4/11/2012 Flyers v. Pens Game 1- Official Game Thread

[DontToewsMeBro]

Yes, please fire an extremely young inexperienced coach who has won the Stanley Cup and Jack Adams in the last 3 years. Some of you are downright moronic sometimes. Be careful what you wish for.

First off, I think we will be okay and win this series. But what are your expectations? Just getting to the playoffs? With this lineup? Pens haven't done anything in the playoffs since they won the Cup. And yes, no Sid or Geno last year but they still were up 3-1 in that series and had two home games to finish Tampa off and didn't. With this team healthy and the incredible talent it has, losing in the first round is completely unacceptable. You only have so many chances and teams that are capable of winning the Cup.

Yes, Bylsma has a lot of good qualities and has had great regular season success. But he hasn't gotten it done in the postseason lately and that is all that matters. If he can't get this team past the first round this yea that would be 3 disappointing postseason losses in a row and he shouldn't be the guy going forward.

My expectations are high, but tempered. One team out of 16 wins the Stanley Cup every year. One. Don't buy into the "favored" status because even the favorite rarely wins. It takes a lot of skill, but a lot of luck also. I can say Bylsma has put the team in a position to succeed, and they need to execute. When the Penguins stay discipline, they can beat anybody. I agree with the Bylsma criticisms tonight. Them playing timid and keeping a forward back after the first did them in, I agree. Our powerplay has troubles. But our coach is the most inexperienced part of our team; we have to be ready to go through growing pains with him at times. This isn't Scotty who never came across a situation he had never been in before. I think he's at least earned our respect and patience. We don't need to turn into the Dallas Cowboys of the NHL. The lack of job security at the head coach position in professional sports is appalling and playing Go Fish with them very rarely breeds success.

[pens_srq]

Martin was abused tonight. Funny he was the only guy on D that was a -

[Malkamaniac]

All this being said, I do think losing out on Hal Gill at the deadline was huge. This team needs a d man that can clear the front in the worst way.

[brwi]

DB is getting alot of blame around here tonight and its justified but what about Shero? This D is a joke and this D is his- Shero had 2 years to evaluate this D and its clear to most here on the board that its not going to cut it

the d was strapped down to a train track and put behind the 8 ball when bylsma had the brilliant idea for everyone to stop playing aggressively. yes the d is a weakness my issue is it became more glaring than it should been because of poor coaching.

Have to agree with that. This Pens' team cannot play a passive, defensive-oriented style because the blueline is rather suspect and the team D overall is sort of lacking at critical times. Putting the pressure on them to make the simple and safe plays consistently is expecting too much. Z, Martin and Orpik have not had their best seasons by any measure and you cannot rely on them as heavily as a passive approach dictates at this point. Add LeTang to this tonight as he just didn't seem to treat the Flyers' pressure as much of a threat and got a little reckless several times.

Pens overall as a team right now are not stellar in their own end and you have to coach this as a situation to be highly avoided. Best way to do that is get more aggressive on the forecheck and get a lot quicker in the neutral zone with your decision making, even if that means the safer dump-and-chase game. Pens treated the puck in their own zone as no big deal tonight and got careless enough to let a 3-0 slip totally away and lose. They also freaked-out about flyers hanging around their blueline when the play was in the flyers' zone and loosened up way too much to try and defend against the homerun to the cherry picker when they could have bottled up the flyers in their own end and forced the forward lurking around up ice to come back and play some D.

[Liverlips]

People I have not seen blamed YET:

Niskanen
Johnson
Granato
Dana Heinze
Iceburgh

Bettman?

Steve Latin
George Birman
Ric Jackman

How many minutes did revlovejoy play?

[Durbano]

DB is signed for two more seasons after this one.

He absolutely should be fired if the Pens don't get past the first round.

[HockeyDaddy]

People I have not seen blamed YET:

Niskanen
Johnson
Granato
Dana Heinze
Iceburgh

Bettman?

I recall someone here had a relative that used to blame Steve Latin for everything.

[rgj]

My Game 2 prediction.....5-2 Flyers.

[ranci]

DB is signed for two more seasons after this one.

He absolutely should be fired if the Pens don't get past the first round.

tbh after this game i wont ever think of him the same regardless of whether they get swept in this series or luckbox their way to the cup.

[duke66]

People I have not seen blamed YET:

Niskanen
Johnson
Granato
Dana Heinze
Iceburgh

[knives of ice]

i can't think of a more embarrasing pathetic loss

still stunned that they could blow that game. unreal.

[duke66]

to have the #1 offense on the league and then watch your coach order your offensive horses to stand down, stay back and play it safe is just totally unacceptable and its quite telling about your homerism canaan that youre more mad at me for pointing that out than you are at him for doing it. take the blinders off you joker

ah dude, we get it. move on.

[Streaks House]

People I have not seen blamed YET:

Niskanen
Johnson
Granato
Dana Heinze
Iceburgh

Bettman?

Steve Latin
George Birman
Ric Jackman

How many minutes did revlovejoy play?

Lovejoy - 9:23
Engelland - 10:47
Letang/Martin/Michalek/Orpik - All > 22:00

[ranci]

to have the #1 offense on the league and then watch your coach order your offensive horses to stand down, stay back and play it safe is just totally unacceptable and its quite telling about your homerism canaan that youre more mad at me for pointing that out than you are at him for doing it. take the blinders off you joker

ah dude, we get it. move on.

yeah understand my dominance

[Rylan]

lololololololol

[Streaks House]

Coburn/Carle/Lilja/Grossman/Timonen - All > 16:00
Bourdon only played first 2 periods before leaving with an upper-body injury - 11:14

I sure hope Bylsma doesn't continue to burn the top 4.

[steelhammer]

i can't think of a more embarrasing pathetic loss

still stunned that they could blow that game. unreal.

That about sums it up. All that is missing would be an appropriate soundtrack for the game:

[Malkamaniac]

Man

[ranci]

lololololololol

understand this

[columbia]

@steelhamner

Or perhaps the Benny Hill theme song.

[Streaks House]

How many minutes would Niskanen have logged tonight? ~15:00?

[The U]

If Engel gets 10 min and Lovejoy gets 9.....you should have acquired another defenseman at the deadline.

Asham was our best forward last postseason vs Tampa. Tonight he played 5 mins.

[The U]

Coburn/Carle/Lilja/Grossman/Timonen - All > 16:00
Bourdon only played first 2 periods before leaving with an upper-body injury - 11:14

I sure hope Bylsma doesn't continue to burn the top 4.

Martin and Michalek are average, to be leaning on them that much as if they were shut down defenders is funny. They are "so good" that Engel can't get any ice time? Maybe it's more of an indictment of Lovejoy. But again, if u have that little faith in your bottom pair u should have been active at the deadline. When u are up 3-0 you have the luxury of keeping everyone fresh and rolling lines. No reason to staple Asham, Vitale, Engel, Lovejoy to the bench.

[Kaizer]

[Streaks House]

Martin and Michalek are average, to be leaning on them that much as if they were shut down defenders is funny. They are "so good" that Engel can't get any ice time? Maybe it's more of an indictment of Lovejoy. But again, if u have that little faith in your bottom pair u should have been active at the deadline. When u are up 3-0 you have the luxury of keeping everyone fresh and rolling lines. No reason to staple Asham, Vitale, Engel, Lovejoy to the bench.

Exactly. When you have that large of a lead, keep everyone fresh, fresher skaters typically get to 50-50 pucks, finish checks, out hustle, out work. HCDB could have exploited this, but did not. I understand tightening down the fort down the stretch in a 1-goal playoff game, but this wasn't the case early on. The physical edge/hustle the Pens showed in the first, flickered out about mid-way into the 2nd period.