Penguins/NHL
PENGUINS BEAT UP ON POOR GOALTENDING
A positive sign from the Penguins 5-0 win over the Hurricanes Sunday afternoon was the killer instinct they played with. They weathered an early storm from the Hurricanes a few minutes into the first period and from there the Penguins never took their foot off the pedal. The Hurricanes looked like a team that didn’t have their legs and the Penguins capitalized on it. Even when the Hurricanes had a 5-on-3 power play in the second period you just felt they were never a threat to score.
For the Penguins they scored four 5 v 5 goals against Eddie Lack who looked everything of a goaltender who has a save percentage of .891. That’s seven 5 v 5 goals for Pittsburgh in their last two games.
Under Mike Sullivan the Penguins have scored four goals or more in five of 16 games. In those high scoring games they’ve done a good job of feasting on backup netminders. Four of the five games came against the opponents No. 2 or No. 3 goaltender.
*A 5 goal night against Blue Jackets No. 3 netminder Joonas Korpisalo
*5 goals scored vs Islanders No. 2 goaltender Thomas Greiss
*4 Goals scored vs Lightning No. 2 goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy
*5 Goals scored vs Hurricanes No. 2 goaltender Eddie Lack.
While I’m sure many want to see the Penguins prove they can lite up elite goaltenders in the conference, for a team with skilled players like the Penguins have they should be a group that overwhelms inferior goaltenders and they have of late.
PLOTNIKOV BEING SHOPPED
Penguins coach Mike Sullivan has quickly showed he’s not a fan of Sergei Plotnikov. While Plotnikov was pushed on former head coach Mike Johnston by Jim Rutherford to play a more prominent role than he should have been at the start of the season, mostly because of this odd infatuation of the Penguins thinking Malkin wanted to play with a russian, the luxury of Sullivan getting a three year contract has him in total control of lineup decisions.
Plotnikov’s lack of role with the club has also been cemented with the emergence of other forwards. When you can’t get in the lineup when two regulars (Bonino, Bennett) are already out, it’s a pretty bad sign.
The speed and north-south game Bryan Rust provides has pegged him to get an extended audition, while the Penguins coaching staff feels Tom Kuhnhackl who has similar size to Plotnikov, brings a more complete game to the table.
Kevin Porter who Sullivan has developed a lot of trust in has also jumped Plotnikov on the depth chart. Others who aren’t even regulars like Conor Sheary have moved ahead of Plotnikov.
With Beau Bennett set to return in the next couple weeks and Bonino next month, the Penguins have been aggressively To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
Drouin to the habs its very close to happen
Therien to the unemployment line is probably closer
yeah its Therriens fault that he is stuck with bunch of Grinders and adding john scott. blame the GM he went to get 2 top 6 guys that were expected to score 25 goals each this season turn out to be both a bust (Semin and Kassian). begning of the year it was clicking but weise Fleichman,and mitchell dont expect them to play 82 games like the first 15 -20 games of the season . Now Worry about oilers they amazingly find them self year after year dead LAST .how many coaches 5 in last 6 years for the SPoilers… Read more »
Never Therrien’s fault. His third coaching job, and everyone screws him. Or he’s just not that good. Another french canadian twat that doesn’t know what he’s doing.
Stick to db Stan
LOL
http://www.habseyesontheprize.com/2016/1/18/10685184/michel-therrien-hot-seat-montreal-canadiens-habs-new-head-coach-bench-boss-replacement-candidate
http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/prospect-of-change-looms-larger-with-every-canadiens-loss/
Not his fault
http://thehockeywriters.com/looking-at-michel-therriens-questionable-coaching-decisions/
The best part of your comment… Therrien has been accused of playing grinders over the skill guys “in order to generate offence” AND not giving kids a fair shot. The hilarity of this idea is… wait for it… that, wait for it… Dan, wait for it… Bylsma, wait for it… was hated, wait for it… by you, wait for it… because he, wait for it… did exactly, WAIT FOR IT… what Therrien is doing. How can you have such cognitive dissonance on the subject? The same reasons you hated DB are the same reasons Therrien is under fire from basically… Read more »
As for Wayne cursing the the Oilers? in 1990… two full years after Gretzky left the Oilers won their 5th cup off the back of Mark Messier, Bill Ranford and the Kid Line. Gretzky however never accomplished another cup win. Not only that but the Oilers as a team was very competitive and was a sliver away from another cup appearance in 1991. They started to shit down their leg in 1993, the year after the lost in the conference finals to the Hawks. AGAIN you have no fucking idea what you are talking about. On That note, who in… Read more »
good luck getting anything for Plotnikov. If they actually showcased him we might get something. But how can they Think we can get anything of value for him?
Lot of Kevin Porter fans on here. Who knew?
lot of chubby kessel fans on here,who knew ?
At least you two have something in common. You should rub your fat gut on his.
Even tho Porter is not as talented as Kessel . At least he is trying to earn his paycheck .
While Chubby is not even trying and only Stealing Paycheck
The real question on everyone’s mind is whether or not you think Porter is better than a retired Marty St. Louis.
Retired St.Louis is probably better than pens Bottom 6 combined
The way they’ve treated Plotnikov, they should have no trouble attracting similar KHL talent subsequent years…this organization is so dumb sometimes.
Plotnikov is a bad hockey play. Skates in mud and has no transition game at all. The KHL is for washed up and no talent hockey players.
Yeah. No way I’d want Panarin, Kovalchuk or Radulov. All washed up no talent hockey players.
Those 3 are good, but Plots, not so much.
Nobody is saying Plotnikov is equitable to those 3. He’s certainly more useful than Kevin Porter.
The Pens have never been a top spot for undrafted free agents or top Euro free agents anyway so I’m not sure their treatment of Plotkinov will have much effect on their future endeavors.
they are dumb sometimes holding on Chubby they should trade him to colorado or tampax along with bb and Plotnikov and get nathan or Stamkos at least those guys play with heart and not often injured and if they are not injured they play the game and not pretend and steal a spot on the roster like Chubby
What happened with Rust? I thought he got traded for a 3rd? Fat piece of Canadian trash.