Faceoff Factor

Comments

1. Ray

   May 21, 04:41 PM

   Two words: Must! Win!

2. bag o' pucks

   May 21, 04:43 PM

   No two ways about it, Carolina’s going to come hard tonight. The Pens will have to up their game from the opener. Stat of the night (from Empty Netters), Cam Ward’s career game two numbers: 5-0, 1.18gaa, .956sv%

3. Matt Bodenschatz

   May 21, 05:34 PM

   Should be a great one in terms of entertainment value. Let’s hope the good guys prevail!

4. bag o' pucks

   May 21, 09:09 PM

   Entertaining, indeed. Five goals in about 12 minutes. Crosby, Malkin, Kunitz, Kennedy – Good. Fleury, Letang – Bad. But the night is young, plenty of time to redeem oneself!

5. Pens1967

   May 21, 09:17 PM

   Tonight, against a fast, aggressive fore-checking team, the 7 d-men approach is being exposed. The Pens defensemen sure don’t look like they have any idea what their partner of the shift is going to do. Bylsma is stuck for this game unless he chooses to sit Boucher and go with 6 D and 11 F for the rest of the night.

   If Gonchar can’t play the minutes the coaches want, then he needs to sit until he can and either Boucher or Goligoski should dress instead. It’s better to disrupt one pairing rather than all three.

6. bag o' pucks

   May 21, 10:47 PM

   Well, some butter-soft play from Boucher gives up the tying goal. Pens to the PP, controling the puck in the zone, more questionable hockey sense from Letang (who’s already responsible for one goal against), a limp wrister with no one in front. Ward freezes, Pens lose the face and never possess the puck in the zone again. Hmmmm….

7. bag o' pucks

   May 21, 11:15 PM

   I must confess, I just had to laugh out loud after Malkin’s third goal. That was just un-fricken-real.

   Check out Satan throwing the rights, haha!! What an insane game…

8. Pens1967

   May 21, 11:29 PM

   Still not a fan of the 7 d-men roster.

   I’ll bet Claude LaRose is sorry he woke Malkin up with that rough stuff. :)

   There should also be a ‘Canes suspension or so owing to their attempt at “message sending” at the end of the game which the league has already warned all teams against doing.

   Yeah, Miro Satan in a fight was something to see. He almost had the Carolina player’s jersey up over the head and could have pummeled him had the refs not stepped in. :)

9. bag o' pucks

   May 22, 12:01 AM

   There may have been, under normal circumstances. But the league has put away the rulebook on suspensions. If they didn’t suspend any of the Ducks for pummeling the Wings after game six of that series, they won’t suspend any of the Canes for getting beat up after this game.

   C’mon boys, six more wins….

10. DaBich

    May 22, 06:09 AM

    I thought hell would freeze over before I’d see Satan fighting…good stuff!
    Pucks, hubby fell asleep and I woke him to see the replays of the hat trick goal. Totally insane!

11. Pens1967

    May 22, 06:40 AM

    Bags, Bob Grove said on the post-game radio show that Bayda is definitely suspended for at least game 3. He got a match penalty and a 1 game minimum suspension is the rule. Grove said Bayda got the match for high sticking Letang in the throat and something else. Refs rarely hand out match penalties so you know whatever Bayda did was pretty bad.

12. Moq

    May 22, 07:30 AM

    I’m not sure that using seven defencemen caused some of the defensive woes in the game. We’ve been vulnerable in our own zone most of the season. Especially an aggressive forecheck like the one executed by the Hurricanes. That’s unlikely to change by reducing it to six.

    But I think that we managed to make a few good adjustments and it looked less chaotic after the first period.

13. Ray aka WildcatRay

    May 22, 10:22 AM

    I do not think the 7 d-men is being exposed. The team’s collective head was not really into the game especially early. It was not until the tie-breaking goal in the 3rd Period that the Pens took control of the puck on the following face-offs.

    Before that, it was as if the Pens thought Carolina was going to fold up their tent for the night. From that point on, the Pens played with the determination of a true Stanley Cup contender they want to be thought of.

    It was from that point that the Pens looked like they understood that they have to do to beat the ‘Canes. The Pens were both the more physical and quicker team after that. And, it was reflected on the scoreboard, 3-0.

    Now, the trick is to carry that level of play into Saturday’s and Monday’s games because we all know that Carolina will come out flying and charging. Do I sense one of The Flower’s stellar performances waiting in the wings?

14. Pens1967

    May 22, 12:48 PM

    I disagree the Pens weren’t in the game early. Crosby scored 2 minutes in after all.

    I’ve read a lot of comments about how important it is to keep forward line combinations together so they can develop chemistry. IMO, the same thing applies to defensemen. When you are subjected to an aggressive fore-check and cycling game, it’s more important than ever that the defense pairs are familiar with each other and can anticipate what each partner will do in order to effectively clear the puck. With a 7 d-man rotation, you don’t have that except when the rotation puts regular partners together for the odd shift.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if in the third period Boucher’s minutes didn’t drop. It looked to me like Bylsma went back two 3 regular pairs.

15. Ray

    May 22, 03:55 PM

    My contention is that if the Pens had their heads in the game right from the start, the ‘Canes do not score all those easy goals. A team with its collective heads in the game will rarely let the other team get to the front of the net with the ease that Carolina did. A team with its collective heads in the game does NOT give up goals as quickly after scoring as the Pens allowed Carolina to do last night.

    Any hockey team knows that most goals are scored from in front of the net. Both the defensemen and forwards know their focus is to keep the other team outside the face-off dots. It just does not take multiple games of playing together to know how to play good defense. It takes attitude, grit and hustle with the proper focus. The Pens need to bring the attitude, grit, hustle and focus that they had at the end of the game to Games 3 and 4 in Carolina or they will be coming back to the Igloo tied at two games apiece.

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