Pens at Sens Grades
Mike Adams | Report Cards
Nov 20, 10:24 AM | Hype this story!
Well, that was ugly
No effort, no desire, blah
And Sarge didn’t help
Offense: A
As in awful. They generated virtually no good scoring chances on Pascal Leclaire after Staal put one by him right off the bat. The forecheck was non-existent and they had no shots on several 2-on-1s. Why, because last night was their game to only score on pretty plays. Or so it seemed.
Defense: A
As in atrocious. Deryk Engelland’s -4 about sums up all their play. Giveaways galore. Backing in at the blue line. No backcheck. Just terrible.
Yeo Play: A
As in “awash in suckitude,” which is what my wife said about it. Bless her soul, she actually has the courage to watch this mess, even when I leave the room in order to keep my blood pressure under control. It’s time to remove Sid and Geno from the top unit until they decide they want to be part of an NHL power play. They continually made bad decisions with the puck—witness Sid’s failure to get it deep at the end of a power play. That led to Chris Kelly’s out-of-the-box goal.
Penalty Kill: A
As in alright. Nothing spectacular, but not awful, either.
Goaltending: A
As in abysmal. Fleury let in a softy to start, and never seemed to regain his game. When Chris Phillips scores two on you and Matt Carkner one, you aren’t doing your job. Then Johnson comes in and gives the puck away for another easy one. Just a horrendous night.
Overall: A
As in awfully, abysmally, atrociously awash in suckitude. It was the Pens’ worst performance in many a moon. They played the same “don’t-give-a-crap” style that got The Genius fired last year. It was as if the entire team let out a collective sigh of relief that Sarge and Max were back, and decided they had made it through the tunnel of darkness. That they could now just relax and all would be fine. They forgot that you have to work hard no matter who’s in the lineup.
And now, the rest of the story…
Sid: F
Played like he was protecting the Olympic torch. Never broke a sweat.
Geno: F
Woo hoo! He scored a goal when it was 6-1. It was the first I had seen of him all night.
Jordan Staal: C
Hey, at least he scored a meaningful goal.
Christopher Bourque: F
The folks over at Pensblog have promised not to do another game summary until Bourque is released or sent down. My life would be so much easier if I just followed their lead. And imagine how much bandwidth would be saved if all Penguin bloggers did this.
Deryk Engelland: F
A sweet -4 might just punch his ticket back to where he belongs.
Ottawa Fans: F
The Stanley Cup champs come to town and there are empty seats??? Wow, those hockey-mad Canadian fans!
Matt Cooke: F
Way to get chippy after the game was out of hand. He was invisible the first two periods.
Bag Skates: A
Methinks one is needed. Again! Again! Again!
Bill Guerin: A
He showed his hockey smarts by taking a penalty to nullify a Penguin power play. My only gripe is he waited until 1:14 into the Ottawa penalty to do it. My suggestion: on future power plays, immediately run the goalie at the start of it. It serves two purposes. It nullifies the man advantage, and it gets the goalie thinking a little.
Striped Buffoon Huh? Call of the Game
I really don’t have anything.
Icehole of the Game
Matt Cooke for his accidental knee late in the game.
Monk Moment
Did I really see Chris Phillips float two shots past our goalie?
Comments
Carroll
Nov 20, 10:46 AM
I was in the second row about 10 seats from the Pens bench and there were 3 empty seats in front of me. yes it was easier to see with them empty, but that’s all you see on tv! disgusting. seat fillers??? or let us move down the one row and fill them.
Pens1967
Nov 20, 11:26 AM
Mike, the goalie interference call on Guerin was poor. Guerin was at least a couple feet outside of the blue paint when Leclaire went out for the puck and ran into him. Guerin and Leclaire then got tangled up and the ref called a penalty on Guerin.
Pens1967
Nov 20, 11:29 AM
Forgot to add that it’s time to split up Crosby and Malkin. Malkin has his two wingers back now in Fedo and Talbot. Guerin can go back with Crosby and maybe Dupuis, who probably has been the team’s best forward lately. Having Crosby and Malkin both on the same line makes it that much easier to check them both instead of making opponents decide who to concentrate on.
Mike Adams
Nov 20, 11:33 AM
@ Pens 1967
Agree 100 percent on splitting up 71 and 87. They certainly aren’t getting it done together anyway. And when 2/3 of your supposed top line doesn’t break a sweat, well, that’s not a formula for success. As for the call on Guerin, hey, as I said, it got them off the power play, so who am I to complain about that?
Chris A
Nov 20, 11:59 AM
I didn’t get to see the game, so can someone tell me how Lovejoy did?
He played 20 minutes and managed to be a +1 (the only + on the team) and had 5 shots, 4 hits and 2 blocked shots.
The stat sheet says that he was quite possibly the best Penguin on the ice but I’d like to hear from someone who actually saw the game.
sina220
Nov 20, 12:07 PM
Lovejoy played a great game. One of the few bright spots for sure.
Where’s the love-joy for Lovejoy, Mike? You tarred him a few games ago when I thought he played very well, I think he deserves some redemption credit for last night. Or hopefully you at least noticed and made a mental note for next time.
bag o' pucks
Nov 20, 12:07 PM
Tough to single out one player in such a disaster, but the guy who stood out to me was Engelland. He’s not even a great AHLer, he’s only an adequate AHLer, no business whatsoever being at an NHL game without a ticket and a seat. He was probably the worst d-man in WB/S and they call him up first. Sad. Just sad.
Chris A
Nov 20, 12:33 PM
Thanks SINA220. Nice to see that the stats weren’t misleading and nice to see that my belief that he can be an important dman for the Pens in the future may not be too off base.
I don’t think he’ll ever be an all-star by any stretch of the imagination but I think he’ll end up being a solid second pairing guy for the Pens who can play in all situations.
Brad
Nov 20, 01:02 PM
The mentality of the PP is what is making it a joke. They are trying to out skill the other team instead of out working them. Let’s see how fancy we can get without breaking a sweat. No set plays. No one timers (on net anyway). No winning the battles in the corners. Nobody in front of the net. No puck support.
Borque was on the second PP unit – why?
DaBich
Nov 20, 01:30 PM
Pens1967 is right. The call on Guerin was an absolute joke. He was pushed into, collided with Leclaire. BS call. Nothing new. But still and I agree with Mike…the PP is putried. Something must be done!
Casey
Nov 20, 06:11 PM
Orpik set to return Saturday.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1015079-100.stm?cmpid=latest.xml
Moq
Nov 21, 11:01 AM
Though I’m a great fan of Malkin and Crosby together occasionally, it’s time to split them up again. It’s not that the opposition nullifies them, they nullify themselves by a lot of skating and passing (to each other) without posing a real threat. Not to mention their rather poor defensive work. Generally, players like Crosby, Malkin, and Fleury have had a dreadful month of November thus far.
Guenin has been demoted, so that makes sense if Orpik is ready to play.
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