Bylsma Earns First NHL Win (5-4)
Matt Bodenschatz | Pittsburgh Penguins
Feb 19, 10:57 PM | Hype this story!
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| Summary |
| Dan Bylsma may have made his debut behind the
Pittsburgh Penguins bench Monday afternoon, but with little time to
prepare, it was babtism by fire. But with two days off, the rookie coach had a little more time to preach his system. And it paid off. The Penguins played what could be considered their most up-tempo game of the season, which featured a three-goal third period. In what should have been an easy Penguins victory, goalie Marc-Andre Fleury looked shaky at best, stopping just 23 of the 27 shots he faced and letting in several weak goals. Overall, though, tonight’s desperate showing gave a glimpse of the aggressive style Bylsma expects his team to play, and it’s not difficult to imagine that, as the team becomes more familiar and comfortable with new elements of the system, improvements will be made. The two points for a win were nice. The four point swing resulting from defeating a team ahead of them in the standings was even nicer. But the losses suffered by the Buffalo Sabres and Florida Panthers were the icing on the cake for what could prove to be one of the most important night’s of the season. |
| Three Stars | ||||
| # | Player | Team | Pos. | Stats |
| 1 | Malkin | Pit | C | 1 goal, 1 assist |
| 2 | Plekanec | Mon | C | 2 goals, 1 assist |
| 3 | Gonchar | Pit | D | 1 goal |
| Stat Line | |||||||||
| Shots | Faceoffs | Power Plays | |||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | OT | Total | Won | Lost | Convert | Total | |
| Penguins | 8 | 8 | 12 | X | 28 | 24 | 30 | 0 | 1 |
| Canadiens | 3 | 8 | 16 | X | 27 | 30 | 24 | 1 | 4 |
| Scoring Summary | |||||
| Per. | Time | Team | Goal | Assist 1 | Assist 2 |
| 1 | 10:27 | Pit | Sykora, 22 | Minard | Malkin |
| 2 | 6:22 7:25 15:04 |
Mon Pit Mon |
Plekanec, 13 Satan, 15 Schneider, 5 (PP) |
Kostitsyn Whitney Markov |
Eaton Kostitsyn |
| 3 | 0:29 3:00 3:13 6:31 7:18 |
Pit Pit Mon Mon Pit |
Malkin, 26 Talbot, 7 Kostitsyn, 22 Plekanec, 14 Gonchar, 1 |
Crosby Staal Plekanec Pacioretty Fedotenko |
Fedotenko Cooke Hamrlik |
| OT | - | ||||
| SO | - | ||||
| Penalty Summary | ||||
| Per. | Time | Team | Player | Penalty |
| 1 | 4:58 4:58 7:04 15:58 |
Pit Mon Mon Pit |
Godard Laraque Kostitsyn Kennedy |
Fighting – 5:00 Fighting – 5:00 Cross checking – 2:00 Hooking – 2:00 |
| 2 | 8:10 13:11 14:50 |
Pit Pit Pit |
Orpik Sykora Talbot |
Hooking – 2:00 Hooking – 2:00 Slashing – 2:00 |
| 3 | ||||
| OT | - | |||
Comments
Zach Boslett
Feb 19, 11:14 PM
I thought Satan played one of his best games as a Penguin. He was going north south as opposed to east west and made several plays in the neutral zone to pick off a pass or dump it in. If he can keep that up it will certainly help the team.
Matt Bodenschatz
Feb 19, 11:29 PM
For sure! I liked what I saw from most everyone tonight, aside from Gill and Fleury.
anthony
Feb 19, 11:33 PM
does anyone else fill a little bad that therrien had only one game with gonchar?
TheOneAndOnlySurge
Feb 20, 02:31 AM
No I think MT was done for awhile. The team just seemed to fail to respond to him. Also, guys like Eaton, Letang, Whitney and Gogo where playing too passive. These guys all have some offensive talents but none seemed to want to use them. Either it was because they were being instructed not to or they weren’t comfortable in MT’s system. Either way it changed early in the season and never could get them back. The biggest shock is that Yoe still has a job. He has been running the PP and can’t do anything with two superstars. Now I understand he might have a good work ethic but if he can’t produce it doesn’t matter how much video he watches.
Satan had another good game. Hopefully that trend will continue. I was more than suprised with Thomas not playing. He is one of our top faceoff men and that is an area we really need to be better. Letang was another surprise but at least that one had a little merit, considering his recent plus minus. All in all it was a good team building game. Hopefully it doesn’t get Fleury’s confidence down but at least we showed we can score.
DaBich
Feb 20, 06:37 AM
Surge, I missed Letang and Thomas as well. I hope to see Letang in over the weekend. I understand Minard is a fav of Bylsma…so I dunno if we shall see much of Thomas or not.
Ashley
Feb 20, 07:36 AM
The Pens may have allowed a few more goals than I would have liked, but it was still a nice game to watch. I’m happy for Gonchar, getting his first of the season.
Did anyone else hear of the Crosby vs. Lemieux story? They talked about it on CBC during the game…Mario’s son Austin played is playing in Quebec’s PeeWee tournament for the Junior Pens, and the other day he faced the Cole Harbour Red Wings, with Taylor Crosby in goal. What are the chances?
Brandon
Feb 20, 09:38 AM
Kudos to the new coach on his first win, however I have to agree with the concensus that Letang sitting is a mystery. Yes, his last few games have not be stellar, I blame that on his pairing with Whitney. However if the new scheme is a more north-south puck moving game No-Skill Gill is not your answer. Hopefully we will see a change over the weekend b/c the upcoming opponents call for our d-men to be very mobile in order to stay with their talented forwards, which Gill is not.
Chuck
Feb 20, 09:41 AM
I think last night may have actually solidified Thomas’ spot in the line up. We had one of worst games of the year statistically in the face off circle and we gave up a PP goal. Both of which Thomas can improve on. The question is, who sits?
RelentlessForecheck
Feb 20, 09:56 AM
Much different game than we’re used to seeing under Therrien. Bylsma definitely established an aggressive game plan, and the Pens went to work early establishing the tempo. It’s clear the Pens need to work a bit more on the finer details of Bylsma’s approach, especially the part where you make sure there’s always two men back when you press deep offensively. It turned into a bit of a basketball game in the third, but I think the Pens needed to stretch their legs a bit after being stifled under the previous system. A good confidence booster, for sure, and something to build on going forward.
My notes:
- Satan played a solid game. He was aggressive in both the offensive and neutral zones, creating turnovers, cycling pucks deep, and generating chances. Hopefully, we’ll see him take more chances in the slot as he certainly has the hands to be effective. Great deflection goal.
- Fedotenko was very effective. He’s a hard guy to knock off the puck and can be difficult guy to play against when he throws his size around. He showed good determination and good awareness offensively, both helped to generate chances.
- Gonchar. Man it’s good to see him back. He’s great alongside Orpik, and his presence is such a calming influence. He does the little things well and the big things even better, and takes a lot of pressure off guys like Whitney.
- Whitney, Staal, Talbot: All of these guys played a better game then we’ve seen lately, but on par with the type of performance we need from each of them down the stretch drive. Each had their chances and made some good plays, although Staal still finds ways to miss the 4×6.
- Fleury played a solid game. Let’s be honest, he was beat cleanly by a couple of great shots. The defense in front of him was too often guilty of over-pursuing and being a over-aggressive, which got them out of position and led to good chances against Fleury. Especially in the third, where even Brooks Orpik pulled his best Bobby Orr impersonation. Still, Fleury made some big stops, controlled his rebounds, and played the shooter well… he just had too many shooters to worry about. Tighten up the defense a few notches, and the Pens win by a bigger margin.
TheOneAndOnlySurge
Feb 20, 10:00 AM
That is definetly the question of the hour Chuck. But the answer should be easy. Godarad. We need to play an up temp game and Godard is just too slow. On defense, its all just as easy for the same reason. Gill is not very mobile and well Letang is our secon best skater on blueline. I give Gonch top honors even though Letang is faster because Gonch can move more fleuently.
Jon
Feb 20, 11:00 AM
I might be missing something here, but any reason Letang was scratched?
Great victory, but I’m not really getting excited yet due to their recent history of winning a big game, and then blowing the next two. Plus, they allowed a currently bad Habs team to come back from a two goal deficit. They really need to stop relaxing when they have leads.
Zack Dawson
Feb 20, 11:23 AM
I agree TOAOS, Gonch is by far our top blueliner with Letang coming in second. We was missed last night, though the D on the whole did a good job.
I attended the game, and the one guy who didn’t show up on the score sheet that had a tremendous game was Crosby. He played so hard in the boards last night, digging pucks out and winning battles. He was one of our better back checkers as well. Picked a few pockets and muscled guys off of pucks all night. His passes were on the whole tape-to-tape, including a beauty to Malkin for the 3-2 lead in the 3rd.
He wasn’t the only guy who had a good night. Satan played his best game as a Penguin, Fedotenko was very solid (made a great play to give Sarge room on the GWG). And Whitney played very heads-up all night. But Sid was a good example of the high-energy and hard work you need from your top players. He played fast and smart, and that’s what we need from him. If a couple of the chances he created get buried, it’s a blow out.
Just thought I’d touch on another guy who hasn’t been mentioned so far in the thread.
scruff
Feb 20, 02:09 PM
i agree TOAOS. godard is too slow. i’d love to see him benched and run four solid lines. get back to a little of what made us tough to play against in the past…team toughness
TheOneAndOnlySurge
Feb 20, 04:04 PM
Tom, Montreal may be struggling but they did almost beat Washington the night before. Now if you think they are a bad team, how is it that they came within a minute of knocking off the # 2 team in the east. Granted Montreal has and is having struggles but don’t down grade what the Pens did. They played hard and fought for every thing they got. They didn’t trail at all in the game and at one point had a two point lead. Philly will be a good test but remember they beat Philly a couple of weeks ago 3-0 but still had some struggles that lead to the dismisal of MT.
As for Letang, I don’t think its a grudge. A new coach with a chance to stay in the NHL, wouldn’t risk that on a grudge. Letangs numbers have been down recently and this was a chance for him to sit and see how things are going. I will bet he will return to the lineup very shortly.
TheOneAndOnlySurge
Feb 20, 05:52 PM
Tom, your crazy to think Letang is the Pens best D-Man. Even though Gonchar hasn’t gotten back into his normal form, he is still a better D-Man. Two reasons, one he has much, much, much more expierence. Two, even though Letang is a fast skater, he sometimes gets himself out of position and then has to use that speed to make up for it, while Gonchar is also a very good skater but still doesn’t need his skating prowless to make up for his missed positioning. Now don’t get me wrong, Letang is a good defensman but not quite elite yet. And no player on this or any team is above being scratched when they get into a slump. It gives them the chance to get their head straight and back to good hockey. As for the Thomas scartch, well thats easy. While Thomas does have some offensive talents, he is better known for his quality in the defensive zone. This is not what is needed/wanted from Bylsma. He wants to play in the offensive zone. For that reason he played his best sniper from the AHL in Minard. After the faceoff problems, I would think Thomas some how finds himself into the lineup on Saturday.
TheOneAndOnlySurge
Feb 20, 08:14 PM
I guess we will have to agree to disagree. I just don’t see Letang on the pedistol you are putting him. I also see alot more in Gonchar than you are see.
Matt Bodenschatz
Feb 21, 11:36 AM
The Penguins won. That’s what matters.
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