Penguins/NHL
GAME 1 PRE-GAME BUZZ
— Mike Sullivan officially called Marc Andre Fleury a “game time decision” during his pre-game media session. Yesterday Fleury was “day-to-day” in Sullivan terms.
Fully participating in the morning skate, while also in the starting goaltenders net and the first goaltender off, Fleury is expected to start tonight in Game One and the Rangers also know it.
“Unless someone tells us otherwise, he’s [Marc Andre Fleury] the goaltender we’re preparing for tonight,” said Rangers coach Alain Vigneault.
The signs were there from Tuesday’s practice of Fleury likely starting tonight when Tristan Jarry was nothing more than a spectator in practice and then was not even brought out on the ice for Wednesday’s skate.
Pittsburgh winning three of the four meetings between the clubs this season and finishing with a 14-2 run, had Vigneault talking the Penguins up.
“They’re probably been the best team in the league during the second half of this season,” Vigneault said. “We have a big challenge in front of us.”
The Rangers saw the Penguins three times in March and made little adjustments in countering their speed. For Pittsburgh there’s no reason to change anything. The Penguins will continue to try to play their game and turn puck battles in foot races which benefit the Penguins.
Pittsburgh feels they can overwhelm the Rangers with their speed, while New York feels they have the personnel up front to wear the Penguins down below the dots.
The area to watch will be in the neutral zone when it comes to any adjustments or not from the Rangers. The way Vigneault talked today, it appears that not only Pittsburgh’s speed through the neutral zone caught the Rangers off-guard, but how well the Penguins now clog up the neutral zone defensively stands out to him.
“They’re are clogging up the neutral zone a lot more than they have in the past,” Vigneault said. “They’re got numbers back there and a lot of times five guys skating backwards. To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
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No MAF tonight
Awful news. Hopefully Zatkoff can battle enough to pull one out. At least they have a nice break after today
Sam, who will win in a hot dog scuffing contest? NPL, Joey Chestnut or Kobayashi?
Pens, Caps, Panthers, Wings win rd 1 of the east. Pens and Panthers go to ecf. Pens to the finals.
Stars, Blackhawks, Ducks, Kings win rd 1 of the west. Stars and Ducks to the wcf. Ducks to the finals.
Pens beat the ducks for the cup.
Good luck to all of the Canadian teams in the NHL playoffs this year.
Good luck to all who are participating in the NHL playoff brackets
Side bet: who will finish last? Sam or the field?
Im going Sam.
Will #Stanthespam catch on? Time will tell…
And F the Rangers
Yes.
Lets go Blue Jays!!!!
No.
Pretty sure Jeffed,Froods and NPL are one in the same. BTW – Sestito with the game winner tonight.
For which team though…
There have been some beauties on the board in the last few days!
There’s no way possible Sam doesn’t know what Spam is, I bet he eats at least a can of it a day.
per meal… 5 of em a day… minimum
#stantheSpam
Man you are really doing a good job spamming this site the last few days
keep up the good work Stan
“14-2 without the russian” in every article – but I’M the one spamming the site. Beautiful stuff, frog. Please expound for us on the albatross that is the Nick Bonino contract.
Every article…. there you go again making shit up! Keep trollin bro
Your boy Morse was just DFA’d. Another stellar move for the “best GM in baseball.”
hahaha again where/when did I say this???? I love how badly you are exposing yourself right now as someone who just makes things up. AGAIN, Even the biggest pirates fans would never have said this…. You’re worse than someone who doesn’t know what they are talking about. You troll. Man I miss the days when this site had at least a few intelligent posters that didn’t have to make things up to prove a point. Now a days you can just say whatever you want… So Sorry your boy politnikov got traded idiot, cant believe how pumped you were they… Read more »
Exposing myself?! So good – you literally just blew him and called him the best GM in baseball within the last week. Maybe it was hyperbole. Sure didn’t seem like it. Just like it didn’t seem like hyperbole when you were trying to convince NPL what a great pickup Vogelsong was. You know what I love? You considering yourself part of this elite group of “few intelligent posters,” or able to determine who they were, meanwhile you’re basically just a Pirate shill hoping to win a contest in which you get to tongue flick Bob Nutting’s balloon knot. If you’re… Read more »
right back to making things up followed by childish insults. thanks for proving my point.
That’s cool. I just make things up. Whatever works for you. Hard to respect someone like you who just talks out of their ass and denies everything four months later. Not that I had any respect for you before. Even though you were apparently a member of this exclusive group of “few intelligent posters.” Easy to call yourself intelligent when you just say whatever you want and change it later, though, no? Best GM in the league!
right, I stand by that opinion (regarding gm). always have. again NO ONE in pittsburgh let alone someone who follows the entire organization from top to bottom, would have praised any of the pickups you are talking about. A lot of hope they can piece the rotation together untilt taillon glasnow, kingham, holmes, etc. but again its clearly a lie on your part to say anyone loved the signings…. what is not a lie is you freaking out in December about the minor league pick ups
I wasn’t freaking out. I was laughing my ass off that, in year when they’re supposed to building toward a championship, THAT was their big ole move. Guess they’re just content to shoot for a play-in game. Just like you are. They then moved on to supplement the big Goebbert pickup with your favorite move – the Vogelsong signing, which you then tried to portray as savvy (and then later changed your mind on when he didn’t make the rotation, only to pretend you never liked it from the outset).
anyone part of the “intelligent poster” community (tongue in cheek) knows better than to believe what you are saying… just bc you repeat the lie over and over will never make it true. NEVER in the off season to I get to high or low on what they are doing. Again, I do have a lot of faith in the GM, he’s made bad moves, but I have followed the team close enough to not care what happens so much in December and like to focus more on results. I hated this offseason, but the money saved going towards a… Read more »
Just a quick PS, if anything people were calling this a rebuild year vs a “building towards a championship year” midseason call ups of previous mentioned pitchers and Josh Bell will be exciting though… again enjoy the game
Well yes – management prepped everyone for that, no? Because they didn’t plan on spending anything. Anyone with a brain knows that a REAL team coming off of a 98 win seasons, and losing really nobody of consequence isn’t in a “rebuild” year. But of course, that’s not the story the team painted.
finally a semi cohertent/relevent post that speaks to facts and not littered with meaningless internet insults. But a team coming off 94 wins, letting what some consider their team MVP (martin) is not something a team trying to win does. So you can see why I don’t get to high or too low in the offseason. No one liked the cervelli signing right? Buccos just being cheap and somehow they become the 2nd best team in baseball when it comes to wins and losses (added 4 wins from the previous team). So forgive me when I say your lying when… Read more »
My lying. You’re so full of absolute shit. Your boy looked good tonight though.
Sid did look amazing out there.
I like it – just being I repeat what I’m saying, doesn’t make it true – but YOU continuing to repeat the same lie, everyone should believe you. I see what you did there, Benny! And then you follow it up with this “money saved, so they could sign Polanco,” as if the two are mutually exclusive. So good. They couldn’t have signed him without that Vogelsong signing! You can’t get a real pitcher in here – they have to sign Polanco! Maybe that’s why you loved the signing – makes more sense if you think that way, naive as… Read more »
By the way – i generally agree with you – nobody would have praised these pickups – that’s why it stands out so much that you were sitting here trying to polish the hushpuppy that was the vogelsong signing.
to be clear, I dont doubt I called huntington the best GM in baseball. Taking a team that had not won in 20 years and making the UNDISPUTED POST SEASON 3 straight years, the second most active consecutive appearences only to the cards, with the resources he has is pretty good. I doubt I am along in that…… but to say I celebrate every pick up, is a complete farce. And any INTELLIGENT poster would agree you’re clearly just making things up at this point. scrotum nutsack twig and berries.
Another word you literally don’t understand the meaning of. Christ if I had a nickle everytime you dopped an unsolicited “I hate Malkin line” or “NPL loves hotdogs”, or “(random poster) thinks that (random Player) is/deserves (random accolade)” line I would be fucking rich!
He doesn’t seem to understand what spam is. The same way Benny doesn’t understand what “making shit up” means.
yeah and stan doesnt with every article bell center empty before the game
or crosby and letang sucks
You literally have no concept of why that shit goes on. Virtually everything on this board you hate is a result of your consistent nonsense. Your matter of fact statements on Malkin or Kessel that do not describe reality. Your consistent patting yourself on the back for “calls you have made” like you are the only guy on the site to make certain statements. The nationalism… I love my country, I love it’s contribution to this game, I love that we are still the team to beat at international events BUT… you almost make me hate my country because of… Read more »
Wow – Bravo, Zero.
Don’t want anyone to miss this from the prior article:
Playoffs are upon us – figured I’d update these:
Up to date Phil Kessel Vs. Marty St. Louis stats:
Kessel 82GP, 26G, 33A, 59PTS, +9
St. Louis 0GP, 0G, 0A, 0PTS, EVEN
I think they ended up making the right move – but that’s one man’s opinion – anyone else have anything to add?
playing sestito is a good move. that will prevent staal from crosschecking crosby’s neck right out of the series. let’s pray that st.blurry has his 4th miracle up his sleeve and plays well in the playoffs. the pens have a real shot this year and they need him to not train wreck.
Prevent Staal! Just like it prevented Tom Wilson from trying to kill Bonino! F’ing rube.
Active #NHL goalies: Playoff wins
Lundqvist 54
Fleury 53
Quick 45
Crawford 45
Niemi 35
Luongo 32
Rask 28
Miller 28
Ward 23
Price 23
BAHAHAHAHA… “prevent”… you must use the same dictionary same does. Smart money says the Rags D will take liberties with Crosby and Letang at some point despite Sestito’s hurtful glare from the bench. Then Sestito will take a bad penalty at some point trying to exact revenge AFTER the damage has been done!
obviously sullivan thinks it will prevent some beatings or else sestito wouldn’t be in the lineup. are you saying sullivian is dumb for dressing sestito?
LOL… versus? an injured Bennett? an injured Rust? an injured Wilson? and injured Porter? I mean I guess we could dress 7 Dmen but that really wasn’t considered from what I have read.
I mean I believe Beau may be available but he has commented to being bothered by his shoulder and possibly being tentative (his own words) when he plays so… injured!
Plus he is also being listed as day-to-day
where is rangersfan
Trade Fleury, Sam. 5-1 without him.
deathbyemu
jeff2266
Jaluco
froods