April 1, 2012 Philly v. Penguins- Official Game Thread

[firepower]

Are these guys on NBC serious?

The penguins taking liberties? A clean hit on a guy with the puck compared to a friggan cross check from behind while a guy is going to the bench?

F off NBC.

+100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

THIS! I'm tired of this biased announcing from this station.

[profpolisci]

I

[AlexPKeaton]

Another pathetic performance by the D and by Fleury. At least Joey V made something happen at the end to hopefully get the team going for the next game.

[Steve]

Our defense blows right now. Almost as bad as McGuire behind a mic.

Nice job Vitale – that’s how you respond to a cheap shot, go after one of their skilled players with a hard, but 100% legal check. No elbows, no slewfoots, jut a clean body check.

[firepower]

I am seriuosly still livid from listening to PeeAir gush about how much character this took from Scheen after the crosscheck in the back 20 seconds afte rthe play was over. WTF is wrong with this guy??

Wonder what PeeAir would have said if say Cooke crosschecked Giroux?

"Wow what a character play by Matt Cooke"!

[knives of ice]

anyone anxious to play the flyers or who thinks the pens will easily take them in the playoffs is clueless. they match up against the pens better than any team in the east

especially when the refs call zero obstruction penalties anymore. the garage league is back completely.

[tfrizz]

Another pathetic performance by the D and by Fluery. At least Joey V made something happen at the end to hopefully get the team going for the next game.

What's really bad is 4 goals could've been negated by playing simple, smart defense. Talbot's, Simmonds', and both of Vorachek's.

You could probably even argue that if Michalek cleared Hartnell out of the front, Fleury may not have given up that 1st goal.

[Ossa]

[GenoSidStaalsy]

Another pathetic performance by the D and by Fluery. At least Joey V made something happen at the end to hopefully get the team going for the next game.

What's really bad is 4 goals could've been negated by playing simple, smart defense. Tablot's, Simmonds', and both of Vorachek's.

You could probably even argue this if Michalek cleared Fartnell out of the front, Fluery may not have given up this 1st goalerewski.

Agreed. The first goal is the only one that could be described as a remotely bad goal, and that is borderline. This loss is not on Fleury.

[Ossa]

[tfrizz]

This loss is not on Fluery.

There are many over at the penguins.nhl.com board that would like to argue that point with you. In their expert opinions, the loss is 200% on Fleury - and the game would've been an automatic win if Johnson or Thiessen were in goal.

[farnham16]

This team was awesome on defense last season with the exact same guys. Why is it so bad right now. Is it the guys just not playing up to their abilities and not doing their part in the system? Is it the team as a whole just not caring enough on defense? Whatever it is it was to be figured out now. You can't go into the playoffs playing this poorly and hope to have any success. Hopefully the end of this game is going to be the turning point for them but they just got beat by their rivals on home ice today in a giant game. They should be embarrased.

And MAF has been just plain terrible over the past few games. Giroux's goal today simply cannot go in. I'm not going to throw him under the bus because he's been so good this year but he just isn't doing his part lately. I'm just hoping its not a result of him wearing down.

[penny lane]

"Playing against them now, I think there's a mutual respect," he said. "Both teams have respect for each other. That said, you always want to beat the other side and compete hard against them.
"There probably are times when fans on the outside are watching and don't think we have any respect for each other, but from the last two seasons playing against each other, I think both teams have a tremendous amount of respect for each other

."

Brooks, I am thrilled you have a mutual respect going out there with flyers; can you show after you have beaten them in a series! Or a game?

Nothing makes me psycho more than seeing the pens fritter away 2 points. That is what they did today! I guess if they are going to lose a game 7, better to do it on the road.

Defense pairing #4 and #44 has to change. Maybe #4 and Englelland.

:o
That crap at the end of game; circus stuff. Doesn't mean a damn thing going forward.

dear Admin~ point for you. I'm like, did I really write the caps instead of the flyers... good one.

[Staggy]

I have too many thoughts running through my head after this train wreck of a game to even offer any analysis or comments.

[Trip McNeely]

This team was awesome on defense last season with the exact same guys. Why is it so bad right now. Is it the guys just not playing up to their abilities and not doing their part in the system? Is it the team as a whole just not caring enough on defense? Whatever it is it was to be figured out now. You can't go into the playoffs playing this poorly and hope to have any success. Hopefully the end of this game is going to be the turning point for them but they just got beat by their rivals on home ice today in a giant game. They should be embarrased.

And MAF has been just plain terrible over the past few games. Giroux's goalerewski today simply cannot go in. I'm not going to throw him under the bus because he's been so good this year but he just isn't doing his part lately. I'm just hoping its not a result of him wearing down.

I think its team defense as a whole. While are D-men are not playing up to where they should be playing, our forwards are constantly getting stuck deep, losing pucks at the blue line, and losing races creating odd man breaks.

ANd while I love Bylsma's system, it recently has been too much to the offensive extreme. Today was an example. We go up 2 goals early, and continue to push like crazy. I'm not saying trap, but make the opponent lose the puck at the blue line, then counter attack.

[penny lane]

I'm not loving coach dan's record against laviolette!

[Ossa]

@MolinariPG

Bylsma says Laviolette breaking stick on glass and it ending up on Pgh. bench triggered exchange between coaches.

[Henry Hank]

This team was awesome on defense last season with the exact same guys. Why is it so bad right now. Is it the guys just not playing up to their abilities and not doing their part in the system? Is it the team as a whole just not caring enough on defense? Whatever it is it was to be figured out now. You can't go into the playoffs playing this poorly and hope to have any success. Hopefully the end of this game is going to be the turning point for them but they just got beat by their rivals on home ice today in a giant game. They should be embarrased.

And MAF has been just plain terrible over the past few games. Giroux's goalerewski today simply cannot go in. I'm not going to throw him under the bus because he's been so good this year but he just isn't doing his part lately. I'm just hoping its not a result of him wearing down.

They played good D after Crosby went down last year and for most of this season because they had to. Since Crosby came back, the team is scoring goals with ease. This isn't on the defensemen or any single player. It's team defense. They're completely focused on playing offense. Forwards are consistently missing assignments and are way up ice before the puck is out of their own end. The D are playing too aggressively in concert with that. They've stopped making simple plays. Everything has to be a perfectly tick-tack-toe play and drop passes all over the ice are the norm. The worst part is that this has been an issue for about two weeks now and they still are doing it. The scores lately, whether it's a win or a loss, are hideous. I don't want to see 8-4, 6-4, 5-3 with regularity.

It's great that they got the team healthy, but maybe it's happened too late in the season. It would have been better if they got this stuff ironed out in February and were now gearing up for the playoffs. Playing this way in April is a really bad sign.

[Staggy]

I love how both teams fans call the other team dirty. We're *****ing about them here and they're over on HF calling us the dirtiest team in the league.

[Chefpatrick871]

Lavy has got to be the biggest hypocrite ever. What a giant bag of d. Let's let big mac play in the final game. because honestly who cares if he gets suspended.

And to those who say "dont stoop to their level" what do you want? To keep letting them do what they have been doing? A stand needed to be taken.

[Henry Hank]

ANd while I love Bylsma's system, it recently has been too much to the offensive extreme. Today was an example. We go up 2 goals early, and continue to push like crazy. I'm not saying trap, but make the opponent lose the puck at the blue line, then counter attack.

Bylsma does a lot of things well but his in-game coaching has always been a weakness. This team rarely makes adjustments mid-game or mid-series. They have their way, and it's successful a lot of the time, but when another team has them figured out they can't adjust. Look back to 2010 Montreal series. Or the way certain teams have dominated them in recent years, like Philly or Washington or NJ. It was impressive the way Philly took this game over today. They didn't even need to resort to the cheap stuff after whistles to do it. They exposed holes in the Pens game and the Pens couldn't do anything about it.

[farnham16]

Pens have been super inconsistent, had poor goaltending, bad puck management, and pourous defense for a few weeks now. They have 3 games to get their game back and gear up for the playoffs. If they continue if what we are seeing they are out in the first round.

[farnham16]

And the five forward PP needs to never come back. What a disaster it has been. They took two penalties today while on the PP because of the fact that five forwards are on the PP. Byslma is blowing my mind right now by continuing to go to it. It absolutely cannot be their PP once the playoffs get here.

[tfrizz]

(17:06:41) Chefpatrick871: Big Mac on April 7, that is all.

Can't. The Pens burned their 4 call-ups already.

[littlemoonboot]

High octane offense, crappy D, underachieving and too much reliance on talent, hey look the Pens have morphed into the Crapitals.