Post-Game Talk: Plus/Minus: Pens vs. Sens: I hate this team

[The Old Master]

That was after back and forth 58 seconds of 3 on 3. He was totally spent.

way back when I was doing a little coaching, that was one of my pet peeve's. if a player didn't skate hard to the bench, he must of stayed out too long and his ice time was shortened. they would usually get the message. at the same time, all over the nhl lots of player do it and no one seems to care.

 

[LosingStreak06]

absolutely Riikola should be playing.

i know who should sit for him, but it'll never happen.

To be fair to the coach it would be pretty insane to sit all three of JJ, Maatta AND Big Rig for Riikola, but it’s not the worst idea I’ve ever heard.

 

[WayneSid9987]

absolutely Riikola should be playing.

i know who should sit for him, but it'll never happen.

Might surprise you that i believe Rig should be sat.
As much as JJ is percieved to be the worst he does some things in his own zone better than Rig. Main one being exits. When the puck touches JJ stick it usually exits the zone vs when Rig gets his touches.
He's also doing rather well on the PK, imo.

I'd go back to the Olli-Riiko pairing.
No clue why they took Riiko out other than maybe showcasing someone for a trade.
Perhaps they believe he's(Rig) this great driver of offense cuz the one place he does do decent with the puck on his stick is when he's skating with it from the NZ to the OZ.

But for me, Riiko can do things offensively with it too, and he's been more dangerous his last outings than Rig in the OZ. Add to that he's simply smarter in his own zone and it should be a no brainer.
Thus, i come back to the showcasing thing....

One thing thats 100% is one of these D are on the market(or several) and it's no doubt in the group of 3 playing thats not Letang/Dumo/Pettersson

 

[domaug]

Might surprise you that i believe Rig should be sat.
As much as JJ is percieved to be the worst he does some things in his own zone better than Rig. Main one being exits. When the puck touches JJ stick it usually exits the zone vs when Rig gets his touches.
He's also doing rather well on the PK, imo.

I'd go back to the Olli-Riiko pairing.
No clue why they took Riiko out other than maybe showcasing someone for a trade.
Perhaps they believe he's(Rig) this great driver of offense cuz the one place he does do decent with the puck on his stick is when he's skating with it from the NZ to the OZ.

But for me, Riiko can do things offensively with it too, and he's been more dangerous his last outings than Rig in the OZ. Add to that he's simply smarter in his own zone and it should be a no brainer.
Thus, i come back to the showcasing thing....

One thing thats 100% is one of these D are on the market and it's probably 1 of the 3 playing thats not Letang/Dumo/Pettersson

i would want JJ to sit for Riikola, but Rig is also a choice. i just want Riikola to play lol

 

[WayneSid9987]

i would want JJ to sit for Riikola, but Rig is also a choice. i just want Riikola to play lol

We all do.

 

[domaug]

To be fair to the coach it would be pretty insane to sit all three of JJ, Maatta AND Big Rig for Riikola, but it’s not the worst idea I’ve ever heard.

i was gonna say just Johnson, but either of Maatta, Oleksiak, or Johnson would be fine to sit IMO.

but i'm not a coach, so idk

 

[WheresRamziAbid]

Sometimes you dominate the play and lose. Goaltending is voodoo, refs didnt help, couple of lapses cost them a game that had no business being close to begin with.

This was a step in the right direction.

Reminds me alot of the rangers game in 16 where we lost but dominated the play and hit the post somewhere in the range of 500 times. Team never looked back after that.

 

[PensandCaps]

We played very good and deserevd the W. lost in OT. Got a point. Oh well.


Refs screwed us.


They gave Letang a 2 for being mugged.


Missed blatant calls on Ottawa all game.

 

[PensandCaps]

Btw, Why is Wilson still getting games over young WBS players?

 

[PensandCaps]

I think we should all be coming around to this trade. Seems to have a lot of potential.

Would love to see us put Pettersson with Schultz.

I'd like

Dumo-Letang
Riikola-Schultz
Petterson-not Johnson

 

[Empoleon8771]

I admit I wasn't watching the game that closely, but I'm not sure you can really get to mad about losing in OT for a game you played extremely well in while you were down 2 top-6 forwards. Sure, it's Ottawa, but this wasn't a game that makes me raise red flags with the roster or the team.

And to the people saying the Penguins got screwed by the refs, I wouldn't be so sure about that. The Penguins just played insanely undisciplined last night, the refs didn't call a couple of blatant penalties against them either. The Rust slewfoot is one that jumps immediately to mind. The powerplay opportunities should have been like 7-5 advantage for the Senators instead of a 5-2 advantage.

Edit: also, the fact that Maatta had a sub-50% CF% when the team was at a 71% CF% and Johnson had a 85% CF% is really telling for how Maatta played yesterday.

 

[SHOOTANDSCORE]

This team needs to practice line changes because we’ve lost literally five games on them.

Seriously.

If they can't get something as simple as that right, think about all of the other details that they're halfassing.

This is a talented team but this is not a good team.

 

[Shwag33]

That's not on malkin... lazy changes are a part of this teams identity. From sid on down. Not a single guy on our team skates hard to the bench; even hornqvist doesn't.

 

[zero8771]

The standard is competing for the cup though. If you're happy making the playoffs and you are in the "anything can happen if you make it" camp, then for sure there's nothing to worry about, but IMO it takes a certain kind of team to really compete and we don't show any of the signs of being that team any more. Playing like we expect to win instead of taking it, playing down to bad teams, not being concerned with getting the details right (unforced turnovers, icings, bench penalties, lazy defense etc), not playing as a team, not having an identity, getting caught up when other teams play dirty or get away with a bad penalty, retaliating. When we've made the final we've done ZERO of those things.

Even in 2017 when we were playing passive defensive hockey, when we got crazy lucky as Fleury willed us past Washington and we got lucky with injuries against Nashville we weren't doing any of those things. None of the winning teams have done those things that I can recall. Now we have all of them again. I think they are more important than having the best roster in the league, but the thing that really concerns me the most is we haven't captured those things easily once they're gone (see the Bylsma/Johnston years). It's taken a coaching change - which is why even though it's super early for it considering success, I think Sully has started his spiral to firing. I'll be happy as hell if he proves me wrong, but I have no evidence to the contrary.

I understand what the standard is. It's still 5 months until the post season. The last 3 times they won the cup they looked like hot garbage until Feb. They just need to put themselves in a decent position standings wise and continue to get better and play harder as the season goes on. They have done it before, if you are expecting a December juggernaut ur going to be disappointed

 

[Burn]

Anyone else bothered that the best player in the world get elbowed twice and the Pens do nothing?

Big Rig is a bad #6. He could have actually become important if he stuck up for his C.

Please trade half this team already and get rid of those not pulling their own behind the bench. Such a wasted year. No heart, no speed and sloppy as hell.

 

[Burn]

They looked pretty decent most of the game but they just kinda blew it. I didn’t hate what I saw, besides the result.

Yeah but its not Oct anymore. You either address the same problems we all see or waste a year.

I thought we were beyond the Disco slide era.

 

[zero8771]

I'd like

Dumo-Letang
Riikola-Schultz
Petterson-not Johnson

Petterson/Johnson had dominant stats last night. Why no props?

 

[ColePens]

That's not on malkin... lazy changes are a part of this teams identity. From sid on down. Not a single guy on our team skates hard to the bench; even hornqvist doesn't.

Lazy changes are part of hockey in general. A lot of guys glide to the bench. If you watch it on any given night, you will see that. However.. the Pens take it to an extreme level. And on top of that, they have had it cost them games this year. So when all of that happens, you would just imagine the Pens would have a tad more sense of urgency since it's a big problem. Nope. They go the other way. They actually get lazier.

That's the part that annoys me.

 

[Shwag33]

Lazy changes are part of hockey in general. A lot of guys glide to the bench. If you watch it on any given night, you will see that. However.. the Pens take it to an extreme level. And on top of that, they have had it cost them games this year. So when all of that happens, you would just imagine the Pens would have a tad more sense of urgency since it's a big problem. Nope. They go the other way. They actually get lazier.

That's the part that annoys me.

For sure. I think the NHL needs to tighten up too many men calls in general. I hate nothing more than seeing a potential 2 on 1 being taken away because of a change being taken advantage of. It happens all the time. There's way too much leeway given.

 

[EightyOne]

Lol wtf is this missing 2 top 6 forward excuse?

OTT is missing Duchene and Ryan. Both of whom are WAY more important to their overall team than Horny or f***ing Simon to the Pens

Lol. Weak excuse.

 

[PensandCaps]

Lol wtf is this missing 2 top 6 forward excuse?

OTT is missing Duchene and Ryan. Both of whom are WAY more important to their overall team than Horny or ****ing Simon to the Pens

Lol. Weak excuse.

We dominated Ottawa. Just bad luck. And the Refs cost us this game.


Still not sure what Letang did to Tkachuk to get 2 minutes.

 

[Gurglesons]

Lol wtf is this missing 2 top 6 forward excuse?

OTT is missing Duchene and Ryan. Both of whom are WAY more important to their overall team than Horny or ****ing Simon to the Pens

Lol. Weak excuse.

K. So “good” team should beat every “bad” team.

You realize by having less stars it forces the Senators to play a tighter systematic game. There still is a coach that took the back to back Penguins to the tightest brink during their championships behind Ottawa’s bench.

We played a near perfect game and lost because of a terrible individual play by Olli and a powerplay.

 

[Ryder71]

1) We were missing 2 of our top 5on5 producers.
2) Sometimes you just have to tip your hat to the opposing goaltender.

Only negative from this one(well a couple):

Letang losing his mind.
Riikola should be playing.

It was a horribly ref'ed game. Like worse than the usual bad.

There's another negative also, which is that we lost.

Sometimes we lose because of uneven efforts, sometimes our goaltending isn't up to snuff, Sometimes it's the coach and his piss poor player usage, sometimes it can be attributed to injuries to key players, or bad line changes, or undisciplined players, etc. But the end result is that we fell short more times than not this season.

 

[td_ice]

Reading Yohe's comments, he mentions that he has heard from NHL execs that the refs have been given a new mandate. Call less penalties. That the "higher ups" want more physicality and less PP's. Could explain the lack of penalties that were incredibly obvious.

 

[heysmilinstrange]

EDIT: I see td_ice beat me to it.