will take Malkin-Kessel-Crosby with open ice over any three defensemen in the league, and twice over in the shootout

 

[Shockmaster]

Yup. Kunitz is going to kill penalties, see time on the PP and first line with Sid. I'd love to believe it's to showcase him but I know better.

The whole two PP units idea may be so that they give Kunitz more PP time, too.

If we knew the organization was trying to prop up Kunitz with the intention of upping his trade value, I would actually support the way the team is using him to start the season. Unfortunately, given the Penguins recent history of loving older players, that seems unlikely.

 

[Pancakes]

Maybe I'm just being too pessimistic, but given the way we played in the preseason, and given how our defense looked, I could easily see us getting blown out 7-3 or something like that tonight.

I hope I'm wrong. Everyone is down on our defensive abilities but the Pens have never been a bad defensive team in the Crosby era except for 05-06. Our defense is unquestionably worse than last year but our forwards are still quite solid defensively and Fleury is good and hopefully that's enough to keep us respectable.

 

[SidDidNothingWrong]

I honestly don't think our defense is as bad as we think it is.
Anyway, Kessel and Sid are going to bring back the 90's. You will all see.

 

[KIRK]

I will take Malkin-Kessel-Crosby with open ice over any three defensemen in the league, and twice over in the shootout

Yeah.

But, I get the sentiment. Maybe your top defensive forward and best two defensemen, keep stuff to the perimeter, survive the shift, and then send out your top guns when Agnew sends Scuderi out there.

EDIT: I just got a visual of Scuderi getting danced by Seguin tonight.

 

[OnMyOwn]

Our offense needs to dominate possession, which it can, to reduce the risk of exposing our defense. But I don't actually think our defense is THAT bad.

 

[Speaking Moistly]

Yeah.

But, I get the sentiment. Maybe your top defensive forward and best two defensemen, keep stuff to the perimeter, survive the shift, and then send out your top guns when Agnew sends Scuderi out there.

EDIT: I just got a visual of Scuderi getting danced by Seguin tonight.

X
Scuderi-Lovejoy

 

[billybudd]

Dea deserved the shot, IMO. Cullen can play both wings.

Dea needs to build on his strong camp in the AHL and I don't think he plays wing yet. That said, yes, I'd call him up before I'd call Porter up. But then, I'd call Loney up before I'd call Porter up and Loney's a Nailer who expected to be working as a financial manager this time last year, so there'd have to be kind of a lot of injuries before I even got to Porter's name.

I'd also re-sign Tim Wallace or Erik Christensen before calling Porter up, incidentally.

 

[KIRK]

X
Scuderi-Lovejoy

Kunitz

If we knew the organization was trying to prop up Kunitz with the intention of upping his trade value, I would actually support the way the team is using him to start the season. Unfortunately, given the Penguins recent history of loving older players, that seems unlikely.

Noted earlier that Kunitz played less in his mid 20's and with good iron in top six roles on cup winning teams than he has since.

 

[Shockmaster]

Between winning the Cup in 2009 and last year's playoffs, I would say the worst defense the Penguins put out on the ice (with everyone healthy) was in 2009-10. The top 6 D was if I remember correctly:

Orpik-Gonchar
Eaton-Letang
Goligoski-Leopold/McKee

When you consider how poorly Gonchar and Eaton played at times that season, that defense may easily be worse than the current Penguins defense.

 

[BigEezyE22]

Just 1 question- has Geno been practicing faceoffs at all?

 

[Empoleon8771]

Am I the only one worried that how bad the Pens were offensively for the last half of last year (their GPG would have been 4th worst and their PP worst) will be how they are offensively this year?

 

[Jag68Sid87]

Dea needs to build on his strong camp in the AHL and I don't think he plays wing yet. That said, yes, I'd call him up before I'd call Porter up. But then, I'd call Loney up before I'd call Porter up and Loney's a Nailer who expected to be working as a financial manager this time last year, so there'd have to be kind of a lot of injuries before I even got to Porter's name.

I'd also re-sign Tim Wallace or Erik Christensen before calling Porter up, incidentally.

To that end, we could have claimed Richard Panik.

 

[Empoleon8771]

To that end, we could have claimed Richard Panik.

I was pissed we didn't claim him. The biggest knock against Panik is that he's inconsistent. However, he's a very well rounded player (I've seen his play style compared to Hossa, although obviously not close to as good) and he's a young lefty, which we're severely lacking in our system.

 

[Jag68Sid87]

Am I the only one worried that how bad the Pens were offensively for the last half of last year (their GPG would have been 4th worst and their PP worst) will be how they are offensively this year?

That will be the test for me. If we still stink offensively NOW, then get rid of Johnston and co. already.

The defense is a work in progress, we get that. But there is literally no excuse for struggles on offense. Not this season. Not with Kessel here and Rutherford's commitment to four lines of offense.

I mean, there will be a point tonight when Travis Moen is on the ice for them, and someone like David Perron, Beau Bennett or Daniel Sprong for us. There are offensive mismatches to exploit this season.

If Johnston cannot, then bring in someone who can.

 

[Vyruz Reaper]

Did hockeystreams finally shutdown? I tried to login and renew for the game tonight and res tof the season but all tabs are unresponsive. Any alternatives? Not looking forward to gamecenter etc.

 

[Asuna]

It's probably just me but I don't think the Pens offense will be as good as advertised. Not right now anyways.

 

[billybudd]

To that end, we could have claimed Richard Panik.

Well, your boy John Scott's on waivers. I think Scott's terrible, but at least he hits people in the head, fights, and walks Brooks Orpik every once in a blue moon, which are three more things than Porter can do.

 

[Empoleon8771]

It's probably just me but I don't think the Pens offense will be as good as advertised. Not right now anyways.

I think that's obvious. The expectations are for us to put up goal totals similar to the 09-10 Capitals (3.82 goals/game). Even though adding Kessel, Plotnikov, Fehr and Bonino will help significantly, I don't think it takes us from 2.65 goals/game (last year) to anything close to what is being expected out of them. I'm still not sold on their PP and I'm not a fan of MJ's system, although I'm basing both of those on what they did last year.