GDT: PO Game 3: Columbus vs. Pittsburgh | 4/21 7PM EDT

[ca5150]

I feel like the foundation is already built. We have Jenner, Murray, Johansen, developed through the draft. Finally we have a #1 goalie.

We have solid players currently in their primes with good chemistry, all signed and committed to the team: Dubie, Arty, Wiz, Jack, Foligno, Horton, Calvert, Cam etc.

I'm not saying have a different top 6 every year but most teams do turnover at least a few roster spots each year.

And I'm sure we will have a couple that turnover, Nikitin, Frattin and maybe a few others. We have some players that could join next year, Wennberg, Rychel, Dano, HORTON!...it's a longer term process than you or most of us are willing to admit. Enjoy the ride of our first competitive playoff series and stop trying to blame management for not risking the future for this year!

Can you forget about Prospel and Gaborik and Player "X" that we didn't get, and enjoy the show our guys are putting on?! Jeez....you are the guy at the games that sits there pointing out every single negative thing. Have some fun brother! Go to the actual game tomorrow and put the computer down for a bit!

 

[ca5150]

Jarmo, and Jd have made it clear they are building brick by brick to accomplish the ultimate goal of winning the Stanley Cup. Maybe u think Gaborik made this team a legitimate contender this season, but they sit tight with Gaborik, he walks at the end of the season. Maybe, we use the 2nd and 3rd and our 1st to package for a young player that makes team better for long term, maybe we package those picks to move up into the first round for a player that could make a difference next year, or maybe, we just keep the picks, and draft another player like Boone Jenner in the second round. Some may be mad that Jarmo didnt do everything in his power to make this team as good as possible, but I think both him and Jd have stated the goal from the beginning, and are working towards that goal. If nothing was there, and they felt this made our team better for the future, I'm willing to see how it plays out. As it stands, we had the 3 first round picks last year, and this year we will have our first, plus 2 seconds, and 2 third round picks. These 2 drafts could really set our organization up for a long time.

Exactly

 

[IHeartZherdev*]

Jarmo, and Jd have made it clear they are building brick by brick to accomplish the ultimate goal of winning the Stanley Cup. Maybe u think Gaborik made this team a legitimate contender this season, but they sit tight with Gaborik, he walks at the end of the season. Maybe, we use the 2nd and 3rd and our 1st to package for a young player that makes team better for long term, maybe we package those picks to move up into the first round for a player that could make a difference next year, or maybe, we just keep the picks, and draft another player like Boone Jenner in the second round. Some may be mad that Jarmo didnt do everything in his power to make this team as good as possible, but I think both him and Jd have stated the goal from the beginning, and are working towards that goal. If nothing was there, and they felt this made our team better for the future, I'm willing to see how it plays out. As it stands, we had the 3 first round picks last year, and this year we will have our first, plus 2 seconds, and 2 third round picks. These 2 drafts could really set our organization up for a long time.

Enough with the brick-by-brick nonsense. Having draft picks is great; every team has draft picks. Literally every team can say that they will be set for the future if all their draft picks pan out.

Howson drafted well and lots of "bricks" are already in place. Jenner, Bob, Johansen, Murray - that's a solid young core and foundation right there. Not to mention Jack, Dubi, Wiz, Arty, etc. The idea that we should just keep those guys and not adding any prime talent to compliment them and just keep drafting guys who are 5 years away is ridiculous.

 

[K33Z]

I have been following this team for years but haven't posted nearly as much as I watched the games.

The biggest problem with the team is our severe lack of poise. Play well; score a couple of goals and dominate the neutral zone which gives us momentum. Make one mistake (ie a ****** turnover like RJs yesterday with 4 jacket players around him vs 1penguins player and somehow gives it away) and its in the back of the net and we lose our confidence to simply clear the damned puck which leads to more terrible goals that should never have happened. Good teams are able to make simple plays under tremendous amounts of pressure (Chicago being a good example) and CLEAR THE PUCK OUT.

Hockey is mostly about momentum/quick tansitions/winning the small battles. Jackets have no problems gaining momentum and making quick transitions. The problem is that we have too many blue collar players. If one average blue collar makes a simple mistake (ie RJs turnover) that goes in the back of the net, he simply won't have the skills to be pissed off and go score two goals the other way; well have to grind that goal or hope to be lucky while hoping we don't make another Pejorative Slured mistake. Pittsburgh has plenty of players that can score with the smallest of chances, which we have seen yesterday even though two of their goals were lucky bounces.

This leads me to my main point: we lack poise. By the way, why didn't Richards take a timeout when it went 3-3? I was telling myself (this was right after pitts 2nd goal) that it would be awesome if the game were only tied by the 10 min mark of the 3rd. Guess my intuition was right since we were trailing by that time. Anyways. A simple mistake absolutely kills this team and we lose all our momentum in a fraction of a second. We are a young team which lacks experience. Why are we hanging back with the lead? We should be hitting the opposition even harder and checking them 2x harder but nope... just l hope l they dont score. And please don't tell me this is something new because I aint even mad this has happened: we are all too used to this ?%&! and lets not lie here: I'm pretty sure we all saw it coming (the blown lead followed by the loss).

What this team really needs to do the next game is actually fairly simple:
1) Clear the crease - at least make the pens pay the price of being in front of the net. We failed to do so in the 3rd period last night.
2) Crash the net even more - we all know MAF sucks
3) CLEAR THE PUCK IT DOSENT MATTER WHERE YOU CLEAR IT AS LONG AS ITS NOT AN ICING
4) NOT ONE STEP BACK - always always always more pressure on the other team which takes away momentum and gives it to us (we fail horribly at doing this when we lead)

Step 4 is where we have lost many points and games throughout the season. If we are able to do these simply steps combined with the pens players playing bad like they have since the series began there should be no worries.

 

[blahblah]

This is silly. Here is the playoff breakdown.

AA - 26
Dubinsky - 31
JJ - 12
Wiz - 18
RJ - 26
Tyutin - 28
Letestu - 11
Boll - 1
Foligno - 17
Schultz - 24 (but not playing)
Bob - 7 (only 3 starting)

Players with zero - Johansen, Jenner, Murray, Calvert, Atkinson, Comeau, Nikitin, Skille, Tropp, MacKenzie, Savard, Prout

The deepest run was 20 games (AA) with 17 being the next closest (well 18 if you could Schultz - he's not playing so I don't). The rest are 10 or under. So only 3 guys with deep runs and one of them is RJ and another is Schultz.

Crosby alone has 82 (approaching all our forwards combined), Malkin 82, Kunitz 102, Martin 70 (more than our entire defense that played in the first 3 games.) (there are obviously more with a lot on the Pens).

We are a very inexperienced team. We have a lot of guys with no playoff experience playing big roles on this team. We have 3 over 20 minutes and another 3 over 17 minutes.

 

[blahblah]

By the way, why didn't Richards take a timeout when it went 3-3?

He did.

285 3 EV 7:03 12:57 GOAL PIT #22 STEMPNIAK(1), Wrist, Off. Zone, 25 ft. Assists: #14 KUNITZ(1); #87 CROSBY(4)
286 3 7:03 12:57 STOP HOME TIMEOUT

The Pens scored the 4th 1:03 later at 8:06

I think your summary of things that we need to do is kind of oversimplified talking points. We're getting burnt mainly from deflections from shots by the defense. Clearing the crease is overused anyway. If you clear the crease you already run the risk of getting an interference penalty. That's mainly for when the goaltender is screened. Really not an issue last night.

When you say "crash the net" your basically saying they need to breath.

Thanks for the post, look forward to you posting some more.

 

[K33Z]

He did.

285 3 EV 7:03 12:57 GOAL PIT #22 STEMPNIAK(1), Wrist, Off. Zone, 25 ft. Assists: #14 KUNITZ(1); #87 CROSBY(4)
286 3 7:03 12:57 STOP HOME TIMEOUT

The Pens scored the 4th 1:03 later at 8:06

My mistake, I thought it was after the fourth goal. I guess they scored right after we took the timeout. What I'm trying to point out with these (very) simplified points is that we cannot let the pens off the hook and that by simply applying pressure we will:
- Spend less time in our d-zone trying to defend ourselves of simply clearing the puck
- Force their bad goalie to make a save
- Give Bob a break (I still dont have 100% confidence in Bob sucks to say but it is what it is)

We simpy failed at doing these things in the 3rd period and it cost us the game. We can even say that it began in the 2nd period with that late goal. The things is that the point shots which got defelcted in the net never would of happened if we kept our heads cool and made simple plays to get the puck out of our zone. DId you see Bob's reaction after the fourth goal? He looked horrified. Thats a sign that we lack confidence/poise/mental toughness or whatever we can call it. We need to stay cool headed and step it up when we have the opponent in the cables which is something we clearly lack since we have seen this a couple of times this season.

Hope this makes sense.

 

[JKinCLE]

I have been following this team for years but haven't posted nearly as much as I watched the games.

The biggest problem with the team is our severe lack of poise. Play well; score a couple of goals and dominate the neutral zone which gives us momentum. Make one mistake (ie a ****** turnover like RJs yesterday with 4 jacket players around him vs 1penguins player and somehow gives it away) and its in the back of the net and we lose our confidence to simply clear the damned puck which leads to more terrible goals that should never have happened. Good teams are able to make simple plays under tremendous amounts of pressure (Chicago being a good example) and CLEAR THE PUCK OUT.

Hockey is mostly about momentum/quick tansitions/winning the small battles. Jackets have no problems gaining momentum and making quick transitions. The problem is that we have too many blue collar players. If one average blue collar makes a simple mistake (ie RJs turnover) that goes in the back of the net, he simply won't have the skills to be pissed off and go score two goals the other way; well have to grind that goal or hope to be lucky while hoping we don't make another Pejorative Slured mistake. Pittsburgh has plenty of players that can score with the smallest of chances, which we have seen yesterday even though two of their goals were lucky bounces.

This leads me to my main point: we lack poise. By the way, why didn't Richards take a timeout when it went 3-3? I was telling myself (this was right after pitts 2nd goal) that it would be awesome if the game were only tied by the 10 min mark of the 3rd. Guess my intuition was right since we were trailing by that time. Anyways. A simple mistake absolutely kills this team and we lose all our momentum in a fraction of a second. We are a young team which lacks experience. Why are we hanging back with the lead? We should be hitting the opposition even harder and checking them 2x harder but nope... just l hope l they dont score. And please don't tell me this is something new because I aint even mad this has happened: we are all too used to this ?%&! and lets not lie here: I'm pretty sure we all saw it coming (the blown lead followed by the loss).

What this team really needs to do the next game is actually fairly simple:
1) Clear the crease - at least make the pens pay the price of being in front of the net. We failed to do so in the 3rd period last night.
2) Crash the net even more - we all know MAF sucks
3) CLEAR THE PUCK IT DOSENT MATTER WHERE YOU CLEAR IT AS LONG AS ITS NOT AN ICING
4) NOT ONE STEP BACK - always always always more pressure on the other team which takes away momentum and gives it to us (we fail horribly at doing this when we lead)

Step 4 is where we have lost many points and games throughout the season. If we are able to do these simply steps combined with the pens players playing bad like they have since the series began there should be no worries.

Agreed 100%. Im sure the sick feeling that crept over me when the pens scored with 1 second left in the 2nd was the same feeling they had. That seed of doubt was planted and that was it... I had the game "taped" to watch after my 10 hour shift, and ended up fast forwarding through much the third, because I KNEW... say what you will, but I KNEW we would lose that game after it became 3-2. I saved myself an extra 45 minutes of agony, and got to bed around 3am.

That being said, I have been standing on the ledge since the Olympic break, I'm not gonna jump off now. I'll be there tomorrow, hoping to see a different outcome, but good god am I sick of hearing the same lines coming from these guys after we blow games late.... "Learning experience" "prevent defense prevents you from winning" "took our foot off the gas". Where is the team that was 30-0 when leading after 2 periods?

 

[blahblah]

My mistake, I thought it was after the fourth goal. I guess they scored right after we took the timeout. What I'm trying to point out with these (very) simplified points is that we cannot let the pens off the hook and that by simply applying pressure we will:
- Spend less time in our d-zone trying to defend ourselves of simply clearing the puck
- Force their bad goalie to make a save
- Give Bob a break (I still dont have 100% confidence in Bob sucks to say but it is what it is)

We simpy failed at doing these things in the 3rd period and it cost us the game. We can even say that it began in the 2nd period with that late goal. The things is that the point shots which got defelcted in the net never would of happened if we kept our heads cool and made simple plays to get the puck out of our zone. DId you see Bob's reaction after the fourth goal? He looked horrified. Thats a sign that we lack confidence/poise/mental toughness or whatever we can call it. We need to stay cool headed and step it up when we have the opponent in the cables which is something we clearly lack since we have seen this a couple of times this season.

Hope this makes sense.

I hate to tell you this; but this has been our m.o. for months. We love to give up leads and we like to come back from early deficits. It's probably not likely to change in the playoffs.

I think you are looking at the wrong adjustments for the issue with the deflections. I think there needs to be a system adjustment there; not a simple blanket statement like "If we keep our forecheck going the puck will never be in our zone so we'll never get scored upon".

I get what you mean about clearing the puck, but I think it's over-simplified. You need transition. If you are under pressure and need a change; I agree. But if you have time, you should be making transition.

There is another team our there. You would like to get rid of some of the mental errors and unforced errors. But the other team has a lot of skill. We've done a pretty good job of countering that thus far. I discussed in great detail why this is a bad match up for Columbus.

I don't get your comment about Bob and how that relates to a confidence issue or whatever you are trying to get at. If you give up 3 goals that quickly, you are likely going to be rattled. It will probably take a shift or two to get your focus back and get your mind right. That's one of the reasons they go with the timeout.

 

[K33Z]

Man I really need to learn to sit down and read everything before I post. I read Blablahs response; responded a first time. Then I read it again; edited my post. Then I read it a third time and realised I missed something again!

What I meant by clearing the crease is making the guy pay when he sits in front of our goalie. Cross-check him, push him down, make him think: ''god I have to screen these guys again! for the love of god...''. We are a young team and the penguins are older. We have to make them pay when they sit in front of our net and the referees know this and the referees will allow some punishment to take place. They will allow cross checks and other intimidating manoeuvers as long as you don't step over the line (hard cross-check, pushing the guy in the neck, slashes behind the legs, etc.). To be honest we looked really sofff (picture Michel THerrien here) in that department in the 3rd last night. We have to hit them hard like Dubi does vs Crosby (who isnt playing well tbh and thats thanks to Dubi).

I'm not sure this makes a whole lot of sense as I typed it pretty fast but I'll get back to you guys later on.

 

[blahblah]

What I meant by clearing the crease is making the guy pay when he sits in front of our goalie. Cross-check him, push him down, make him think: ''god I have to screen these guys again! for the love of god...''.

That's probably not something that they're going to emphasize. As I said, screens haven't been that much of an issue. A lot of goalies prefer that you don't get in there and add another body to see around and that's just another opportunity for a deflection. How many goals has JMFJ scored for the other team this year?

If you do too much of what you suggest, you'll end up in the penalty box. We've had a couple of guys end up with cross-checking penalties already, if I remember correctly, from the scrambles in front of the net. I've seen some of our guys trying to tie up sticks from the side. I'd have to look again, but I think that was what was happening on the 4th goal.

The better idea is probably to try and block more of those shots from the point. Too much time and space on some of those shots.

 

[K33Z]

I hate to tell you this; but this has been our m.o. for months. We love to give up leads and we like to come back from early deficits. It's probably not likely to change in the playoffs.

I think you are looking at the wrong adjustments for the issue with the deflections. I think there needs to be a system adjustment there; not a simple blanket statement like "If we keep our forecheck going the puck will never be in our zone so we'll never get scored upon".

I get what you mean about clearing the puck, but I think it's over-simplified. You need transition. If you are under pressure and need a change; I agree. But if you have time, you should be making transition.

There is another team our there. You would like to get rid of some of the mental errors and unforced errors. But the other team has a lot of skill. We've done a pretty good job of countering that thus far. I discussed in great detail why this is a bad match up for Columbus.

I don't get your comment about Bob and how that relates to a confidence issue or whatever you are trying to get at. If you give up 3 goals that quickly, you are likely going to be rattled. It will probably take a shift or two to get your focus back and get your mind right. That's one of the reasons they go with the timeout.

I know that prevent D is our way of playing hence why I said I actually saw the loss coming when they tied the game. When they scored their first goal it was clear in my mind we were at least going to OT.

I am not the best when it comes to reading systems and proposing adjustments but from what I have seen all year our wingers are playing too low to my liking in the D zone. But we can't have it both ways. If we play the wingers too high then we might be leaving the middle zone open which could lead to even more problems!

Transition is important but when you are leading the game, killing momentum is the best thing you can do. Clearing the puck is an example of momentum killer as it forces the other team to regroup and try another play to score. Getting a transition game is better than simply killing momentum. However, it is better to clear the puck than to attempt to get a transition going when you are leading and the other team has momentum. RJs mistake yesterday clearly demonstrates this as he tried to get the offense going but lost the puck to a single pens player when we had 3 teammates around him.

I will get back at the Bob comment since I forgot what I said already and I have to go. Hope this made sense.

 

[jackets4life]

As I said, screens haven't been that much of an issue.

Tell that to Bob as he fishes yet another puck out of the net that was scored on a screened shot from the point.

 

[BluejacketNut]

They have to cut down the shots. Even if they're not quality chances, there's a reason they say throw it on net and good things happen. The deflections are a product of that and the more you give up, the more its bound to happen. And then when it does, like we saw, it goes downhill fast.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

Here's the Foligno 'snowing' penalty

 

[BluejacketNut]

Here's the Foligno 'snowing' penalty



Unreal, I hope Davidson made a call about that. That's one of the most ridiculous playoff penalties i've ever seen. It would be much worse then the too many men on the ice if that one didnt result in a game winning goal in the final minutes.

 

[CarolinaBlueJacket]

Here's the Foligno 'snowing' penalty

I am not one to pick on the refs. Its a thankless job but one that we have to have. Ok now that that is out of the way. WTF WAS THAT BS? THAT WAS UNREAL!

 

[major major]

3) CLEAR THE PUCK IT DOSENT MATTER WHERE YOU CLEAR IT AS LONG AS ITS NOT AN ICING
4) NOT ONE STEP BACK - always always always more pressure on the other team which takes away momentum and gives it to us (we fail horribly at doing this when we lead)

Step 4 is where we have lost many points and games throughout the season. If we are able to do these simply steps combined with the pens players playing bad like they have since the series began there should be no worries.

There are tradeoffs with all of the things you posted. If you flip the puck out you give up possession, which is pretty much how you get dominated. The way to stop that is to skate or pass it out. I think with just fivish minutes left you can switch to flipping it out, but at the start of the third period its too early for that. And taking not one step back is a recipe for odd man rushes against.

I don't really have any answers (besides the obvious - don't pass it to Malkin, Umby). I think it helps to understand that you need to score more than 3 goals, thats the Flyers way of beating the Pens. The Bruins way doesn't seem to be within our skillset.

 

[SuperGenius]

Here's the Foligno 'snowing' penalty

I decided to take this to Kerry Fraser...

 

[CBJWerenski8]

I decided to take this to Kerry Fraser...

Omg that's awesome. Loved your tweet wording too

 

[MoeBartoli]

Loved your post SuperGenius. One of the most famous refs giving a thumbs down on the call was great!

 

[CarolinaBlueJacket]

I decided to take this to Kerry Fraser...

Of course we knew it was a ridiculous call but its nice to hear it from a ref.

Nice job!!

 

[Jaxs]

Here's the Foligno 'snowing' penalty

Thanks for posting the Foligno snow job. Holy crap that was a weak call.

 

[db2011]

We really could have used a goal on that PP, so many nice passes, but everyone looked afraid to shoot. I remember feeling the same as you when I saw Wiz pass up that opportunity.

The whole "We would have won with MAF" theory is completely flawed to the core. Just compare the save percentages from last night. If we had been able to send 40 shots on net, we would have scored 6 goals most likely.

I was telling my friend most of the second half of the game last night that everyone seemed afraid to shoot. I think that's the youth and the inexperience. They were fine lighting up Pens players with hits, but seemed to lack the courage to try to light the lamp.

 

[NotWendell]

And I'm sure we will have a couple that turnover, Nikitin, Frattin and maybe a few others. We have some players that could join next year, Wennberg, Rychel, Dano, HORTON!...it's a longer term process than you or most of us are willing to admit. Enjoy the ride of our first competitive playoff series and stop trying to blame management for not risking the future for this year!

Can you forget about Prospel and Gaborik and Player "X" that we didn't get, and enjoy the show our guys are putting on?! Jeez....you are the guy at the games that sits there pointing out every single negative thing. Have some fun brother! Go to the actual game tomorrow and put the computer down for a bit!

ALL of this.