Penguins – Sabres What We Learned
— It was just one game but…….—
1. Penguins – Sabres had the look of two wildcard level to fringe-level playoff teams going at it.
2. Pittsburgh’s biggest need in the off-season was revamping their d-corps and from a personnel standpoint you can argue they are even weaker than last season with Olli Maatta shipped off to Chicago.
All of this off-season talk of being more defensively responsible is non-sense.
This group isn’t changing and I will remain in the corner that this group can’t change defensively with the way Kris Letang plays when a defenseman who plays as much as Letang does dictates your style of play.
Letang who was on the ice for two even strength goals against, is still doing maddening Letang things with his decision making.
3. As expected, post-game talk of the Penguins giving up a number of breakaways and odd-man rushes through the neutral zone was a key talking point. These are correctable areas for the Penguins if they would just scale back the pinching along the boards and make simple plays off the wall, though, it feels like we’ve been saying that for a year in a half now.
More concerning is just how often the Penguins are out of position when they have numbers back defensively.
The Dahlin goal saw the Penguins give up a goal late in the second period when they had three defenders back against two Sabres.
From the defensemen to the forwards, this team dating back to last season just has so much difficulty in staying in their proper lanes defensively.
There was a ton of these type of breakdowns against the Sabres where the Penguins are just puck watching and floating in space. Evgeni Malkin had a good game offensively in being a presence, but Malkin constantly going for a public skate in the d-zone isn’t going away and this is the type of stuff that drove the coaching staff nuts in 18-19.
4. The good for Malkin was his play offensively. He was a threat for most of the night, carried the puck with authority and afterwards sounded like a leader. “We need to play faster. We need to play hungry. It’s not good for us, how we played tonight. We need to change,” Malkin said.
The eye test says differently but the numbers of the Galchenyuk-Malkin-Tanev line were not strong 5 vs 5:
39% possession, just two scoring chances created to six against but the line was noticeable for stretches.
Still, at the end of the day the Penguins as a team created just one high danger chance in over 47 minutes of 5-on-5 play which is insane. Let’s not act like Galchenyuk-Malkin-Tanev are the second coming of the KLS line just yet.
Brandon Tanev in a second line role drew three penalties. Tanev plays the speed, go all-out every shift type of game where he’s going to be noticeable every night but questions still loom if he’s going to be able to finish plays and create enough offense to be warranted to playing with an Evgeni Malkin.
I still think long-term Jared McCann is going to be that player next to Malkin.
For his part, Tanev did play well in his debut.
Malkin, Tanev and Dominik Simon were the Penguins most impactful forwards vs the Sabres.
5. Pittsburgh will be in the market all season for a third line center. Bank on that and there’s already a feeling inside the organization [hide] that will be the case. The Penguins still believe Nick Blugstad is a better winger than a center.
6. The Penguins came out of training camp and the preseason concerned with Dominik Kahun with coaches feeling like he looked more like an AHL level player than someone who can play in the Penguins top-9, sources say. Kahun was invisible vs the Sabres as the third line was abysmal in creating offense.
7. Mike Sullivan on the loss:
“We just weren’t good enough,” Sullivan said. “That’s what I told our guys after the game. I know we’re capable of being better. We just weren’t good enough tonight in a lot of areas. I don’t think you can just sit and point at any one area. I think it was a lot of areas of our game where we just didn’t have an element of consistency. I don’t think there was cooperative effort. It’s hard to play this game in the absence of it.” [/hide]
Can we trade Malkins injury for Letang?
Habs won tonight after blowing a late lead like sams mother on an alley way cockk because they played their backup and played yesterday
That only applies to a Penguins win.
Habs were also down 3-1. So they did a good comeback. You only broad cast what your agenda tells u. Typical liberal no wonder trudeau is your idol
How bad does Tie’s heart break watching his son wear that fuck awful sweater?
Trade Malkin Penguins won without him
Trade Letang, the Penguins WON A CUP WITHOUT HIM. Fixed it for you.
No…. they didn’t… Letang wasn’t there in 2017 tho…
Price and that .848 sv%
Reason pens won jackets team played a game last night and their goalie was letting a lot of soft goals
Agreed.. I mean we have Kris Letang, they should have killed Pittsburgh because he is such a massive liability
So funny watching you make excuses for the other team… Malkin got hurt halfway through yet, Pens won big despite having LeRetard
And Letang is the one who hurt him. Ugh.
Letang should have won the Conn Symthe in 2017 by not playing.
Pens win… CBJ are not great but the Pens also have to beat Letang so this is big
Smart play by a Pettersson late… why is Letang so fucken dumb white a kid gets it
Can’t even hold the line in a drubbing
Is Fleury injured yet?
Letang, averages 62 games a year, zero awards and a major contributor to… well I guess two cups even though Gonchar was the man on 09… fucken superhero
Malkin, averaged 65 a year, won Hart’s, Conn Smythes and Art Ross awards as well as leading the team in scoring in what? All three cups… garbage according to the fucken French dumbfuck out here
Stop me if you heard this one…: Letang skates onto the ice and turns over the puck….
Dude is even despite being the top played guy on the team after 2 games outscoring the opposition 8-5 lol
Sorry, updated… still a minus 1
Watching Letang actually play defence reminds me of Carey Price playing in the cup finals
I see what you did there lol…..
Good for Letang, the PP specialist gives the Pens the goal he will give back in the 3rd
Beat me to it. Lol
He probably took Malkins duty since he felt bad for him
How does Letangs cock taste? Asking for another French retard?
Since Malkin is in the league he has average 65games a year so he was is due for this years annual vacation
Letang averages 62…. that’s giving the benefit of the doubt of removing his 1st year of 7 games, whereas Malikn played right away lol…fucken stupid fucken moron
And 3 Cups, 1 Conn Symthe, 1 Hart Trophy, 2 Art Ross, 1 Lindsey, the Calder and a 7 time all star. Not bad for someone who averages 65 games a year.
Remember when I said he’d give it back?
Guess we found the 3C… move Bjugstad… and fucken Letang, dudes trash
Sids mom texting at the game… fucken bandwagon fan….
Malkin on his annual vacation Yet ?
I’m hearing he is nauseous over how fucken bad Letang has been
Now Letang hurts Malkin…
One minute into the second, less… 2 on 1 with Dumo back alone… where did his partner go?
Here we go, game 2, already the first gut check of the season… what really needs to happen is Letang have his fucken head surgically removed from his ass! That’s the big step one
First breakaway ofthe game given up by dumbfuck that stayed out way too long. Sammich is out here shitting on Murray yet dude bailed his bum buddy out again
lol beat me to it. It’s absolutely unreal how bad he is defensively
No fucken brains at all… I really like the guy overall but he’s his own worst enemy and idgaf how much I like his offensive game the team has to adjust and if he continues to be this much a detriment he can fucken go
Bjugstad making 4+ struggling to find his place; Hornqvist who, if he doesn’t show sign of getting back to his game at 5+ and Letang whose too fucken stupid to play D despite being good when he does it can go… that’s like 17million out the door… gotta be something they can turn that into that would benefit the roster
Throw Johnson on that list lol…. but still, other than Letang those other contracts can be so hard to move.
Remember Sam said Carey Price won a Stanley Cup?
Panic move 2nd game in doesnt bode well. You come out of training camp and jumbling lines already.
this isn’t a panic move. sullivan really thinks simon is the best winger on the team.
according to dailyfaceoff, simon is back on the top line! hahaha! way to go sullivan. let’s put back the line that gave you 1 goal in the 4 game sweep in the playoffs! the pens are in big trouble. i love it too how those in the media acted like simon was going to be the pens healthy scratch. anyone with any amount of observation skills knew that simon was going to be sid’s winger. bascially, sid just went from having a 100 point regular season to having a 75-85 point regular season. be ready guys, the pens are going… Read more »
Hey D. Instead of writing nonsense about sheary. Why don’t you write something about fleury if Penguins missed his since gone
Also write sam was write when clowns here wanted him gone I said he will have better success minute he leaves Penguins
#vegasfanboy
#pensgayboy
Put Letang and Jack Johnson on Vegas’ D and see how much more Fleury will have to work.
You have a longggggg way to understand hockey
Coming from you that means less then nothing. If Fleury was an American you would be bashing him every ten seconds. Fleury continues to choke in the post season just like he did in Pitts. He will be a HoF goalie, I will def give him that but he was always backed up by a stacked team, for the most part. There was a reason he got replaced by MM in the playoffs, he is a head case. I was hoping they would beat Washington but like clockwork he fell apart and then again the following year when he melted… Read more »
Fleury is a regular season goalie, not a playoff goalie. Yes he lead Vegas to the finals but there was a lot more going on then just him and then he turned in playoff Fleury in the Finals.
It shows u just watched the score board. Vegas it self was not able to play vs Washington they didint have good chances and realized they were missing that extra star. Power. Fleury not one game but 3 series he stole on his own and year before he was the reason pens went far vs sens Penguins had no business to pass that first round he once again stole 2 series. How many. Games does MM steals on his own I won’t say series in his case since that never happened. Just happens team played more cautious in front on… Read more »
No, when Letang was out they played BETTER defense in front of MM. There is a massive difference. And the 95 Devils played a trap, any goalie would have looked brilliant on that team plus they did not have Letang in their lineup giving up 4 or 5 oddman rushes a game. DB had nothing to do with MAF being a mental midget but I do see you two have a lot in common in that department.
Hey assholee so did 29 other goalies how many times holtby choked lundvisqt ,Luongo ,rinne you want more names let me know
Yes but MAF made a habit out of it. You could set your watch to it every spring.
Only reason fleury was exposed he has made the playoffs 12-13-14 years in a row obviously you would create and agenda. What about the other times like the Rangers series or Bruins series team was not even able to score goals
He got replaced by MM because of scum sully getting bj from him on nightly basis
Also, give Sam(e) a first grade education in grammar and spelling.
Bjugstad is not a better winger and therein lies the problem. He’s not a better winger and he’s not the best 3C on the roster. Rutherford has decimated this roster.
Agreed. Bjugstad just doesn’t fit on the pens
Congrats Fleury for playing your 800th game tonight hope you get a W
Weirdo. You type this like you think he will read this. Sad. Nerd. Virgin.
Trump’s nickelback tweet about sleepy joe, made zero and npl laugh
Letang is so overrated
Can the coaching staff just let the young players play… please! Why does it seem like every season there is a young guy who the coaching staff wont just let them play. Kahun is that player this year.
Letang is to the Pens what Trump is to the US. An embarrassing fukkup that ruins everything for everyone yet somehow has a cult of really, really stupid people that try to tell you otherwise.
-1111… jesus christ sammich you need a fucken woman in your life…
Letang’a Plus /Minus this year
optnions are like assholes-everbodys got one
Here is my opinion well it’s more of a fact
Walls work
DemocRATS don’t
If Bjugstad cannot handle the 3C role he needs to go sooner than later. I don’t want another 4+ parked on the wing as they continue to search for that elusive 3C… the one they had in Sundqvist….
I called this article. You’re welcome.