Pens vs Music City....
- Thread starter torontoeers
- Start date
He doesn't care, and they dont care gauranteed...ratings from the lugheads who love him, yet in reality don't know quite what they are rooting for...I remember a year or 2 ago they were discussing Roenick as his replacement....and doesn't it say something that I would take that trade in a heartbeat...at least I can laugh a bit at JR, he's a goof half the time...he doesn't get me all worked up and angry like the senile one does....
Preds have willed themselves to this tie......meanwhile, if anyone can figure how the Pens get to 4 in this game (before the Preds, I mean), please let me know ASAP.
37 freakin mins and then? Whammo? Wtf? We'll take it...NEVER EVER seen that before.!!!
Man, this was one f***** up game.......but hey, just like in golf, it's not HOW but how MANY.
Is it possible for a Finals win to be unsatisfying ?? If so, we just saw it......but I stand by my golf analogy.
I'd much rather win accidentally than lose heroically..... .
I'd much rather win accidentally than lose heroically..... .
And Asshat Grapes...although I dont entirely agree or disagree with his first statement 'The Penguins should be embarrassed with this performance'....however as predicted 'Look at this guy Subban the best performance I have ever seen out of him'....um...cough cough...um...LMFAO!!!! WELL DON, YOU tell me what he did when it actually mattered? You cant! It didnt happen! He f'n lost! Suck and cry your way back to the hotel you BITCH!
BTW on my SN/CBC John Shannon just quoted your golf analogy word for word lol...you got a line on his ear????
Wooooo hooooo! Glad Sully listened to me and scratched Hags instead of Guentzel. Lol!
OM1 is definitely happy with that decision too! I assure you lol! .....
I've been saying that about my own golf game OCCASIONALLY since I was a kid, and I couldn't come up with ANYTHING that better described that miserable performance.
The world was against us to start, and now they'll be convinced we don't even belong. I can only hope the Guins use it as incentive to rejoin the NHL in time for Game 2.
In all seriousness....not even tomorrow's sober second thought will be needed....our guys NEED to do better than that for shots on! This is the Stanley freakin Cup! I KNOW they are marksmen at times but man alive 37 mins without a shot? On Rinne? Cmon boys...gotta do MUCH better than THAT! WOW!
No question that playing an opponent more interested in skating than hitting works to Jake's strengths. With a little luck, maybe tonight's game winner won't be his last of the series.
Well, we probably saw the worst they're going to play in this series. I figure this Staff will identify a few adjustments which will help them clear the zone better than they did tonight (and maybe take advantage of the aggressiveness of the Preds defense). On the other hand, they're not going to purely outskate the Preds, either.
One positive from tonight; the pre-series favorite for the Conn Smythe, Pekka Rinne, gave up 3 legitimate goals......not including the Ekholm deflection and the ENG.....in 12 lousy shots. If I were a Preds fan, I'd be damned nervous about him; tonight has HUGELY ratcheted up the pressure on him.
Most disappointing to me last night was the sheer refusal to battle along the boards by forwards who have made a living on that (Horny, Kunitz, Cullen) although Cullen won the battle to set up Jake). As a group, the lack of "want to" by the 9 forwards not on the first line was simply stunning. Sheary was a joke in periods 2 and 3, refusing to get involved. Same for Kunitz. Kessel was at least sighted at the Tim Horton's in Columbus last night during the 2nd intermission. Not to forget the D, Maata and Hainsey were disasters last night. The problem with Maata is that you never know what #3 brings on any given night. He can be solid as hell one night and disaster the next. Looking at the bright side, Sid was good and Murray mediocre. Jake avoided a pipe and Sheary finally hit an open net..... not much else.
Now if he can loan Kessel to a KHL team for the rest of that contract, I can die a happy man
Check out the following this morning from Pitt Post Gazette columnist Ron Cook......I think all of us (and not just OM) can find something in the piece on which we can agree: As we banged around here recently, it's pretty clear this is the exact Phil Kessel everyone who employs him buys when they invite him full-time into their locker room.
The Penguins are three wins from history, three wins from becoming the first team in the salary-cap era to win consecutive Stanley Cup titles, three wins from becoming the first team in almost two decades to repeat. Sidney Crosby is three wins from being a three-time Cup champion and cementing his legacy as one of the top five players in NHL history. Evgeni Malkin is three wins from becoming a three-time champ and, perhaps, a two-time Conn Smythe Trophy winner as postseason MVP.
But all is not right.
“We weren’t very good,” Mike Sullivan said late Monday night after the Penguins somehow defeated the Nashville Predators, 5-3, in Game 1 of the Cup final despite going 37 minutes without a shot on goal. “We got outplayed in a lot of aspects of the game. We got a favorable result, but we know we have to be much better to get to where we want to go. None of us in our dressing room are fooled by the score.”
Sullivan’s message that better play in Game 2 Wednesday night and beyond is a requirement — not an option — was directed at all of the players. But the thought here is that it was directed at Phil Kessel most of all.
Kessel had another bad performance in Game 1, failing to get a shot on goal and attempting just one despite nearly three minutes of power-play time, including all 1:42 of a two-man advantage the Penguins had before Malkin’s goal gave them a 1-0 lead late in the first period. His numbers this postseason aren’t awful. He has seven goals and 19 points in 20 games, his points ranking third among NHL players behind Malkin’s 25 and Crosby’s 22. But those numbers are deceptive. Kessel has just two goals and eight points at even-strength despite playing frequently with Malkin on the second line.
He is averaging 2.8 shots per game, significantly down from his 4.1 average in the playoffs last season. He needs to be better. The Penguins are paying him huge money. He has an annual cap hit of $6.8 million through the 2021-22 season. He hardly is earning it at the moment. If he’s not scoring goals or at least setting up goals, he doesn’t help the team much. He’s not a physical player. He’s not going to win the puck battles that Sullivan stressed after Game 1. He has to score.
Sullivan can’t be happy with Kessel. He demoted him in the second period of Game 1, pulling him off Malkin’s line in favor of Patric Hornqvist and putting him with Nick Bonino. Kessel hardly played after the first period, getting 3:45 of even-strength time in the second period and 4:57 of ice time in third with 1:06 coming on the power play. He had just one shift for 50 seconds in the final 7½ minutes of the game.
It’s going to be interesting to see where Kessel is Wednesday night and how much he plays.
It’s a shame Kessel hasn’t found the magic with Malkin that he had in the playoffs last season with Bonino and Carl Hagelin. Kessel could have been the Smythe winner, contributing 10 goals — including five even-strength goals — and 22 points in 24 games as the best part of the “HBK” line during the Penguins’ march to the Cup. Even President Barack Obama gushed about him when the team visited the White House in November.
But that was last season. The “HBK” line is no more, at least it hasn’t been a big part of Sullivan’s strategy in these playoffs. What a difference a year makes. Bonino went 13 games this spring without a goal before getting two cheap ones in Game 1, the first when the puck bounced off Nashville defenseman Mattias Ekholm, the second into an open net. Hagelin was a healthy scratch for Game 1. Kessel is scuffling.
Of course, it all could change Wednesday night for Kessel. He has that kind of talent, a unique skill, the ability to shoot the puck better than just about everybody in the NHL.
It’s about time Kessel starts using it.
Ron Cook: rcook@post-gazette.com and Twitter@RonCookPG. Ron Cook can be heard on the “Cook and Poni” show weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on 93.7 The Fan.
The Penguins are three wins from history, three wins from becoming the first team in the salary-cap era to win consecutive Stanley Cup titles, three wins from becoming the first team in almost two decades to repeat. Sidney Crosby is three wins from being a three-time Cup champion and cementing his legacy as one of the top five players in NHL history. Evgeni Malkin is three wins from becoming a three-time champ and, perhaps, a two-time Conn Smythe Trophy winner as postseason MVP.
But all is not right.
“We weren’t very good,” Mike Sullivan said late Monday night after the Penguins somehow defeated the Nashville Predators, 5-3, in Game 1 of the Cup final despite going 37 minutes without a shot on goal. “We got outplayed in a lot of aspects of the game. We got a favorable result, but we know we have to be much better to get to where we want to go. None of us in our dressing room are fooled by the score.”
Sullivan’s message that better play in Game 2 Wednesday night and beyond is a requirement — not an option — was directed at all of the players. But the thought here is that it was directed at Phil Kessel most of all.
Kessel had another bad performance in Game 1, failing to get a shot on goal and attempting just one despite nearly three minutes of power-play time, including all 1:42 of a two-man advantage the Penguins had before Malkin’s goal gave them a 1-0 lead late in the first period. His numbers this postseason aren’t awful. He has seven goals and 19 points in 20 games, his points ranking third among NHL players behind Malkin’s 25 and Crosby’s 22. But those numbers are deceptive. Kessel has just two goals and eight points at even-strength despite playing frequently with Malkin on the second line.
He is averaging 2.8 shots per game, significantly down from his 4.1 average in the playoffs last season. He needs to be better. The Penguins are paying him huge money. He has an annual cap hit of $6.8 million through the 2021-22 season. He hardly is earning it at the moment. If he’s not scoring goals or at least setting up goals, he doesn’t help the team much. He’s not a physical player. He’s not going to win the puck battles that Sullivan stressed after Game 1. He has to score.
Sullivan can’t be happy with Kessel. He demoted him in the second period of Game 1, pulling him off Malkin’s line in favor of Patric Hornqvist and putting him with Nick Bonino. Kessel hardly played after the first period, getting 3:45 of even-strength time in the second period and 4:57 of ice time in third with 1:06 coming on the power play. He had just one shift for 50 seconds in the final 7½ minutes of the game.
It’s going to be interesting to see where Kessel is Wednesday night and how much he plays.
It’s a shame Kessel hasn’t found the magic with Malkin that he had in the playoffs last season with Bonino and Carl Hagelin. Kessel could have been the Smythe winner, contributing 10 goals — including five even-strength goals — and 22 points in 24 games as the best part of the “HBK” line during the Penguins’ march to the Cup. Even President Barack Obama gushed about him when the team visited the White House in November.
But that was last season. The “HBK” line is no more, at least it hasn’t been a big part of Sullivan’s strategy in these playoffs. What a difference a year makes. Bonino went 13 games this spring without a goal before getting two cheap ones in Game 1, the first when the puck bounced off Nashville defenseman Mattias Ekholm, the second into an open net. Hagelin was a healthy scratch for Game 1. Kessel is scuffling.
Of course, it all could change Wednesday night for Kessel. He has that kind of talent, a unique skill, the ability to shoot the puck better than just about everybody in the NHL.
It’s about time Kessel starts using it.
Ron Cook: rcook@post-gazette.com and Twitter@RonCookPG. Ron Cook can be heard on the “Cook and Poni” show weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on 93.7 The Fan.
What bothers me much more than his lack of scoring is his complete lack of engagement. Last year in the playoffs he was buzzing around the net. This year he barely leaves the boards. Even on the PP, he doesn't move much. He often gets in these ruts where he literally does little. He compounds the issue working even less the next game...... He is one of the best snipers in the league most of us would agree. Yet for some reason, he has no burning desire to score goals.
For me at least, I am much more bothered by what I perceive as a lack of effort. When I criticize Sid, it is because he is parked on the wall. When I criticize 14 and 62 it is because they aren't working hard. (look at the difference in Kunitz from game 7 in the ECF to game 1 in the finals....he was so engaged in game 7 knowing it could be his last game of his career to just being out for an evening skate Monday night). I don't expect 100% effort each and every regular season game, but I do expect that any athlete, any competitor would be going 100% in the finals.
There's little question that Kessel has an ignition key which he occasionally (or often) leaves at home. What I myself have learned after watching him for a year+ is that he simply isn't going to get dirty. If (or when) open ice is at a premium, he's simply not going to engage.
Whether that makes him a pussy......or something else.....is up to the observer. But without mucho open ice, he just backs off; I mean, all you have to do is watch him enter the zone and simply skate the perimeter, where smarter opposition is perfectly willing to let him do laps to his heart's content (or camp at the wall).. We know he does score inside the circles, but it's only going to happen on the PP or when the defense makes a mistake, allowing him to drift physically unopposed toward the goal.
Concurrently, I also assume he passionately hates to be hit; but since he spends so much time disengaged.....and is a pretty decent skater when he's got the motor revved......he's properly protected. Anyway, it's easy to see why Kessel gained the reputation as a coach-killer. But when he received his ticket to last year to the Pens' locker room, GMJR simply had to know what he was getting.....and figured his room was strong enough to manage the competitive warts he brought with him.
What I'm trying to figure out is, given a choice, would I rather have......as Designated Goal Scorer......Phil Kessel or James Neal. Not sure two forwards in the League tantalize you.....and piss you off.....quite as much (for their own reasons) while consistently under-performing their respective contracts.
Kessel was bad no doubt. As was most of the team. But I have a hard time calling out ONE guy especially when that guy is 3rd in playoff points. Phil the Thrill will bring his "A" game tonight.
It is my opinion that Phil is a legit difference maker and can be dominant when he desires to be. That is the frustrating part Ron. We know what he can do. OT of game 7 he was a beast. As to singling him out, I do simply because is exactly what CM described.....he just doesn't engage at times at all. I have a problem with that. Now to your point, I will say the same about Carl Hagelin. Although not the dynamic scorer that Kessel is, he has proven to be an above average player at times and especially during the playoffs. Not sure if he is still banged up but he has stunk since January. Look at Kunitz, for one game his engine was going full speed..... just one game (7 of the ECFs). Other than that, he isn't playing the same game that earned him a NHL salary. I think it is safe to say that Sheary isn't the mixing it up like he did in 2016.
What is most troubling to me is that Sid is amazing these playoffs. Playing without fear and in my opinion, the best he has ever played. Malkin is playing well. The team's two leaders are leading on the ice and some are just not following. That is troubling to me and maybe should have been the focus of Ron Cook's PG article.
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I really don't think Hags has been a 100%. I agree on Phil and yes it is frustrating as there is no excuse for lack of effort. That being said that's been the knock on him his whole career. Gotta take the good with the bad I guess.
While not necessarily a bold and brash prediction like Kevin Stevens made after game 2 of the Wales Conference Finals in 1991, I believe strongly that the winner of this game tonight wins this series. If the Pens play their game and win....it will be a sweep.
The idiot Grapes and McLean felating Nashville square between the legs...so be it.
Time to go 2 donut!
Time to go 2 donut!
Oh, the entire sport has jumped on the Preds bandwagon. Nobody outside Pittsburgh is pulling for the Pens.....well, except for you, t [thumb2][thumb2]
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