SHOOTANDSCORE
Eeny Meeny Miny Moe
- Sep 25, 2005
- 10,952
- 4,675
I'd argue that a big part of what made the Pens successful in 2016 was building on the foundation of defensive hockey that MJ had them playing. The same dynamic happened in 2009. Those teams had smart, responsible hockey browbeaten into them. It wasn't successful on it's own but it was a necessary component. I'm not sure a couple of months is enough to fully rebuild that structure and then build on it.Yes, Sid takes games and shifts off all the time...I’ve watched him his whole career...that’s why people thought he was done after 2015...he gets tired of fighting thru the bs too...
Agree you need to play a certain way for awhile for it to become habitual, but like we saw with the Pens in 2016 and the Caps in 2018, you can start that in February and be on a roll entering the POs, and it’s better to be hot the last half of the season if you want to make it to the SCF anyway, as the Blues show too
Re: Sid. He definitely takes games off, like any player. But I guarandamntee you that he won't be taking off 41 games. He'll be hard to play against for the majority of the games, easily.