Ranking the Penguins (1-10) on the most impactful players in Round 2
1. Matt Murray: Many in that Capitals room will say Matt Murray was the difference in the series. His .926 save percentage for the entire series wasn’t sensational but in games 2-4, had a combined .954 save percentage as the Penguins capped off three straight wins to take a 3-1 series lead. In the Penguins close out win, Murray had a .968 save percentage on even strength shots. He was in the Capitals head all series and his ability to turn away high danger scoring chances and limit second chances with excellent rebound control led to the Capitals not being as effective in scoring net-front goals, normally a strength for them as a hockey club.
2. Nick Bonino – He was the Penguins best player in Game 1 of the series and ended the series with the OT winner in Game 6. Had points in four of the six games, totaling two goals and three assists. All three assists were primary assists, beautiful setups on individual plays from Bonino. With the Capitals looking to match the Beagle line against the Malkin line, Bonino out-playing Evgeny Kuznetsov head-to-head through the first four games was a major factor why the Capitals are making tee times right now and Pittsburgh is four wins away from being in the Stanley Cup Final.
3. Carl Hagelin – He created chaos all series and stepped up in big moments. In Game 6, he registered a power play goal on eight shots, had two assists, including the primary assist on the game winner and had a plus-2 rating. He drove possession and was a force in all three zones throughout the series from back pressure to winning foot races. Finished with 3 goals and 2 assists, including the game winning goal in Game 3.
4. Sidney Crosby – His stat line was not good enough. 2 Assists, (1 even strength point) and just 14 shots on goal. Yet, Penguin coaches will tell you he was one of the Penguins’ best players in the series. His impact was seen on plays where he didn’t earn a point. Game 4, his play down low led to the overtime winner, than again in OT in Game 6, he had a phenomenal shift that should have set up the game winning goal if it wasn’t for a miracle save from Jay Beagle. Crosby needs to produce more vs Tampa Bay and be more aggressive in challenging d-men, but he was much better in this series than the stats say.
5. Phil Kessel – The Penguins leading scorer with 12 points in 11 games, Kessel lit the lamp in Game 6 with 2 goals on 5 shots and added an assist on the OT winner. Kessel set the tone in a big stage.
6. Kris Letang – Averaged nearly 32 minutes of ice time, had 3 assists and a +3 rating. Yet, Letang is farther down this list because of putting himself in position to be suspended for Game 4 that could have been disastrous for his hockey club if they didn’t bail him out and penalty or not, you can’t take a penalty in a tied game with under three minutes to play like he did in Game 6. Caps score there we’re previewing a Game 7 tonight.
7. Trevor Daley – Had a poor Game 1 and some shaky moments defensively, but the way he stepped up for the Penguins in Game 4 without Kris Letang was a huge factor in the series. Played over 28 minutes, had a goal and was a plus-2 in the Game 4 overtime win. In Game 6, he logged over 26 minutes and had to do a lot of covering for the slow-footed Olli Maatta.
8. Brian Dumoulin – Like Daley, didn’t have a great Game 1 but rebounded the rest of the way, aside from the brutal turnover in Game 5 that led to the Capitals third goal of the game. Game 6 he was Paul Martin like defensively. To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
I’m going to stick with my only posting positives on game days so I’m not going to make any predictions about tonight’s game.
By not posting about tonight’s game, you’ve already insinuated it would be negative, thus making this proclamation also alludes to negativity. Nice job.
“It’s hilarious that Sam keeps calling Malkin the most expensive 3rd line center despite the fact that Bonino is the 3rd line center. Just when you think he couldn’t get any dumber…Bam he hits you with another zinger.” jaydogg – some four + hours ago, which I’m fairly sure was today.
How was that being negative about the team? I would consider pointing out that Malkin is the 2nd line center and Bonino might be the best 3rd line center in the game being positive.
I was reading it as a negative post, though it was not negative towards the team. positive vibes.
I like the Pens tonite… despite what the net seems to be leaning too or hoping for or both, I have a feeling we will see them make an early statement. 5 – 2 for game one!
Whoops.. Perfect storm of blah for the pens
Wouldn’t have expected this a few days back but according to the internet I believe the majority has the Lightening winning this series. I disagree but I am surprised its as wide spread… I have Pens in 6. We have the speed to keep up, the skill on skill game will allow guys like Rust and Sheary to get back in the game. I think after Hedman the TB isn’t anything special… Stralman causes the Pens problems but he really isnt anything special and could be nullified. The two teams D matches pretty well, nothing special outside of one guy… Read more »
pens beat hank and holtby they can beat bishop too
tampax have only hedman who will he stop crosby or malkin its not like isles he had only JT
and usuallly malkin plays good vs tampax so expect pens to win in 6
I would also give the edge to pens 3rd line over tampax 3rd line
The Cullen line? yeah – me too. Jus thave to hope we dont’ get the averge 4th line center version of Sid we got last round, and i like Pens in 6. then again, based on the past four years, I’m not sure why I wouldn’t expect that version of Sid.
All BS aside I think thats another major positive for the Pens… that Cullen line keeps contributing at a level most teams 3rd lines cannot. If Sid and/or Geno can start producing there really isnt much of a chance for TB to keep up. I really hope those two rediscover scoring… fingers crossed Malkin goes all hurricanes on TB
Add no Stralman for game one!!!!
You know where I have hope this round, zero? The power play. Lost in how good Washington’s PP was, their PK was excellent all year. Hoping we can capitalize on Tampa’s PK being a step down from that, as well as their clearly “quite a few steps down” power play.
only way i see tampax beat pens is if bishop steals games
That’s what we were all asking ourselves – what is the only way sam thinks we can lose the series. Because that’s pertinent.
Welp… one person has TB winning on this page so far 😉
must be npl or scaff
I cast doubt on this assumption… those who smealt it dealt it!
I’m fired up for tonight’s game. anyone going?
I wonder who Mrchady is yelling at right this second through a post
Is Fleury starting Dustin ?
I think so.
How about a game day article?
Is that George Michael in your avatar image?
Good one yoda. You’re killing. As usual.
That’s exactly who it, so you have been beating off to it for how long without even knowing the mans name? You’re dirty!
yoda vs my avatar
http://i.giphy.com/oo4B1kwle0yGc.gif
I would leave the list the way it is maybe just bump down crosby to 6 while kessel 4 and letang at 5
Of course you would – you’re a raging moron. Sid shouldn’t be on the list. He was a colossal disappointment and they won despite him being on “holiday.”
only person that doesnt belong in the list is malkin the NHL’s most expensive 3rd line center
Malkin had a loathsome series. Hard to argue otherwise. The shame of it is, his loathsome series was twice as noticeable as Canadian FRAUD Sidney Crosby – who’s yet again pulling his post season disappearing act. Maybe he’s jsut trying to honor Andrew McCutchen.
Sam, the moment before he came up with this line of thought
http://i.giphy.com/K4DV8KWNd2ACs.gif
wtf this fat slob is disgusting must be Sam (npl)
your fingers slipped at the end of you post.
must be auto correct
Best reply you have had in a long time…. well done lol!
It’s hilarious that Sam keeps calling Malkin the most expensive 3rd line center despite the fact that Bonino is the 3rd line center. Just when you think he couldn’t get any dumber…Bam he hits you with another zinger.
I don’t even think Bonino is a 3rd line center. They have 3 #2 lines. And a solid #3 line in Cullen’s line – that’s why they win. None of those lines are loaded up. But yes – Malkin is not a third line center. It’s absurd.
yeah and stan is amazing when he called sid 4th line center
He sure played like one – actually played like the 2nd best 4th line center on the team.
Hard to put letang over dumoulin in this series, especially with the suspension, phil was excellent too, murray, phil, bonino, hags, dumoulin, hornqvist, letang is my order
Murray, Kessel, Bonino, Dumoulin, Cullen, Letang, Hagelin, Hornqvist, Cole, Daley are my top 10 in order.
I’d put the whole Bonino line in before most… Bones gets the nod over Kessel because of his more complete game for me
That said, it has been suggested that line should be broken up and maybe it’s time we take apart the best part of this team
There goes Pavelski again, scoring clutch game 7 goals. Taking a page from Big Game Sid Crosby.
i’m posting st.bleury as the number 1 reason the pens won the series because he was on the bench.
Die in a house fire you obnoxious piece of trash. you are the worst part of this team by a whole lot. Your mom should have swallowed or taken it in the ass. Sad day for earth
http://i.giphy.com/AqEUAOCWjoU5W.gif
Jesus dude. You are an angry little man. Edmonton can’t be that bad.
It’s not, by any means… I have low tolerance for stupid and that guy has nearly cornered the market. Although Sam and gives him a run for his money and all too often you throw your name in the hat otherwise he’d be the man. I grow tired of seeing the exact same **** day in and out. MAF hasn’t played in a month and a half yet all this guy can do is talk about him. It’s very similar to Sam with Orpik and Bylsma. I wish that the posters from Jays list with tbj and Balth could muster… Read more »
“Pouliot looks pretty good” -Zero.
Yoda territory… we have been over this and the FACT (take a few moments to google the word, you and yoda struggle with it) is I never said he looked good. The exact words were “pouliot was fine” in direct response to “pouliot was a trainwreck” in a game where he absolutely wasnt. He was in game 4 and I had no problem stating that. All that noted the best line of these playoffs? “We should move Kessel off Bonino’s line to get Malkin going”. Now this is a bonafide fact you made this statement! Wanna have a look at… Read more »
Hey jihadist, you need to go to the doctor and get some blood pressure medication, I don’t want to see you die over this website. You are in heart attack mode right now. I know you want to light my house on fire, but I don’t want you dead. It’s just a sports team. It’s fun to act nuts about sports because it has no effect on your life other than something being good on TV a few nights per week.
Blood pressure is very good actually, as for the rest… you are a habitual liar and by proxi incredibly untrustworthy. The world would be better off without liars and manipulators such as yourself. All you have done for as long as you have been out here is lie dude… you twist everything you can to fit your crazy little world. it’s the same broken record over and over and over. Do you watch the games? I doubt it because you never seem to be able to talk about them… in any capacity. Box scores dont tell the story.
Jihadist pyromaniac
http://i.giphy.com/ulrlEkHk8hGFO.gif
Also.. it’s spelled dreamer!!!
“It’s fun to act nuts about sports” – soooooo, you take issue with my vulgar replies which to me is as fun as it gets but if I was to start lying and using hyperbole in every thing I write you would understand? Got it… fuck you it is then!
http://i.giphy.com/kDIhIpwRRIi3K.gif
Zero, this is entertainment. You’re on a sports blog where people use fictitious usernames (and personas). Lighten up Francis! Don’t take yourself so seriously. You’re venturing into gaydogg territory for most boring poster. Soon you’ll be trying to impress a room full of strangers with stories about how many under-aged women you’ve slept with.
I just had to correct two typos before NPL nailed me.
Exactly, I am here for the entertainment of discussing the game with some and some of the banter… not the lunatic ravings of a total jackass like yoda.
thaaaaat’s nice! there you go with the death threats again.
Twist it how you like, I dont give a shit. We played this game before and you did with the comment the same thing you do with everything. Fabricate and twist until it fits how you wanna see it. You’re a total piece of crap and I could give a fuck less how you take the comment… I just want you to know that your a scumbag loser and I am sure you really make life less enjoyable for everyone and thing you come into contact with. Get fucked
You are a st bleury jihadist. i knew st bleury had a cult following but I didn’t know its members were prepared to start house fires and to kill in his name. Wow! Crazier than I ever suspected.
you don’t even know what the word jihad means… FACT! fuckoff you lying sack!
It seems more like wishful thinking than a threat. You cant’ even get that right.
Very much so lol
http://i.giphy.com/LTEbcbA3MwG9a.gif
Crosby over Kessel? What a joke. Crosby should be be 8th at the HIGHEST. Where’s Cullen? Where’s Cole?
Kessel should be higher solely on the fact that he somehow “set the tone in a big stage.” How he got in the big stage, I dont know, but he didn’t come out of that big stage until the tone was set.
Slow down.
No. I do not wish to retart my progress.
Crosby #4?
your so funny i forgot to laugh bro
The teams leading scorer and the guy who had 2 goals and 3 points in a series clinching game is 5th. What a joke. It’s gotten to the point where is not worth reading the article. Just throw more crosby rim jobbing Staggy articles up here, since two secondary assists is phenomenal. Clowns.
lol “it’s gotten to the point where its not worth reading the article” … wasn’t that point like 8 years ago?
When was the last time anyone ID’d Fleury as the reason the Pens won a playoff series.
Since fleury matters right now. ..
Please translate.
He’s starting game 1.
as my earlier research pointed out, st.bleury has a playoff series winning percentage of .29% since the cup win. vokoun is .67%, murray is 100%. that clown is the reason for losing playoff series not winning them.
How did Vokoun only manage .0067? (Math joke, lets see if he figures it out)
As soon as I saw Sid at #4, I lost all respect for this article. Anyone can play well away from the puck, in the d zone etc. It’s the guys who can do that and produce who are elite. Crosby just isn’t right now, which is fine, because we are getting goals from everywhere else. Hard to imagine that keeping up all playoffs though. Typically, human turnovers on defense, stars that don’t produce and a rookie goalie aren’t keys to success.
How the fuck is Matt Cullen left off this list. Retarted
Checking to see if you don’t know how to spell retarded or if it’s edited out…
Lol nope, you’re just retarded.
When did they change the spelling of retarted?
Someone correct me if I’m wrong but is the picture for this article from the Oshie wrap around goal where Murray got caught overreact and blew the game in OT? That would be an interesting choice for an article about how good Murray has been.
Go back to pouring beer gaydogg. Your bitch boy fleury isn’t the answer.
What was the question?
hey D where is Cullen ?
did you put malkin name out of pitty so people here dont see you as anti russian
its like blacks playing that guilty card that they were slaves 100 years ago and come up with #blacklivesmatter
That’s absolutely hilarious that Crosby is #4 and Malkin is #10. Crosby had a whooping 2a and was a stellar -3 in the Game 1 loss, I have no problem with ranking Malkin #10 because he wasn’t nearly good enough in that series but if Malkin is #10 Crosby should be just ahead of him at #9 at the highest.
you clown you only judge by points /crosby did alot of good things and also set up multiple times TK i mean Sheery and he couldnt score but in the Defensive zone sid was amazing
Unfortunately Sid isn’t paid to be amazing in the defensive zone, he’s paid to produce offense, if the “best player in the world” is relying on an AHL callup like Sheary to carry his production then he doesn’t deserve the title of “best player in the world”
It’s funny how no one is blaming the scraps Malkin is left to play with for his lack of production but when it comes to Sid it’s always his linemates fault.
Ahhah! its funny how clowns here dont see what sutter was playing on the 3rd line compare to Bonino and all of a sudden judge and say sutter sucks
Always shifting the goal posts. Whatever you can do to defend your canadian FRAUD. Guess Sid was hoping he got to play in the “WC”
Eat shit fuck boi, he was on the top line in Van till he was hurt and wasn’t shattering any personal bests either!
Sutter was the pens best player in the playoffs last year. Low bar.
he is paid to make sure team wins but according to your mind
then kessel is paid to score goals thats why he was brought in goals
not 26 goals in the season and have Doan at 39 score 28 goals and make half his salary
He didn’t make sure the team won. What he did was play 4th line center worse than Cullen did. for 15x the pay.
If I wanted a center who “did a lot of good things…in defensive zone was amazing” but still didn’t put points up, I sure as shit wouldn’t pay $12 million for it. Jordan Staal makes half of that and he’s still paid for too much for his lack of production. Don’t tell me this guy is the best player in teh world and then make excuses for why he goes dormant during the most important stretch of games in the season (nevermind how he didn’t show up for the first half of the year).
Not just 2a. 2 secondary assists. Couldn’t even muster a primary helper in 6 games!
Can we do a top 10 tiops poster ranking instead?
If I’m not mistaken it’s been done before but I’ll take another shot at it. 1) Myself- I think it goes without saying but when you’re the smartest man in the room you deserve the #1 spot. 2) Zerocool- very knowledgeable and can support his opinions well with solid facts 3) Dabridge- Doesn’t post often anymore but always very knowledgeable and open to hearing out differing opinions. 4) Stan – knowledgeable and would be higher if not for the Sam tagents 5) Jeff2266 – doesn’t post often enough anymore or would be much higher on the list 6) NPL(Sam) –… Read more »
Bottom 10 TIOPS Posters
1)Samtheman
2)Yoda
3)Samthefatman
4)Yoddles
5)Same
6)Yodiot
7)Orpig’sbffSam
8)Yodummy
9)SamIswallowdb’smanhoodandloveit
10)Maloni
Zatkoff as the hot goalie to ride moved Maloni into my top nine lol
that must be the most arrogant top 7 listgood job and last i checked npl doesnt gets lost with sam he usually posts those stupid videos anyways good job with your list
when you have npl and stan making the top smart list man i think i better quit this site then if thats the caliber of people hitting the top 7 but then again comming from gaydogg explains all
Good job keep up the good work
For once I agree. You should quit the site. Thanks in advance.
Seriously how could any give a post where Sam considers quiting the site a Thumbs down? This should set the record for most Thumbs Up in TIOPS history.
“Seriously how could any give a post where Sam considers quiting the site a Thumbs down?” nice sentence structure and spelling, mr. smartest guy in the room.
Fitting your post was long and boring.
Im knowledgeable and have a great sense of humor. Quite the catch!
where is Cullen
These rankings have to be a joke.
#typicalstan
I honestly never made it past #1, citing the limited second chance opportunities to excellent rebound control leads me to believe Depaoli didn’t even watch the games. Literally 85%-90% of the Caps shots generated juicy rebounds and would have led to great 2nd chance opportunities has it not been for the players on the ice doing a great job off cleaning up the mess. Murray does a lot of things well but in that series rebound control wasn’t 1 of them, not by a long shot.
I know malkin has no business to be in the list you are right and cullen should make the list instead
Cullen and Lovejoy should both be on the list over Sid.
Bennett over malkin
idiot