Game 3 vs. Toronto - Thoughts from the morning after

[Penspal]

Pens Lose 5-2

- The 2013 NHL "Home Opener Jinx" continues, anyone else have a gut feeling it would?
- The Leafs simply have not had enough time to learn that they suck. The Toronto media will get them, patience req'd lgp'ers
- Phanouf and Crosby had great battles all nite. TSN made reference to their World Junior Days where Coach Sutter had to separate them at practice
- The refs sucked. They are missing the exhibition games more than the players. First goal vs. Pens should not have counted as Engy was thrown in to Fleury
- Froggy is hilarious on Pens chat during games. Best of his lines "Cran-gradi - cause watching him play leaves a bad taste in my mouth". Lol'ed at that one, even made me lose beer!
- Vitale was flying again, I will be surprised he's pulled if he continues to play like that.
- Tangradi rode the pines a lot last night, I suspect the experiment/tryout/whatever is a couple steps closer to being over.

[iWonTheCup87]

def agree about the home opener jinx, every one this season seems to spell disaster for the home team

+crosby
+pk

-almost everything else
refs were god awful and malkin needs to stop making bad passes that lead to goals

thank god next game is a road game

[Digitalgypsy66]

Yeah, this game wasn't a surprise.

Home opener, complete with required shenanigans (lasers, smoke, loud music) delayed the start
Leafs played a game the night before, whereas the Pens were given the day off and hadn't played since Sunday.
Pens often play down to the level of competition, especially to the Leafs.

On to the next one...cold, cold Winnipeg.

[Steve Dave]

I saw that Lupul fractured his arm in the game last night. I don't remember seeing what happened to him. Can anyone elaborate how he did this?

[RisslingsMissingTeeth]

One word that kept jumping into my head was "lethargic". The Pens just looked collectively dead between the ears. The shots they took were nearly all harmless so credit to the Leafs for that.

I know this horse has beaten beyond death, but Tangradi is so far away from being an NHL player I can't fathom this lasting another week. He is LOST and so slow.

And a huge agreement to the Vitale comment. IMO, he looked like one of the best players on the ice last night. The problem is, he is such a perfect center and great face-off man that you simply can't move him to the Malkin line.

[canaan]

I saw that Lupul fractured his arm in the game last night. I don't remember seeing what happened to him. Can anyone elaborate how he did this?

took a phaneuf slapper to his wing.

[Bioshock]

The crowd seemed dead. Was very surprised by that. I thought that place would be rabid with anticipation. Was jacked all week for last night's game.

[meecrofilm]

The crowd seemed dead. Was very surprised by that. I thought that place would be rabid with anticipation. Was jacked all week for last night's game.

The continual air horn temporarily zapped me of my will to live.

[slappybrown]

def agree about the home opener jinx, every one this season seems to spell disaster for the home team

+crosby
+pk

-almost everything else
refs were god awful and malkin needs to stop making bad passes that lead to goals

thank god next game is a road game

Crosby's goal was obviously nice, and his pressure on the point-men on the PK was good, but he also had the most giveaways on the team last night, and a couple of those were pretty bad. I don't know that I'd give anyone a + other than the PK units as a whole.

[DontToewsMeBro]

Crosby AND Malkin need to show better puck management. I'd expect some of those passes from rookies but not them. 3 games is a trend.

[sil]

Crosby looks disinterested right now. I know he isn't disinterested, so it makes me wonder what's really going on?

[canaan]

3 games is a trend.

it really isnt.

[topshelf66]

Team fell into trap of wanting to dazzle the home fans. No hockey sense, no accountability on the D end.
For a couple of shifts in the 2nd, the Kennedy addition to the Malkin line was awesome. Keep him there, move 46 up to old TK spot.
Season Ticket holder for 17 years. The CEC lack of crowd noise may never change.

1. Fans don't seem to have a good sense when the could really lift the team with a chant / noise.
2. Many times, including last night, organic chants / noise starts buildling only to be overwhelmed by over the top in-game entertainment noise. The people that run the in-game entertainment need to have some sense and a kill switch. At the igloo, many times the noise would start to build during a stoppage / TV timeout and really get gong when play started. At CEC every single second of down time is filled with entertainment, loud music, jumbotron features etc...
3. That buliding will never be as loud as the igloo due to the size and shape.
4. More people in attendance seems to water down the intensity. When the Pens sucked, the 12k of us that showed up to see them were pretty passionate about being there.

Uninspired play never helps. Last night was brutal.

[Bioshock]

Tangradi sucks

[Luckybreak]

-Despres took a ton of hits over 3 games and lacked the composure of last season. Engel isn't good enough to cover him. I expect Bortuzzo to get a game soon.
-Sid's goal was a flub but handcuffed Reimer, may take few more games to shake rust and open 'sidgates'
-I stand by my criticisms of the PP, for all the skill it still looks forced or overly cute at any given moment.
-HCDB needs to cut the stupid out of Cooke and Geno
-I'd like to have seen ET play 5 straight without rotating lines but looks like he's had his chance and he certainly hasn't grasped it

[Jopaz]

Been said before, but too much passing trying to get the pretty goal. Need more people putting the puck on net and get some screens/rebounds. Seemed like a lot of shots were off-target last night, not even requiring a save.

Agree with the crowd noise comments that the scripted arena entertainment/music drowns out anything from the crowd. This makes people just sit and watch rather than join in.

Maybe everyone was too busy eating free nachos to cheer or clap. We also got a free Big Mac. Might not get a win, but nobody goes hungry.

[largegarlic]

I didn't see the game last night, but I saw the new lines from practice on the Pens twitter feed. I like moving Kennedy up and Tangradi down to the 4th line. I'm not an extreme Tangradi hater, but I think his NHL ceiling is probably being a 4th liner who scores 5-10 goals/season (a la Mike Rupp), so I'm happy with that demotion.

[slappybrown]

Tangradi is useless in a fourth line role.

[sharpshootr55]

I've had more than enough of the Tangradi experiment after last nights performance. Happy to see a change has been made.

[Steve Dave]

I saw that Lupul fractured his arm in the game last night. I don't remember seeing what happened to him. Can anyone elaborate how he did this?

took a phaneuf slapper to his wing.

Ouch

[penny lane]

leafs looked big to me. They were being physical with Evgeni and Sid. Ref didn't call 2nd period Evgeni being abused boards/ leafs net...then refs decides to call 3 straight penalties on penguins.
Sutter had a great chance and passed.
I enjoyed watching Sid dishing out hits and going into corners.

I think there was maybe 5 - 7 seconds of time not being spoken at by consol and sponsors. Of course fans may have been texting at that time. Lots of fans looking down to text or read texts; instead at game action. Or looking at the game from being their phone to record...
Fans got a chant going before the introductions.

Tanner Glass good stuff. Craig Adams couple of good PK shifts. Evgeni/Sid both had near goals that would have brought fans to their feet!
On to Manitoba... brrrr

[tfrizz]

I've had more than enough of the Tangradi experiment after last nights performance. Happy to see a change has been made.

What performance? I had more ice time than Tangradi last night

[71Aj66ax87]

The Pens are 2-1 and there are 45 games left.

[The U]

So Tangradi doesn't fit on line 2 so to "fix the problem" they wreck lines 2, 3, and 4. Just because one guy couldn't get it done as they had hoped? I don't like overhauling every line because of one player.

The 3rd line of Kennedy-Sutter-Cooke was just heralded for the past week as being a shut down line and being the 3rd line we've been hoping for since 2009. Now that's being dismantled because Tangradi needs to be moved?

Line 4 has been fast and gritty. Now that line has to be messed with? Tangradi will add less grit, less speed, and less hustle. I don't get it.

Get whatever you can for him in some sort of package trade and move on. He's holding the lineup hostage because he "has to be on the team" due to waivers. I'd bench him and put Jeffrey back in there before I screwed with 3 of my 4 lines.

[DelPen]

Sloppy play and no adjustments to the PP once Neal was shadowed. If the only play you will do is to get it to Neal for a wrister you won't score.

Refs sucked all around, bad calls both ways but not waiving off the goal where a Leaf checked Engellend into Fleury before the puck went in the net was the worst.

Despres was fine, willing to take a month of getting his feet wet, he's not a liability and he has recovered from his mistakes, other people have screwed up though off some of his turnovers but that can't be pinned on him alone.

Looked to me Neal had a foot on the bench and the other off the ice before Malkin played the puck, bad call and Malkin let them know it.

Just incredibly stupid passing though all night.

Bright spots are still Niskanen and Martin, both playing great, hope it lasts.