Penguins/NHL
Penguins – Blue Jackets Series Fallout
“We just played one of the top teams in the league. I believe our best hockey is ahead of us.” — Penguins coach Mike Sullivan
“A very good team we played, and we had no fear. I’m proud of our club. That didn’t feel like a 4-1 series. But they win it.” — Jackets coach John Tortorella
GAME 5
The Pittsburgh Penguins are off to Round 2 with a 5-2 win over the Blue Jackets, doing quick work in the first round for the second consecutive year.
Games 3 and 4 had a ton of ebbs and flows and Game 5 also lived up to that reputation.
Pittsburgh after building a 3-0 lead, saw the game turned into just a 3-2 lead but when an official waved off a Blue Jackets game tying goal and called Alex Wenneberg for interfering goaltender Marc Andre Fleury, the Penguins did what the Penguins do, take advantage of a power play opportunity to put the Blue Jackets away and that’s exactly what they did.
Sidney Crosby scored a power play goal to put the Penguins up 4-2 and then 51 seconds later Scott Wilson beats a scrambling Sergei Bobrovsky in front to make it 5-2.
Game, set, match. — Series Over.
Blue Jackets strategy late in series of trading chances almost works
Columbus might have stayed true to their identity in doing too much dump and chase throughout the series, but as the series progressed, Columbus coaches and players started to see they could trade chances with Pittsburgh and as dangerous of a strategy that might be against a Pittsburgh team that is more skilled and has a better ability to create and finish grade-A chances, it’s a strategy for Columbus that should have worked if Sergei Bobrovsky would have at least been average and not a train-wreck in all five games.
This was an implosion by what’s going to be a 2-time Vezina Trophy winning goaltender and it was a series that should have went at least six games if Bobrovsky showed up.
I thought Marc Andre Fleury’s Game 1 and Game 2 performances were more of a team product as the Penguins were so good in limiting high danger scoring chances. Games 3 and 4 Fleury wasn’t good enough as the grade-A chances increased for Columbus.
Game 5 was a total transformation from Fleury.
The juicy rebounds were still there from Fleury like in Games 3 and 4 that were problematic but this was one of the best performances I’ve seen from him with his positioning/angles on second and third chance opportunities from the Blue Jackets.
Fleury was tracking the puck so well on shots with traffic and on rebound chances that led to his big night and a 49 save performance.
What Fleury’s strong performance did in an elimination game for the Blue Jackets was put pressure on Bobrovsky to match Fleury at the other end and it was no match. Instead Bobrovsky was the one constantly out of position on shots from the left and right side of the net.
As we’ll be seeing mushy stories about Fleury for a week now till the Penguins play again, let’s not forget he’s nearly a $6 million a year goaltender who is paid to give the Penguins performances like this.
Fleury did his job.
With Matt Murray on a best case scenario of 2[hide]-3 week timetable (from time he was injured) per team sources, Fleury is in the drivers seat to start the next series and go from there.
Has Fleury regained his No. 1 job?
Sources close to the situation say ‘absolutely not’ and that if Murray was healthy for the start of Round 2, he would be the guy, but the thinking around the team right now on Murray is that he won’t be ready next week but should be at somepoint.
Therefore, the ball will be in Fleury’s court to stay hot and keep the net for himself. Whether it’s Washington or Toronto, either team will pose a bigger problem for Fleury and the Penguins defense then the grit minded Blue Jackets did who despite putting a lot of shots on goal, still didn’t create enough grade-A chances that is needed.[/hide]
question….what was the deal with letang sitting in the owners box watching the game with the owner and his wife and pierre larouche? shouldn’t he be sitting with his other scratched teammates? #cuntryclubber
So what do people do in Quebec from April to October? Besides bltch and moan on the internet about how much they suck at hockey.
Why go head to head against thr NFL draft’s 1st round with your best series? Come on schedule makers!
Maybe that’s when the building was available.
Start the series Friday? Merry up a western series with an eastern series so you don’t have overlapping games?
Ya I would totally be down with giving everyone more rest so they can be even more sluggish
Is the Verizon center available friday?
I don’t know – this is irrelevant to me – *I’ll be in Vegas somewhere.
Can catch NFL first round on Cops two years from now so not big deal.
I’d rather punch myself in the face than watch the Rangers-Senators series…check that, I’d rather read one of Gaydogg’s posts.
It’s unbelievable that one of those two teams will be playing in the conference finals.
Is there a way both can be eliminated and count pens, caps conference final already
Its jee bettmans fault
Add Blues vs Predators into that as well
If you haven’t watched the Preds yet this year, you might want to start – they look really good – fast, exciting – like us last year.
Wish pens had scuderi to shut ovi down now that letang is injured
“now that” letang is injured. Letang is always injured – he shuts down nobody aside from Rob Rossi in the press box nacho line.
After watching how much trouble the Leafs speed gave the Caps I’d dress Streit for Olli, or see if Chad (whose last name I cant spell) can play left side.
Chad Scott
watch, Tomlin will draft him this Thursday…”still got a few good years left”
Caps didn’t look overly impressive to me. As long as the Saint holds it somewhat together, pens in 6.
“Id like to say im rooting for the Pens, but if they lose, i can blame it on Fleury and say I told you so.”
This is pretty much dead on.
See – now I’m worried – because if they looked unimpressive to yoda, that probably means they were ridiculously good and unbeatable.
This is good. Beating the leafs – assuming the Pens would have – would not have ben nearly as gratifying as beating the caps, assuming that they will. Pen’s should have no excuse for starting game slow or playing flat.
If theres ever an excuse for starting slow, its the rust associated with sitting for a week.
Yeah I’m sure that was the case in all the games in the first for the pens. This rest will be very beneficial for pens since they have many injured or banged up players.
#NplSucksDicksForLiving
Your mom bangs up players
Three days rest is a lot for Caps. Don’t see any advantage for Pens.
They released the schedule already?
Good call. Series starts Thursday.
Ya this is absurd, not sure why such the break for the Caps and the extended one could land the Pens in some rust
So, what do you figure guys? Caps year? The Letang hurt too much to overcome? Or did Washington show the same cracks in the armour they always do? Are they fast enough?
Before this series I had Washington coming out of the East. Not as convinced now. Pens could do this without Letang
Depends which Malkin shows up.
Sure hope it’s the one scoring over two points a game.
Hope it’s the one dictating the play and impossible to defend.
If he’s any more productive than what we got in CLB it should be quick…
Pretty confident in the Pens. Washington has looked much slower this year and don’t seem to score off of the rush as much. Which is good considering how fucking slow our D is. Schmidt and Oshie got banged up too.
Also, I watched Hackers today. Just thought you should know, zero.
It’s high on my all time favourites list. I love that movie very much haha
“Like same said Leafs in 6” #samknew
It’s going to take a good one to beat Anderson.
Easily the best series in round one
The worst hockey is played in the province of Quebec. Canadiens should relocate like the Nordiques smartly did. I bet the Seattle Americans would be more successful.
They’d certainly smell better.
All new level of you being stupid good job keep it up
Nordiques moved to Colorado and won the Cup immediately after. Playing in Quebec clearly held them back.
Bobby Ryan with the game winner assist
Sam. These Enterprise commercials with French pusssy Marty Brodeur. The kids in there. Are they with his ex wife or her sister that he cheated on her with? #UncleDaddy
Bobby Ryan just scored again. You know, the American sam keeps making fun of. Another brilliant sam proclamation.
Hope he scored his well rested during the season between playing 3rd and 4th line and enjoying the press box at 7.5m
Now helping carry the Sens offence through the first round. God you’re thick!
Still a whole 3rd liner less than Toews and Ryan is still playing. #America
Montreal lost.
Kovalchuk wants to come back to the NHL…..make it happen pappy!!!!
His been wanting to come back since last year and as I said this clown will go play in Russia get paid top money and when its convenient he will want to come back fuckk him that money loving bastard.
Spoken like someone who doesn’t have any. How is that Leafs in 6 coming along?
He has money because his mommy does.
Wow, Montreal fans are screaming to trade Price. Better hope Bergervin is fired first sammich. In the meantime see if he Pens can package both our goalies in that deal lol
Why? What happened? Did Montreal lose?
No Tampax won
No they didnt make the playoffs, Cait. And not one person on here cares.
Weren’t you all exited last year when you went to your first hockey game cheering for Tampax when they played Detroit
Ive never been exited about anything ever in my life. But i did enjoy going to see the Pens when they played Tampa.
I enjoy watching Kucherov make a mockery of that Toews contract.
You got exited when Hilary was running for president
You got exited when Joey Chestnut won
You got exited when Micheal Sam came back to the U.S once Obama allowed gay marriage
You got exited when Bruce Jenner got his/her new show
#exited… this is a deep look inside the head of this kid. The word excited is pretty much exactly the same in English as it is in French lol.
We would all be excited if you exited this site
Literally nobody.
It shows fans are passionate you had pacioretty pictures on trees saying his missing for the playoffs. If this was some kind of hot dogville people wouldn’t care or even Pittsburgh you can have Kessel take vacation have 2 goals in last 26 games fans wouldn’t even noticed and yet get Kessel with hot dog tattoo that’s how weird Americans are
PAssionate?! It kinda shows they’re retarded. But that might be because they’re in a perpetual state of semi consciousness from having to constantly smell themselves.
Kessel is a Stanley Cup champion dipshit
Zero, are people lighting their snowmobiles on fire in Edmonton?
Not yet, there have a been a few ugly incidents but no one in their right mind would light their snowmobile on fire. I have to utter how amusing it is to me that you feel talking about my hometown upsets me. I mean I get it, because of your mail order Mexican bride/legal guardian wanting to live closer to her family in Tijuana you fell assbackwards into a warm Cali city and somehow that actually makes you feel good about yourself but the reality is Edmontons not so bad. You’d like it here, you’d probably get beat up a… Read more »
Cold weather. What a loser!
Just having fun with you man. Anything I can do to get a full grown man to write an entire post defending his home town
You’re telling me you’ve invested like two years of time for this post?
TSN Hockey 2 Nite places the Habs exit directly on the shoulders of Management lol. This is news to the sammich. I know he’s blaming Max PAC and ya Max wasn’t great but had he had a C to play with it may have helped.
#ZeroCenterModel
Yea because pens did great with 3 center model having multiple first round exits
Well the won the cup last year, are currently still playing as are being led by mostly American hockey players at the moment. Your hypothesis is null
The pens have 2 cups, so yeah. I’d say they did “so much better.” Then again you’re probably focusing on the important things, like faceoffs, instead of cup wins.
Same excuse use it for team USA. When max was playing shitt he had no centers right? I live in Montreal this fraud can’t play when games matter he is only good in season because teams don’t care much but when it’s playoffs or national events that’s when teams tightens up and that’s when your fraud pacioretty is exposed.
Galchenyuk will be traded too another fraud American / Russian
And problem is not only bergevin it’s been going on since jew bettman became comish .since 1993 look at the amounts of fraud first round Americans Habs have drafted all bunch of nobodies and all Canadian players getting drafted to Americans teams because they need to fill up their seats
Lmmfao, yes… it’s Bettmans fault that the Canadiens have been a dumpster fire basically since the 1980s with the two anomaly cup runs off he back of one of the greatest goaltenders in the history of he game… who they ran out of town lol.
Sammich, what is it that you think Bettman does day to day?
Damn jees
Yeah because pens fans did a better job with jagr when he ran out of town too
Lol, you mean Jagr? The player that went public “dying alive” in Pittsburgh? You think he was run out of town? You really did not start watching until 2005 did you lol
They should trade him for Marty St Louis
Yeah at least you know he would show up come playoffs
only after his mom died.
Cait, who do you think the Rangers will play in Round 2?
Malkin #1 in points Kessel #2 in points. Go Canada!
Does D know that the playoffs are still going on?
No this is a only Pittsburgh site. Specially when they lose
You should take note, chubby.
Coming from the guy that bitches about all the players that help them win?
Montreal lost
Apparently New York actually DID have business being in the series, unlike what same said.
Fake Canadians Toews, Seabrook and Keith have all said they won’t play for their country now that the seasons over. They are far more concerned with playing for their US based franchise in chicago that putting in their countries colours and attempting to help the land of their birth and training earn glory in the World Championships
Go fuckk yourself you clowns you enjoy players that’s jump on the plane the next day teams is eliminated.
Start cheering for ovi,malkin
Why? I’m cheering for the Pittsburgh Penguins. My favourite hockey club since childhood.
You have the option of cheering for all your favourites from you Habs as they head across the pond!
Toews the thief won’t even play for his country! What an embarrassment. #Leadership
Joe Thornton is unwatchable
But is he Malkin unwatchable?
I assumed this meant Thornton got his tenth point of the series last night or something of the like. #KeenDekHockeyEye
He’s Ron Hainsey unwatchable.
So Chad Ruhwedel would have been the go to option then?
I actually like Chad. Hope Sullivan can get him into the lineup. But no, not for Hainsey.
Last i check montreal lose alottttttttttt
Hahahahaha Montreal sucks!
Another tough one for Bruce “regular season matters” Boudreau
Not his fault if his top paid players are Americans
This what happens to Habs when you keep drafting Americans and filling team with Russians.
Well the way I see it… Nashville has Subban and beat Chicago while the Habs settled for Weber and a coach that’s no longer there and they lost to NY lol
Yes zero you cockk subban was the reason Nashville won the series more like rinnee stole that series. Subban missed the playoffs with Habs remember
Now go suckk a black dickk you fruitcake
#BlackCockMatters
Sam, again, reiterates just how important African American penis is to him. Kudos on the honesty chubby
No Therrien misses the playoffs for them. Subban tried to carry the team but that made Therrien mad and he asked Bergevin to trade him… result? Subban helps beat Chicago for a massive first round upset while Therrien is fired anyway and Weber can’t carry the team past a wild card team
Couldn’t even beat the rangers! That’s severely embarrassing.
Derrick Stephen another fraud
Agreed, no idea who that is. Sad your hockey ended in April buddy! Have a good summer
Carey Price had a standing tee time the last week of April.
Bye bye galchenyuk you won’t be missed
Bergevin’s 0 center model worked like a charm sam.
How can they get center by trading what garbage American. Good centers don’t grow on trees
I don’t think pacioretty knows playoffs started yet. That overrated fraud is hot garbage
Probably hard for him to get motivated in a town full of bandwagons and obese people that reek of BO
You make no sense
What. Wearing deodorant? Yeah. You wouldn’t get it. I hear you.
French people love to wear deodorant they even invented French bath unlike you filthy American pigs come home all muddy and sleep with same clothes in bed
French people smell. Awful.
American people smells likes garbage or farts and they are fat
Whoa, going hard sammich. SHOTS FIRED!!!
He means French bath houses. You know what else the French are famous for? Popularizing syphillis in Europe… your Doctor called it French Pox sammich. This is why you’re unaware of this.
What sam doesn’t tell you is that the French take that “French bath” monthly whether they need it or not.
Fun Fact… the French Bath is one washing their genitals at a sink with a wash cloth lol. #frenchbath=frenchpox
Look at the dumb USA chant when habs team is full of fraud Russians and overrated Americans
Half of them will be in plane going for WC
Sammich, your favourite team is on the brink of elimination here…. are you worried?
He’s probably too busy inhaling a bowl of poutine and not wearing deodorant to notice.
You know who is another overrated Canadian player? Marc Staal.
You could have just said “Staal.” Because it applies to all of them.
True. But I was watching him tonight. The Rangers D isn’t very good. The Habs suck so they are no test.
This Montreal / New York series is a battle of two retarded frog coaches trying not to out-dumb one another.
At least they have class unlike your American coach battle. An arrogant loser didn’t even bother shaking pens players hand
I’m really worried about Murray’s health. We need a back up.
Someone who wasn’t a total moron would have said insurance but it’s okay samdiegopittfan… we’ve all started to understand your disability more these last few days!
Crowd noise at MSG putting Le Mausolee to shame
More like the PPG
Yup that’s what happens when you give the big bucks to Americans to carry your team . See you next year Minnesota
Jonathan Toews says hi.
Dubnyk (Canadian) looked good with his .852 sv%. How bad is Sam at this?
Umbrance
Montreals season is coming to an end. Must be April.
How was your Florida teams season kinda sad when they both have a superior roster compare to Habs yet they miss the playoffs
They’ve won a cup more recently than 1993 sammich
I think the root of the problem is he can’t figure out that this is a message board for Pens fans. I think he tried typing something french into his search engine and landed here. Sucks for us.
Samdiegopittfan must be having a similar problem with his keyboard, the fat finger must be responsible for him saying dumb as fuck things like “can’t wait for the leagues top scorer to show up” or flat out ignoring Zatkoffs horrible game two last year or not understanding the idea that getting Murray back asap is great for this team regardless of how that scenario plays out as it adds insurance in case MAF slips, gets hurt or if they simply give him the job back lol
Yeah with bunch of Canadian heros when habs are stuck with fraud Americans like galchenyuk and pacioretty
Good news is galchenyuk will be traded next season he won’t even be with the team. Mark it down
Like we marked down the Leafs in 6?
Kind of an odd thing to say when Americans and Russians are carrying the penguins while French Canadian frauds are collecting a paycheck to drink wine.
Hainsey sink the pens yet? Another Maloni zinger! #DekHockeyHero
If it was up to this guy Jarry would be thrown to the wolves with Zatkoff as his back up, Malkin would be in the press box or at the very least not on the PP and Ruhwedel would be playing for Hainsey and Sestito would be getting his three minutes a night! Guys the second coming of Sam Pollock
DB hired yet?
I think your mama hired him to be your new dad.. congrats buddy!
Remember when Box Score thought umbrance was a word. Close to embrace.
the word of the day in the sports world is “embracing”. the saint is “embracing” this moment. i think i read the word “embrace” at least 20 times when it dealt with the saint since the series ended. #theloveisstrong, #embracethemoment, #cult
“Embraced his cock but he quickly pulled away because he had already finished and didn’t wanna cuddle, at that point I felt used, misused, and a hate grew inside my anus which burned with both desire and tearing” – 50 shades of yoda
Remember when he embraced you. While you were both naked?
Malkin show up yet?
Not if there’s a game today. I think we’re all safe.
Hey samdiegopittfan… what do these numbers mean
24-28 .857?
Hint: it’s directly related to your asinine counter that you thought was so clever on the previous threat related to healthy goalies. I’ll wait, give you the opportunity to ask sammich for help.
Temp in Edmonton? Range of your town wifi? Oh, I give up. Whatever transpires l hope we don’t have to rely on an up and coming AHL star goalie as a back up. That never turns out well.
1 game… your decent into samdom impressive. “Oh well
It worked for us last year, should be a no brainer” lol
This is the line for your go to goalie in game two but I’m sure you knew that
Grammar 101, “should have gone..” not “should have went…!”
Pens versus Caps a better matchup for us than Pens versus Leafs.
Leafs have speed and good D, plus Anderson is playing well; Caps don’t have speed.
The leafs have good D?
Better than the Pens. Look at the box score.
Sounds more like your football. I can afford to go to the games. And don’t have to ask your wife for the cash. Sweetie.
Keep dreaming D….Murray isn’t playing unless the pens lose 3 games in a series. If Rutherford was smart, Murray would be on the block for a young top pairing defenseman. Fleury can ride out the next two years, then sign a cap friendly deal to backup Jarry.
Yep, since waiting until you’ve lost 3 games in a series is the right time to make changes. I like how Fleury has a couple good games and you want to go a whole new direction. I know you still can’t comprehend this, but fleury is the backup. When Murray is healthy, he’s the better goalie and will therefore play unless fleury plays out of his mind for an extended period of time, which he hasn’t.
That was actually funny tbj
Zatkoff
I’ve never been overly impressed with Murray….you should know this by now. The fact that the TEAM is winning the games again this year like LAST year tells me Murray or Fleury would have won the cup last year and Murray still has a lot of question marks and we jumped too soon to give him that raise.
Goaltending matters
i decided that since he won a series i will refrain from calling st.bleury st.bleury until he melts down. instead i will refer to him as simpley the saint for the time being. he didn’t melt down. it was his 4th miracle. i’ll take it.
Remember when he melted down in your asshole and ran out the door while you were “cleaning up?”
That goalie interference call was questionable. Not complaining but that was a huge momentum shift.
Tortz went off. That was the cherry on top of the series. I love beating him.
the saint was out of the crease. the call was questionable. however, he did run the saint over and the jackets were running everyone all night. F them.
Hey, this is the 1st time i have read something of your that doesn’t make you look like a complete taint! Only half a taint here… you’re growing, good fer you!
I was totally expecting a “Why Malkin and Fleury can still prompt a Game 7” article.
Trade Murray he is young and has value .good enough to fraud another team. This dude is always injured. Keep fleury until end of his contract with pens. Prepare Jarry meanwhile
You dont think Fleury has value, Cait?
He’s not injured nearly as much as letang.
Fraud? you’re a moron lol. Injury issue is the only legit thing you said here about Murray
Toews=110pts in 128 games
Malkin=140pts in 129 games
Toews plays top players while malkin plays Vs mediocre players and shines on pp
Yeah, toews does suck on the pp
Right, Toews gets 20 minutes a night 0 power play time. Fuckk you’re so stupid
The hate for Fleury is sooooooooo extreme. Jesus. If that was Murray, it’d be a “historic performance” and “a real difference-maker” and “another illustration of why he’s the #1 guy.”
What did he say that wasn’t true? And why do people feel the need to cry about how Fleury doesn’t get enough credit every time an article is written? He played really good for 3 games and mediocre at best for two. He gets paid like an elite goaltender, so it should be expected.
Because this Murray vs Fleury thing is fueled by stupidity. It’s okay to give them both their due. Both are solid starting goalies in this league. No shit Fleury makes more… He’s a 13 year vet. The way Murray and Fleury are covered on this site and others is dripping in bias. Quit being fanboys and root for the logo. I don’t care who is in net as long as he makes the saves and lets in less than the opposing goalie.
So what youre saying is, put Jarry in?
He wants Hartzell in is what I got out of it.
He kinda gets paid pretty middle of the pack as far as starting goalies go
not really. go over to the other site and look at the headlines when murray took over the starting job. he didn’t get any compliments. every article was about how the saint shouldn’t have lost his job to injury and when is the saint getting his job back.
“the penguins did what the penguins do…and that’s exactly what they did”
Mushy stories. Lol! I’m sure the other site will be reporting that smiles actually do stop pucks.
Smiles actually do pound your shitt cave, too
There is a TIOPS meetup taking place Sunday at noon. Bring a Fleury jersey as we’re are planning to burn them immediately after church.
It was the Saints best game since game 7 of 2009. All hail! #stillnotabelieverlongterm
#noonecares
You have cheered against the team all round. You are irrelevant.
Well said zero
Only if you haven’t watched a game since 2009. Which pretty much sums you up.