Post-Game Talk: THE MIGHTY SABRES - 4, The Puny Penguins - 1

[titaniumexpose]

+Fleury
-Uninspired game
-Neal
-TK Does not deserve to be anywhere except the 4th line
-Steigy: Doug Murray? Please call him that to his face
-Bylsma: Scratching Vitale again. He has done more than enough to deserve a lineup spot.
-Dmen blocking shots with their palms. Do not tempt the hockey gods any more this season please.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

[Scene: a dark, stormy night in a moderately sized mansion somewhere in the suburbs of Pittsburgh]

Jarome Iginla: "So this is your place, Sid? Nice digs!"

Sidney Crosby: mrrmmhphhfmffrrmmmmffmm

Chris Kunitz: "So, uh, yea, Sid, how are you feeling?"

Sidney Crosby: mrrmmhphhfmffrrmmmmffmm

Iginla and Kunitz: "Oh, well, that's good. So what ya doin?"

Sidney Crosby: mrrmmhphhfmffrrmmmmffmm

Iginla: "You wanna play some video games or something, build that chemistry, ya know?"

Sidney Crosby: mrrmmhphhfmffrrmmmmffmm

Kunitz: "Oh, or how about we get some dinner? I could go for a big, juicy steak right now"

Sidney Crosby: mrrmmhphhfmffrrmmmmffmm

Jarome: "He seems interested in the steak. I could use one, too."

Sidney Crosby: mrrmmhphhfmffrrmmmmffmm

Jarome: "Okay, steak it is! Let me go to the washroom before we go."

<Iginla exits to the right>

[3 minutes later]

Iginla: "Dammit Dupuis, when did you sneak in? That's my spot, GET OUT!"

Sidney Crosby: mrrmmhphhfmffrrmmmmffmm

You forgot the part about Byslma giving Dupuis a boost through the bedroom window.

 

[IcedCapp]

Dupuis hater! J'accuse! Dupuis is perfectly competent.

In fact, you could say he's the straw that stirs the drink on that line.

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

haha

You forgot the part about Byslma giving Dupuis a boost through the bedroom window.

LOL. I think it's Dan and Daaaaaaaaan helping him out.

 

[Pick87your71Poison]

I would like to see line-up more like:
Kunitz-sid-iggy
Beau-malkin-neal
morrow-sutter-duper
Tk-vitale-adam
Thoughts?

You forgot Cooke so that's def an issue

 

[Malkinstheman]

You forgot Cooke so that's def an issue

There really wasnt any space.. unless you kick kennedy out as well and put cooke on the 4th line or leave sunshine in the minors, have morrow come to the second line amd cooke goes on the third.

 

[Shady Machine]

So pissed that I stayed up late to watch that game. Just a bad, bad game. Hopefully they put that one behind them.

Geno was force feeding Iggy a bit too much. I'm sure that will change over time.

 

[Ogrezilla]

this is why I keep Bennett out of my lines. No way someone like Adams, Cooke or TK gets sat for him.

Geno was force feeding Iggy a bit too much. I'm sure that will change over time.

I'd have to watch more closely to say for sure, but how much of that is because Geno is the one going to get the puck in the first place instead of having someone like Kunitz to do it for him?

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

i really can not stand james neal.

the guy is a huge leach, cheecho redux. he excels at finding soft spots in defenses and has a great shot, but otherwise he doesn't bring anything aside from the very rare night where he decides to play physical. without malkin continually feeding him golden opportunities, he's worthless. poor efforts, not engaged physically, and consistently stupid selfish penalties.

selfish overrated leach.

Not sure if serious???

 

[Rocket of Russia]

this one too.

really just give me a line up with

____- Sid - Iggy
____- Geno - Neal
____- Sutter - _____
_____- Vitale - _____

and its hard to mess up. You'd have to try to put people out of place at that point.

I was going to try to find the post where I had that same list with ? instead of _____, but I figured so many of us already see it, what's the sense showing what day it was written. Stop plagiarizing my internet brilliance!

I had a few more "givens" though in that Kunitz was on line 1 or 2, Morrow on line 2 or 3 (That being said in the back of my mind I worry about line 2's puck retrieval being the responsibility of a player too slow to be effective), and Dupuis on 1, 2, or 3. I would include Bennett in the lineup, but out of all of DB's blunders, scratching Bennett is the most understandable. The only other given is that Glass is scratched, but you could've already guessed that as I had Vitale as a lock already.

+/-

+Congrats on the streak, fellas
+Fleury is healthy
+It's another day out from the Sid injury I'm sick of reliving.
+Iginla is a Penguin
+Lack of Sid can put to rest those that think Dupuis/Kunitz both have to remain with Sid at the expense of Iginla
+Hopefully save some $ with new contracts - see above

-Orpik...horri-terri-bad. His IQ is rivaling Coburn. Derrr
-Niskanen - bad turnover, and hasn't had the best 2 games
-Vokoun - guess I gotta give him one here. I suppose I feel bad giving him that after the way he's managed to turn it around after that pukefest against Philly a month of so back
-Neal - It's taken a lot of time, but I'm coming around to the Neal criticism. There are a lot of red flags that have already been discussed, but man this team really needs him to step up
-Lines - Defending DB can only go so far. Can someone normally at his side regardless of circumstance please step forward and admit that putting Tyler Kennedy between Kunitz and Dupuis is an inexcusable blunder of massive proportions? You replace someone who drives the effectiveness of the line with elite vision, creativity, and passing, while you replace him with the most myopic offense killer on the team? Great call, DB, ya dunce!

 

[Saints11]

Post trade deadline, like tomorrow night, get Beau back up here. Ship TK+ to Phoenix for Boyd Gordon.
Lines: Kunitz--Crosby (Jeffrey)--Iginla, Bennett--Malkin--Neal, Morrow--Sutter--Dupuis, Cooke--Gordon--Adams....(Option of flipping Morrow and Cooke or moving Morrow up and inserting Glass for Bennett if it gets to be too much for Beau; which I doubt.)

 

[PensPlz]

The only impact TK has made this season was colliding with Fleury.

Team didn't look motivated for this game. Expected to win it. Really makes me worry about how the will view a 7th or 8th seed.

Lines looked flat. Slow. We made their D look amazing.


Only good things was our PK. We'll need that to keep being sharp.

 

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

i really can not stand james neal.

the guy is a huge leach, cheecho redux. he excels at finding soft spots in defenses and has a great shot, but otherwise he doesn't bring anything aside from the very rare night where he decides to play physical. without malkin continually feeding him golden opportunities, he's worthless. poor efforts, not engaged physically, and consistently stupid selfish penalties.

selfish overrated leach.

This is a little ridiculous, don't you think? Sure, he's a purely complementary player, but if he could A. create on his own consistently, and B. played a physical game every single night he'd cost a Hell of a lot more than $5M/yr and he wouldn't be on this team to begin with. When he's not taking dumb penalties, he's usually trying to do what he does best. That's find open ice and be a trigger man on Geno's line. I don't see any fault with that.

That being said, he's been pretty bad lately. Lots of dumb penalties, and he needs to get out of this goal-scoring funk he's in. Hopefully his next goal opens the flood gates, because we need his scoring.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

That being said, he's been pretty bad lately. Lots of dumb penalties, and he needs to get out of this goal-scoring funk he's in. Hopefully his next goal opens the flood gates, because we need his scoring.

When he's on and playing with confidence, he's picking the corners or finding the holes. Tonight was a perfect example of what happens when he's not on. Malkin's drop pass for a one-timer at around the top of the face off circle, Neal blasts the puck into Miller's midsection. It was shot placement Tyler Kennedy would have been proud of.

 

[billybudd]

More I think about it, more I think Kunitz, not Dupuis, would make more sense getting bumped off the "first."

Kunitz has had a lot of success on Malkin's left wing. Dupuis or Morrow have, as of now, not.

Duper-Sid-Iggy
Kunitz-Malkin-Neal
Bennett/Morrow-Sutter-Cooke
Adams/Jeffrey-Vitale*-Kennedy


*Just due to faceoffs, I don't want to see this guy healthy scratched ever.


One last thing about faceoffs:

Why was Geno taking them tonight? We know how bad he is in the right circle, but didn't anybody clue DB in on the fact that Iggy is actually pretty darn good in the dot from there, despite being a wing by trade?

 

[LGP6687]

I think Bylsma really should shake up the lines, get the players used to playing shuffled.. Tonight really illustrated how much the team leaned on the Crosby line.

They really looked like crap out there, confused by the line juggling. If we play terribly for the next 2 weeks I hope Bylsma keeps moving them around, because in the playoffs, it's essential to be able to plug and play players into one line or another, an have them play well together. We don't know what injuries might happen, and what we will have to cobble together to pull off must-win games.

Sure, we can go through the playoffs and win the Cup with very few injuries, but we can't risk just having a single productive line that, if broken up, throws our team into chaos.

It's really good that we have a nice cushion in the standings, and exposed this a month out of the playoffs.. We have a full month to get the team up to par for a serious Cup run. And that is going to require flexibility in the lines.

So Crosby's injury did have one positive side--- it shows what the Penguins really have to work on. I hope Bylsma is thinking the same thing.

We have all the parts now. We just need to assemble and temper them to make them strong.

 

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

I would go with this moving into the playoffs:

Bennett - Crosby - Iginla
Kunitz - Malkin - Neal
Cooke - Sutter - Dupuis
Morrow - Vitale - Kennedy
Adams

Jeffrey can sit, Glass can rot.

 

[TheGreatPenguino]

---Orpik. Lazy and flatfooted. He blocks shots and that all he can do anymore.

 

[Tender Rip]

I hope Bylsma is thinking the same thing.

Other than the Kennedy part, I really don't think he does. At least when it comes to Geno's line where I have been thinking "now he must see that...." for the longest time.... or Vitale, as discussed here ad nauseam.

NB: I still hate the Morrow trade. All it will do is insure that we don't play our best team. Murray on the other hand is growing on me like a fungus .

 

[jBuds]

Did Lange really say "GET THAT DOG OFF MY LAWN!" while calling the Iggy goal?!? Did I hear the highlight correctly on the Ice Cap just now?!

 

[Captain Hook]

Did Lange really say "GET THAT DOG OFF MY LAWN!" while calling the Iggy goal?!? Did I hear the highlight correctly on the Ice Cap just now?!

He's used that phrase for years.

 

[jBuds]

---Orpik. Lazy and flatfooted. He blocks shots and that all he can do anymore.

Surprised to see so much vitriol towards Orpik. He didn't stick out to me as particularly bad. Neither did Despres. Niskanen, however...

 

[jBuds]

He's used that phrase for years.

Right, but for Iggy's first?!? Why?!

 

[Captain Hook]

Right, but for Iggy's first?!? Why?!

No idea. I can't read Lange's mind.

 

[jBuds]

No idea. I can't read Lange's mind.

Touché!!

 

[Crosbyfan]

Eaton-Sid-Iggy
Vokoun-Geno-Neal
Dupuis-Sutter-Reirden
Despres-Vitale-Niskanen


How did I do?

Sorry, Kunitz TK, Dupers still has you beat