Penguins/NHL
PENGUINS LOCKED TO PLAYING ISLANDERS OR RANGERS IN ROUND 1
The Penguins come from behind victory over the Ottawa Senators last night locked them into either a second or third place finish in the Metropolitan Division, meaning they will either face the New York Rangers or New York Islanders in round 1.
With five days (including games tonight) to go in the regular season, here’s where things stand.
Pittsburgh Penguins: 102 points (ROW 43), 2 Games Remaining (@ WAS, @PHI)
New York Rangers: 99 Points, (ROW 42) 2 Games Remaining (vs NYI, vs DET)
New York Islanders: 97 Points (ROW 39), 3 Games Remaining (@ NYR, vs BUF, vs PHI)
The Rangers and Islanders face each other Thursday night meaning both teams cannot pass the Penguins in points and Pittsburgh with a ROW of 43 would win a three-way tiebreaker between the three teams if all three finish the season tied with 102 points.
Pittsburgh First Round Opponent Possibilities: New York Rangers or New York Islanders
New York Rangers First Round Opponent Possibilities: Pittsburgh Penguins or Florida Panthers
New York Islanders First Round Opponent Possibilities: Florida Panthers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Washington Capitals
LOSING A NO. 1 SHUTDOWN DEFENSEMAN MORE SIGNIFICANT THAN LOSING A TOP-LINE CENTER
The Pittsburgh Penguins have been sensational without Evgeni Malkin and a scoring machine. Averaging 2.72 goals per game with Malkin in the lineup this season for 57 games, Pittsburgh is now averaging 3.70 goals per game without Malkin, posting a record of 17-5-1 over 23 games.
At the end of the day, it’s much easier to replace a top-line centerman over a No. 1 shutdown defenseman who logs nearly 30 minutes a game and dominates play with or without the puck.
That’s why Kris Letang is arguably the Penguins most important player the way they are built and Pittsburgh saw first hand last season of what happens when you lose a player like him.
When it comes to the Penguins two potential playoff opponents in Round 1, Pittsburgh is likely to be missing Evgeni Malkin but no Travis Hamonic for the Islanders or no Ryan McDonagh for the Rangers would change a series much more than Malkin being available or not.
The status for Hamonic, who has a knee injury, is believed to be very much up in the air, and McDonagh is said to have a broken hand that will likely keep him out of the lineup for at least the first couple games of the playoffs.
This is where home-ice becomes even more important for the Penguins to gain. Pittsburgh has not only played lights out at home and have another gear in them when playing at home, the opportunity to have Sidney Crosby not going against McDonagh and instead facing the likes of slow-footed defensemen Dan Girardi, Dan Boyle, Marc Staal is a huge win for Pittsburgh.
Having home-ice will also give Mike Sullivan more opportunities early in the series to double shift Crosby (centering 4th line) to get him on the ice against youngsters Brady Skjei To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
hey stan my contract of sirius xm just finished
Im on the phone to get for another 6 months
I need your credit card number to get it
You’re really bad at this.
why bad you are the one who said i cant afford a sirius XM radio in my car
why bad you are the one.
I think you guys made some valid points for making this site tolerable again so for the playoffs I will be putting Sam and Yoda on ignore. Who’s with me?
I don’t have them on ignore I just don’t read their posts most times. I’m defiantly not the most insightful poster on here, but the lame name calling on every thread has kept me from posting.
Yeah npl and stan. Are bunch of angels once again. People with agenda and blind eye on the two of the world people here npl and stan
blind eye on the two of the world people here.
Making fun of anything not canadian is also name calling…so point that finger at yourself
I’m already there. So who would be a better matchup in the first round. Isles or Rangers?
Isles if they have no Halak
but pens best 1st round match up would be Red wings if it was possible pens can beat them in 4 or 5 games tops
I think they match up better with the isles. they have been paying better (relatively during this hot streak, of course) against skating teams. a team like the rags that packs the house and forces them outside would be a lesser matchup. with the injuries to both ny squads, I like the way the pens would match up with either.
Tough call. I think the Isle without Halak is ideal, but their 4th line seems to have no problem dishing out the cheap shots. The Rags quite possibly will be without McDonagh and the rest of their D is slow as sh!t. While Lundqvist is very good, he benefits from solid team D…..and that’s crumbling a bit. I’d say Islanders because I don’t think they can out-score the Pens.
Nicasio
Takes Juan to know Juan.
If Malkin broke his wrist, put him with Fehr and Bennett. That way Fehr can take faceoffs. Plus you now have 4 lines you can roll with each a threat to score. The Cullen line becomes your 4th line, but there is no fear and reason to hide any line.
The problem with using Fehr and Bennett is that neither plays LW well, actually both are pretty crappy on the left side. I get the mindset of having Fehr take the draws but unless you plan on keeping Fehr at C full time and using Malkin at LW(something I’m pretty sure he won’t like) then you end up with a C and 2-RW. I also don’t like the fact that there is no real speed on the forecheck with those 3 together. If healthy my 1st option would be to used Rust on the LW with 71 & 19, he… Read more »
Amazing how I can spark the most hockey conversation this site has seen in a while just by jacking you guys about how smart I am…lol
It was coherent and at least worth the time to read… not like 90% of the drivel on here. Unrelated… 90% of the posts here are by yoda and sam!!!
Npl and stan
You’re fat.
Stanch, your buddy Goebbert to the Rays…. remember when it was december and you freaked out about this no name pick up??????? I know your not a big fan of admitting when your wrong and will pretend you were just joking, but gotta love that opening series sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!
I remember that that was their star acquisition and that Nutting is still rolling around in your money. i do love the opening series sweep. I still think they backtracked, win about 85 games, and miss even the play-in game this year, let alone the real playoffs. PS – it’s “you’re” wrong, not “your.” Why would I pretend I was just joking? The same things I said then are just as pertinent now. They had a chance to take steps forward and said “I’ll stay.” Exciting.
I love when all you have left in the tank is grammar attacks, first indication of a win. You (along w/everyone) always think they backtracked, that is what makes them proving you wrong so wonderful, but yeah keep the “nuttings wallet” mentality bro, clearly all you have to do is spend money to win right (how did the royals do again?). They may not make the POST SEASON for the 3rd straight year, but it will have nothing to do with Money, and everything to do with the toughest division in baseball. Or do you still prefer leake at $14… Read more »
The Royals spent like, another $30 million. A win! You’re out of your mind – as usual. The 85 wins is very simple – it directly correlates to how much I think that they backtracked. Meanwhile, you see three wins and you’re ready to put them in the world series. Remember when you were telling everyone what a strong pickup Vogelsong was, and he ended up in the bullpen? The best thing about you is how Nutting could piss all over your face and you’d tell everyone how it tastes like lemonade.
Thats the primary issue. You have a couple clowns that post 100 times a day, none of which make any sense. As soon as you start talking about something worthwhile, idiot same will start posting about how Malkin suck, yogurt will start posting about how MAF sucks and maloni will start posting about how hockey and life in general sucks. I’m sure it does for him, but none of those topics will be even remotely relevant to what the original thread it about and it becomes a lost cause.
The problem is that you guys don’t put them on ignore…This site has become “Barrens Chat” for those of you familiar with World of Warcraft
Thats a good point. Its about playoff time and all those assclowns are getting ignored.
I haven’t logged in for over 4 years now, Barrens Chat is still a thing?
Yeah it’s real hard on here. Have you read some of the posts on here? I hardly post anymore because it’s so junior high.
You dont break line 2 and 3
you put Malkin on the 2nd line with sid in order to motivate him when he is back after his vacation
kunitz or horny has to go 4th line if you want malkin to play good and pens go to the finals
http://www.oddsshark.com/nhl/stanley-cup-futures
You’re an idiot.
I’d like to argue this post but it’s 100% correct, Sam’s an idiot.
1st line with sid
With all of the talk lately about not breaking the 62-13-81 line when 71 returns and how the best thing for the team is to give 87, 71 and 81 their own line, I thought it would be a good time to remind everyone that some of the smarter posters on here told everyone that long before the season even started and we’re laughed at because Kessel was going to score 40-50 while playing with 87/71. That’s the best part of the “he who laughs last, laughs hardest” proverb, when you’re the smartest person in the room you’re always he… Read more »
you may want to proof read your rant before calling yourself the smartest person in the room.
BAZZINGA lol
At no point did anyone say that Kessel should have his own line. I definitely remember the debate on who he should play with as zero says, but no one on here posted about how Kessel should have his own line.
I don’t quite recall anyone saying that we should have 3 lines of scoring when we acquired him. I do recall a divide between Crosby and Malkin. While he failed under a bad coaching scenario with Sid and we havent really seen that looked at again he was also clearly not working well with Malkin either. If you did make that call all power to you but I seem to remember you taking the hard stance on Kessel and Malkin working better because of their east/west play vs Sids more north/south. That the weaving game would benefit Phil… He works… Read more »
I agree. The debate was about who should Phil play with. Jay don’t worry you are still the smartest guy in the room.
To clarify, I may not have suggested the 3 line approach until early in the season but I do recall defending Kessel’s production with Tyler Bozak because Kessel was the center piece of the line with players like Bozak complementing him as opposed to him being the complementary player and if my memory of the with Crosby vs with Malkin debate is accurate my position was that I didn’t like his fit with either because I didn’t think he could be the complementary player but if it had to be 1 it was Malkin, which to an extent was correct… Read more »
This I agree on… and I jumped on the Bonino bandwagon early
when is malkin coming back from his Vacation ?
any news if Bennett injured yet ?
Hagelin