Will the Pens keep up the defensive style with the new guys?

[PartyatMarios]

The competition to not be a healthy scratch will demand attention to detail from the bottom 6. "You don't battle every shift, Glass out and Vitale in." Vitale gets lazy, Jeffrey in. Same on D. Watching the game last night that was what I kept thinking. Kennedy, Cooke, Glass, Despres, ......you get my point. The effort better be there or you can sit in the press box and think about it.

I thought Glass especially played with an extra charge.

 

[jinx33]

I don't see why it would change. We're adding weight and strenght, we could again see the slight difference it was yesterday, no troubles at all to cycle the puck out of the defensive zone, limiting icing and shots on goal. Even Malkin came back big time to block Wellwood shot. DB used pretty well his 4 lines, and what about that 5 on 3 kill.. that was once again tremendous. Our goalies have also been great as well. I don't think adding that big offensive force Iggy is plus Malkin's return will corrupt that system.

 

[Darth Vitale]

I hope so.

A repeat of last year where they were on fire the last 15 games or so of the season, right up until the last week where they lost twice to the Islanders of all teams (our defense and goaltending fell apart and they took that bad taste into the playoffs, repeating the mistakes against the Flyers)... would be a disaster.

Especially with this group. That's why I don't give a crap about "the streak". I'd rather them go .500 the next 4 games then start to gel / crank the hard-core defense back up the last 10 games of the season vs. winning now and losing a couple at the end on account of bad D. Not that they couldn't turn it around but hockey is part mental and you don't want that bad vibe going into the playoffs again. New guys or no new guys.

 

[Fordy]

I think last night, Cooke and Orpik were inspired by some of the new folks, they seemed to really be delivering some good hits.

I think Orpik felt like a ***** standing next to Murray. That'll only be good for him too.

 

[Ogelthorpe]

I don't think we have played a defensive style per say, but everyone has been doing much better job of taking care of their defensive responsibilities. The philosophy is still the same....if you play in the other teams end way more than you play in your own end, you stand a great chance of winning.

 

[Slabber Chops]

I think last night, Cooke and Orpik were inspired by some of the new folks, they seemed to really be delivering some good hits.

Yeah I noticed that also. Orpik was as physical as I've seen him for some time.