Game 31 vs Caps - Thoughts from the Morning After

[Froggy]

So they should have lost a couple of those games then?

[Idoit40fans]

What are you talking about?

[71Aj66ax87]

[Froggy]

If going on a winning streak means we're peaking, and that means we can't keep it up until the playoffs, should we have lost a couple of games so we didn't "peak"? I don't understand this concept

[Idoit40fans]

I don't understand what you're talking about. A winning streak isn't peaking. Hitting a point in your season when your players are all playing well at the same time is peaking. Its not something you would control by throwing some games. Every team has a point in the season when they play their best, the ones who hit that point going into the playoffs are the ones who win the cup. Thats not a secret and its nothing new.

[raewhit]

I don't understand what you're talking about. A winning streak isn't peaking. Hitting a point in your season when your players are all playing well at the same time is peaking. Its not something you would control by throwing some games. Every team has a point in the season when they play their best, the ones who hit that point going into the playoffs are the ones who win the cup. Thats not a secret and its nothing new.

so it's only possible to have one peak during a year? Well the Pens and Blackhawks are screwed!

Usually a winning streak happens when all your players are playing well? Kunitz has looked ordinary for the last couple of games and Neal is kind of quiet right now, so I guess the Pens are okay

[murphydump55]

Paul Martin was great last night. Seeing him discourage Ovechkin at times was a thing of beauty.

The Caps power play was quite scary and moved the puck really well early on. It was apparent why it was so hot lately and why they had risen to 3rd in the league in pp%. I feared the worst when they had a 4 min PP, but we figured it out and gave them barely anything. I haven't heard the CEC sound that loud on TV in quite some time. I was even saying to myself "this crowd better be on their feet after this kill!". Sure enough there they were, standing and applauding. Seeing the Pens take off with speed and score immediately after the kill was such a dagger.

This team is really figuring it out. The defensive play has improved immensely, although they still have some boneheaded breakdowns, but they're not nearly where they were before. They're starting to cycle and play their style. The grinding, the hitting, the forechecking, it's all coming together.

If there were any downfalls to last night, it's once again our PP barely being able the gain the zone, and the lack of movement and options on our PP. Point to their high standing all you want, I'm still not convinced by it. We score a lot of broken play goals and you can't depend on that to be the way you score PP goals. We need to be a lot more scary and dominant on the PP with the personnel we have.

According to Rossi Shero is going after a top 4 and a top 6 at the deadline. I tinkered with the thought that we should be looking at getting someone that could win draws for us, especially after Vitale, Adams, and Jeffrey went a combined 4 for 20 last night.....however we're actually 6th in the league in team faceoff %. We can thank Sid solely for that! Him and Vitale are the only centers that are over 50%, and Vitale doesn't even play nightly, or take close to the amount of draws that Sid does.

We can't forget about Fleury either. He's back in that zone again. We can only hope that it continues, because as we all know, he's one of the streakiest starting goaltenders in the NHL. I also thought Despres played another great game. There were times that he got caught, yet he has the speed to recover and make up for the chances he takes. This kid should should be in the lineup every night.

Great win, great streak.

[Froggy]

I don't understand what you're talking about. A winning streak isn't peaking. Hitting a point in your season when your players are all playing well at the same time is peaking. Its not something you would control by throwing some games. Every team has a point in the season when they play their best, the ones who hit that point going into the playoffs are the ones who win the cup. Thats not a secret and its nothing new.

so it's only possible to have one peak during a year? Well the Pens and Blackhawks are screwed!

Usually a winning streak happens when all your players are playing well? Kunitz has looked ordinary for the last couple of games and Neal is kind of quiet right now, so I guess the Pens are okay

that's kind of what i was saying. just because we're playing good now doesn't mean we are somehow using up all our good hockey. chances are we won't win the cup this year (as chances always are), and if we lose, it won't be because we "peaked" back in march.

[Idoit40fans]

You're right, it will be because they didn't trend upwards April through June.

[Froggy]

which has nothing to do with a 10 game winning streak in march.

I'm just aggravated that if we don't win every game, people start blame-throwing and complaining about everything. and when we DO win every game, they worry about whether or not we peaked. it's one of the more asinine trends on this board right now.

[Grunthy]

Season's over! We are peaking too soon! All is lost! : scared:

[jwest21]

Season's over! We are peaking too soon! All is lost! : scared:

The Pens should think about baseball to keep from peaking too fast

[Froggy]

Season's over! We are peaking too soon! All is lost! : scared:

The Pens should think about baseball to keep from peaking too fast

[Idoit40fans]

which has nothing to do with a 10 game winning streak in march.

I'm just aggravated that if we don't win every game, people start blame-throwing and complaining about everything. and when we DO win every game, they worry about whether or not we peaked. it's one of the more asinine trends on this board right now.

Yes, it is absolutely the same people worrying at all times. There certainly aren't groups with different concerns about the team.

[DelPen]

Am I the only one that thinks some aspects of the offense and PP can still play at a much higher level? Last night they went through the motions against the Caps and still won because they are playing a system right now that when adhered to results in a low amount of scoring chances against.

Some of these games in this streak could have easily been losses. We were down in the 3rd period at some point vs the Habs, Lightning, 2nd Toronto and 1st Boston games.

We also blew some good sized leads to eventually squeak by vs the Leafs in the SO game.

The Flyers game after the 1st period, Isles and Rags would be the only "impressive" wins. The Caps and other Bruins games could have went either way if not for great goaltending when we needed it.

This team isn't even close to peaking, it's playing just really good hockey like they always should. When more games look like the Rags and Isles than the Caps game then you all can start to panic if you must.

[Shakes]

I don't think the Pens played that well last night. Not that they deserved to lose it, but they were there for the taking.

Fleury was solid, and the Caps had surprisingly little urgency, given their situation.

[Rylan]

wtf is going on in here.

[Great58]

According to Rossi Shero is going after a top 4 and a top 6 at the deadline. I

So they'll actually get a dirty griding bottom 6 guy? I'm ok with that.

[PensHckyFan79]

Pens were able to take advantage of the momentum swings. Sutter had a sweet move and almost scored on the first shift after the Pens first goal. And the rush to score after the 4 min PK was icing on the cake! Hopefully the Pens don't look pas the Islanders on Friday eyeing up ending Phillys season on Sunday.

[Hawkeynut]

wtf is going on in here.

Trolls be trollin'?

[columbia]

We don't want them to peak, so hopefully they lose on Friday.

[Gaucho]

Rossi is a f***ing Nostradamus.

[MarioLives]

Why is Rossi so disrespected on here? Is he really that bad? I know nothing about him, except that his voice and radio show is not very good.

[penny lane]

At the game, I didn't find it boring at all. I enjoyed the non stop action during the course of the game.
60 + shots with good saves.

Sid does need to stay late to work on his ENG shooting

[Pucks_and_Pols]

Why is Rossi so disrespected on here? Is he really that bad? I know nothing about him, except that his voice and radio show is not very good.

Rossi tends to play up rumors (#jagrwatch, #parisewatch, Jack Johnson) as being close to "done deals" when in fact it seems like the said free agent / trade was never really close to coming here / ever happening.

That is my major beef with his reporting.