'13 Playoffs Game 1 vs OTT - Thoughts from the Morning After

[Pavel Bure]

Vitale and Kennedy continue to make their presence felt.

How has Chris Neil never been suspended in his career? Dude is a major POS.

Morrow played a pretty solid game. Nothing outstanding, but the speed difference betweens the Sens and Isles is going to allow him to have a bigger impact this series.

Engellend-Murray was a disaster. Engellend sucks and his lack of talent, hockey sense, and puck moving ability forces Murray to do way way way too much. Despres or even Eaton needs to be in the lineup over Engellend. I understand why they want Engellend in the lineup (Neil is a POS), but the negatives of having him in the lineup far outweigh the 30 seconds of usefullness he has every game.

I have the solution!!! Roll 7 D!!! Sit... uh... Adams?

[Shakes]

Two-day layoff.

Special teams again were the difference. Didn't realize how bad the remaining East teams are on the PP. All 20th or worse in the regular season.

Malkin was fantastic. That play he made off the boards right before he setup Martin was telling. Brought his "A" game all night.

Sick shot by Dupuis.

[PAPLine]

Morrow, Kennedy, Adams, not scoring, but great contributiuons.
With Vokoun doing his thing, will Fleury ever see the ice again?
Two day lay-off might help, An extra day might help the Pens forget game 1 and not be over confident in game 2 like last round.

[jwest21]

I have a man crush on Vitale. There! I said it!
Malkin tried to kill him, also.

Vitale took a beating last night. He'd get smacked but kept getting up and going. Great unsung effort last night by him

[AlexPKeaton]

Great game. Pens team D kept all the shots to the outside, and Vokoun made the saves after the first fluky goal. But the Pens special teams ruled the day.

Ottawa will adjust by playing more aggressively I think. They were trapping when down 2-1 which made zero sense lol.

[Idoit40fans]

Ottawa traps. Its what they do. Well they play extremely defensively anyway.

[jwest21]

This thread is full of terrible grammar.

it are not

[Hawkeynut]

- This was another bad game with a good result. Starting to think this is their new style.
- Geno is going into beast mode.
- Nealer was edgy but one of those calls (holding on Karlsson) was complete BS.
- Orpik is back. Liking that toughness.
- Vokoun once again did the trick.
- Iginla while invisible, has been impressive. What a weird situation there.
- Crosby and Malkin held to under 20 minutes. Awesome right there.
- They better work on their 5 on 5, dump and chase can't be "dump to Anderson". Not going to work.
- All in all, they got it done. That is all I care about.

[Idoit40fans]

I wouldn't say it was a bad game. Its not like game 3 of the Isles series where they were completely outplayed and won, it was a lot closer than the score indicated though.

[AlexPKeaton]

Best comment I read from a Sens fan:

Well, if the Pens are just gonna score 9,000 goals a game even against good goalies, then I guess that wraps things up.

[Hawkeynut]

I wouldn't say it was a bad game. Its not like game 3 of the Isles series where they were completely outplayed and won, it was a lot closer than the score indicated though.

Yeah, I guess it wasn't a "bad" game. They were once again playing not their system, but the system of their opponents. Especially in the 2nd.

[JoseCuervo]

I wouldn't say it was a bad game. Its not like game 3 of the Isles series where they were completely outplayed and won, it was a lot closer than the score indicated though.

Yeah, I guess it wasn't a "bad" game. They were once again playing not their system, but the system of their opponents. Especially in the 2nd.

I liked seeing them play smart defense

[Shakes]

(via @jasonstru)

[thepittman]

Where can I find the TOI for each play last night?

[America]

I hate Neil

[America]

Where can I find the TOI for each play last night?

http://www.nhl.com/ice/boxscore.htm?id=2012030211

[skullman80]

Where can I find the TOI for each play last night?

http://www.nhl.com/ice/boxscore.htm?id=2012030211

Just have to scroll down a bit to the player stats, each player has their TOI listed.

[Idoit40fans]

Haha, Malkin and Crosby swapped FO effectiveness and Dupuis led everyone in TOI with 17:37. If thats accurate, I like. Good distribution of minutes with things going well last night so people can get leaned on if things go bad later in the series.

[RxBandit66]

1. Special teams, once again, were the difference. Scoring on the power play, killing every penalty, and scoring shorthanded will win you some hockey games.

2. Vokoun was solid, despite allowing an early, Fleury-like goal.

3. Bylsma is pushing all the right buttons, but I dislike Engo and Murray together.

4. Anderson looked exposed when facing a team full of sharpshooters. So did Ottawa's slow defense. The big bodies looked slow, Gonch and Karlsson looked tired.

5. Geno is obviously not 100%, his shot is lacking and it's easy to see it. But he's all heart so far in these playoffs. Right now he reminds me of Jagr against the Devils in 1999 when he played injured and was still unstoppable. Seeing Geno drive the net and score, and then backcheck like he did (not to mention cut down the turnovers) was refreshing. He wants to win badly.

6. Matt Cooke, although not lighting the lamp, is having a great playoff. He's hitting everything and causing all kinds of problems on the forecheck.

[Nizzy]

Its time to sit Morrow & Adams and play Jokinen & Bennett. Can you image how much more dangerous this team would be with adding the OFFENSIVE SKILLS to the bottom 6 by replacing these 2? No just offensive skills but SPEED as well.

Morrow, 7 games, 0 goals, 2 assists, -3 rating, 4 total shots.
I thought this guy was a great fit for the squad when we got him. He was great in the regular season for the Penguins but its clear he doesn't have much left. I'm kind of happy that he is playing this way because it's an obvious no resign to be. This means Iginla will probably be easier to keep, plus no way Morrow can make it 82 games. Just a complete lack of speed right now. I don't think he fits with the "system". I would sit him until we need him. His legs could use the rest.

Adams, Didn't even look at his stats. He doesn't make mistakes but he also doesn't do anything else out there. He can PK... so can Vitale, Dupuis, Cooke, Jokinen. We will be fine if Adams sits. There's enough veterans on the team now.

Add Jokinen and Bennett to the bottom 6.


edit:

I want to see Jokinen for Adams first actually.

[count2infinity]

no.

[Froggy]

Right before we scored our 1st goal, i noted how passive the sens pk was, and thinking we would eat that scheme alive. We were pretty perfect on special teams, considering the 2 pps we didn't score on don't really count because one was only like 14 seconds long, and the other was full of 4th liners at the end of the game.

I still don't think Anderson is very good.

Solid all around game. We gave up lots of shots, but kept the quality chances to a minimum, especially with the lead

[AlexPKeaton]

Anderson was pretty good, outside of the Dupuis goal, everything else was screens and cross crease passing. I think the Pens offense is simply really good. That is why I'm not as worried as others about sustained pressure. The Pens are going to score goals no matter what with this roster. Especially when they have a plethora of guys willing to score dirty goals now.

[shmenguin]

-didn't trust vokoun early in the game, but he got the job done.
-geno looked like he was skating better. maybe he's on the mend.
-in theory, our stars will get healthier and our team will develop more chemistry as time goes on. it's possible that we could see some real progression
-the 4th line is so good - even with an anchor at center
-the 3rd line is not so good - ESPECIALLY with an anchor at center

[thepittman]

I really wish BB could break the lineup more consistently, but I know next year all these rentals will disappear and he will be able to get plenty of ice time.