Round 2 Eastern Conference Semi-Finals. Pens/Habs. LETS GO PENS!

[Killer]

Every time they lead off with a story about how great Fleury is he shits the bed.

I'm still pissed they pissed that one away

[steelpride12]

The Pens are a much better team overall and they played like it for 40 minutes. The Habs played one hell of a game in the third and the Pens played to hold a lead. The Pens will come out and play that hard for 60 minutes on Saturday and will pull out the win. GO PENS!

[SteelMember]

What the hell?

Did they take naps at the 2nd intermission?

The D looked like they were in a constant frenzy to get into position... and slow (3rd).

How many one-timers are hitting the glass? Some of them aren't even close.

and did we give up on the checking? Orpik isn't even hitting anyone. Just Kunitz as usual. Which is a bright spot because Sid set him up about 5-6 times, and all he was able to get in was a pinball move off both skates... after he wiffed.

I know Sid is really trying out there even though they are making a point to shut him down. I think he went through 3 sticks and a helmet in the 1st. His frustration is starting to show. If someone would just finish, I'm sure he'd be content with the assists.

Geno.... You gotta bury that breakaway. Come on, bud.

Ah well. We need to get 'em on Saturday.

LET'S GO BOYS!!!

Not that it matters, but i would love to see that breakaway from a few different angles, I'm almost positive that he was tripped.

edit...

no, he wasn't. he had already shot the puck.

But Geno, don't bother putting any moves on the goalie or anything.....i mean, just shoot straight ahead, it's cool.

[X-Terminator]

Originally Posted by WH

Not that it matters, but i would love to see that breakaway from a few different angles, I'm almost positive that he was tripped.

edit...

no, he wasn't. he had already shot the puck.

But Geno, don't bother putting any moves on the goalie or anything.....i mean, just shoot straight ahead, it's cool.

That's why they took him out of the top rotation in the shootout - he just is not good on breakaways. Pure shooters like him usually aren't - they seem to be allergic to the "deke."

[Indo]

My Official "Unofficial Assessment of the Game"

One Word: Sloppy

The 'Guins started out Sloppy.
The beginning of the game was characterized by poor passing (too long, too short) with a distinct lack of "crispness". (No. That's NOT related to suddenness and glide!). What I mean by that is that the puck-handling was sloppy. A "crisp" pass is one in which Player A passes the puck to Player B in such a manner that the puck stays flat (not up on edge) and is received squarely on the face of the stick; you hear a distinct "clack" and it is clear that Player B now has definitive control of the puck. We didn't see that at first. Many of the passes went long or short; many of them hit the stick of Player B, but "bounced around"; There were FAR too many turnovers because of it.
Add to that, as someone mentioned, that there were very few hits. The defensemen were letting the Habs walk right into the zone and then WAITING for them instead of going up to greet them with a shoulder and some Controlled Violence. They were sitting on their heels...

Now.
Once Talbot scored that all changed. They starting skating and passing "Crisply" and hitting and doing all of the things that we know they are capable of doing.
It became Poetry in Motion...

We did this for forty minutes, but couldn't capitalize. Letang (I believe) WHIFFED on a sure goal. Halakadakakak was caught on his heels on the other side of the net.
DAMN!
We were getting the puck deep inside, but Halak stood strong.

Then we decided, sometime during the 2nd Intermission, to come out slow and complacent. We went right back to that sloppy play of the early game---passes were missed or flubbed; the hitting stopped; and (and this is the part that KILLS me) we decided that we could try it the way the Caps played their series and shoot from somewhere in Oklahoma (at the top of the point). Did they learn nothing by seeing the Caps get beaten? Halakachakamaka is a good goalie. He is NOT going to give up the long shot---ESPECIALLY if he isn't screened. They (the'Guins) were essentially giving him goaltending practice...

And--Malkin: straight at the goalie with not so much as a shoulder fake AIN'T gonna do it. Hell, I could have stopped that shot and I've never played organized hockey AND I can't even skate. But I guarandamntee that I could have stopped that shot.

So where does all of this leave us?

Well, It's 2-2.
That's not so bad. We have CLEARLY shown that we are capable of DOMINATING this team, so long as we play OUR (well, Bylsma's) game and don't get sucked into thinking that we have this in the bag)
It's time to regroup, evaluate what went wrong (AND what we did right) and take it to the Habaneros...
Besides, from the beginning I thought that it would take 6 games...

(my )

EDIT:
One more thing--
Letang---STAY AWAY FROM THE CREASE unless you have a damn good reason for being there. (sloppy)

[Indo]

I still think we desperately need some Hockey Smilies. One of you mods (I think HTG) recommended that I put it in the Suggestion Box to the Head Honcho; the Big Cahuna; the PimpDaddy; The Man.

But I don't know how to do that.

(Hey Kid! a little help...)

Game On!

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[HometownGal]

Originally Posted by Indo

I still think we desperately need some Hockey Smilies. One of you mods (I think HTG) recommended that I put it in the Suggestion Box to the Head Honcho; the Big Cahuna; the PimpDaddy; The Man.

But I don't know how to do that.

(Hey Kid! a little help...)

What a WOW of a post, Indo - I loved your assessment of last night's game and I believe you are spot on. The Pens played sloppy hockey during the most inopportune times, stopped HITTING and were somewhat complacent. Tomorrow is a new day (night) and I have no doubt they are going to play their game - the game they played on Tuesday night.

You could request the hockey smilies via two ways:

(1) Send SteelersFever a PM and request the same and/or

(2) Start up a thread in the Feedback Forum.

I love the idea. Let me know if you don't hear back from Mike in a reasonable amount of time and I'll email him.

[HometownGal]

Flyers beat the Bruins 5-4 in OT last night to stop from being eliminated. Flyers were up 4-3 late in the 3rd and in the waning seconds of the game, Recchi found the net.

Be nice if someone would have just happened to find the back of the net on Thursday.....