Penguins Roundup - May 25
Justin Maffei | National Hockey League
May 25, 02:45 PM | Hype this story!
Lesson Learned
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review is reporting that even though the Penguins lost the series opener 4-0, the players and coaches insist that they learned from the loss.
“We know now we can compete against this team,” forward Max Talbot said.
Coach Michel Therrien called it the team’s “worst performance of the playoffs,” but said that it was a “good lesson.”
“We need to do a better job of getting the puck forward and moving our feet a little more,” Team captain Sidney Crosby said.
“We just turned the puck over too much,” Orpik said.
Fans Flock to Mellon Arena
Game One was played in Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. However, as the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports, that did not stop 13,500 Penguins fans from paying $5 to watch the game in Mellon Arena.
Fleury Falls
Marc-Andre Fleury should have known it would not be his night when he touched the ice prior to the beginning of Game One. As the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is reporting, Fleury missed the final step leaving the dressing room and fell flat on his face.
Apparently, many of the Penguin players almost fell in the same place. “I’m telling you, we all almost fell,” Dupuis insisted. “I hope they do something about it before the next game.”
If they plan on playing the same way in Game Two, they may be better staying in the dressing room. This way they would not fall, literally or figuratively.
Roberts update
“It’s not that we don’t want Gary Roberts in our lineup,” coach Michel Therrien told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “We want them.” By “them,” Therrien was apparently referring to forwards Adam Hall, Tyler Kennedy, Jarkko Ruutu, and Georges Laraque. Things can change, however, as you will see in the line-up change.
Line-up change
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Coach Therrien was doing some line juggling during Sunday afternoon’s practice. This is what they looked like:
Malone – Crosby – Hossa
Talbot – Malkin – Sykora
Dupuis – Staal – Kennedy
Roberts – Hall – Ruutu
Taffe – Beech – Laraque
If this is a sign of things to come, it appears that Georges Laraque will be replaced by Gary Roberts for Game Two.
Comments
Ashley Gallant
May 25, 05:13 PM
Watching Fleury fall on his face as he came on the ice was like a high school nightmare. I was worried that it might mess with his head, but I don’t think it did. He didn’t have his best game, by any means, but he made a number of key saves to keep the Pens within reach for most of the game.
Jonathan Farzalo
May 25, 07:07 PM
i’d rather have talbot with sid and malone sticking with malkin….
Michael
May 25, 07:08 PM
Last season (2006-2007) Staal clicked VERY well as a left-wing with Malkin. But as soon as the Penguins’ big winning streak ended in February of 2007, Therrien__inexplicably__broke-up that combination. Is there some sort of “taboo” in Therrien’s mind against trying this combo again? We are having huge problems in generating any offensive pressure against Detroit, so why not give this another shot? Unfortunately, Therrien is probably too stubborn to even consider it.
But now__is__the time to put Staal back on left-wing with Malkin, if we really want to try something significantly different to “shake things up” and create more offense. Having Staal center for Dupuis and Kennedy is not going to accomplish much of anything against the Red Wings. TALBOT should be the third-line center .. which__would__make sense with Dupuis and Kennedy as his wingers. Talbot is not a top-6 winger, for cryin’ out loud, but he is the ideal third-line center.
Therrien also went into panic-mode very early in Game One, as he started to throw
bizarre line combos together .. such as Hall with Crosby and Talbot .. (?!?!) .. even when the score was still 0-0.
Our powerplay is really compromised by taking the “stacked” unit off the ice after less than one minute. This second unit just doesn’t cut it. Yeo is just abysmal with his stupid configurations. Please .. at least go back to a balanced powerplay with two decent units.
We need to use Murphy Dumps against Detroit, not regular dump-ins. Got it, MT ..? The Red Wings are too quick and good at clearing their zone on regular dump-ins. And, yes .. Gary Roberts SHOULD HAVE been in Game One. We had no forecheck. We had no intensity nor emotion (to speak of), either. Therrien was stupid (a priori) in healthy-scratching Roberts for Game One.
Malkin had only 2:40 of even-strength icetime in the First Period of Game One. And that is just ridiculous. Malkin needs to be given (and Crosby as well) a good amount of icetime early in the game in order to get into the flow.
Head Coach Babcock obviously made tactical adjustments after the First Period. Therrien obviously didn’t make any tactical in-game adjustments to counter those moves of Babcock .. and you saw the results.
Ashley Gallant
May 25, 09:28 PM
Michael, the way I see it, Staal is one of the best shutdown guys we have on the team and I’d rather have him playing at his natural position on a shutdown line. He has been doing just fine where he is, and he has been scoring goals while there. The Red Wings see Staal as a threat offensively, and it will be easier to shut them all down if you put him on Malkin’s wing. Two lines are easier to contain than three.
You also said that it was ridiculous that Malkin had only 2:40 of even strength ice time, but you do remember that 6 minutes of the first period were power play minutes for the Pens, and there was also 1+ minutes of shorthanded time…right?
Well, I took a look at the stats sheets on NHL.com and it says that Geno had 2:48 at EV, and 3:46 on the PP, for a grand total of 6:34 in the first period. He had 17 minutes and 36 seconds of ice time all game long, which is pretty good considering MT has to give Crosby’s line about the same amount of ice time (Sid had 18:10 in game 1). It’s also pretty good considering Malkin hasn’t been playing very well since early on in the Flyers series.
I heard today that MT sat down with Malkin for a good, long discussion on how things are going. Hopefully it will wake him up for game 2.
Bruce
May 26, 10:04 AM
After reading Malkins comments about not wanting to play the point on the PP and Therriens reaction, all i can say is Therrien is wrong. Most Russina players don’t view the Stanley Cup as the holy grail like Canadians. Malkin shutting down in this series(or not) will be the difference. I knew there was trouble when he did not want his parents to come for the finals.
If this means you have to give in to him on the PP to get him to play, well that’s what coaching is about. Pushing the right buttons!
Michael
May 26, 11:41 AM
Our main scorers .. our main offensive stars .. Crosby, Malkin, and Hossa .. should each be getting somewhere in the area of 22 to 24 minutes of icetime per game in the Stanley Cup FINALS .. !!
These are the Cup Finals .. there’s absolutely no reason to be insisting on a regular regimen of “roll four lines” at this stage. You need to go all-out with your best chances to score .. especially against a team like Detroit that plays such a stifling defensive system. We need to double-shift our scoring stars, too, at appropriate times. Malkin and Sid (and Hossa) with 17 or 18 minutes apiece in these Finals is just absurd.
And, Bruce .. I agree with you. This ‘media-quote-thing’ regarding Malkin is a__further__indication of poor coaching and poor management on the part of Therrien and Yeo. It appears to me that Yeo and Therrien must have__already__been aware of Malkin’s uncomfortableness about playing the point on the powerlay .. PRIOR to this thing coming out in the media. And based on Yeo’s mindless comment, it’s pretty obvious that Yeo and Therrien simply decided to keep Malkin there .. i.e. they obviously decided to NOT try what common sense dictates!! N-o-o-o-o .. they had to be stubborn inflexible asses about it and NOT at least__try__moving Malkin back to where he was comfortable! This is just another indication of the lack of common sense, and the stubbornness, of Therrien and Yeo. And so__now__this thing has boiled-over into the media because Therrien and Yeo apparently didn’t properly address Malkin’s expressed concerns .. and so he’s frustrated about that.
And let’s hope that some of the effects of these quotes is simply due to Malkin’s naivety, candidness-at-the-moment, and lack of facility with the English language.
I’ll tell you .. I’ve been almost EXPECTING something BIZARRE to happen .. resulting in a destructive distraction of some sort .. before the Penguins’ playoff run was finished this season .. INVOLVING Therrien (and/or Yeo). And so now we apparently are seeing it .. ALONG-WITH Therrien’s inability or unwillingness to make tactical in-game adjustments to counter what the opposing coach is strategically doing.
I just really hope that Malkin isn’t going to be seriously blamed for this. This is being caused by Therrien and Yeo, along with certain unavoidable circumstances involving Malkin’s lack of experience, his natural candidness/naivety, and the limitations of his use of English. But I’m afraid the yinzers will be bashing Malkin mercilessly for this .. which will be a damned shame.
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