Penguins 2019

Indeed, just re-checked and 5 or the 6 recent losses in a row were all on the road. Of remaining 17, 8 at home, 9 on the road. 4 of last 6 games of regular season on the road. Have 2 remaining against Caps both at home and 1 against Flyers at Philly. Flyers now 1 pt out of 1st with trouncing of Caps last night. Pens 4 pts back.

 

Good game by the Pens (4-2). Need to win at least one of two over the weekend.
Winning both weekend games would be great.

 

Going to be interesting to see who gets scratched when ZAR is good to go since Bugstad made his season premiere last night.

 

Living in Philly sports land I can't help notice the Flyer gear has come out of the closet. Past few years they stayed away from me in my PENS gear but now they are engaging.

 

13 remaining games. Past time for the Pens to wake up. They can start tonight against the Devils.
The way things stand now they would play either the Caps or Flyers in round !. Unless they play better it doesn't matter who they play in the first round, they will lose.The Pens are too talented to play as bad as they have played the last couple of games.

 

Unfortunately, the bad play extends more than a few having lost 8 of 10. I don't know enough about hockey to see obvious signs other than the score or lack of it but what has happened around the goal that has caused this spiral? They have their injured defensive players back but obviously something isn't right. Is it that there is now sufficient tape out there that exposes their D weaknesses that everyone else is taking advantage of? Is it the goalie shuffle concept biting them on the butt? On the verge of an 'epic" collapse after sitting on top for what, 48 hours last month?

 

Better game last night. They played with some energy and effort which was missing in the last two games against the Caps and Carolina. The last dozen games or so they have been in a slump which all teams go through every once in a while and that is understandable, but in the games against the Caps and Carolina the Pens were pathetic. They were listless and looked like they were lost.
That is unacceptable and needs to be corrected. They are still too good of a team not to make some noise this year and push for the Cup. This will be an interesting next couple of weeks.

 

Sully likes to talk about the 200ft defense meaning that the best defense you can play is by being in your opponent's offensive zone. The problem with that is that the defense activates and yrs to get into the play and can leave their defensive partner hung out to dry. The other glaring problem is that with heavily talented teams you often make dumb mistakes. Such as when they get pressed in the corners they will try to pass in front of the net which leads to turnovers and scoring chances. Letang tried to jump and tip a puck over his head and missed. His man got behind him got the puck and scored because Doumlin didn't have position. Tanger stays with his man he forces him to stick handle instead of shooting. Dumb mistake.

 

This always reminds me of Billy Crystal's comment a few years before his beloved Cubs won the series: "You know, a teams going to have a bad century every so often!"

 

I think you should quit your day job Thorn and head on over to PPG Arena on a regular basis to mentor these guys. Couldn't hurt. Better you than me, I still can't figure out what constitutes Offsides in hockey.

 

Pens need to pickup 2 points in Columbus tonight and get that streak of 1 to 2.

 

Ah.......could you hold that thought for 30 days or so Fan? I wonder how this is going to all work for the NBA, NHL and MLB - will they still practice? Will they try to make up lost games or are they just cancelled forever? NHL could extend season into the summer although not sure if Phoenix and LV could keep ice that long into summer. NBA could easily extend their season into summer. For MLB there's some talk of setting up double headers throughout the balance of the season to make up lost games or extending later in the year. I don't think either is really feasible, season runs into winter as it is in late October/early November and some of the cancelled games are inter-league like Pirates starting out against TB. For post-season how about day/night double headers to shorten the schedule? I feel bad for NCAA kids cause many won't get another chance to play at college level.

 

Until hockey resumes, I found other Penguins related matter I'll be focusing on.........

 

Wish none of this happened. Only bright side is the Flyer fans were starting to get excited at their team doing good and ours sliding.

Crazy times indeed!!

 

Well at least the Pens did the right thing and tanked - this way we can devote all our attention to the Pirates now.

 

I tried really really hard to have an appropriate Response to this. Nothing appropriate came to mind.

 

No way in hell I'm posting my Penguin underwear.

 

Looks like it's up to the Steelers to bring us a Championship. Penguins down to the Canadians and I can't see them coming back. Of course we still have the magic that is Pirate baseball.

 

that was a complete series of uninspired hockey by the Pens. I didn't see a playoff attitude in any one player. I would trade Malkin if I could, totally overrated imo and I've thought this for awhile.

 

Malkin has had his moments and was a big plus in our Stanley Cups but yeah thank you and goodbye.

 

Right? For the life of me I've never understood why it was so imperative that we can't get rid of Malkin. The number of excuses that the talking heads made for this guy. They acted like he was Lemieux Jagr level but that was never the case.

 

Looks like the Penguins traded goalie Matt Murray to Ottawa during the draft. Guess they are confident in Jarry. Most of the draft grades for the Pens have been pretty low. They got two goalies, one in the 2nd and one in the 3rd round. Plus a right winger and two centers.