Pre-Game Talk: Pens/Stars Pregame talk - Do we even play hockey anymore?

[Ignatius]

Spezza is a Penguins killer, though.

Crosby is a Spezza killer

 

[Deutschland Dangler]

How has he only been okay? He has stopped everything that he has had even remotely a chance to stop except for the miffed pass.

He gave up a terrible goal at the worst time and could have costed us the game against the Ducks. Apart from that gaffe, he stopped what he had to stop, I don't recall many exceptional saves. That's serviceable in my book, not great. But as you said, different definitions, I guess.

People wanted consistency for so long, MAF has been consistent so far and that's not good enough. Now they want him back to being Marc who makes magnificent, impossible stops, in ADDITION to being consistent. You can't please people in this city man, you just can't.

Who says he's not good enough? This is ridiculous. In fact, everybody has said that he has been good enough, just not great. Is that now blasphemy? Talk about damn low standards, again.

 

[BigEezyE22]

To be fair he only made one glaring mistake. Unfortunately it is the kind of mistake that is preventable (not some weird bouncing puck) and I assume MAF knows his decision making with the puck is abominable. The fact he is still making these mistakes is worrying at the very least. However, to pass judgement on his performance at least half a season of games is needed. Nevertheless, I believe he is the last issue that has to be resolved before the Pens can become serious contenders again (I would gladly eat crow on this...he seems like a nice guy).

He did play the puck more than once that game. He was fine in all o other cases beside that onem

 

[Deutschland Dangler]

He did play the puck more than once that game. He was fine in all o other cases beside that onem

He was fine in the sense that this was the only case where he gave up a goal. There was at least another incident where he barely made it back to the net in time because he gave the puck away.

 

[wgknestrick]

MAF is far from an "unknown entity" now and isn't even above .900 SV% so far this year. His backup is considered better by many, and in some key stat metrics. MAF is not likely to sign past this year (or should he be signed). He makes too much money for the goaltending he provides. He's already had some bad goals against and has only saved 10/15 PP shots against (worst in league). Some of the PP goals against have been un-saveable, but there have been others that he should've saved easily (ie. one that went right over his head as he dropped too soon)

Again, why is he still the de-facto starter on this team? When will his job as starter start to become an uncertainty? I can see sticking with him if we still had Zatkoff as the backup, but that isn't the case anymore. We were lucky not to have been cost a win with his play so far. That isn't a valid excuse (Scuderi has been bad too, but you can say the same about him). When we have better options, why not try them?

If he's our best goalie, then I'm fine with it, but here we go again with similar Vokoun/MAF situation. We need to treat Greiss well and give him some games if we want to have a chance at signing him as our starter in the future.

 

[Ogrezilla]

Fleury has been pretty good. He hasn't be great. You can't give away a free goal in 1 of 2 games and consider it a great 2 games.

 

[Ogrezilla]

MAF is far from an "unknown entity" now and isn't even above .900 SV% so far this year. His backup is considered better by many, and in some key stat metrics. MAF is not likely to sign past this year (or should he be signed). He makes too much money for the goaltending he provides. He's already had some bad goals against and has only saved 10/15 PP shots against (worst in league). Some of the PP goals against have been un-saveable, but there have been others that he should've saved easily (ie. one that went right over his head as he dropped too soon)

Again, why is he still the de-facto starter on this team? When will his job as starter start to become an uncertainty? I can see sticking with him if we still had Zatkoff as the backup, but that isn't the case anymore. We were lucky not to have been cost a win with his play so far. That isn't a valid excuse (Scuderi has been bad too, but you can say the same about him). When we have better options, why not try them?

If he's our best goalie, then I'm fine with it, but here we go again with similar Vokoun/MAF situation. We need to treat Greiss well and give him some games if we want to have a chance at signing him as our starter in the future.

This is not a Vokoun/MAF situation. Vokoun had been a proven starter and great goalie for years when he got here. Greiss has played 69 career games in 6 years. Fleury is being treated like the better goalie because there is no reason to think he's not the better goalie.

He's had 1 bad goal against. Otherwise, our PK has been awful and gave up excellent chances. Over the course of the year, SV% and quality of scoring chances evens out. In a 2 game sample size, SV% doesn't mean an awful lot.

 

[Speaking Moistly]

Fleury has been okay, not as bad as his save percentage says but not great. He had a epic brain fart in one of two games that cost them a brutal goal at a bad time and it's the type of stupid thing he keeps doing (50% of the games had a huge **** up so far, awesome). He also almost got caught out again playing in the same game. That's not great, it's him doing the type of **** that shouldn't be happening any more but that he still hasn't learned from.

 

[alcanalz]

It's been two games.

Five days off is really too long at the beginning of the season.

 

[cheesedanish87]

I'd say MAF has been average in his first 2 games, not awful, but not good either, hes really only been tested on the PK, pens have dominated the first 2 games 5 on 5.

Last night Jimmy Howard was great against Boston, stopped 37 of 39 and a bunch of those shots were good chances.

Jonas Hiller stopped 49 of 50 against the Hawks, those performances are what i consider great games.

 

[IcedCapp]

One thing I think we might be overlooking with regards to the Pens' performance thus far is the fact that teams are probably playing the Pens with Bylsma in mind.

I think we probably have a few weeks before teams start adjusting to what the Pens are doing, especially when it comes to the breakout.

 

[Speaking Moistly]

Pens Inside Scoop ‏@PensInsideScoop
#Pens coach Johnston stressed that when it comes to matchups, getting the right defensive pair out is the No. 1 priority -MC

Pens Inside Scoop ‏@PensInsideScoop
The No. 2 matchup is the forwards. Coach is comfortable putting his top lines or checking lines out against the other team's top lines -MC

 

[DegenX]

One thing I think we might be overlooking with regards to the Pens' performance thus far is the fact that teams are probably playing the Pens with Bylsma in mind.

I think we probably have a few weeks before teams start adjusting to what the Pens are doing, especially when it comes to the breakout.

Well, every party has to have a pooper, I guess

Seriously, you do bring up a good point. HCMJ is a bit of an unknown at this point at the NHL level. I would imagine they've looked at what he's done in Portland, but how it's executed with the personnel we have probably makes it difficult to game plan right now.

 

[Marns]

Forget about arguing if Fleury's been great or garbage through two games, we should all be really concerned about the lack of whiffleball updates from practice.

 

[ProgOg]

Forget about arguing if Fleury's been great or garbage through two games, we should all be really concerned about the lack of whiffleball updates from practice.

Maybe playing whiffleball is the secret behind a good PK.

 

[Speaking Moistly]

One thing I think we might be overlooking with regards to the Pens' performance thus far is the fact that teams are probably playing the Pens with Bylsma in mind.

I think we probably have a few weeks before teams start adjusting to what the Pens are doing, especially when it comes to the breakout.

Probably, they'd definitely study them for the playoffs anyway. The Pens also seem to have a lot of players trying to prove a point, we'll see how they are as time goes on.

 

[billybudd]

Well, every party has to have a pooper, I guess

Seriously, you do bring up a good point. HCMJ is a bit of an unknown at this point at the NHL level. I would imagine they've looked at what he's done in Portland, but how it's executed with the personnel we have probably makes it difficult to game plan right now.

Yeah, I'm not sure how deep other teams are looking for weaknesses in their opponents this time of year. I expect most of them would, like us, be more concerned with things like their own PK.

That said, when teams do start probing for weakness and gameplanning Johnston, that seems like something he would enjoy.

According to Hitchcock, he's one of a rat pack of coaches (along with Hitch, Babcock and Willie Desjardins) that spend the offseason attending and giving presentations on that sort of thing to each other.


Edit: IcedCapp might like to know that this is the face Johnston made after Despres started punching JVR on the ground. Safe to say he liked that, haha.

 

[ProgOg]

Probably has been said before, but even if the WHL and NHL aren't really comparable, he did have a ****ton of success in all the years he was there. I'm gonna guess that Junior coaches also think about the systems of their opponents.

 

[ProgOg]

Spezza being nice:

Stars forward Jason Spezza said he thinks Pittsburgh's penalty killing troubles have been overblown.

"You can't look at these two-game stats and say that they're not good," Spezza said. "They're a good penalty-killing team; they always have been. You can look at a team that's been 0-for-6 on the power play and that's a great power-play team too. So it's such a small sample size.

"We've already talked about how good their [penalty kill] is. They do a lot of good things. … We know they're going to come and be aggressive and we have to be good on our power play and sharp."

 

[DegenX]

Yeah, I'm not sure how deep other teams are looking for weaknesses in their opponents this time of year. I expect most of them would, like us, be more concerned with things like their own PK.

That said, when teams do start probing for weakness and gameplanning Johnston, that seems like something he would enjoy.

According to Hitchcock, he's one of a rat pack of coaches (along with Hitch, Babcock and Willie Desjardins) that spend the offseason attending and giving presentations on that sort of thing to each other.


Edit: IcedCapp might like to know that this is the face Johnston made after Despres started punching JVR on the ground. Safe to say he liked that, haha.

I'm sure other teams are still working the kinks out, just like we are. But it's unlikely that they aren't doing some sort of game planning. I do agree that Johnston seems like the kind of guy who enjoys a challenge, though. The sit down he did with Potash was pretty interesting ... he came across as a guy who is not afraid to try new things and keep working to be better at what he does.

 

[IcedCapp]

Edit: IcedCapp might like to know that this is the face Johnston made after Despres started punching JVR on the ground. Safe to say he liked that, haha.

yea, I saw that. Let's hope he follows it up with 15+ minutes of ice time

 

[Fordy]

joyful johnston gif is the perfect contrast for smug bylsma pic

 

[Fordy]

I'm sure other teams are still working the kinks out, just like we are. But it's unlikely that they aren't doing some sort of game planning. I do agree that Johnston seems like the kind of guy who enjoys a challenge, though. The sit down he did with Potash was pretty interesting ... he came across as a guy who is not afraid to try new things and keep working to be better at what he does.

what sit down?

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Pittsburgh Penguins ‏@penguins
Line rushes from morning skate:
Kunitz-Crosby-Hornqvist
Malkin-Sutter-Dupuis
Comeau-Goc-Downie
Adams-Spaling-Sill

Pittsburgh Penguins ‏@penguins
Defensive pairings from skate:
Ehrhoff-Martin
Maatta-Letang
Despres-Scuderi

Jason Mackey ‏@Mackey_Trib
#Pens line rushes this morning: 14-87-72 ... 71-16-9 ... 17-57-23 ... 27-13-38 ... 10-7 ... 3-58 ... 47-4 ... 25-6. #TribHKY

Spaling and Despres hating life.

So I guess Harrington in for Scuderi was just wishful thinking.

 

[Marns]

According to Hitchcock, he's one of a rat pack of coaches (along with Hitch, Babcock and Willie Desjardins) that spend the offseason attending and giving presentations on that sort of thing to each other.

That's pretty awesome. He's in some very good company.