Official Gameday Thread: Penguins vs Bruins 3/17/2013

[malkinshair]

It really is astounding that Despres continues to sit.

why? they looked pretty good with engelland in there today.

bylsma has said REPEATEDLY that he wants engelland in there against physical teams. So far, especially as of late, it has worked pretty well. It's not like it's an arbitrary decision on his part. Bottom line, the lineup we had today only let up 1 goal against a top team in the league with our back up goalie in net. I'm gonna go ahead and give Bylsma the benefit of the doubt on our defensive line up after that.

When was the last time Engelland had a game off? Agree they played well today, but when your rotation doesn't move guys out of your bottom pair, its hard to explain how you have a guy like Despres on the bench.

I think that Bylsma saw the Rangers pound his superstar for 60 minutes yesterday without any threat of retaliation, and decided to throw someone on the ice that could drop the gloves...especially against an uber-physical team like Boston. The Pens really don't have anyone else on the roster than can 'deter' that type of behavior.

FTR, I'm not a fan of the enforcer role, but it was pretty obvious yesterday that there was no one to put fear in Girardi and the other Rangers running the Pens.

[Froggy]

Engelland was scratched yesterday against the Rangers.

[Gaucho]

Engo had last night off.

[The Snapshot]

It really is astounding that Despres continues to sit.

why? they looked pretty good with engelland in there today.

bylsma has said REPEATEDLY that he wants engelland in there against physical teams. So far, especially as of late, it has worked pretty well. It's not like it's an arbitrary decision on his part. Bottom line, the lineup we had today only let up 1 goal against a top team in the league with our back up goalie in net. I'm gonna go ahead and give Bylsma the benefit of the doubt on our defensive line up after that.

When was the last time Engelland had a game off? Agree they played well today, but when your rotation doesn't move guys out of your bottom pair, its hard to explain how you have a guy like Despres on the bench.

Engelland was just scratched against the Isles and Rangers in the streak?

[malkinshair]

Engelland was scratched yesterday against the Rangers.

That's my point, Crosby was hammered before and after the whistle against the Rangers...with no one in uniform to 'stop' it. Bylsma is old-school, and probably didn't like seeing the best player in hockey have to fight his own battles. The Bruins play an even more physical and aggressive style than the Rangers...hence Engo is inserted into the lineup this afternoon.

[Froggy]

Engelland was scratched yesterday against the Rangers.

That's my point, Crosby was hammered before and after the whistle against the Rangers...with no one in uniform to 'stop' it. Bylsma is old-school, and probably didn't like seeing the best player in hockey have to fight his own battles. The Bruins play an even more physical and aggressive style than the Rangers...hence Engo is inserted into the lineup tonight.

yeah, i was responding to Pitts87. you and i are in agreement

[The Snapshot]

Hmm...this is weird. I'm gonna sound like a broken record though. The best goalies in the NHL are the ones on defensive teams. The Penguins are a bad defensive team and, therefore, have bad goalies. Now, the Pens play good defensive hockey and our goalies look great. Even the crappy one (which one that is seems to vary here).

Well, I'm stumped...

Have you not heard all the mentions about the bad defensive teams that Florida had when Vokoun played for them? Yet every year his save percentage was 92 or higher.

Have you noticed that the best defensive teams have CONSISTENT goaltending?

[The Snapshot]

Engelland was scratched yesterday against the Rangers.

That's my point, Crosby was hammered before and after the whistle against the Rangers...with no one in uniform to 'stop' it. Bylsma is old-school, and probably didn't like seeing the best player in hockey have to fight his own battles. The Bruins play an even more physical and aggressive style than the Rangers...hence Engo is inserted into the lineup tonight.

yeah, i was responding to Pitts87. you and i are in agreement

And yet James Neal was punched in the face by Lucic.....

[Gaucho]

Meh, James Neal is just a bigger version of TK.

[FreeCandy44]

Meh, James Neal is just a bigger version of TK.

Rocco?

[Gaucho]

Meh, James Neal is just a bigger version of TK.

Rocco?

Yeah.

[Rocco]

Meh, James Neal is just a bigger version of TK.

Without Malkin setting him up. Nice selective editing. The stats tend to bear this out.

[Rocco]

Engelland was scratched yesterday against the Rangers.

That's my point, Crosby was hammered before and after the whistle against the Rangers...with no one in uniform to 'stop' it. Bylsma is old-school, and probably didn't like seeing the best player in hockey have to fight his own battles. The Bruins play an even more physical and aggressive style than the Rangers...hence Engo is inserted into the lineup this afternoon.

Didn't seem to stop Marchand from slashing Letang. Cheap shot artists don't care about someone's physical presence. That's their game.

[Gaucho]

Oh come on, it was a joke.

[Gaucho]

That said, Neal is 10x the player TK is with or without Malkin.

[Rocco]

Oh come on, it was a joke.

I thought jokes were supposed to be funny. My bad for not realizing that.

[Gaucho]

Great, now you go all EPP on me. You're about the last guy who should be over-sensitive.

[FreeCandy44]

Like I said before, you know things really going good when we are talking about this.

[Pitt87]

Engelland was scratched yesterday against the Rangers.

Sorry, missed the game yesterday.

Point is... he plays nightly on the 3rd pair. I'd like to have Despres get both the chance to play nightly and have him available, especially if Engo isn't going to beat someone up from time to time.

[Rocco]

Great, now you go all EPP on me. You're about the last guy who should be over-sensitive.

You take that back. I'm writing coherent thoughts.

[Gaucho]

Now that was funny.

[Gaucho]

You win.

[Rocco]

You win.

It's all I do.

[Henry Hank]

Had to miss today's game, figures when they're apparently looking really impressive is when I can't watch.

The thing that's really impressive and encouraging is that they're shutting off good offenses. Five goals allowed the last five games. With the exception of the Rangers, every one of those teams is in the top ten in goals per game. Very impressive stuff, especially when you consider that in the previous nine games they had given up five or more goals in one game three times, plus three more where they gave up at least four. Hopefully they keep it up even when Malkin is back. If they keep this up, there's no reason they can't go on a long run in the playoffs. Hopefully that last stretch of ugliness was just them getting the last of it out of their system.

[Shakes]

Paul Martin was immense in this game.