Faceoff Factor

Pens Vs Flyers Grades

Mike Adams | Report Cards

Mar 23, 09:45 AM | Hype this story!

You can’t win ‘em all
Just one of those days
Biron played like Vezina
Won’t happen again

Offense: C

The Pens generated some good chances against Marty Georges Patrick Brodeur Biron, but he was at his lucky best, closed his eyes, and stopped them all. But by the same token, the Pens’ effort wasn’t quite as good as it had been recently. They seemed unwilling or unable to dump the puck in and go to work. There were far too many giveaways at the blueline.

Defense: A

They played a very solid defensive game, allowing only the empty netter at even strength. The Flyers had very few good chances.

Yeo play: C

They managed a power play goal, but were absolutely horrible on all the chances leading up to it. The Flyers were just stacking the blue line, daring the pens to try to pass or skate the puck in. The Pens obliged. They just refused to make the smart play.

Penalty kill: D

They killed the last four. Unfortunately, they got scored on on two of the first three. The faceoff was the killer on the first one as Talbot got beaten cleanly and it was in the net seconds later. They won a draw to start the second one, but couldn’t clear it. Bam, off Bozo the Hockey player’s skate and in the net. They had some problems clearing the puck all afternoon. I lost count of how many times a Flyer kept it in at the blue line.

Goaltending: B

Fleury really had no chance on either goal. They were both bad bounces. Just one of those days.

Overall: D+

It was a tough one to take. Biron played out of his mind, and would have won 20 Vezinas if he was that good. So it was just a lucky performance by him. By the same token, the pens didn’t give their best effort. They just refused to be smart with the puck. The giveaway stat said it all. Flyers 1, Penguins 11. They need to get back to north-south hockey, which has been slowly disappearing lately. Coach B. has a couple days to remedy that before Calgary comes to town.

And now, the rest of the story…

Sid: C

He made a good pass to Letang for the goal, but otherwise was not very effective

Geno: F

As ordinary as Sid was, that’s how terrible Geno was. But then it was a day game, where Geno does absolutely horrible. I’m tellin’ you, it has to be that the evening vodka hasn’t worn off yet. It seemed like he just made one idiotic pass after another. That was some statement if he was hoping to gain Hart votes yesterday. In fact, the performance on national TV might have clinched it for Ovechkin.

Mute Button: A

Gawd, the announce team was awful yesterday. I usually don’t mind Doc, Edzo, and Pierre. But they spent the entire first period just blabbering inanities, not describing the action. It’s like they were having a contest to see who could speak the most obscurely so that the fewest people would know what they were talking about. They also spent most of the game fawning over the mighty Flyers. Keep it up, boys. I’ll send you all wash rags to clean the egg off your faces when Biron does his usual el foldo in the playoffs.

Striped Buffoon Huh? Call of the Game

Oh, where to start, where to start? Right off the bat, Kozari calls Guerin for a trip. Fine. But how could he fail to notice that Guerin’s stick was held for a couple seconds right after that? Then they call a dive on Daniel Carcillo on what was a legitimate trip. Tim Nowak blatantly blew an offside call against the Pens, messing up an odd-man break. There was the too many men call on the Pens right after the Flyers had gotten away with the exact same thing, jumping a guy off the bench to prevent an odd-man break. But the topper had to be the double minor on Sarge. First, it should have only been one penalty. But if you’re going to call two (apparently one for each punch he threw), then how on God’s green earth can you not also whistle Lupul for one too? He threw a punch, but apparently BlindMassenhoven couldn’t see that one.

Minard of the Game

It’s a tie. On one shift, Geno threw two horrible east-west passes near the blue line that the Flyers intercepted and took the other way. But Sid equaled this when he left a blind drop pass to…nobody. And the Flyers went the other way. That’s what I mean by too much east-west hockey.

Icehole of the Game

Scott Hartnell, just because he looks like a village idiot.

A Guide to the Grades can be found here