Penguins/NHL
Penguins – Golden Knights Fallout
The Ryan Reaves that showed up vs the Vegas Golden Knights Tuesday night is the player Penguin officials thought the team would see more of when Pittsburgh traded for Reaves last June.
Reaves second period goal was obviously a bonus but it was his ability to create havoc below the dots that has not been there on a consistent basis this season.
Reaves had a goal, 3 shots on goal and 7 hits in 10:15 of ice time. The rugged winger was at 65% in possession (11/6) and was on the ice for 9 scoring chances.
1. 
Here was sequence in a shift early in the third period where Reaves carries the puck through the neutral zone, gains the offensive zone and gets the puck behind the Golden Knight’s D where he gains possession in the left corner. This led to the Penguins establishing over 15 seconds of offensive zone time and a scoring chance with Reaves outmuscling the D in front.
2. The Penguins swarmed the Golden Knights with 5 goals in a 15:12 span and the Penguins continue to show over the last month of what them so special the last two seasons in how they can take over a game offensively in the blink of an eye.
What has to be frightening for the rest of the Eastern Conference is that Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel have never been this dominant at the same time since Kessel has become a Penguin.
With Sidney Crosby you always know what you’re going to get. As great as Malkin is, he goes through lulls and the same with Kessel.
If this is sustainable from those two through the spring, look out……..
3. Despite the winning effort, the egregious defensive breakdowns continue to be there on a game-by-game basis. They just aren’t as magnified as they were in November/December because the Penguins seem to be scoring 4 goals a night at ease.
The Penguins limited the Golden Knights to 25 shots on goal but Vegas was handed some great scoring chances on a platter by the Penguins.
Down 2-0 in the second period, Justin Schultz pinches and is below the goal-line and no covers for him leading to William Karlsson camping out at center piece with no Penguin in sight that leads to a breakaway for Karlsson.
Matt Murray’s play in the third period was disappointing, but there was a stretch in the second period with the Karlsson breakaway save at 12:28 of the period and then a big save right in front on Nate Schmidt moments after the Reaves goal where Murray prevented the Penguins from falling behind 3-0 and 3-1 in a couple minute stretch there.
The Penguins let the Golden Knights climb back in the game in the third period with terrible puck management in their own end and poor goaltending.
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Hockey reference is giving the habs a 2.9% chance of making the playoffs.
That high huh?
Wait, Reaves had an impact? Maybe a little more than 5 mins of playing time is what he needed. Certain people are just so anti Reaves trade that they hope he does bad.
He would get more than a few minutes a game if he wasn’t horrendous. If we had a healthy lineup right now, he’d be appropriately scratched. I guess in your opinion though, it’s a good idea to trade a first rounder for a goon that puts up 8 points a year. I don’t want to see him do bad. I don’t want to see him at all. If he is playing, hopefully he can have more games like last night, as 90% of the time he is completely irrelevant.
2 first round lol
I still would like to see Reaves be the net front presence on the second PP.
Would be curious, just his size alone but you’d be fully reliant on the other four to maintain puck possession as he isnt the best in that realm in open ice.
Oh please TBJ… you’re worse than Ryan Wilson when it comes to pissingg and moaning about Reaves. The trade was made and he’s on the team. He plays good and you still whine. You sound like a liberal. You act like they traded away the 1st overall pick.
Every time some clown tries to defend him, I’ll happily shut them down. Answer this question: what does he bring to the team? Give me one logical thing and I’ll stop.
And I want to see him do well. I really do. He’s just incapable of it for more than a couple of shifts every month or two. Don’t want to hear someone talk about it? Don’t bring it up on a public message board.
Whining and crying is not shutting someone down. Admit it tbj check all your posts all you do is insult. Obviously you have no point to make.
You are demonstrating the exact thing you’re accusing me of. All I asked was for something he brings to the table and I get crickets. Learn the game and obtain a GED, then get at me. While you’re at it, look up the meaning of crying.
You’re wrong npl loves him it’s his favourite player of the team
Oh come on, guy had a good game admittedly. Was nice to see but he is literally in the line up because two regulars are hurt. It was his 1st point in 12 games, his possession numbers overall are not pretty. He was on the ice as Kris Letang was hacked over the neck vs Washington or Jersey and did nothing to both “deter” it or respond while he was out there. I give him credit for a strong performance but of the 52 games he has played I can think of maybe 3 that he actually had a strong… Read more »
The Pens scouted the Ducks for 2 games earlier this week (and last) and the Ducks have scouted the Pens for the past few. Vermette was a healthy scratch for the first time last night with a healthy Grant back from IR. He’s been averaging under 9min/night. Getzlaff/Kesler/Henrique and now Grant down the middle make Vermette expendable. 8g 8a, 60% faceoff guy, sub-optimal CF% but that should improve in a non Randy Carlyle system. He should be cheap to acquire, I just hope we don’t deal Cole for him, but Hunwick or next year’s 3rd rd pick or this year’s… Read more »
I have always stated I wouldnt mind Vermette as I have always liked his game. He has aged a bit so I would be weary that the regressing statistical output is as much his legs getting older as anything
I agree age has played into that. And yet, he has 2 more goals than Sheahan and Rowney COMBINED. Less points than Sheahan yes, and only a slightly worse CF%, but he’s also averaged 9min/game for January (since Kesler returned from injury at the beginning of the month), Sheahan averages 14:39/game. We wouldn’t have to give as much for Vermette as for Plekanec because of the cap hit (MTL will eat some of that $6mm so we’ll have to give up more). So the analytics are barely worse than Sheahan and much more production than Rowney. 60% at faceoffs is… Read more »
My point is would he be enough of an improvement over Sheahan to make sense? I don’t want them to simply bring in a guy for the sake of doing so I wanna see them bring in a guy that should stand out vs Sheahan and allow him to pivot a strong 4th line. I’m not saying no at all but if there are better options, which there likely is, I would exhaust that look before I would fall back on Vermette. I guess he could have a bit of a career resurgence a-la Cullen here too… that may be… Read more »
They should definitely exhaust all their other options (aka Plekanec, Pageau, and Letestu) and if the price on those guys is too high, I can’t imagine the one on Vermette being in that range. Vermette certainly isn’t an upgrade over Sheahan at 3C but he’d be a huge upgrade over Rowney at 4C and they can inter-change Vermette and Sheahan depending on who’s playing better. This would be an acquiring Cullen to improve 4th line type move only Vermette is better than Cullen. I’m sure GMJR is exploring Pageau and Letestu more. I really don’t want them to trade Cole.
I would probably want Vermette before Letestu, we lose 2 years but their numbers are similar with some major exceptions… Vermette is a far better faceoff guy, he blocks more shots. One thing that Letestu seems to have a leg up on is possession (CF%) although due to Vermettes FO% has a higher DZs% which would account for the differences. Plekanec and Pageau would be higher than Vermette… Max Domi as the pipe dream lol; Bozak would have also been great if available but Vermette before Letestu for me. AND… Cole needs to stay. He has been great and Hunwick… Read more »
The year hawks got vermette that was the time to have him. Now be has slowed down and can’t keep up with the new league. But in his prime he was a good player to have as long as price is right I don’t mind he is still better then pens current 3c and 4c and face off is a important key come playoffs
How did the analytics numbers work for the Cleveland Browns football staff?
It got them a lot of draft picks that they can turn over to a GM that actually knows the game.
I hope for the Steelers sake they miss out on Barkley. Take one of those scrub quarterbacks first overall then he’s gone by the 4 pick.
I actually like Darnold a lot. I think Rosen and Mayfield are mental trainwrecks. Don’t know enough about Allen. Jackson is a wildcard. I don’t know that his accuracy will be good enough.
So you worry about the mental toughness of guys like Rosen & Mayfield but have no problem with the guy who struggled with the pressure of being a top prospect and who played his worst games on the biggest stages? Sounds about right considering the source.
How many times have you actually seen Darnold, Rosen or Mayfield play? I’m talking about actual full games not just seeing highlights on Sportscenter.
Yeah what he said! Don’t insult him. Simply doesn’t like that. Slow brain and all. Can’t hang.
Stick to the needs script, ILB, OLB, Safety.