Penguins/NHL
Bonino, Bonino, Bonino
Three wins away.
In a tightly contested game, Nick Bonino continued with his excellent post-season in delivering the game winning goal with 2:33 left in regulation.
The Penguins would then kill off a Ben Lovejoy hooking penalty in the final minute to secure a 3-2 win in Game 1.
Finding ways to win tightly contested games has been the Penguins way since the second round.
Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final would not be any different with the Penguins getting contributions throughout with first period goals from Bryan Rust, Conor Sheary to Nick Bonino’s game winner.
Pittsburgh got three even strength goals with a goal from each line.
The best player on the ice tonight might have been Sidney Crosby who finished with 1 assist.
His determination set the tone in the first period.
“You could see his hunger to win. He’s inspiring. I thought he was a force out there all night. He has that twinkle in his eye,” Mike Sullivan said of Sidney Crosby.
In the first period the Penguins were able to get to their game in a big way. Their speed overwhelmed San Jose in all three zones and Pittsburgh outshot San Jose 15-4 in the period.
“We wanted to try to go out and dictate the terms right away,” Mike Sullivan said.
Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said afterwards his team was standing around in the first period and it sure looked that way.
In the second period, San Jose flexed their muscles, getting to their heavy checking game and causing the Penguins problems below the hash marks.
Both teams brought their A-game in a particular period and the different in the game is in the third Pittsburgh was able to find their footing again.
When you carry the play for a higher percentage than the opposition over sixty minutes you usually find a way to come out on top.
That was the Penguins again tonight in peppering Martin Jones with 41 shots. `
“They played their game for longer stretches than we did tonight and that’s what happens” Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said of the Sharks Game 1 loss.
Where the Penguins have transformed into a frustrating team to play against is their play without the puck and it’s not with physical play. Mike Sullivan has proven he’s not John Tortorella in a good way but there’s one thing Sullivan has morphed this team into that Tortorella teams always had when Sullivan was an assistant is getting their bodies in shooting lanes becoming just a natural instinct.
Jon Cooper marveled about it in Round 3 and in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final the Penguins blocked 19 shots. Nick Bonino led the way with a team-high six blocked shots.
Another underrated aspect of the Penguins win was Matt Murray.
He continues to show this tremendous ability of not giving up that critical next goal in tightly contested games.
Murray went 4-1 vs Braden Holtby in one-goal games, 2-0 vs the Lightning in one-goal games and now 1-0 in the Stanley Cup Final.
Game 3 is Wednesday night.
Brent Burns is an animal. For being as big as he is, he caught up to Hagelin pretty easily.
When I see what he brings to a team, he kinda reminds me of Anders Lee.
Hags was just as guilty of thinking he gave himself the required space. Burns has very good mobility but Hags is on another level.
Do you only have internet access once a month?
Thank God for Murray.
Right. Now way someone else could have let in those two cream puffs.
the 1st banked off of maataa. it was a fluke. the second was weak. it was a wraparound. but in game 5 last series you said the wraparound that st.bleury let in wasn’t a bad goal. you are setting a double standard.
No, you set it ages ago… you have shit all over MAF for some time for similar looking goals to what we have seen out of Murray. This is all on you buddy. Like same most of the comments directed at Murray are pokes at you! It’s interesting how seeing Murray in the net seems to be helping you see the difference in goals that are flat out the goalies fault and those that seem to have other factors play a role.
I doubt I’d have said that about Fleury, because I was in the middle of nowhere and didn’t watch the game. But that makes it doubly hilarious when you accuse me of setting a double standard when A) i didn’t see it until Sunday, and B) you’re the queen of double standards.
I agree with Maloni, I can’t think of another goalie(past or present) who could have gotten through that 1st period without giving up a goal. I mean 4 shots and ZERO high danger chances, how could anyone expect a goalie to survive that?
fans like you who have zero clue about goaltending just don’t get it. murray didn’t fold in the 3rd. that dude didn’t give up an untimely goal. it’s funny to hear everyone say that all of the shots murray faces aren’t danger chances. you don’t think they are dangerous chances because murray is so good positionally and he is so good on his angles that the other team constantly blasts it into his chest. he makes it look easy. you are just used to watching an ADHD spazoid in the net for the past 10 years who makes every save… Read more »
hahahahahahaha – fans like you who have zero clue about goaltending! Coming from the fraud to end all frauds! From one of the biggest know nothings on here! Wow. I mean, that takes some balls.
@stanch, you think crosby stinks and you think st.bleury is awesome….and you call me a fraud? hahaha!
I think Crosby falls short a lot, and has repeatedly done so in the playoffs. I’m not the only one. And i think “st. bleury” is highly above average, and not to blame for the shortfalls of a team built to score,a nd incapable of doing so in the playoffs, historically. I don’t just up and blame the goalie. You do. Unless it’s murray. Then you make excuses for him. Making you a fraud. The biggest I’ve ever seen.
Nothing better than someone who knows NOTHING about an aspect of the game telling others they don’t understand an aspect of the game. Also Hertl’s shot never touched Maata, it went clean between Maata’s legs before tipping off the edge of Murray’s stick while going through his 5 hole which should have been covered by his stick in the first place, it was a BAD goal for a 10yo to give up let alone a player that is supposed to be elite.
#typicalYoda
#cluelessasever
#fraudandliar
Ya I noticed that during the broadcast too lol
haha quite the onslaught.
Sam, knock it off with the thumbs down on the good points you fucken loser lol. Here he is creating a strategy to thumbs down every thing
http://www.lhebdodustmaurice.com/ugc/photos/biz/webusers/Photo%20Blogue0_b304cf9850e74de6aeb2df77830bfa53.jpg
I’m confused, I thought that the diagram was for his next amazing ball hockey trick.
That would be classic sam misdirection. This is why everything he posts is a fucken word salad
I think an aspect of playoff success that often gets overlooked at times is the amount of “puck luck” it takes to raise the Cup, for as dominant as the Pens were last night it could have all been for not if it wasn’t for 2 very fortunate bounces that led to the 1st goal, first the bounce off of Vlasic and then the little hope over Karlsson’s stick, without either of those perfect bounces Rust never has the opportunity to put the puck in the empty net.
I think pens had alot of puck luck in this year playoffs specially murray
I dont think its luck, murray puts himself in almost perfect position to make the saves, whether he sees the puck or not his positioning is fantastic….big knock on fleury is his positioning, thus making him more susceptible for the “weak” goal….that said fleury is a quicker goalie, probably out of necessity as his positioning lacks at times exp after a rebound
I agree to an extent but he has had his fair share of poor rebounds that have hoped over a players stick to prevent them from burying the puck in an empty net, he’s also had a few pucks go through his body and either hit the post or go just wide of the net and I can think of 2-3 times throughout these playoffs where a forward or defenseman has saved an easy goal by blocking the shot, tying up the players stick or batting the puck out of mid air. I don’t necessarily consider those as knocks against… Read more »
Dont worry Sam, Fleury will never get the bounces because he’s a fucking jinx.
I can’t even get mad at this… sams a twat and drives as much of this stuff as anyone. I love MAF but I would not go back to him, it’s been Murrays team since the Washinton series, I have explicitly stated that and stand by it. Sams a dink
I agree jay, they have gotten most of the bounces since the playoffs started. But they havent gotten the bounces in many, many years. Things even out I guess.
No doubt. We haven’t seen the Pens get bounces like this since 2008-2009, I think that’s part of the reason they are so noticeable.
Pertaining to the hardwork piece, would it be possible that they are working harder for it and thus getting to pucks? Creating a bit of an illusion to it being simple puck luck? I mean I know some nights a puck seems to follow some teams but it should be no coincidence that on average those teams that work the hardest for loose pucks tend to find more.
I agree with that Jay- this team works hard which helps in getting those fortunate bounces. They are often first in those areas or in a better position to take advantage of those lucky bounces.
Hard work absolutely make it possible to capitalize on the luck bounces, if Rust(and Geno) hadn’t gotten to the net on the play the lucky bounce wouldn’t have mattered but even working hard to get to the net, if the puck bounces off of Vlasic the other direction(or doesn’t hit him at all and the shot goes on net) or it doesn’t hop Karlsson’s stick allowing him to clear the puck away all the hard work would have meant nothing because the puck would have never been there for Rust to bury.
First period shots were 15-4 Pens, scoring chances were 18-4 and high danger chances were 8-0 and the won the period 2-0 on the scoreboard. Second period shots were 13-8 SJ, they had a 13-9 advantage in scoring chances and 4-1 in high danger chances and SJ won the 2nd 2-0 on the scoreboard. Finally in the 3rd period shots were 18-9 Pens, they had a 19-8 advantage in scoring chances and an 11-4 edge in high danger chances. The recipe for success is again very clear, player good defensive structure, insulate the goaltender and control the territorial play and… Read more »
This^
Thought Sid was dynamite in periods 1 and 3… like the rest he was quiet in period 2. Overall a strong night. A lot of chippy play coming from the Sharks, specifically Thornton. Guys must have video from the previous 7 years as no one has been able to get the Pens off their game. I think SJ will raise its game on Wednesday but thats hard to say for sure as I wanna believe the Pens speed played as much a role in taking some of the bigger names out of the game as anything 😉
anyone checking their nhl bracket challenge saw Npl doing good
No discipline coming for Marleau, any updates on Rust?
Of course not… never seems to be when it goes against the Pens but the internet losses its collective fucken mind when it’s one of our guys.
I just think it’s the finals and they (the NHL disciplinary committee) doesn’t have the balls to hamstring them, even though we all know the player is the one hamstringing the team by taking a stupid shot like that.
The inability of that group to make a consistent decision has me almost hoping they get smoked in the lawsuit. I mean I dont want to see the league damaged overall but they clearly don’t get it and maybe a big cash withdrawal based on that in ability to not fuck these decisions up is what is needed
Yeah its ridiculous, seems like the most important thing they consider is the calibre of player they are suspending for a big game
Exactly – if Nick Spaling makes that hit in the finals, you could bet your last dollar he’d have gotten a game.
The problem is by not actually taking these out of the game they risk seeing the Lafontaines and Savards get cut short because some asshole will go after them.
Martin Jones was the reason this game wasn’t a blow out.
Couldn’t agree more last night’s game easily could have been and probably should have been a Pens blowout. The win is all that matters but looking at the final of 3-2 is very unsatisfying, game could/should have been 4-0 or 5-1.
I bet pens would’ve had Same results if Martin Jones was in net for them
I bet its a different result if the Sharks had the legend Thomas Kuhnhackl
go fuck yourself you annoying piece of shitt
Thank god America showed up last night to save our ass. Again. #3for3
they needed 3for3 Canadians give them the nice passes
cant be the other way around since they cant pass for shittt
You just continue to bury yourself and by proxy my country!