Ryder, he allowed three goals in regulation, one of which was a shorty breakaway, took us into O.T., and was beaten on Orlov's shot that no way in hell was his fault. He's not culpable for jack shit. Not a great game, but certainly not the reason we lost.
Samsonov outplayed him, plain and simple. And I absolutely blame him on that Sprong goal. He left the post when he shouldn't have. You're not gonna win playing a mediocre brand of goaltending. And of late that's exactly what his play at best has been, mediocre.
Truthfully, in the game he let up the six goals in LA, I didn't blame him one bit. As a team it was our worst game of the season. We were terrible in front of him. If you can play great in net and give up six goals that game would be your poster child. I look beyond the numbers and take everything into account, but the Kings game here in Pit he was ''meh'' at best. And being ''meh'' isn't gonna cut it. It's not the fact that his play has slipped, that can be expected. It's the degree it has slipped.
We miss Teddy, very underrated player. Our secondary scoring was always in a precarious state. If one or two key pieces get removed it could unravel quite a bit. When we're healthy or close to it, the depth looks rather impressive. But Teddy, Zucker and a cooled off Heinen are out. That's three pretty good pieces that aren't playing. And it's not just what they produce on the scoresheet, they're all pretty responsible away from the puck. We miss that aspect of things as well.
Blueger has nothing to do with Sleepy signing garbage players like Simon and ZAR or Erod and Heinen vanishing.
Sure it does. When Teddy was playing he was gelling well with McGinn, as a 4th line they were killing it. And No one could expect ERod nor Heinen to produce at those levels for a full season. With Zucker out we got McGinn playing in the top six a bit. Good player to be sure but definitely out of his element a bit. When players aren't put in their best position by which to succeed these things happen. Boyle is serviceable but a decided downgrade from TB. OUR PK has also taken a huge step backward.
I already conceded the Sprong goal was a bad one. Bad positioning by Jarry, but more to blame was Ruh's ineffectual D on that. We went to OT. I'm not a Jar defender, but he wasn't the reason we lost. I will now walk away from this dead horse.
If that is directed to me, Andy, no, I'm not even involved in a generic Jarry defense. I'm specifically responding to comments about the Caps game. Jars wasn't good, nor was he awful, and certainly wasn't the reason we lost. It is a bit more complicated than just blaming the G. Maybe the Penguins are returning to the mean? Playing .890 hockey was not sustainable, and requires some good luck. In any case, we have a season's slate of games with the Rangers and Bruins coming on quickly, I think we'll have our answers soon enough. Talk about goaltending, wait until you see NY...
He contributed to our loss. Wasn't the only reason, but he was a reason. One bad goal can decide a game. We can agree to disagree.
