Pens/Hurricanes Game 3 Grades
Mike Adams | Pittsburgh Penguins
May 24, 12:14 PM | Hype this story!
Pens are rolling now
Canes just can’t stop them
Pens have too many weapons
And Canes just have Ward
Offense: A
Another barrage. This was their best offensive game of the series. They forced Cam Who? To make innumerable great saves just to keep it close. But in the end, it just didn’t matter. When the Pens are getting goals from guys like Adams and Fedotenko at the same time when Crosby and Malkin are dominating, look out.
Defense: B
They did a good job, but nothing spectacular.
Yeo Play: A
Once again, they scored a key power play goal at a key moment. The Canes had all the momentum off the early goal, then Geno just silenced the frenzied crowd. Gleeson made a horrible play to give it right to him, and he waltzed down the slot and undressed Cam Who?. Suddenly, the Pens had the momentum and they pretty much controlled the rest of the game.
Penalty Kill: A
They are rendering the Carolina power play inept. The Pens are just shutting them down totally. Carolina doesn’t even get any good chances up a man.
Goaltending: B+
Tough grade here. But in the playoffs, it’s results that count, and Fleury allowed few enough goals to win. But I didn’t think he was real sharp, either. The rebound control was not good. And he just looked shaky most of the night. But he also kept the puck out when he needed to. He can be better, though, which is really scary.
Overall: A
Carolina is done. You could see it on Joe Corvo’s face during the between-periods interview. His tone basically said, “we’re doing the best we can, and it still ain’t good enough. What can we do?” You do get the sense that Carolina threw everything they had at the Pens in the opening period, but still came out trailing 3-1. Can they win four straight games? Sure, anything’s possible. But right now, the Pens are just totally dominating them and are in their collective heads.
And now, the rest of the story…
Sid: A
Another game, another goal, another assist. Just another ho-hum Sid great night.
Geno: F
Because he didn’t get a hat trick again. And he only had three points.
Ruslan Fedotenko: A
What a wrist shot to put this one out of reach.
Craig Adams: A
Anytime a fourth liner gets two points, you’re probably going to win.
Max Talbot: D
For awhile there, I thought he was going to be the goat for failing to convert on so many glorious chances. How many points might Geno have had if Max wasn’t on that line? Look, I love Max for what he is. But what he isn’t is a top line winger.
Milk Cartons: A
They serve a valuable purpose. They contain a substance most of us depend on for nourishment. Oh, and they carry pictures of a guy in a red jersey with a 12 on it. It says Eric Staal underneath that picture, and I’ll take their word for it. I sure haven’t seen him on the ice in this series, so I have no idea what he looks like.
Erik Cole: C
My wife says he has road kill on his face. I say he has to shave the top part of his face just to avoid being identified as the missing link.
Striped Buffoon Huh? Call of the Game
This entire game was a huh? From start to finish. Malkin tripped, no call. They ran Fleury in the crease, no call. Eaves blatantly elbowed Staal in the face, no call. They called Satan for some phantom penalty that no replay, our our replaying of the live action, was able to discern. But the topper had to be the call on Gonchar. Walker just skated full force into the boards, went down like he’d been shot, and Gonchar gets two minutes for not touching him. Now, to be fair, I at first thought it was a penalty myself, so I guess I’ll give McCreary some slack. But full credit to my wife, who immediately told me Gonchar hadn’t even hit Walker. Heck, maybe she should be reffing these games.
Monk Moment
Two goals in 31 seconds in the final minute of the first. It came out of nowhere and is likely the dagger for this series.
A guide to the game grades can be found here.
Comments
Ray aka WildcatRay
May 24, 03:09 PM
@Mike,
A much more consistent, focused effort last night. The Pens did their best to date in this series to limit the ‘Canes chances in front of the net. The puck possession and fore check were key parts of that effort not to mention the stretch passes to pressure the Carolina defensemen. Quick rushes up-ice and breakaways will tend to make the defensemen a little gun-shy about pinching in.
Fleury does need to control his rebounds better, but he did not let in any soft goals. Also, his teammates helped a bunch with their efforts. They forced many errant shots by Carolina.
I, too, have to scratch my head over the Gonchar call. Perhaps it looked worse in the officials’ eyes than it actually was. We DID have the benefit of the replay, something the officials do not have.
Overall, it was a very good team effort. To my eyes, it looks like the more the Pens see of Carolina, the more they understand what the ‘Canes want to do and are doing what they need to to keep their opponent at bay.
Brad
May 24, 03:23 PM
Cam Ward’s stats for this series must be terrible. Just roughing it out in my head he must have a GAA over 4.50 and a save percentage of under .800 does anyone know for sure where he stands so far?
Pens1967
May 24, 03:23 PM
Mike, your are right that the ‘Canes just look defeated. Right now, the Pens are clearly a better team. That said, the Pens had better tighten up their defensive coverage in their own end. When no names like Patrick Eaves and Matt Cullen are scoring goals, that is not a good sign. Either Detroit or Chicago have a lot more skill and fire power than Carolina. They won’t be missing the net with shots like the Carolina players are.
BTW, no grade for Boucher for engaging Bayda at the end of the game?
bag o' pucks
May 24, 08:23 PM
Ward is about 4.72gaa & .874sv%.
Five more wins, boys.
Pens1967
May 24, 09:09 PM
Mike Emrick inadvertently gave away the reason the finals won’t start until 6/5. He was doing a promo for the French Tennis Open which will be on NBC next weekend. So it’s tennis this weekend and hockey next weekend. Also NBC is premiering a new show on Thursday 6/4 putting that date out.
bag o' pucks
May 24, 10:55 PM
Yeah, well, the best way to kill all the momentum Crosby, Malkin, and the Pens have is to make them sit around for over a week while, at the same time, giving guys like Lidstrom and Datsyuk time to get healthy.
Bettman’s a clown.
Ray aka WildcatRay
May 24, 11:36 PM
@PENS1967,
I believe I said that way back when the Conference Finals schedule was released. As it turns out, NBC airtime was not available until June 5. :lol:
Actually, the big difference from last year to this is that the NHL wanted all Cup Finals games on NBC. If memory serves, last year’s Games 1 & 2 were on VS. with 3 through 6 on NBC.
Pens1967
May 25, 06:16 AM
I believe you’re right about games 1 & 2 being on VS last year. Anyway, from my own selfish perspective, I hope the NHL never gets a big TV deal. Network and cable TV have managed to ruin college and pro football, MLB and the NBA, imho.
Pens1967
May 25, 06:32 AM
According to EJ Hadrak, the NHL is working with NBC to move the finals start to this Saturday IF both the Pens and Wings win games 4 and 5 respectively.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/playoffs/2009/news?id=4203658
May is a TV “sweeps” month which is why NBC doesn’t want to show hockey on primetime this week.
Ray aka WildcatRay
May 25, 12:19 PM
May sweeps (April 23 – May 20, 2009) ended last week:
http://www.tvjobs.com/sweeps.htm
NBC just happens to be running a few more season finales and whatnot this week.
DaBich
May 25, 09:11 PM
I say let Mike’s wife ref the remaining games!!!!
emo
May 26, 12:40 AM
I don’t get it. NBC has a revenue sharing deal with the league for games. They take no risk because they recover all of their broadcasting expenses before the NHL sees a single cent. Despite this, the NHL seems willing to delay the Finals as much as a week AND make the two teams play back to back on top of it. Interesting that talk about losing the week-plus layoff only began to circulate once the word got out that it was going to happen in the first place…
I am not a Bettman basher and I have defended him on some things in the past, but in this instance, I believe he’s making a mistake. I can understand the reasoning behind the kind of deal they got with NBC, but to then turn around and allow NBC to basically dictate scheduling to you (not to mention being huge killjoys as far as the Pens’s big screen parties go) is asinine. Versus’ broadcasts are better than when they started, and that’s encouraging, but how is it they are basically owned by Comcast and still having trouble getting into living rooms across the US? And would it kill them to actually have a pregame show? SportSoup, Holy @%!!, or that new FanArchy thing they’ve been promo-ing the heck out of are all varying degrees of suck just as TV shows, but as NHL lead-ins, they’re even worse (if that’s possible).
Ray aka WildcatRay
May 26, 09:39 AM
@EMO,
Money talks. I would suspect that, simply put, NBC is making more money with the programming they won’t preempt for hockey. ‘Nuf said.
Pens1967
May 26, 10:56 AM
NBC is scheduled to televise the French Open of tennis this weekend.
As for Versus, I know it’s not part of Direct TVs regular, standard cable package as it is with Comcast.
emo
May 26, 11:38 AM
That’s fine; I get that part of it. What I don’t get is why the NHL is willing to basically let TV dictate the schedule considering how the rest of the deal is slanted heavily in NBC’s favor to begin with. It would be one thing to let NBC and a boatload of their money tell you when your games will be played (which I would still take issue with), but in this case the league is still letting NBC tell them when to play and getting virtually nothing in return for it.
As for the possible conflict with the French Open, their tournament coverage is typically on the the afternoon/early evening. If they wanted to air a playoff game in the evening, they could do that but I can’t imagine they’d want to bump Dateline, Howie Do It, Law and Order repeats and/or The Last Templar.
What was Ebersol saying about ESPN treating the NHL as second fiddle? Something about pots and kettles I think…
Pens1967
May 26, 01:08 PM
If you think the NHL would get a better deal from ESPN, I’d think again. Hockey would still be a poor step-child to pro and college football and basketball, baseball and NCAA sports.
emo
May 26, 02:03 PM
I’m not one of the many that thinks the NHL needs to be on ESPN no matter what. For where Versus is in their history (both as a network and as far as broadcasting hockey goes) I’m OK with what they do. The main issue I have with them is there is no pre-game show to speak of, and they rarely air any other NHL-related programming. They should look into partnering with the NHL Network to re-broadcast some of their shows.
On the flip side, Versus has patched into CBC and/or TSN feeds to show additional games and I applaud them for that. If you want to know how to broadcast hockey, look at those that already know what they’re doing.
Ray aka WildcatRay
May 26, 06:15 PM
The “issue” is that the NHL wants to be an equal to the other 3 team sports in the USA. If they have any chance to actually become that they need to be on national broadcast TV. All they have to choose from are ABC, CBS, Fox & NBC.
I think it is pretty safe to say, the NHL just does not have the leverage to get more than what they currently are getting with NBC. Therefore, you get what you get.
The reason I advocate for a TV deal with ESPN is more exposure for the league. ESPN, the “Deuce”, ESPN Classic & ESPN360 equals more homes that can see an NHL game. With a stake in drawing viewers to their networks, ESPN may be willing to increase the time allotted during SportsCenter not to mention the possibility of an NHL show like they do for the NFL, MLB, NCAA Football, NBA, etc.
Ray aka WildcatRay
May 27, 09:10 AM
Did anyone else catch the promo touting Game 3 & 4 of the Cup Finals on VS. during last night’s (5/26) game?
Matt Bodenschatz
May 27, 09:44 AM
@Emo and Ray: I think a return to ESPN would be a strong idea…if they could work out a deal to stay with Versus and NBC. Shifting exclusively to ESPN and ditching Versus could/would be bad. ESPN may reach more households in the U.S., but ESPN won’t give the NHL attention it needs — and that includes on SportsCenter.
What I’d like to see is NBC as the NHL’s weekend home for a “game of the week” during the season and for some playoff games as they do now. Then, Versus could have the NHL on Monday and Tuesday nights, while ESPN (or ESPN2) takes a game or two later in the week (Thursday and/or Friday night(s), maybe?)
If Versus and NBC are it, I’m okay with that…but I want more dedication from Versus. I want a pregame show starting 30 minutes before the game to discuss what’s on slate for the evening (not just for the game to be televised). I want a 30 minute recap show to discuss what has happened throughout the evening (not just for the game to be televised). The network has very little solid programming, so I don’t see why it would be so difficult to put a larger emphasis on the NHL.
@Ray, I did see the commercial. NBC is scheduled to show Games 1 and 2, then Games 3 and 4 shift to Versus before giving way to NBC for Games 5, 6 and 7 (if needed).
Ray aka WildcatRay
May 27, 11:24 AM
I guess I must have been dreaming that I had heard that all the Cup Final games were going to be on NBC.
I agree with you on spreading the coverage across VS., broadcast TV (NBC?), and ESPN, et al. When you hear casual sports observers like the radio personalities and the PTI guys complain about not being able to find NHL games, the league has a serious problem on its hands. These are the folks who can be some of the most effective sales people for getting more people to watch an NHL game on TV. But, that does not happen if what they are saying is they cannot find VS. on their cable systems.
DUH!
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