Penguins/NHL
Penguins show blueprint vs Stars of why 3-Peat Chances remain high
PIT GAME LEADERS
Patric Hornqvist | Goal (20), 7 SOG
Jamie Oleksiak | Goal (5), 6 Hits
Evgeni Malkin | Goal (39, ENG), Assist
Sidney Crosby | 2 Assists
Casey DeSmith | 17 Saves
Tyler Seguin and the Dallas Stars came to town Sunday night with the Penguins on the second night of a back-to-back and Pittsburgh starting Casey DeSmith in goal.
This should have been a night that favored Dallas, except the Penguins went out and played suffocating defense, limiting the Stars to 18 shots in a Penguins 3-1 win.
“I thought that’s a team that has some dynamic people offensively. To limit them to the shots they had and number of chances they had is not an easy task. Top to bottom our team defense was as good as we’ve been all year,” Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan said afterwards of his clubs performance.
Sunday night’s win, while against a Western Conference opponent, was still another precursor of why the Penguins are and should be heavy favorites in any first or second round series in the Metropolitan Playoff Bracket.
When this team is locked in and dominating the neutral zone like they were Sunday night, it’s going to be a daunting task for anyone in the Metro to beat the Penguins four out of seven times.
“I think it’s a blueprint to success,” Sullivan said of the Penguins defensive effort vs the Stars. “We’re capable of being every bit as good defensively as we are offensively when we pay attention to the details.”
That’s the main takeaway from Sunday night’s game against an opponent with arguably two of the top-10 forwards in the NHL on their roster.
When this group commits defensively and pursuing the puck with a vengeance like they were vs the Stars, there’s not a better team in taking away time and space and Dallas found that out as Pittsburgh held the Stars to 12 even strength shots (5-on-5).
And that’s what I always keep coming back to this with this group and the prospects of a three peat. Yes this team is vulnerable, have their share of defensive lapses when the focus is off, they’ve played a ton of hockey last two years, but we’re starting to see signs again in the stretch run here where the Penguins can beat you a number of ways and not just with offense.
“That’s a really good hockey team we played against,” said Mike Sullivan. “I was really pleased with the focus of trying to get to our game. From start to finish, this was one of the more complete efforts that we’ve had all year On both sides of the puck. Our play away from the puck was pretty good. We were stingy defensively. That’s the blueprint I think for us moving forward is we can be every bit as good defensively and away from the puck and as we are when we have the puck.”
More Buzz
8th 20-Goal season for Patric Hornqvist
The model of consistency, Patric Hornqvist scored his 20th goal of the season with a power play maker in the first period. That makes it eight seasons of 20 or more goals for Hornqvist and excluding the shortened lockout season, Hornqvist has scored 20 goals in eight straight full NHL seasons.
The Penguins will be hoping for at least three more 20 goal seasons from Hornqvist
Praise for the 4th Line
The Penguins don’t have enough skill on their 4th line with the wingers and it hurts them most nights lately, but the 4th line of Kunhackl-Jooris-Rowney did have an impactful night vs the Stars, especially with their work along the boards.
“I think Josh Jooris has helped us [hide],” Mike Sullivan said of the hard working center. “I thought they had some good offensive zone shifts. Doing a lot of little things that help us win. I have a comfort level with how they’re playing.”
Art Ross Trophy Race
1. Nikita Kucherov | 34 Goals – 54 Assists – 88 Points
2. Evgeni Malkin | 39 Goals – 48 Assists – 87 Points
3. Connor McDavid | 33 Goals – 51 Assists – 84 Assists
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Oleksiak having yet another outlier…
Sam sucks
Get a new material fatso
Ya… we need more zingers like “Full time carpenter and laborers $15-22. Npl apply”
Yeah like I mentioned it twice while that fat **** posts on every article at least twice and you don’t say anything and agree give him thumbs ups for his stupidities encouraging him to do more and reason I mentioned about the 15$ its because that lazy fuckk wants to get 15$ doing almost. Nothing and goes to protests for it
Really good article on Ovy on ESPN of all places. It basically lays out what he would have to do to break Gretzky’s goal record of 896. I’d love to see him do it. He’d need to play another 8-9 years of 35-40 goal hockey, but I wouldn’t put it out of the question, provided it doesn’t translate into any cups.
I wouldn’t mind seeing him at least get close enough that it’s interesting but I would have to say it’s an extreme long shot. Ovechkin will turn 33 just after the start of the season so thinking he can even play when he’s 41-42 let alone play at an elite level where he’s still scoring 35-40 goals every year is pretty unlikely unless something changes drastically with how the league is run. By no means impossible but a very, very long shot at best.
If the Pens were smart they’d take Sheahan – maybe playing the best hockey of his life – and bounce him around between 4C and left wing. Nothing could jump start Kessel faster. After all, Kessel has been a dud with Sheahan as center.
I wonder what jersey number brassard will wear when he arrives
Rust out of the yellow jersey skating along side Brassard and Kessel. Maybe he can help spark something on that line!
Glad Rust is back. Also nice to see the Weedle cemented his spot.
Looks like Murray will be back soon. I’d take it easy with him and not rush him back. Real season starts in a few weeks.
Yeah we dont want him to be injured for his 8th time in his early career
Agreed, especially because of all those cups so early, he is the golden child! To bad MAF had to implode all those years
Sam thinks losing 5-2 is a solid game. He’s more about moral victories, like tying his shoes.
Big congrats to MAF for becoming the 13th and second fastest to reach 400 wins.
Few years ago I said it he is the closest to get close to roy brodeur wins as active player lunongo is done fleury still 32 if healthy and team plays good he can get close to those 2 icons
After you heard me say it. I said he was a hall of famer, when there is a large crowd out there who think he is not. He’s 84 wins behind Belfour for 3rd place all time. He will easily pass him. 3 cups, 3rd all time in wins. As much as I wanted him to be a Pen for life, I like seeing him have a great year on a team not dominated by stars. Ya, he’s not a HOF goalie, give me a break.
He’s not. The only stat he’s above average in is a team stat and he played for over a decade on a Stanley Cup contending team with multiple generational players. He had average individual numbers without a single season as a Vezina candidate, let alone winning one. You could say he won 3 cups, but he was the backup for two of them. He also got benched for Vokoun, Johnson and Murray over the last decade in the playoffs while putting up some of the worst numbers for any goaltender over that time. Saying he’s a hall of famer is… Read more »
His career is still going on though, so who knows. He might be a Vezina finalist this year and if he can win one or put himself in the conversation for a couple years, maybe he’ll be on the bubble, but right now it’s absurd to call him a hall of famer.
And. Brodeur didnt play for a good defensive team fleury was part of the building the team when they suckedd so if you say he is. Not that good then so is Murray. Trust me minute Murray gone he will be exposed in other teams I said it before I say it again there is a reason fleury is a overall 1 pick. And not Murray. It’s very rare a goalie gets picked 1st overall
Brodeur won Vezinas, absolutely should have had a Conn Smythe and backstopped three cups while setting records retard. Lou was a great tender but he’s hardly a lock because he failed when in the multi presidents trophy Nucks he’d give up incredibly deflating goals. He was every bit as guilty as anyone on that team for their failures. So don’t give me this team bullshit… MAF was on a great team for years but managed one Cup when they should have won multiple, he isn’t absolved of his part in that! Also as for the first overall goalies? MAF is… Read more »
I have said this in past I say it again. If fleury was playing for the same devils that brodeur played in front of good Dmen he would’ve had more wins and better career. Db system ruined him. Team didn’t want to play defence come playoffs because they had pressure to score since they had sid malkin under contract they forgot to play D and discipline hockey just example MJ was not a good coach but some odd reason fleury did better. This shows db system was crazy he had to play his budd off to make sure team won.… Read more »
Right… that is why Vokoun was so solid in 2013? DBs system was broken but that doesnt account for the **** show that MAF had become period. There is a reason he changed goalie coaches and hired a sports shrink you fucken idiot
As for the Draft… had the Pens not traded up MAF probably goes 3rd… thats the point dumbass. His 1st overall status was based on circumstances AND he is the only 1st overall goalie to carve out a great career all time!
PS I do find it amusing that you will use the draft year as some sort of proof of MAFs greatness! In the 1st round of that year there were two players taken that you dump on daily lol
Who gives a $hit where he was picked? Why the fuckk would that matter? And Brodeur had a ton of personal hardware. MAF has absolutely none. How is it that every time you post, everyone thinks less of you?
No offense tbj but most of what you say is completely incorrect and is more Pittsburgh fan myth than reality. Yes detractors want to say that wins are a team stats but that isn’t how they are viewed by the HOF voters, especially when talking about the top 4-5 in careers wins. Also MAF’s .913 career sv% is better than both Brodeur and Roy, it also isn’t far off the .922 of Hasek & Dryen who are currently the top 2 in career sv%. So his .913 career sv% is actually well above average in context. Also assuming he continues… Read more »
Except you’re comparing him to guys from different eras and wins mean a little, but nowhere near what personal accolades and numbers do. Current goalies with a better career sv% (after all, these will be the guys he’s competing with to get in): Rask, Schneider, Bobrovsky, Holtby, Lundqvist, Luongo, Price, Crawford, Bishop, Rinne, Anderson, Talbot, Jones, Dubnyk, Quick, Lehner, Halak, Varlamov, Miller, Anderson, Howard, Bernier, Reimer, Smith and Allen. Then MAF. He’s not even in the top 50 all time in GAA. So please explain how he is above average when over 3/4 of the league is better than him.… Read more »
And I’m not a hater. I like MAF and I actually hope he gets in because he’s a Pittsburgh guy. But I don’t think he deserves to get in. There is a lot of good with him, but there’s also a lot of bad and that can’t be overlooked.
Who knows if subban gets better and fleury contract expires he can come and finish his career in Pittsburgh as back up for 1M and help upcoming goalies or bail Murray when he gets at his 20th injury by then
The problem is that he won’t be competing against most of those guys you mentioned for the HOF because most of those guys will never even be considered for the HOF. Honest maybe 5 of those guys you listed will ever put the careers together to even be considered. Loungo & Lundqvist are already there but just about everyone else on the list still has work to do to even be in the discussion and guys like Talbot, Jones & Reimer have zero opportunity to even come close to being in the discussion for HOF. Yes the era will factor… Read more »
League might need yoda”s approval
So Stan did come back as tbj
Yup so easy to track that fool all of his comments are replies to everyone with negativity can’t be more then 1 moron on this small site like him
And all the thumbs down too!
Yeah that they share between him and npl and. Now that they hacked the site they are abusing it
Lol
Congratz ovi for his 600th career goal
Montreal getting blown out again.
Thanks box score
Last I checked habs have 8 injured players and still out playing jackets. Playing with number 3 goalie. No more plekanec..pacioretty injured price, Weber danault. To name a few but must say they are playing better with this ahl team just not wining but all in matters is box score and say they are getting blown out
They lost 5-2. Yeah they looked great, dumba$$.
I though Max Pac was an overpaid American?
#insultposting
Npl blows
Full time carpenter and laborers $15-22. Npl apply
If fat slob wants $15 to flip burgers I wonder how much he would charge this job. Good luck with your minimum wage protest
How many times are you going to post this? Comedy isn’t your thing. Nor is common sense.
Trying to help a fellow American to find a job and not depend on his mom’s gangbangg events and food stamps
How bout equalization payments? How well do you and your mother live of them? Do they fund her gangbang events? I mean it’s not like she’d make much off them
A fellow Americans??? No creepy French Canadians allowed.
Creepy Canadian? Last I checked Creepy comes from the states just like that movie called creep van. Made in flint
Jooris didn’t look bad… I mean he looked a lot better than Maddens “he sucks” analysis lol
At the very least he could be an option over Rowney when Rust, Simon and Reese return
I hope Letang doesn’t “French-Canadian” the Pens three-peat.
-5ammich finally agrees Letang could derail the whole thing lol