SERIES DISCUSSION: Metro Semis | Pens vs. Rangers | There Will Be Blood (Not Theirs)

[chosen]

Believe it or not the Rangers are actually a weak team in terms of puck possession stats, and we're a really strong one. I wouldn't be surprised to see us out shoot them in many of the games this series, and if we get a little puck luck for once that could mean a surprising series win for us.

Given their puck possession stats the Rangers have been getting lucky all year. They're obviously still a great team but they're not as great as they've played.

Your logic doesn't make sense to me and might be an indictment of possession stats. A team cannot get lucky for an entire season.

I have been a Rangers fan for close to 50 seasons and this team is probably in the top 3 I have seen. This doesn't mean that the Penguin can't sweep the series, but it seems uunlikely.

What makes the Rangers so good is that they have some very good young players, especially Hayes.

Personally, I wish Letang and Malkin were healthy because I enjoy watching Pitt play and I like Crosby, which is sacrilege among Rangers fans.

 

[SherogoesHAM]

Hypothetically, if Bobby Farnham was called up, and he drew 20 penalties in 20 games and the Penguins win the stanley cup. Would he have a legitimate chance at the Conn Smythe without even scoring a point?

 

[WayneSid9987]

They can slack on puck possession cuz they have the King in goal and Talbot played his *** off when he was out. Thats what makes/made them great.

 

[Miss Ausguins]

Oh I had a fun afternoon (being 14 hours ahead of you peeps hehe) out walking an area that's very popular with all the local fitness freaks and I spot a young fella wearing a Penguins Logo tshirt and even he thinks the Rags are going to kick our rear ends

 

[Shady Machine]

I agree. Chorley has done the simple things right. Yeah he's not going to be. Top 4 guy and ordinarily wouldn't be a top 7 guy but he hasn't made any glaring errors and is up to speed having played the last couple of weeks on the NHL roster.

Nobody is saying he's been bad. My issue with playing him is with the team's future. We aren't going to win this series regardless of what D plays. If you play Chorney over Dumo and Harry, then next season rolls around and we are still hearing about lacking experience on D. They will make another short sighted decision rather than just letting the youth work out the kinks.

 

[Coastal Kev]

Nobody is saying he's been bad. My issue with playing him is with the team's future. We aren't going to win this series regardless of what D plays. If you play Chorney over Dumo and Harry, then next season rolls around and we are still hearing about lacking experience on D. They will make another short sighted decision rather than just letting the youth work out the kinks.

Dumo, Despres and Harrington should have played all year. If we could have traded Martin & Scuds and not signed Ehrhoff. Not played Maata until December, look what shape we would be in.

Instead we will lose Martin for nothing.
Ehrhoff was a waste.
Scuds is still here.
We trade Despres for Lovejoy.
And Dumo and Harrington will still be rookies next year.

This is just the D we are talking about be mismanaged. We haven't even touched the forward group and look at all of the bad decisions.


Oh yea, before someone brings up we couldn't have traded Martin/too important argument. As I state last summer, Martin will not be the reason we win or lose come playoffs. We have Martin now and we are going out in the first round. We could have got back a nice piece for him, instead we get nothing. Unless our band of GM's gives an overvalued, lengthy contract this summer.

 

[johnniewalker]

Pens in 6. No pressure for once, and all of the just-wide shots and bad luck finally swing back for us and goals start going in.

 

[DegenX]

Practice updates ...

 

[WayneSid9987]

Erhoff seemed to be the odd man out in thier drills today.
Perhaps they go with some combo of Chorney, Pooh, Domou, and Harrington instead.

They were also gonna try a 2D PP1 today with Martin/Erhoff but they didn't. It was Martin, Sid, Geno, Horny, Perron all day.

 

[IcedCapp]

Now replace Scuderi with Pouliot and put lovejoy with Pouliot.

 

[Pancakes]

Your logic doesn't make sense to me and might be an indictment of possession stats. A team cannot get lucky for an entire season.

I have been a Rangers fan for close to 50 seasons and this team is probably in the top 3 I have seen. This doesn't mean that the Penguin can't sweep the series, but it seems uunlikely.

What makes the Rangers so good is that they have some very good young players, especially Hayes.

Personally, I wish Letang and Malkin were healthy because I enjoy watching Pitt play and I like Crosby, which is sacrilege among Rangers fans.

Teams can and do get lucky for entire seasons. The Rangers are converting their chances at an unsustainably high percentage given the amount of chances they generate.

Generally speaking teams that drive possession do well in the long run, and teams that don't do less well.

 

[Shady Machine]

Good to see Pouliot back on the ice for practice. My guess is Ehrhoff isn't ready for game 1. If they can get Ehrhoff and Pouliot healthy, and actually have some balls with lineup decisions, it may not be half bad:

Martin-Cole
Ehrhoff-Dumo
Lovejoy-Pouliot

I'd probably go with that. Scuds won't sit though, so there's that.

 

[Waffle Fries]

Don't know if it's been posted, but Rick Nash has the flu. If he plays tomorrow, likely won't be 100%

 

[Jaded-Fan]

Good to see Pouliot back on the ice for practice. My guess is Ehrhoff isn't ready for game 1. If they can get Ehrhoff and Pouliot healthy, and actually have some balls with lineup decisions, it may not be half bad:

Martin-Cole
Ehrhoff-Dumo
Lovejoy-Pouliot

I'd probably go with that. Scuds won't sit though, so there's that.

Yes, the Pens in any event are not as bad as they showed when they were down five defensemen. Have those defensive pairings would bring the Pens close to a fairly healthy team as we had for most of the year. They could easily be taken lightly, and you really can not take a team too lightly in the playoffs and expect to get away with it. Especially at home the Rangers will be pressing to put on a show rather than just win the game. And the longer it goes that the show does not come, ie that the Pens keep it close, the more nervous that crowd becomes and the more pressure that team with all the headlines feels. At home. We have worn that shoe many times in recent years and it almost never fit well. That is an exploitable area that the Pens should, and better, exploit. ie, design a game plan to frustrate them and keep the score low.

Would anyone be shocked if the Pens ended up with a split in NY? It always happened to us when we were heavily favored. Not that the Rags are not a better team but that they may not be the most motivated team. The Pens should be playing as if game one is an elimination game.

 

[WayneSid9987]

Looks like Erhoff is still day to day and Pooh's gonna need more time.
Another WBS D-Man should see action in game 1.
Might as well go with the Domoulin-Chorney pairing thats been playing so well in WBS.

 

[SEALBound]

The Rangers defense is miles ahead of our offense. Our defense won't be able to stop their offense over the course of 7 games.

This just isn't happening. Not losing faith or nothing...just realistic.

 

[aufheben]

Teams can and do get lucky for entire seasons. The Rangers are converting their chances at an unsustainably high percentage given the amount of chances they generate.

Generally speaking teams that drive possession do well in the long run, and teams that don't do less well.

We generate a lot of chances IIRC, our mediocre possession numbers come from giving up shots (i.e. loss of Stralman).

Edit: NYR Shot/Game is 6th in the league, I think our CorsiFor is a few spots lower than that.


Btw Nash has the flu, we're waiting to hear if he'll play tomorrow.

 

[Dennis Reynolds]

In the last 15 games played, the Penguins have won only four of them. They've scored 26 goals to average 1.73 Goals For Per Game. They've allowed 44, or 2.93 Goals Against Per Game.

By comparison, the Rangers are 10-5 in their last 15, scoring 47 times for 3.13 GFPG, and allowing 35 for 2.33 GAPG.

 

[chosen]

Teams can and do get lucky for entire seasons. The Rangers are converting their chances at an unsustainably high percentage given the amount of chances they generate.

Generally speaking teams that drive possession do well in the long run, and teams that don't do less well.

The notion that a team can be lucky for 80 games is beyond silly.

Makes me wonder what you even believe lucky is. Converting chances is lucky?

Is Crosby luckier than Kuntz on scoring chances?

 

[Shady Machine]

The notion that a team can be lucky for 80 games is beyond silly.

Makes me wonder what you even believe lucky is. Converting chances is lucky?

Is Crosby luckier than Kuntz on scoring chances?

Agreed. Say the Rangers and Pens have the same number of chances, I would expect the Rangers to capitalize on a higher % of those chances (especially with the Pens defense as it is currently constructed).

The Rangers may be a tad lucky and the Pens a tad unlucky, but the Rangers conversion % should be higher.

 

[Shockmaster]

So judging by the line rushes, it looks like Kunitz's feelings still take precedence over trying to win.

 

[Waffle Fries]

http://video.penguins.nhl.com/videocenter/console?catid=912&id=807946&lang=en&navid=DL|PIT|home

Can anyone figure out what Geno said about Letang around the 2:30 mark?

Also, people aren't going to like this, but Geno refers to Adams and Kunitz as leaders on the team.

 

[Will Hunting]

http://video.penguins.nhl.com/videocenter/console?catid=912&id=807946&lang=en&navid=DL|PIT|home

Can anyone figure out what Geno said about Letang around the 2:30 mark?

Also, people aren't going to like this, but Geno refers to Adams and Kunitz as leaders on the team.

I was wondering about that earlier in the day.. My English is not the best though (but better than Geno´s). Anyway, it was something about Tanger being back..

 

[Coastal Kev]

We generate a lot of chances IIRC, our mediocre possession numbers come from giving up shots (i.e. loss of Stralman).

Edit: NYR Shot/Game is 6th in the league, I think our CorsiFor is a few spots lower than that.


Btw Nash has the flu, we're waiting to hear if he'll play tomorrow.

Can you provide any update as to whether Nash has common or uncommon diarrhea....

 

[Waffle Fries]

I was wondering about that earlier in the day.. My English is not the best though (but better than Geno´s). Anyway, it was something about Tanger being back..

Right ha it was something like "Letang is a big loss, *words I could not understand* soon."