nossagog Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Pens have hit the halfway point, and its been an up and down season. Started out like gang busters, and then the injuries hit to bring them back to earth. The Good:Marc Andre Fleury. By far the best start to the season. Playing with confidence and has already equaled his career high in shutouts for a season.Evegini Malkin. Playing this year at a different level in all areas of the ice. Please don't waste this effort Pens.Penalty Killing. Once again near the top of the league, even with all the changes in personnel due to injury. Dupuis was a big loss, but the Goc trade is looking good.Perron Trade. Man is he going to look good in the Pens lineup. Still getting used to line mates, but I'm dreaming of Peron-Crosby-Hornqvist. Got at least another year, if they can resign him, it is such a big win of a trade. The Bad:Power Play. Started the year clicking at nearly 40% in the first month. Seriously cooled down from there.Defensive breakout. Has been hurt by all the injuries and callups, but this can improve. Need to improve especially for the teams that play the hard trap and forecheck.Player decisions. Couple of my pet peeves. Why does Despres not get norml time. He's becoming the most physical presence on the blue line, and has offensive up time yet by far averages the least amount of time on the ice even above Scuderi. Bobby Farnham, why was he sent back and we still are using Sill and Ebbet. The UglyTeam Injuries. Pens near the top of the league, AGAIN, and this year we've added in the Mumps as a new way to loose man games. At one point we were missing 6 of our top 9 forwards and 4 of our top 6 on defense, AT THE SAME TIME.Poor Col. Klink. I feel bad for Klinkhammer. Probably felt like he won a raffle getting sent to the Penguins. Closes up his house in Arizona and is in the process of getting it shipped to the 'burgh when he finds out his raffle ticket is a fraud and he's dealt to Edmonton. I know its a business, but damn, that's bad juju. When the teams gets healthy(need Comeau, Hornqvist and Matta back) and the PP comes back to even an average form, I think that this Pens team can be a powerful force. And the future looks bright with all the depth on defense which could save them some money next year by only needing one of Martin(please no) or Erhoff(yes please can I have another). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B21 Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 @nossagog Nice write up. I don't disagree with any of it. The rest of the year is all about health for us. Mumps. Blod Clots. Cancer. I'm waiting for someone to come down with Ebola. The arrow is definitely pointing up even with Crosby "slowing down". Lines I'd like to see for a fully healty squad... Hornqvist / Crosby / KunitzPerron / Malkin / BennettComeau / Sutter / DownieSpaling / Goc / Adams Letang / MaattaMartin / ErhoffDepres / ScuderiBortuzzo FWIW, I hate having to put Comeau or Spaling on the 4th line. And I really want to give Brittle Beau a long look on the top 6. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B21 Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand just like that - Maatta done for the season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nossagog Posted January 13, 2015 Author Share Posted January 13, 2015 Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand just like that - Maatta done for the season. That sucks, another young guy that can't seem to stay healthy early on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notfondajane Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 With all the injuries I wonder if there something in the structure of their game that is causing this to happen? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notfondajane Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 Congrats to Sil on getting his first point! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nossagog Posted January 14, 2015 Author Share Posted January 14, 2015 Congrats to Sil on getting his first point!Sil had his best game, with the fourth line playing great all night. That was a demolishing of the Wild tonight. Hope that Downie is okay, that was a pretty classless elbow by Sutter that put him down. I've always like Sutter, but this hit leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notfondajane Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 Sil had his best game, with the fourth line playing great all night. That was a demolishing of the Wild tonight. Hope that Downie is okay, that was a pretty classless elbow by Sutter that put him down. I've always like Sutter, but this hit leaves a bad taste in my mouth.the hit may have been out of frustration with the Wild being in a bad funk. It still no excuse for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nossagog Posted January 15, 2015 Author Share Posted January 15, 2015 Sutter with a two game vacation for the Downie hit. Downie was at practice today, so hopefully no ill effects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Polaris922 Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 And Suter too . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notfondajane Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 Downie probably has a few scruff marks from Suter elbow pads. I hope that's the case! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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