Early thoughts of the season

[Scott]

The last three games teams are trying to play the Pens like Detroit did. Especially on the PP. The Flyers did that for a while last night but don't have the players to sustain that type of pressure for the whole game.

This of course will be a continuing trend since Detroit layed out a blue print on how to beat them.

The good:
The defense has been very good. I've been very impressed with Gologoski and Gill. The whole crew is doing a nice job.

Tyler Kennedy is playing at a brand new level of intensity. You can see how confident he is this year.

Getting goals from the unexpected has been a nice bonus. The Zig pickup was sweet.

Satan has been better than I thought playing the boards.

The PK. Looks good!

Fleury is playing the puck. Not as much as I'd like but more than his pre-Conklin (who showed him that) days.

Mark Eaton hasn't been hurt yet

The bad:
I'm not sure Crosby knows who who he is playing with because I don't think anybody else knows either. MT has played 52 card pick-up at an all time high even for him with Crosby's line. Nearly every shift he has a different winger and sometimes he has two. (It is not because of double shifting every time either) Maybe they will experiment with ice berg on his line next.

Fedotenko. Does he play hockey? A good test on how players are contributing is this.. take the number and name off and would you really notice him being on the ice? Aside from his 6 penalty mins, he very well could be a scratch every night. The results are the same.

Malkin and his new found perfection of the turnover. Somebody give him some pizza already. Maybe that will settle him down.

The Ugly:

Yes you guessed it. The Power Play. Maybe it should be renamed the Power outage? 6 chances last night. Roughly 12 mins of time minus a little for our own penalty calls. How much of that time did we actually control the puck in the zone? I know we got a PP goal, but again they arent getting any time in the zone to set something up. We have different opinions on the staff, but I personally think Mike Yeo is a lousy coach. Here is a perfect example. Last night Satan played the half board (normally Crosby's spot) and Crosby was down near the net. That would be just fine and dandy but ....WHERE WAS THE PLAYER RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE NET? Every time they went with that set up, there was no Penguin for Crosby to pass to.

Bringing the puck up, setting up in the zone, dumping it in. Getting shots on net....The Pens are bad at every aspect of the PP right now.

Get the PP going!

[Kicksave]

Kinda the same as the other thread, but thats ok.

[KG]

Staal is definetely in "The Ugly" category...

MAF, Orpik have been very good..

[Scott]

Staal is definetely in "The Ugly" category...

MAF, Orpik have been very good..

I would agree with the Staal to some degree. He is still playing good in every aspect excpet shooting. He might miss an empty net right now...wait a sec..he did last night. LOL

[Henry Hank]

Bottom line for me: 2-1-1 all against probable playoff teams, despite playing not so great hockey with some significant injury losses, plus a combined one goal from Crosby, Malkin, and Staal and another one goal from Satan, Sykora, and Fedotenko. They're playing winning hockey against good teams without getting much from their key guys. Think about when they do start getting that.

Probably the biggest thing is that Fleury is in playoff form. Early last season they were dogged by inconsistent goaltending, and I don't fear that this year.

[Scott]

Bottom line for me: 2-1-1 all against probable playoff teams, despite playing not so great hockey with some significant injury losses, plus a combined one goal from Crosby, Malkin, and Staal and another one goal from Satan, Sykora, and Fedotenko. They're playing winning hockey against good teams without getting much from their key guys. Think about when they do start getting that.

Probably the biggest thing is that Fleury is in playoff form. Early last season they were dogged by inconsistent goaltending, and I don't fear that this year.

Fleury is playing much better than last year at the same time. Playing the puck helps the d out so much. HIs rebounds are better as well.

[mumbobob]

I think your good needs to reflect that MAF is putting the finishing touches on really establishing himself as a top flight NHL goaltender.

[André]

Bottom line for me: 2-1-1 all against probable playoff teams, despite playing not so great hockey with some significant injury losses, plus a combined one goal from Crosby, Malkin, and Staal and another one goal from Satan, Sykora, and Fedotenko. They're playing winning hockey against good teams without getting much from their key guys. Think about when they do start getting that.

Probably the biggest thing is that Fleury is in playoff form. Early last season they were dogged by inconsistent goaltending, and I don't fear that this year.

HH, I always seem to completely agree or disagree with your posts =) This one I like very much.

[DelPen]

The Sweden trip was a bad idea. We lost a week of camp which is where players get conditioned. I don't care how the other teams who made the trip are doing, the Pens seem to be negatively impacted by the ordeal. There is no rythm out there. Players don't know where they should be yet.

But that will come around. We should be an easy 3-1 right now but stupid mistakes and sloppy play gave the Debs 2 and the Flyers 1 and that could hurt us in April.

Sid, Geno and Staal have to start playing better, and they will. But damn if it's not frustrating to watch the offense and PP thus far. I truely beleive though this is the worst the team will play all year and this is the worst the PP will be.

[wallflower]

Staal is definetely in "The Ugly" category...

MAF, Orpik have been very good..

I would agree with the Staal to some degree. He is still playing good in every aspect excpet shooting. He might miss an empty net right now...wait a sec..he did last night. LOL

Staal is this season's Whitney.

If you saw the replay you would know that Staal had to kick the puck to his stick, which he did, unfortunately, he ran out of room and couldn't knock it in. I could easily think of other situations that are more worthy of criticism than that particular play.

[Scott]

Staal is definetely in "The Ugly" category...

MAF, Orpik have been very good..

I would agree with the Staal to some degree. He is still playing good in every aspect excpet shooting. He might miss an empty net right now...wait a sec..he did last night. LOL

Staal is this season's Whitney.

If you saw the replay you would know that Staal had to kick the puck to his stick, which he did, unfortunately, he ran out of room and couldn't knock it in. I could easily think of other situations that are more worthy of criticism than that particular play.

I've seen the replay,,, the point was that Staal seems to have no luck getting goals.

[The Snapshot]

The Sweden trip was a bad idea. We lost a week of camp which is where players get conditioned. I don't care how the other teams who made the trip are doing, the Pens seem to be negatively impacted by the ordeal. There is no rythm out there. Players don't know where they should be yet.

I agree 100%. The disruption to camp comes after also having a short summer, having a good degree of turnover on the roster AND losing two Dmen who tend to control the puck and allow the forwards to sort themselves out.

The short summer means less conditioning, since most guys are going to take at least some time off to heal up and rejuvenate. Coming back only means you lose a few weeks of baseline conditioning time after your rest. Then, add in a shortened camp, less preseason action for the new guys and then add a 5 day gap in between Games 2 and you have a recipe for a less than united performance.

I would have loved for Crosby and Satan to have some kind of freakish, magical chemistry, but I am sure that they will figure this out. As much as they have not looked great together, it is certainly possible to look at tape and see that Miro could have 3 or 4 goals already.

I am sure that they will be fine, but I would say no to another trip abroad after seeing the short-term impact up close.

[Idoit40fans]

If by following Detroits blueprint of shutting down the power play you mean injuring the pens #1 and #2 defenseman, then I guess you're right. But of course they didn't do that and neither did the Sens, Devs, or Flyers.

[newarenanow]

Staal is this season's Whitney.

The bigger question is, who is going to be next year's Staal???

[Idoit40fans]

Staal is this season's Whitney.

The bigger question is, who is going to be next year's Staal???

TBD, but i think we'll pick one out quickly for the following year if Caputi make the team.

[JoseCuervo]

Staal is this season's Whitney.

The bigger question is, who is going to be next year's Staal???

somebody bring out that "who will be this year's whitney thread." I'm pretty sure I called staal.

[Idoit40fans]

Skyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy Pi-lot. How high can you fly?

[penny lane]

We all are so anxious to get back to the finals, we forget all the turmoil encountered along the way.

Flower has performed as an elite goalie and one a team can rely on.

[wallflower]

Staal is this season's Whitney.

The bigger question is, who is going to be next year's Staal???

You really never can know ahead of time. I would've never believed that it was going to be Whitney last season.

Heck, I can't believe how much crap Dupuis gets from people.

[Scott]

Heck, I can't believe how much crap Dupuis gets from people.

The reason people do that is because he is put on Sid's line. So the expectations are of course raised.

[wallflower]

Heck, I can't believe how much crap Dupuis gets from people.

The reason people do that is because he is put on Sid's line. So the expectations are of course raised.

Um, what? People complained about him when he was on the third line.

[Idoit40fans]

Heck, I can't believe how much crap Dupuis gets from people.

The reason people do that is because he is put on Sid's line. So the expectations are of course raised.

Um, what? People complained about him when he was on the third line.

This. Mostly the "Um, what?", but also the clarification.

[pensfan20]

Heck, I can't believe how much crap Dupuis gets from people.

The reason people do that is because he is put on Sid's line. So the expectations are of course raised.

Um, what? People complained about him when he was on the third line.

if he plays on the top line, he needs to perform like a top guy. which he hasnt. if he plays on the 3rd line, then he is getting paid too much to be there. (im not ripping him i like him just clarifying the critisim) Look at all the crap that Army got for the same reasons. Some guys on this team are always going to be set up to fail. People want TK on the top line. Put him there and if he goes 2 or 3 games with no goals, lots of people will want his head. Unless Crosby has an elite winger, which we cant afford, people will always find a reason to be ticked off about who is playing along side of Sid and Geno. What we need to rememeber is what each players role is. Dupuis works the boards very well and gets to pucks. Once he gets it to Sid, its up to Sid and Satan to do the rest. Dupuis will pick up a few ugly goals here and there, but if you expect him to score 20-30 i think you will be dissappointed.

[wallflower]

The reason people do that is because he is put on Sid's line. So the expectations are of course raised.

Um, what? People complained about him when he was on the third line.

if he plays on the top line, he needs to perform like a top guy. which he hasnt. if he plays on the 3rd line, then he is getting paid too much to be there. (im not ripping him i like him just clarifying the critisim) Look at all the crap that Army got for the same reasons. Some guys on this team are always going to be set up to fail. People want TK on the top line. Put him there and if he goes 2 or 3 games with no goals, lots of people will want his head. Unless Crosby has an elite winger, which we cant afford, people will always find a reason to be ticked off about who is playing along side of Sid and Geno. What we need to rememeber is what each players role is. Dupuis works the boards very well and gets to pucks. Once he gets it to Sid, its up to Sid and Satan to do the rest. Dupuis will pick up a few ugly goals here and there, but if you expect him to score 20-30 i think you will be dissappointed.

I'm confused - you started off disagreeing with my basic premise [that most of the criticism for Dupuis unwarranted]...but then you go on to prove my point.

[Idoit40fans]

To be fair, it was two different people.