Penguins/NHL
Penguins 5 – 
Golden Knights 4
PIT LEADERS
Evgeni Malkin | Goal (30), Assist
Phil Kessel | Goal (24), Assist
Sidney Crosby | 2 Assists
Jake Guentzel | Goal (16)
Ian Cole | Goal (3)
Ryan Reaves | Goal (3), 7 hits
The hockey gods looked to be smiling down on Marc Andre Fleury for the first 30 minutes of tonight’s game. The Vegas Golden Knights had a 2-0 lead mid-way through the game and Fleury stopped the first 17 shots he faced in what was a goaltending duel early before a barrage of goals would play out.
The Penguins would quickly take over the game just after the 11 minute mark of the second period.
Ryan Reaves, Ian Cole and Jake Guentzel scored 7:32 apart in the second as Pittsburgh turned a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 lead after forty minutes and then it was the Evgeni Malkin/Phil Kessel show in the third period.
Malkin scored his 30th goal of the season 3:09 into the period, with a blistering shot past Fleury as Kessel picked up a primary helper.
Leading 4-2 after Malkin’s marker, 3:11 later Phil Kessel delivered a back breaking goal to put the Penguins up 5-2 off a gorgeous feed from Malkin.
Scoring five unanswered goals in a 15:12 span, the Penguins found the net five times on 14 shots during that span to spoil Fleury’s return to Pittsburgh.
Vegas, though, didn’t call it a night after the Kessel goal.
Ryan Carpenter scored 18 seconds after Kessel gave the Penguins a 5-2 lead and Jonathan Marchessault would net his 19th goal of the season at 12:04 of the period to cut the Penguins lead to 5-4.
The Penguins would hold on to improve to 30-22-9, 63 pts, on the season.
Marc Andre Fleury stopped 33 of 38 shots in the loss. Matt Murray turned aside 21 of 25 shots.
For Pittsburgh, Sidney Crosby (2 assists), Evgeni Malkin (Goal, Assist), and Phil Kessel (Goal, Assist) each put up multi-point games.
Kessel with 65 points on the season is now one point behind Nikita Kucherov for the NHL points lead. Malkin is four behind Kucherov. Crosby is six points off the points lead.
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Another beauty take down of the “Power Play Specialist” – Ian Cole has played 11 fewer games than Letang but has 4 fewer 5v5 points… Add to the idea that Letang is now sharing time with Schultz on the PP? Sammich your entire world must be crumbling!
Wow not a single Sam post on the thread and look at what happens. Actually intelligent hockey conversation happens.
Now I feel guilty for my bait post lol
Hey sammich – quiz time
GP G A PTS EV
55 17 43 60 30
51 30 32 62 34
55 24 41 65 32
Who are the players listed above – The EV means even strength production!
Bonus points if you can tell me who you need to start giving credit to where it is due! The one with the lowest stat line is one of my favourite players but you make it easy to shit on him because you’re fucken absurd
Second Bonus
GP G A PTS EV
60 15 21 36 29
67 23 15 38 28
53 15 10 25 21
Tell me who this is and why you would pay his teams ask? This is a 3 year spread
As an advanced stat junkie I will add 48.2%; 46.3%; 48.7% as his possession numbers over the same period
Oh and this is Rick Nash whose balls you have been drooling over for as long as he has sucked. One of the games all time overrated guys. Good goal scorer but playing in CLB while it was a dump inflated his worth. It’s amazing how CLB improved after he left and how NY started to decline when he arrived!
Okay sammich here they are from bottom to top… Phil Kessel, Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby… so about that “power play” specialist remark? I mean outside the simple fact that all the games top producers feast on the power play…
Baur. Did you see that Pitt is supposed to get Mychale Salahuddin from Maryland? 4* rb and #5 rb in the country? Used to be committed to USC. Announcing at about 11:30. Underwhelming class from Narduzzi, but still got some solid pieces. He needs ro connect with more star players to get Pitt to the 9/10 win plateau.
I hope the new name posters are actually people who always subscribed here and just now started to post and are not actually new subscribers. If you are a new subscriber, you made a year long mistake.
I previously had a subscription under the name “gNaRKiLL” but took ambien a few nights ago and re-upped…
A first and a top prospect is the min ask for Nash? Fuxk off lol! Because Minny badly overpaid for Hamza’s last year hahahahaha. No fucken thanks
Sam is willing to trade Kessel who will have produced more this season than Nash will have the past two judging by the thumbs down. Stay special sammich
Ian Cole has quietly been playing really well. I’m curious to see how it effects everything. He has to at least be increasing his trade value and if he’s not dealt, great. We have a 4/5 defenseman that will level people and chip in offensively. I’ll take him over Hunwick all day.
Agree. Wasn’t sure what they were getting in Oleksiak, but a Cole/Oleksiak would be a hell of a 5/6 combo in the playoffs. Keep Ruhwedel and Hunwick as the 7/8. I’d think about giving Letang a week off see if rest helps him with his mental f ups.
Cole and Oleksiak have nice shut down pairing written all over them
Ian Cole should not be traded-period
From a value to the team stand point I agree 100%, that said I am curious about the relationship with coaching. He has outplayed Hunwick in every measure yet the excuses are used to sit him which suggests someone on staff isnt a big fan. With any luck Hunwick stays hurt long term lol
Murray sucks donkey Dicck
you couldn’t possibly believe that
Where’s Simply Dusty tonight? Funny he’s quiet when his man crush loses.
I posted on the previous thread. Why would I want Vegas to win? From the sounds of it, Fleury received much more support and cheer than Murray got. I guess there were about 17k clones of me out there.
And I see you said Murray played “Great”. You need to raise your standards if that’s what you consider great. I’d call it good enough to get a W. He’s played MUCH better games that would clasify as great.
Outplayed Fleury and make a few key saves when the Pens trailed 2-0. It’s funny how you never give Murray credit. Hence why they call you Simply Dusty.
I think the play of Malkin and Kessel was MUCH more important than the play of Murray tonight. Like I said before, he played good enough to win, and that’s good for tonight. Some games he’ll be asked to do more and some games do less. He’s gotta stay healthy and push forward to April. I’m done talking about Fleury vs Murray. We’ve got a bunch of other problems that could be discussed, not last year’s team. Tonight was a big game for MAF and fans, and now it’s over. Both need to look forward and move on now.
Murray was down 2-0 to a team that had only blown one game after the team scored first all year. He shut the door when it was needed. He allowed his team a chance to take off like they did. I loved MAF but a lot of fans have turned on Murray because of circumstances out of control of the team that forced them to make a decision. That’s why this whole debate exists. The consistent “Murray needs X to win” is every bit as fuxken stupid as it was when a certain retard out here was doing the same… Read more »
Good have this in writing when you start again in a few days.
In no way shape or form did Murray outplay Fleury last night. Both were average at best overall but just because Murray got the win because his TEAM outplayed Fleury’s TEAM doesn’t mean that he outplayed Fleury. Fleury was absolutely the better goalie despite losing last night.
I agree, the Pens have a lot of stupid fans that attend games and root for the players and not the logo. Cheer for the backup!
So fans that applauded him are idiots? What about the players on the team that were obviously effected? I wasn’t with dusty on trading Murray, but I still love MAF and am grateful for his time in Pittsburgh. I just felt they appropriately moved on.
Yeah some are stupid when they are calling into talk shows yesterday saying they hope Vegas wins because of Fleury’s return. That is Simply Dusty stupid. I just can’t stand how everyone craps all over Murray and acts like he sucks. It was a business decision. Get over it. Yeah we kept the younger, cheaper and option that led us to 2 cups. Yeah horrible choice by the GM.
Who says he sucks? If my thoughts were you could trade him for a Doug Hamilton etc, then I clearly think he’s very good as he would be pulling back a great return. I would have chosen a different route going forward, management didn’t agree. Fleury is gone, Murray has struggled some this year and a couple of younger goalies have stepped up and played well. What’s the big issue that gets you worked up daily?
Murray for Dougie Hamilton? You wonder why they call you Simply Dusty. I’m not worked up. You are the one obsessed with bashing Murray every other post. Even when he was winning cups. I’ve moved on and realized who I’m dealing with. You can figure that one out Simply!
Please copy and paste all of my Murray bashing over the past week. F it, over the past month. Please do so, or stop accusing me of doing so.
Check out every one of your posts over the past week or month and tell me how many do not reference me and/or murray. Then tell me who has the obsession.
Dude you aren’t worth it. Everyone on here knows you have very little hockey knowledge just by reading your posts. Just click on ignore user if you don’t want to see me call you out for your Murray bashing. You and Sam may be the two stupidest people on here. He has an excuse. He’s most likely retarded. What’s your excuse Simply Dusty?
There is only 1 Simply Dusty son
“Simply Dusty, is there any other kind?”
No, the answer is no
Reaves now has 3 more goals than Sundqvist
The price of the trade wasn’t sundqvist it was top euro skater kostin
Until he plays in the NHL and puts up numbers, that argument is null. What if he turns out to be a bust?
What if he doesn’t? Can’t judge that trade until Kostin actually starts playing.
By that logic, draft picks are worthless. It is and was a stupid trade.
Nobody said draft picks are worthless?
Sure you did. You’re saying impact now > future assets. The Reaves trade as it stands NOW is a loss. Reaves has had no impact and will not have any impact on the rest of the season. Kostin as a trade asset at the deadline would provide more for the team than Reaves will on the ice.
Reaves’ peak is a 4th liner. Trading out i1f the first round for someone of that ilk is ridiculous. Kostin was the top ranked European player. Saying “we won’t know until he’s in the nhl” is asinine. There are top 5 picks not playing in the nhl. Would trading one of them for Reaves still be “up in the air”?
Fair enough. For all I’m concerned I’m reserving judgment until I see reaves impact in the playoffs and what happens in kostins career. Actually the hell with it I’m just going to enjoy this amazing ride regardless.
Killin it!
This is true, how many goals did the guy playing this spot last year have.
Like I said, tip of the hat for Reaves night but let’s not pretend he makes the team better
OTL needs updated we have 3