Penguins/NHL
Game 1: 
Penguins – 
Islanders What We Learned
Penguins – Islanders felt like at least a six game series coming in and Game 1 did nothing to dispute that notion.
Some of the expected played out:
The Islanders forecheck and speed/energy game caused the Penguins fits in stretches. Pittsburgh was not ready to play at the drop of the puck and were very fortunate come out of the Islanders 3-4 minute opening period surge not to be down 2-0. If that type of start happens again for the Penguins in Game 2, shame on them. There will be no excuse Friday night for the Penguins to come out and play the way they did in the first couple minutes of Game 1.
As the game progressed Pittsburgh adapted, but the amount of momentum swinging shifts from a speed/physical standpoint was clearly in the Islanders favor in Game 1 and that’s a key recipe for success for the Isles in Round 1.
What we also saw play out in this one was the Penguins superior overall skill overwhelm the Islanders for spurts that saw the Penguins control possession at near 60%, despite a rare poor game from the Penguins top-line. Pittsburgh’s controlled entries were strong in breaking the Islanders neutral zone trap and in periods two and three the Penguins were creating offense inside the circles where Robin Lehner had to stand on his head 3-4 times in the final 40 minutes of regulation.
The Dominik Simon – Nick Bjugstad – Phil Kessel line was tremendous. Phil Kessel was back in 2016-2017 type playoff form, scoring a first period goal and the line was at 73% in possession. Kessel and Simon were the Penguins two best forwards in Game 1.
Pittsburgh also got a strong game from the second line of Jared McCann – Evgeni Malkin – Patric Hornqvist. The line controlled possession at a great rate, on the ice for 19 shot attempts and just 4 against. Pittsburgh outshot the Islanders 10-2 when the Malkin line was on the ice. Possession is great but putting pucks in the net is what matters.
Malkin can be at his best and roam offensively when has a puck hunter with speed on his line that can track pucks and do the dirty work down low. Jared McCann was that factor on the Malkin line in Game 1. A thing to watch moving forward, though, is whether having McCann + Hornqvist on Malkin’s wing is too much jam and not enough individual 1-on-1 skill. Of the two, McCann looks like a keeper with the line because he’s head and shoulders above Hornqvist in being able to create 1-on-1 offense.
Numbers That Matter (5 vs 5, per Natural Stat Trick)
Scoring Chances
NYI 35 (52.3%) – PIT 32 (47.8%)
High Danger Chances
NYI 15 (51.7%) – PIT 14 (48.3%)
GOALS FOR
NYI 3 – PIT 1
Pittsburgh’s significant edge in possession and Shots For +11 (44-33) in all situations and +13 (37-24) in 5 vs 5 play, was off-set by the Islanders ability to create chances with less puck possession and that’s how they’ve played all season and built a 104 point season.
Scoring Chances, High Danger Chances and 5 vs 5 Scoring For/Against.
New York was the better team in all three areas.
Game 2 will be telling on whether this continues and If it does, you can bet those so called ‘fixable issues from the Penguins in Game 1 continued in Game 2.
WHAT WENT WRONG FOR THE PENGUINS & BLUELINE DECISION LOOMS AGAIN
This was a series coming in where the Penguins playing a patient game offensively by turning defense into offense would eventually be the best recipe for success. The type of style the Penguins showed in Kris Letang’s initial 11 game absence in late February and into March.
Instead it was one of those nights where skaters 1-5 were constantly leaving their lanes and had just a total lack of situational awareness.
Good news for the Penguins is under Mike Sullivan they always show a great ability to sure things up the next night, but a lot of what we saw from the Penguins in Game 1 is what we’ve seen for stretches this season.
The Josh Bailey overtime goal was a fitting way for the Penguins lose as the type of poor situational awareness Letang had late on a shift in trying to go 1-on-3 happened all night. Maybe even worse was Letang floating back on the backcheck.
“It’s everything we talked about for the last couple of days, just making sure we manage the puck and we have situational awareness in mind,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “Late in shifts, especially when it’s a long change from the bench, you’ve got to make good decisions with the puck. If we had numbers and an opportunity for a potential scoring chance, I think that’s a calculated risk. I’m not sure we had the awareness that we needed in that situation.”
That’s Mike Sullivan talking straight to Kris Letang and these type of situations just have to get out of Letang’s game when you’re in the postseason. You can live with the risky calculated play in the regular season but not now as finding a way to rein-in Letang was a major focus point for the Penguins coaching staff even going back to last summer.
As they’re still finding out, good luck with that.
The Islanders having a shot in this series is Letang looking like the Kris Letang of the 2018 playoffs and that’s a reason the Islanders coaching staff has game planned rigorously for how to attack Letang. Aside from the OT miscue, the Islanders had great success in attacking Letang on the forecheck as Letang looked timid retrieving pucks.
From Letang on down, it was just a really bad night for the Penguins blueline.
Brian Dumoulin had a strong finish to the game but he was uncharacteristically bad positionally for the first half of the game, leaving the net front on the Eberle goal and chasing a hit on the penalty kill later on.
Then there’s Olli Maatta.
Don’t even know where to start with how bad of a performance it was for Maatta. His play kept gradually getting worse from the icing call to turning the puck over seconds later on the Nick Leddy go-ahead goal to getting walked by Tom Kuhnhackl in OT on a reviewable non-goal. Somehow Pittsburgh’s d-men group made Tom Kuhnhackl look like Connor McDavid in Game 1.
Has Maatta put his lineup spot in jeopardy for Game 2?
Pittsburgh’s decision on who to scratch for Game 1 came down to Jack Johnson and To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
What is the better move in the expansion draft. Giving Seattle a 1st round pick to draft Letang and his contract or giving them a 2nd round to take on Horni and his contract?
Truthfully Hornqvist at this point. Letang would still carry asset return value. Hornqvist worries me a lot with this new deal. He seems to have hit a cliff this year. Still a little time to get back to what he does best but right now it feels like he’s moved into self preservation as we are not getting the same net front chaos out of him we used to
Pens in 7
Hopefully, they need a big gut check and reset at home. A first round exit would be ugly and it would be an interesting offseason
It should start with firing Sully, followed by moving Letang and Kessel (i hate moving phil, he’s a top 3 fave player for me).
Well like I said all year IF this team bows out quick and early Sullivan’s seat suddenly gets a little warm. I still don’t see the man being let go unless they lose and he was to stumble out of the gate. We will see how they respond tomorrow of course but if they lose we could see an interesting off season. They no longer have the years in front of them to waste a-la-Dan Bylsma so I wouldn’t be surprised if there was knee jerk reactions… for better or worse. If it is the team tuning out Sullivan based… Read more »
I have many issues with Sully, but will ignore them for now and just focus on this series. 1.) the lineup moves for game 1 were terrible. This shows me he is in panic mode before the puck is ever dropped. JJ has played solid all year, I don’t care what advanced stats say. Phil and Geno have been together for 4 years now. McCann has looked really good on the top line with Sid. Why make any of those changes before game 1? If we come out down 0-2, ok shake up the snow globe and see what happens.… Read more »
Isles in 3
When does Sid return to the lineup? The Pens are missing him.
Sad day for zero. Fleury beat sharks
Stan is probably mad too.
59-87-19
81-71-53
72-27-17
46-7-10
Tell Simon to go to hell. I saw more in 1 PK rush from 53 than I saw from 12 in 6 months.
Why are we still cool with Wilson?
He stinks too, but provides a large body in the 4th that Simon can’t. I’d rather play Adam Johnson. That kid looks shot out of a cannon.
You’re kidding right. A. Johnson couldn’t win a pick battle to save his life. Below average pass and shot. He brings nothing
4th liners don’t have skill, they just play high energy and slam their bodies around hoping that a puck takes 10 bad bounces and ends up in the net once every 7 games. So ya, Johnson should play over Simon and Wilson.
If that’s what you’re looking for I’d keep Wilson in… he’s been more prolific than Johnson at every level and brings more size and similar energy to the description you’ve laid out. Simon is also a better player in every imaginable way than Johnson. I don’t think he won a single puck battle while up here, Simon, for all his faults, is a great possession guy… offers way more at this level than Johnson
Can we please send Sully to the AHL where he can have 25 Simon’s on his roster?
He showed panic in GAME 1 and lost the team then. Hopefully Crosby and Malkin build an FU Sully attitude within the locker room and get this corrected.
Anyone miss DB
Just you.
I know I miss Rick Tocchet.
Knights score. Look at burns and karlsson watching the puck
PP goals do not count.
Ever since the jinxs from this site watching Vegas game sharks tied
3 goals on 7 shots vs Jones… MAF is tied with this guy lol
Party at zeros
Yup but no one wants you here unless you’re cleaning garbage
I mean he couldn’t even get to the end of the period without giving up the full lead
The Knights only had 12 shots on goal. It was not his fault.
Who’s fault is it now Sam(e)?
3 to 3!!!! Lol
Vegas up 3 nil early, congrats to MAF for all the goal support
He must be scoring since last game was his fault 9 shots in 2 periods
Lol Vegas had 26 shots in the game bahahahahahaha
10 SA two periods… you lied… 16 in the third… still lost
3 – 2 now lol
wow hearing crickets in here…..What we didn’t learn anything in game 2?
Imagine game 3 in ppg
I don’t want to talk about it!!! Lol
Gudbranson has more points then Crosby and Jake combined.
Alright bring out the pitch forks
“Bring out your dead!”
We cant we dressed some of them for the game.
Pens down early in the 3rd, coach’s solution…two AHLers in the top 6. Yeah that’s smart.
Guentzel shut down, Sid showed signs of life.. Kessel and Malkin quieter tonight… by all means… what would you have done…
Keep in mind you would have blown up the roster in Feb 2016 still
Let’s see??? Play Sid with hornqvist and malkin and kessel with a guy who doesn’t have stone hands.
Hornqvist looks like a shell of himself.
Hornqvist numbers with Sid have been shit literally since it worked in 2016 lol… moron
The numbers were pretty good in the playoffs last year and they are certainly better than simons 1 goal in his past 39 games.
Crosby had 21 points last post season.. 3 involved Hornqvist… another 3 involved Simon.., excellent example
Who’s dumber??? Sullivan or tomlin?
Yoda!
Sam(e) then Yoda.
Stan or carramrod
Well on the bright side if the Pens crap the bed they will have a 1st mid round pick.
Wow you sold penguins already
2-0 in game losing turn off tv
2-0 series down sell the team
The key word is IF. Learn how to read.
Who did you pick to win again sam?
Again Murray has to stop those move save them something.
Serious? Stopped the first one with three islanders around one Pen as Letang vacates the front of the net?
Yep serious didn’t want to jinx by saying something (bad habit) but he has not been focused whole game right from the beginning. There is no competitiveness in him.
The entire team seems flat. They look slow, tired and out of sync. The Isles look hungry, they do not.
CMD148 you are right on target I worried so did some others that we leaned on older players (7 and 72) way too much this season.
I still do not understand why getting Cullen back bc he is a leader in the locker room. You have multiple cup winners on the team, why did they waste a spot with him. Hornqvist looks like he is done. Too many concusions maybe? Crosby is halfassed involed in the scrum. No passion at all.
72 is the same age as 58, 71, 87, and 81
Hornqvist concussions may be catching up with him.
31 of 34 while the team is being badly out played. Plenty of things to look at, Murray hasn’t been bad
I heard Murray’s mom will host a gangbang event after the game since she is not happy her son is losing
Sam come on that comment is out bounds be better than that.
But she’s at the game and been surrounded by islanders fans
How does one person surround a bunch of fans? Wow.
How many TVs are turned off
tv isn’t off but sound been listening to classic rock better than Errey input
Bob Errey probably thinks the Pens played the greatest game in NHL history and that they won both games.
Malkinnnnnnnnnn where was he on that goal
Sam you are barking up wrong alley there Horny is not really here anymore think need to trim his time in reg season he is purely third line anymore.
Typical Russian kucherov
Meh! Guy just set a record for 2000s
Dirty play by leagues mvp
Crosby never commited any dirty plays. Lol.
Call me when Kuch punches a guy in a scrum with someone else in the balls
Anyone saw npl depressed at Tampax game he is sitting section 8 with the handicaps that fat fuckkk
CBJ are tearing Tampa apart.
Who knew ? Only Sam
You seem to know “a lot” after the games are over.
Go check my hockey pool on NHL website and yes I know more then someone that just has a letang agenda 24/7
Something our fellow Stan had when you weren’t here apparently
What’s more frustrating, the better club being pushed this hard or having to read the broken English dumb fuckery from a Habs fan?
What’s more frustrating is having a fake Canadian that doesn’t understand hockey and thinks penguins would have a cake walk vs islanders when same said sully might get out coached and isles 4th line will shut down sid line and cross fingers for pp to save their series
Sam has referred to himself as a Republican…
Sam thinks “not taking the Islanders lightly but Pens in 6” = cakewalk
Cakewalk….
Zerocool66872 days 23 hours ago
Islanders worry me to be honest but when it comes to experience and goaltending they can be put away. Pens series to lose, they’ve been a little Jekyll and Hyde this year so… I still like the Pens in 6 here
Letang…. so not a threat
This islanders fans hasn’t shut up one second wish PPG museum fan base had half their passion
How is Montreal doing? Since 1993 that is
Vegas has been to more SC Finals then Montreal has in 25 yrs.
There ya go sam.. enjoy the Islanders goal you fucken garbage bag
Now that malkin has a fluke pass he is somehow amazing in this game and Crosby sucksss please zerotooll reassure your box score
He made the play you dumb cuntt… he was also visible last game whereas Sid wasn’t dipshit
Malkin, takes a hit to make play resulting in a goal… crap. Sid losing a faceoff on the PP in his own zone 48 hours after a historically bad game… carrying this team. What a fucken bitchh
Gudbranson is nice
Nice play by Geno to set that up
How did shutlz and Johnson looked on that last play. I guess that was letang fault too
Yes, yes it was
18 saves in a game where the Islanders should be winning… how bad is Murray?
These fucken refs man
What a stupid penalty in the offensive zone away from the puck for 10.5 million in cash hey sam?
French Canadians do not take penalties, they take 2 min breaks.
We need me clutch rust to start scoring
Just saw fat npl at the tampax game he is sitting at the handicap chair. Section 8
Ever notice how Trotz teams always seem to play sleazy.
It’s part of the islanders culture too. I agree Trotz teams are dirty but we’ve always seen this shit from LI
That’s true also about the Isles they do have that culture. The NHL officiating has to improve if the game is to progress other wise this shit will take over the league again with 2-1 games the norm.
Murray injured yet
Nope he’s fine after bailing out Letang and Guentzel
How many lazy passes chubby and malkin did in the defensive zone. It’s true yours agenda is set only on letang
Here’s the guy that basically said it was everyone’s fault but Letangs and Crosby’s after game one whose bet against the Pens this series and this game telling me I have an agenda.
You’re right, my agenda is hoping the Pens win unlike you fucken fake
There we go… Letang on the ice… odd man rush, almost made it through the first
Are you serious you fuckenn tooll it was all dumoo
They were standing side by side… end of the day ANOTHER ODD MAN RUSH WITH LETANG OUT THERE!
It was both!
bullshit is a dirty word. Come on grow up the fuck is wrong with you 🙂
Apparently Tampax fans changed their jersey to jackets jersey so now they can feel they are winning
A bullshit call at least should have even up with Kunuckles crosscheck
Hey lets try to keep it upbeat till we go down by 3 then show the pitch forks and axes
Fair to all but Sam because fuckk that guy
Chubbyyyyyyyy
Kudos to Letang, 9 minutes in and no odd man rushes given up
Paid 9.5m love to take offensive zone dumb penalty. Who am I?
A Montreal fan from Canada who is also a Vegas bandwagon fan who trolls a Penguins board and spells worse then a 3rd grader.
1 chance for vs 13 against… Sam… how good was Sid game 1?
How good Jake was 0 shots
Yes Sam… it was clearly all Guentzel
See, I’m not letting Jake off the hook you dumb fucken idiot! But at the end of the day Sid is the 10.5 million pay check superstar doing next to nothing
FOR GODS SAKE ERREY STFU
Lets go Pens
McCann is out!
Thanks stan
You may continue preparing penguins losing excuse tonight
You make more excuses then this entire board combined. Go get your tissues and wait for Fleury to come on.
Sam is cheering for the Islanders….
I have islanders In 6 as hockey fan.
Trots will out coach sully again
Just have your finger crossed penguins have pp
Fake! Ass! Pens! Fan!
Why didn’t Trotz out coach him in 16 and 17? Fucken assholee
You guys think isles fans are louder then penguins fans
Islander fans are bandwagon fans just like you.
Could be worse right now we could be lighting fans.
Ask npl
I have jackets in 7
Could be much worse, could be Montreal fans.
Interesting well to me. If you took away the Overtime / Shootout Loss point we would have been tied with Montreal for last playoff spot. We would have got in because of a 42 ROW vs 41 for Montreal. Sort of puts this season in perspective.
The loser point needs to go. You either win or lose. End of story.
Agree 100% I call it the NHL Welfare Point.
So we have all seen JJ is in yeah?
Bleuger for ZAR?
didnt see that
Who is out?
I’m bored so here. What’s the Maatta with the Pens? Jack Johnson whose whole signing is somewhat suspect, still has been a better player over the last end of season versus Maatta. Our crease clearing Is soft at best for Murray. Never thought I would miss the hanging Chad also. Speaking of soft, Murray is as soft as they come in the crease. Shows some balls. Although far down the list of things he needs to improve for him, he needs more competitiveness. Oh that’s right MAF is gone. BTW Big fan of MAF but he is gone though, so… Read more »
I like MAF as much as the next Pens fan but guess what, 29 other teams have not won the Cup since he was traded. Spoiled much? The Pens will not win every year.
At what I pay for season tickets they better.
Lol!!!
Besides that seems to be GMJR style in his short window. He has mortgaged the future . He is sitting at the table with fewer and fewer chips.
If we had Fleury, there’s a good chance we’d still be at 3 cups. It’s hilarious how the uneducated fans cry about him. It’s like he didn’t completely melt down year after year. Murray played outstanding the latter half of this year and started for two cup teams in his three years in the league. Yah, terrible decision to go with the better, younger, cheaper goalie. And yeah, every team mortgages the future for current assets if they’re trying to win now. That’s how it works. We don’t have the cap space to go after free agents and teams don’t… Read more »
While I agree he morgaged the future he also helped win two cups back to back in the salaray cap era where most teams would be happy to have one. The window on Crosby and Malkin is closing and Letang is helping close it. They need to gamble now with trades and see if they can get one more out them. This is the price NHL teams and other sports franchises must pay with a salary cap. They have been in the Playoffs for 13 straight years, won three cups and lost one. A price will have to be paid… Read more »
Would you rather not have the cups from the past few years but have a healthier group waiting for Sid and Geno to retire or was moving picks and bodies out for the cups worth it? Based on the cycles of success you usually see in the NHL, which includes teams that get real good but never win, I am fine with how we have operated. The object is to win, GMJR won, twice. The team will be a darkhorse contender for a few more years and then the assets are sold off for picks and they rebuild. The rebuild… Read more »
Not sure the cups were nice but I know I will be there when the next group has to be rotated in. My issue mostly is he didn’t value the picks as much as he should, there wasn’t even a three year projection values of the players coming for the picks. And some down right bad luck on some things. Our D has both Maatta and Letang have incredible out of left field career altering health issues. The trade for Schultz has and resigning him a godsend. Other times as well debated on here you have to wonder wtf he… Read more »
And he wasn’t traded GMJR blew it he had a chance to work something out even letting Murray be drafted by LV and get something in return and possibly groom the next goalie over MAF last three seasons but that has escaped.
by that logic the leafs should bring back George Armstrong
MattyV that is just a simple fact actually getting tired of the arguments. Its settled.
JJ is out again tonight. WTF!?!
Where did you see this? Everything I have read had him in the lineup
Mackey Confirmed Johnson plays
Man, watching some of the final regular season and the early playoff games, there is some serious young talent in the NHL. Speed, skill. Other than Jake then Pens have nobody under 25 anywhere in their system with star potential.
The downside of having a high priced core of guys that are being leaned on to try and win. Win now build later, a lot of picks have been moved, a lot of picks made earlier were kind of dogshit and used as trade bait anyway. A combination of being a choking contender and mailing in on draft day led to a more “use the picks as currency” type attitude. Make no bones about it, when the Crosby window closes it’s likely gonna be a rough few years
Fleury sucked balls in game 1. Gotta play better.
Penguins team couldn’t bail Murray out game 1 gotta play better
That is what happens when Letang is on the ice.
True, team has to play better around Murray… If Letang wasnt an asset for the Islanders Wednesday Murray probably comes out with the W
Sharks are the best team ive seen in awhile. Bolts right up there. That would be a hell of a Cup final
Leafs won 4-1. Mathews 0 points I guess he is in his typical playoff form
Leafs win, Matthews team, I’m gonna shit on the leafs best goal scorer AFTER ONE GAME. what a fucken idiot
Yet not a bad word about Fleury’s shitty performance. He was in playoff form.
Because fleury score goals team had 9 shots in 2 periods.
But Fleury steals games. You always have excuses.
At certain extend. You really are something Stan. Go to bed you have a big day tomorrow to prepare Murray’s upcoming fraudulent game
What does “at certain extend.” mean?
If Letang keeps playing like he does the entire team better be prepared.
Poor Sam(e)… montreal missed the playoffs, Fleury screwed the pooch and Letang looks like a third pairing defensemen. Any other advice for us oh brilliant one?
Thanks box score. Fleury gives up a lot of goals because his team had 9 shots in two periods. Makes no sense.
Mann your hockey IQ is zero to none. If team played better attacked more shoot more momentum would be different for sharks the way it switch last period but it was too late. I guess you are used to pp specialist that do fuckk all and take fans for a ride up until pp. Stick to peewee hockey buddy
No wonder DB was your favourite coach at the time or probably still is
Shut the fuckup… you praise him and him alone as a god when the team performs in front of him but absolve him completely when as a team they struggle. You are the exact opposite of the guys that dumped on him while he was here. You’re literally the reason why many who liked him as a Penguin talk shitt about him today… you make it hard to like the guy you know that.
Reminder that Fleury’s magic number was 6. 6! S-I-X! Yikes.
6 wow, enormous figure… WOW
That’s a lot of goals, even for a team with a star like Pacioretty.
“Don’t pick on my Fleury” – Sam(e)
That game was everyone else’s fault but his. Sam(e) said so.
They aren’t sitting Letang. They need to do what Keenan did with Leetch in NY. You don’t listen to the coach you sit and watch. If Leetch could sit, Letang can. Brian Leetch was way better than Letang. He sat him in the conference finals in ‘94.
In that case malkin should’ve had sit many games this years specially when he took all kind dumb penalties yet #59 got benched for half the Russian does
Letang regularly loses games for the Pens. He has the lowest IQ of anyone in the league.
-6! Fucklng ouch Sam.
Malkin didn’t look like the liability last night… and is a proven commodity, at least that’s what it says on his Conn Smythe
ZC awesome comment
Letang is fine…. nothing to see here!!
sullivan fired yet?
From the Gazette: “Letang, who also had a team-high four giveaways, essentially tried to go 1-on-3 and lost the puck.” The chatter about sitting Letang is simply unrealistic. That said coaches have to hold him accountable for that type of play. I get the high risk-High reward but even guys like Zubov and Gonchar became way more calculated at the same age. All sammiches aside I am a big Letang guy, I think when he is on he brings so much to the team but its the decision making that can be remarkably frustrating. I don’t want to see Letang… Read more »
Minuses… that’s it… you’re a fucken coward dude! The entire Penguins hockey world has been able to see how poorly a couple guys, the two you are here for alone, played and all you can do is thumbs down. Just do the board a favour and go watch the Habs golf
I think Same is in your head.
Funny how when site was down for 2 weeks and people were on an article chatting there was not one thumbs down now npl is back thumbs downs are back as well
Yep, that was me giving the thumbs down to Zero accurately shltting on Letang. Makes sense.
All I get are thumbs up…
If I was losing these you may have a point, whenever I go in like that he avoids me, often for days. I’m doing ok 😉
I never thought I would be saying this or defending him but JJ needs to be on this ice. Period! I would maybe take Hornqvist off the 1st PP unit and move Jake or McCann up there. Sit Wilson and bring Teddy B back.
I think we should sit Letang and Maatta. I used to defend Letang but at this point I wouldn’t even blink if he got let go in the offseason. Our team played so much better as a unit while he was out…I think that tells you something no?
This all goes back to the second cup run and the “no name” defense.” They played as a unit, not as indiviuals. Ironically Letang was not playing then. Hmmmm…. Sadly I agree, Sully will never bench him. Maybe play 7 D and if he makes one bad mistake bench him for the rest of the game. The PP looks better with Schultz and Letang should NOT be on the PK. He basically is just another addition to the other teams PP Unit. This is not bash Letang bc he is Sam(e)’s boy, this should go for everyone on the team… Read more »
Look at all this bandwagon’s letang becomes garbage based on this game yet he was the most consistent defence during the season. Thank God you clowns are not NHL GMs because you’d be trading players every day as soon as they’re don’t play good 1 game
So what you will respond here? Puzzy! “thank God you clowns are not NHL GMs because you’d be trading players every day as soon as they’re don’t play good 1 game” Malkin – one of the greatest Russians to ever play, will be a HoFer, was a significant contributing factor to all three cups including winning the Conn Smythe in 09… you’ve talked about trading non stop since 2010 at least Kessel – Guy is one of the most prolific scorers of his era. We know what we get and he shows up when it matters. Was arguably robbed of… Read more »
It’s sad sam… I never blame one or two guys for a loss and even last night there was a few things that can be looked at overall but Letang was garbage last night and was a significant factor in what went wrong all the way down to the winner having his DNA alllll over the play.
Recheck your facts chief…never supported Letang since we won cup without him in 2016. Your emoji fits you…doesn’t know facts before opening his mouth LOL
It’s hilarious, the team legit won a cup without him yet that fool cannot see that he is currently a liability vs an asset and if he cant sort that out… maybe they are better off using that money on someone with a little more self control.
Sam what’s going on in the NHL today? I miss your updates.
Hahaha! Yea, Sam, it was only one game… last night. He played bad only one game the other night too. And the one before that. And the one before that. And the one before that. And the one before that. And the one before that. And the one before that. And the one before that. And the one before that. And the one before that. And the one before that. And the one before that. And the one before that. And the one before that. And the one before that. And the one before that. And the one before that.… Read more »
Do the simple math..this team plays 10 times better with Letang out. If we only paid him $500,000/yr fine he can run around like a crack baby….but we pay him 7.5M/yr to do what? Absolutely suck! We win the caps series last year if it wasn’t for his horrific play.
Don’t underestimate how the players feel about the decision to sit jack Johnson. Not because they are buddies and love the guy. Instead it sends a message to everyone that there’s no loyalty or respect for guys that put it in the line every game for 82 Fu*%# games. They get kicked to the curb. Sullivan can’t be this stupid. Johnson will be back in the line up Friday
I don’t see how you keep him out. Letang or Maatta should come out and since he won’t have the stones to sit Letang…
Kingerski is making the same guess I did yesterday. While I agree it should be Maatta I have a feeling it will be the kid Pettersson
With how bad Maatta looked there is no way I sit Letang. Reduce his minutes and pin his *** to the bench for a few shifts next time he makes that play but I think Letang needs to play
This is a exceptional case of overthinking something to the point you shoot yourself in the foot. If he wasnt gonna sit JJ when he was struggling in fucken Dec why would he pick now to make that call. That is a concerning personnel decision… too much Torts in that call. Sullivan was making clear and easy decisions a couple years ago, I get that this team is not that one but I agree, this choice was not a great one. Same with Blueger, I don’t get the Wilson thing… Blue plays Wilson sits. Not that I simply hate wilson… Read more »
Good call. Johnson deserved to play last night and going forward. Sully relied to much on Martin for that call.
Wow, even D sees how terrible Letang looked last night. It is a trickle down effect. Sit Maatta, Play JJ, limit Letang’s mins.