ON PENGUINS – BLUES
Marc Andre Fleury allowed 3 goals for the sixth time in seven games in the Penguins 4-3 overtime win vs the St. Louis Blues and the Blues two third period goals were one’s Fleury surely wanted back.
It wasn’t a great night from Fleury but the Penguins OT win can be traced back to Fleury’s performance in the first period.
St. Louis controlled the play early on with the Penguins falling behind 1-0 on a Paul Stastny power play goal. Fleury, though, kept it a one goal game as Fleury continues to be brilliant this season during those long stretches in periods where the Penguins get badly outplayed and keeps the period from becoming a disaster. Wednesday night was no different.
Minutes after the Stastny power play goal, Fleury would make a dazzling left arm save on Stastny off a Penguins turnover who had a wide open net to put the Blues up 2-0.
Then the Penguins fortunes changed as a Fleury breakaway save would see Pittsburgh go the other way and tie the game 1-1 as Pascal Dupuis forced a Carl Gunnarsson turnover and Gunnarsson left the puck on a platter for Sidney Crosby who blasted a slap shot past Jake Allen. The turnover was so bad it was shocking Gunnarsson saw another shift.
Suddenly Sidney Crosby was playing with a new found confidence and the Penguins got momentum from there.
“He put it on a tee for me there. It’s nice to put that one in,” said Crosby. “I don’t know what would have been going through my head if that didn’t go in.”
Pittsburgh played one of their strongest periods of the season in period No. 2. A Crosby power play goal put the Penguins ahead 2-1 but it wasn’t just a night where a star carried the Penguins.
Ben Lovejoy had a goal and an assist, the fourth line of Plotnikov – Cullen – Fehr had their finest game of the season and played a dominant game together.
They pounded the Blues all game in the offensive zone with pucks down low and the Penguins coaching staff made a nice adjustment throughout the game in getting the 4th line out against the Blues top line. The dominance that the Cullen line had on the cycle hemmed the Blues top line in their own end for significant stretches 5 v 5.
Cullen was on the ice for 14 shot attempts and just 3 against at even strength.
It prompted Blues coach Ken Hitchcock eventually putting Taresenko on the third line to get him away from the matchup. The Blues are big and play heavy but that’s not the way the Tarasenko line likes to play.
“They [fourth line] were really good all night. And I didn’t care who they played against,” said Penguins head coach Mike Johnston. “
Penguins figure out Blues Forechecking Pressure
The Penguins struggled mightily Saturday night vs the Sharks in dealing with the Sharks forechecking system. A staple of Peter DeBoer’s system, is forcing the ‘D’ to their backhands on the forecheck. When the Devils had their best team under DeBoer (11-12) they were great in that area. With a similar team now in San Jose, the Penguins had no answer in being able to adjust to the Sharks forechecking system.
During the first period vs the Blues it looked like it was going to be the same story. The Blues are a precise forechecking team that takes excellent angles. Their game is built off creating turnovers from the F2 along the wall after the F1 provides pressure. Penguins had significant trouble early on but unlike Saturday, the Penguins were able to figure out an adjustment after period No. 1.
Short support was key along with hitting the center low. The final two periods saw the Penguins consistently have clean breakouts (minus the Malkin turnover on Blues third goal) compared to period No. 1, leading to puck possession through the neutral zone and better zone entries as evident on the Lovejoy third period goal.
Source: Any Tension in Crosby/Lemieux Relationship is more from Crosby’s inner circle towards Lemieux than Crosby himself
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jay, you forget the NHL is a cartoon universe. what should have happened is after crosby was cross checked, there should have been a 5 on 5 fight and dubinsky should have got cross checked in the face resulting in all of his teeth being lost. it would have been a 4 game suspension. totally worth it!
Worth it for who??? I agree that it would have been very entertaining but it wasn’t going to effect the outcome of the game and it wasn’t going to deter Dublinsky from doing it again, if anything it would encourage teams to go after Sid even more because it would show the team will completely unravel just like the Flyers series.
The funniest part about this entire situation is that it all started because of an unnecessary hit by Hornqvist on Calvert his refussal to drop the gloves after the hit, the game was pretty calm up until that point but after that point Columbus started taking shots at Pens players. This is exactly why this notion that they should have gone after Dubinsky and that somehow would have solved the problem, Dubinsky hits Sid because of Hornqvist hit on Calvert, someone takes a shot at Dubinsky because of the hit on Sid and then the whole team starts taking runs… Read more »
@jay, did you hear the rick tocchett new york rangers story? do you remember when roger neilsson ordered lemieux to be taken out and adam graves broke his wrist? the next season the rangers were running at lemiuex too. rick tocchett finally went to the rangers bench and said if someone else runs at lemiuex, i’m ending messier’s career. guess what, it stopped! don’t give me some speech how it isn’t 1992 any longer. the same morons run the NHL. the pens don’t have any player on their roster who can intimidate or prevent crosby from getting his head smashed… Read more »
Even more idiotic
@jay, you really don’t get it. the league doesn’t protect it’s star players. they want the players to “police” the game themselves. i didn’t say they need an enforcer like georges laraque, i said they need a pscycho. they need a guy like matt cooke who will elbow dubinksy in the neutral zone and break dubinsky’s neck. that’s the way the league works. i know it’s stupid too, but you are as dumb as the pens. to send crosby on the ice when the other team has no fear that any pens player will break one of their necks is… Read more »
Idiotic
The reason the NHL will be one day be relagated to ESPN 8 the ocho is trying to explain to non fans why assaulting a player with a stick to the back of the head is tolerated. 2 mins for simple assault when the puck is no where in sight, I don’t even care if the puck was at Sid’s feet that should never be tolerated, players have ZERO respect for each other. They all know the dangers of brain injuries, hell they’re willing to sue the leagues that employ them over it. You should be ejected from the match… Read more »
He didn’t break the stick when he hit Sid in the head, the stick broke during the 3 cross checks he gave him while he was laying on the ice.
….and the pens are a bunch of women for not immediately cross checking dubinsky and putting him in the hospital. this isn’t real life, it’s the NHL. it’s like some weird cartoon universe. that’s what you do.
Yep that’s going to get them to stop..lol. Columbus is just going to except them taking out Dubinsky because he deserved it…lmfao. Someone takes out Dubinsky and they’re coming after Sid and Geno even harder!
Semantics, none of that should be tolerated. Again players have zero respect for each other.
Stick gave pretty easy on that shot on the ground IMO
Hey Yoda Fleury sucked tonight
The pens lost to a last place team. I’m not going to rejoice over any individual performance.
The Pittsburgh p ussies
Rutherford is a moron for not signing a psycho.
50/50 sid has a broken vertebrae.
Hey, who told you that Crosby was going to get the crap kicked out of him against a division team and you all said team toughness isn’t important? The pens have a bunch of v-agin as on that team. It’s a joke.
The only joke is morons like you who actually think it would have been any different if there was an enforcer on the team, the roster could be Sid and 20 tough guys and Sid is still going to get targeted, it’s part of being an elite player. The ONLY way to stop it is for the league to actually protect it’s star players.
You got to be Russian to take penalty in in offensive zone
Sam watch #71 that’s a leader with balls. Unlike the leader you like with balls in his mouth
Hey Yoda are you watching the game so far Fleury has bailed pens out this first period
TK to play his first game tonight
i heard there is and earthquake in the states 10.2 Magnitude and mostly from Florida side
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HG2MYX4N4s new breed of animals
Anyone on the way to Columbus for tonight?
So, I am playing Beerman’s team in our TIOPS fantasy football league and I feel as if I should just tank in honor of that great dude. Today I am thankful for getting to be a part of that great dudes daily interaction on this site. RIP Ronald Stuckley. We are all better for having known him. Happy Thanksgiving all.
nice touch Dabridge
I agree. I think we should all tank and let his team win the championship in remembrance of that billygoat.
Yoda I’m still curious after all those talks who would you replaced Fleury with.? Ward, Miller, Bernier?
Carey Price you knucklehead.
yes and price is available for pens wow some logic stick to EA NHL16
It would be interesting to see what would have happened if Mgmt. didn’t overrule the Letang trade to Philly for Simmonds and Vorecek, Shero didn’t low ball Jagr, Sid hadn’t suffered the concussion, Fleury’s coach change happened sooner and Blysma had gotten canned earlier (NYR were interested in him but went with Vignealt) and the Pens got Vignealt.
WS & JV for letang? Where did you ever see that sir?
I’ll take this hypothetical in the opposite direction: what if the pens never won a cup?
Sid said “hey Mario, we would have 3 cups if your marketing team didn’t insist on keeping st blurry for all of those years”. Mario then said “shut up sid you make 8.7 million you baby”.
Leave it to you to twist in to something fucking absurd. Choke on a turkey bone asshole
Depaoli – who gave you the inside scoop on the Crosby-Mario relationship? Must be posted on some Canadian website.
Happy turkey day gents,
would you guys sign Tim Gleason for 750k now that he is no longer in tryouts with canes i am sure he can fit the system here
for those that were drooling for the goalies to come to pittsburgh well Ward he has been average ,Miller hasnt been impressive as usual and as for Bernier he still have No win on the season with a record of 0-7-1 with SV% of .895 and 3.18 GAA
Barnaby is the most annoying Scum Bag player of all time .For those who has been watching hockey since Crosby era such as Npl and possiblbly stan . this Barnaby guy Makes Avery look like an angel next to him
Wouldnt go that far… Barnaby was an obnoxious mouth… Avery was just a circus clown. If I had to choose one or the other I would settle for Barnaby because he could stop for a minute but its close.
Matt Barnaby is a cumwad… granted it may have helped fire Sid up. Either way he can go fuck himself. The Pens responded well in a dual fashion. They played like shit vs SJ and were down early vs StL but they managed to score timely goals and steal it in OT. For once MAF didnt bail them out completely and they came to bat for him. It is a positive in a season of negatives. Was nice to see Sid with some confidence, kid didnt look too old last night. Hopefully he finally builds on this momentum.
Fleury didnt Bail them out But Made Some Brilliant Saves at times the team was well balanced for the Victory . top guys showed up 4th line played good and Fleury played the game that every goalie should a decent game . it is not normal when u have a goalie bails a team out night in night out sure you can do between 3 to 5 games a year but for pens it was beginning to become a routine .but glad for the victory last night was pretty convinced
He was big early when it mattered, he had a rough finish but at the end of the day he has carried this team all year… it was good to see him have an rough night but pick up the W because the team got it for him
True to that
mario going cheap on coach hmmm. last i checked DB was given a Raise after Crosby’s contract extension .maybe mario went cheap since they got frauded by shero and DB
This here….. This is smut
honestly pens played very good vs Blues i really didnt expect pens to win and score 4 goals i was expecting 3-0 blues and a fustrated pens but they really showed some character Fleury played well and the 4th line was impressive