Series Thread: 1st Round: New York Rangers vs Pittsburgh Penguins

[scoutyjones2]

Cole should never shoot the puck

 

[DoobeeDoobeeDoo]

Cole should never shoot the puck

He should never be on the ice IMO.

 

[DoobeeDoobeeDoo]

Geno obviously doesn't have his game back yet, Sid needs to find something other than those backhanded passes into traffic, Ian Cole needs to be a healthy scratch.

 

[DoobeeDoobeeDoo]

Bad game for the Pens, worst game since we lost 3-0 to the Devils. Hopefully we regroup for Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.

 

[old1r1sh]

My takeaways:
1. A few minutes in the 2nd period is all you need to win a game. We were playing Bylsma-style hockey for just a few minutes and it ended up losing us the game. The Rangers wanted to play today and we just chilled on the couch watching TWD for the 2nd period. You can't do that against anybody and expect to have a favorable result.

2. I don't think Goalie was the problem today. I credit our skaters with the goals against a lot more than Jeffy, especially on the 3rd goal. We need to play inspired hockey on Tuesday or we're gonna be in deep shit.

3. We need to simplify. Again, this is a Bylsma era trait. We're over passing and being too cute. I don't want the perfect play, I want a goal. Enough cute stuff when trying to enter the offensive zone (Sid).

4. I agree that Ian Cole is a liability. Idc who replaces him but it needs to be somebody.

5. Our best player today IMO was Sheary. He seemed like the only guy that wanted to play after the Rangers went up on us. Keep it up.

Game 3 might just determine the series. We can't play the way we did in the 2nd and think we're going to beat Henrik. Play inspired and play fast. Go Pens

 

[DoobeeDoobeeDoo]

I think the main thing is to get rid of Ian Cole. Everyone has bad games, but Ian Cole plays like this every shift of every game. Really a joke that he's in the NHL when he is guaranteed to turn the puck over whenever he gets it. There are kids in pee wee hockey that are better at handling the puck than Ian Cole.

 

[DoobeeDoobeeDoo]

Orange cone > Ian Cole

 

[DoobeeDoobeeDoo]

My takeaways:
1. A few minutes in the 2nd period is all you need to win a game. We were playing Bylsma-style hockey for just a few minutes and it ended up losing us the game. The Rangers wanted to play today and we just chilled on the couch watching TWD for the 2nd period. You can't do that against anybody and expect to have a favorable result.

2. I don't think Goalie was the problem today. I credit our skaters with the goals against a lot more than Jeffy, especially on the 3rd goal. We need to play inspired hockey on Tuesday or we're gonna be in deep shit.

3. We need to simplify. Again, this is a Bylsma era trait. We're over passing and being too cute. I don't want the perfect play, I want a goal. Enough cute stuff when trying to enter the offensive zone (Sid).

4. I agree that Ian Cole is a liability. Idc who replaces him but it needs to be somebody.

5. Our best player today IMO was Sheary. He seemed like the only guy that wanted to play after the Rangers went up on us. Keep it up.

Game 3 might just determine the series. We can't play the way we did in the 2nd and think we're going to beat Henrik. Play inspired and play fast. Go Pens

Good take, I agree 100%, especially about Ian Cole & Conor Sheary.

 

[DoobeeDoobeeDoo]

This is how I would draw up the lines the next game...
Kunitz/Sid/Hornqvist
Hagelin/Bonino/Kessel
Sheary/Geno/Bennett
Kuhnhackl/Cullen/Fehr
Maatta/Letang
Dumoulin/Daley
Pouliot/Schultz

 

[DoobeeDoobeeDoo]

Good news is that the Pens power play did get a couple goals & we had some good chances at the end. We just made too many mistakes,
-Fehr left Yandle wide open looking at a wide open net
-Maatta misplayed a bouncing puck & gave up a breakaway to Brassard
-Cole turned the puck over twice in our own zone which led to a goal by Zuccarello
-Daley just gave up to Kreider & let him go right up to the net & shoot

All but the Zuccarello goal were preventable (Cole will turn the puck over regardless, that's just what he does, and we have to just accept that). We were lazy with loose pucks & careless when we had the puck. We got 2 days to work on that. Sullivan should scratch Cole to set an example for the rest of the team that puck control is very important.

 

[DoobeeDoobeeDoo]

Zatkoff is not a great goalie. The 35 saves on 37 shots (96%) stat is misleading. Fact is that the Pens' defense rallied around Zatkoff in game 2 to make sure he didn't have to face difficult shots to make saves on. In game 2, we lost track of that & relied on Zatkoff to bail us out. He failed & the result was 24 saves on 28 shots (86%).

Fact is that as long as Zatkoff is in net, Pens need to huddle around him & not take chances. Revert to a Mike Johnston style of hockey. Don't make mistakes & try to take advantage of the mistakes the Rangers make (like in game 1). That's all we could hope for at this point.

 

[DoobeeDoobeeDoo]

Looking back, Mike Sullivan's grave mistake was playing Matt Murray against the Flyers. Murray's injury has put a major hitch in the way the Pens have played hockey the past 2 months.

 

[evolver115]

Looking back, Mike Sullivan's grave mistake was playing Matt Murray against the Flyers. Murray's injury has put a major hitch in the way the Pens have played hockey the past 2 months.

Probably wasn't the smartest decision, I agree. On the one hand, Sullivan was thinking he needed to get Murray reps, because he probably knew then that MAF wasn't going to play in game one. So, I give him the benefit of the doubt that he was just trying to get Murray into a high pressure situation, with the Philthies trying to make the post-season.

On the other hand, Sully should have known that playing against a rival that has the mentality of nothing to lose, and the Pens had nothing to gain. HCMS should have done what he did with Letang and Crosby, and that is to just remove them from the situation.

The d-man that easily had the worst game yesterday was Trevor Daley (-4). Two turnovers of his turned directly into Ranger goals. It's a pick your poison, though. Sully needs to pick either Daley, or Maatta to pair with Letang. Maatta is slow, but he's smarter with the puck. Daley is faster on his skates, but he makes poor decisions in key situations, trying to make low percentage passes in the defensive zone burned him twice, yesterday.

Hopefully Fleury is ready to go on Tuesday. I've seen enough of the Koff.

 

[scoutyjones2]

Looking back, Mike Sullivan's grave mistake was playing Matt Murray against the Flyers. Murray's injury has put a major hitch in the way the Pens have played hockey the past 2 months.

Exactly...there was no reason to play him there...

 

[DoobeeDoobeeDoo]

Big game tonight fellas, Pens need to bounce back in a big way or else we're going to find us in a hole.

 

[Ewa PGH Fan]

Big game tonight fellas, Pens need to bounce back in a big way or else we're going to find us in a hole.

Any word on who'll be in goal tonight?

 

[DoobeeDoobeeDoo]

Any word on who'll be in goal tonight?

Hopefully MAF, but I doubt they'll share that info until game time.

 

[evolver115]

Hopefully MAF, but I doubt they'll share that info until game time.

 

[Ewa PGH Fan]

DAMN!!!

 

[DoobeeDoobeeDoo]