Jimmy Howard came to play…he was the difference in each game.
Yep, tough weekend for the Ducks. Probably for the best that they get right back at it against San Jose tonight, with the Blackhawks lurking just around the corner.
Penguins continue to win, and now add a few pieces via trading with Morrow and Murray.
Morrow, we’ll see. Shero has a knack of seeing guys that fit well in the system, and look how Neil exploded when he got to Pittsburgh. Hopefully Morrow will experience somewhat of a resurgence with the change of scenery. At the least, he’ll add a strong locker room presence.
Murray will add some toughness to the blue line. I like this trade primarily because he was one of my favorite players when I was at Cornell (he was 2 years behind me), and I’ve met him a few times, so it’s cool to cheer for him as a Penguin, but he is a solid, hard checking guy.
One time when I was working at a furniture store just after college and before my active duty orders came through, Murray came in and was looking for 3’ tall candle holders, which I thought was a little odd for a giant defenceman to be searching for. Cool guy, though.
add Iginla to that list. GM of the year award?
This will just make it all the funnier when goal tending and defense let the Penguins down yet again. Oh, Ray Shero, don’t ever change.
Yeah, have you seen the Pens GAA in the past 9 games? That would be 1. 9 goals given up in the past 9 games.
All this and Iginla too? Please Penguins, don’t hurt 'em.
Sour grapes? 
(Now it’s 14 wins in a row, AND back to back shut-outs!)
Make that 9 goals in 10 games. Tonight was one of the most complete games I’ve seen the Pens play all year. Total domination throughout. Consecutive shutouts and 14 straight wins.
Did you say 9 goals allowed in 10 games?
Yeah, defense and goaltending is highly suspect.
Even with the back-up goal tender playing, they still seem to be able get by.
Nope. I didn’t want Iginla for my team and don’t give a fig that he’s on the Penguins now.
I love that Shero is completely ignoring his team’s weakest points and strengthening its strongest.
Fans were pretty confident going into the playoffs last year, too, and that was a better defensive unit.
Hey, believe what you’d like. Long win streaks are fun.
Did you even watch hockey? The Pen’s biggest weaknesses were:
[ul]
[li]Lack of maturity/discipline[/li][li]Lack of grittiness/toughness[/li][li]No one to stand in the crease on the offensive end[/li][li]No one to clear the crease at the defensive end[/li][/ul]
Their lack of maturity cost them the playoffs last year. Philly got under their skin so they focused on retaliation, rather than playing their game. It cost them.
They were headed down the same road this year, being undisciplined and not playing team defense, until the 7-6 OT game against Montreal. Afterwards, they were pissed, sat down and had a meeting on how to play playoff hockey. They haven’t lost since and in the winning streak they’ve jumped from the mid-20’s in GA to 5th - they’re now 5th in GA and 1st in GF.
And that was without Malkin and Letang, two of the top 20 point producers in the league.
Not to mention they were also without Iggy, Morrow, or Murray.
Morrow: He’s a perfect fit for the Malkin line. He skates hard to the crease and stands there, allowing Neal and Malkin to play patty cake while the other team does everything they can to prevent them from scoring. Tonight’s a prime example, when Malkin’s line was out there it was like a 5 on 5 power play - the Pen’s hardly ever left the offensive zone.
Murray: One of the hardest hitters in the league, his job is to basically be Hal Gill… who we won the cup with. Fleury absolutely shines when there’s a giant, physical stay at home D-man that destroys anyone that gets too close. Tonight was another great example in that Kane went to check him hard and bounced right off, not even moving Murray an inch. No one else tried that all game.
Plus, the top 4 is now perfect - each pair has a strong, stay at home D man and one puck moving, fly all over ice D man. Extremely hard to play against.
Iggy: He fits in everywhere, but no where perfectly. He could be like Kunitz on the Neal/Malkin line and recreate what was the best line in hockey last season. He could switch out with Dupuis on the first line and recreate what was the game winning goal of the last Olympics. Not to mention Bruins won’t get him, which was going to be the hardest team to beat in the playoffs because they’re so physical.
An even more amazing benefit is that teams simply won’t fuck with the Pen’s stars now, which was getting to be an issue. Murray, Morrow, and Iggy can not only fight, but they fight mean. This means much less potential injuries down the line, and less shit like Gionata pulled the other night on Fleury.
Plus, we also got three veterans who have never won the cup, and want it more than anything. So on top of how well they fit and how much they’ll probably produce, they’re going to provide that insatiable drive night in, night out which is one of the most important parts of winning a cup.
I said it before and I’ll say it again: the Pen’s this year are like a hockey team designed by an 8 year old boy.
Think you MIGHT want to rethink the Vokoun signing? He’s playing well, and like most goaltenders, needs ice time to get into a groove. Personally, Fleury makes me more nervous in net, especially in the playoffs, so I’m glad they have Vokoun.
Pens ARE playing so well right now, its a thing of beauty to watch. I hope they don’t blow it in the playoffs this year, because last year’s beating by the Flyers was just disgusting.
I’m not a hugh fan of the Iginla trade, but if it comes with a cup, I guess I’ll be a fan. But they are mortgaging the future for today, and that only works when they win today.
And don’t forget, the Pens set that 17 game winning streak at the end of the season before embarking on their third consecutive cup run. And they lost in the playoffs. That was the best Mario-led team.
So don’t get too excited about this streak.. If they set it, fine, but if not, no biggie. The goal is and must be the Cup.
Their biggest weaknesses were goal tending and allowing too many goals. Those haven’t been addressed and, despite their recent run of play, will continue to be problems going forward unless they are.
Ah, fun with small sample sizes! I love these! Quick, let’s find another cherry picked stat from a handful of games we can use to show how there can be no doubt that things will continue this way indefinitely!
No argument here.
In terms of season stats, they are 7th in goals against per game, at 2.40, and are 11th in shots against per game, at 28.2. They have room to improve, and in fact they are improving (but improving means looking at performance over periods of time, and I don’t want to be accused of cherry picking).
Sure, collapses occur every year in the NHL playoffs, and the Pens did just that last year.
But in terms of an impartial evaluation of where they stand, it’s really hard to make the case that their defense and goal tending is particularly problematic.
ETA: I think they are still weak on the penalty kill (where they rank 17th), but I also think they have dramatically improved there from 6 weeks ago.
Soulmurk, I don’t think anyone here is saying that the Penguins are a lock to with the cup…that there is no way that they don’t have defensive issues come playoff time.
It’s just that all indicators point to defensive issues having been essentially resolved.
We’re not cherry picking games here…we’re talking about the last 1/3 of the season played so far. Yes, it’s a short season, but in the last 10 games (28.5% of the season), they have a team GAA of 0.9. Yet you seem to think they have horrible defense, and despite having added a huge shot blocking and physical defenceman, and two hard working and very physical veteran forwards, that they haven’t improved their ‘weaknesses’.
As for goaltending, Fleury has already shown he has what it takes to win a cup, since he’s already backstopped this team to a cup. And the Penguins are one of the few teams that essentially have two starting goaltenders on their roster. And while Vokoun had a shaky spell there for a few games, he’s been awesome of late, and Fleury’s been incredible.
And of course we can’t predict it will continue this way indefinitely…it’s hockey…there are games here and there where certain breaks happen and a team can get dominated the whole game and win 5-1. But most everyone can see that the Penguins are absolutely stacked right now, and are playing absolutely complete hockey right now. They’ve been putting on a clinic for the past month.
Not at all. Not horrible, just not good enough.
Neither is the goal tending.
We’ll see.
Yep, I was completely wrrong there. I’m glad.
Absolutely. I’m the last person you’d find running around saying, “THE CUP IS IN THE BAG!!!” If anything, I’m way too superstitious. But I’m not going to pretend I’m not enjoying this streak. The last two games against the Flyers, it seems things improved. (The first period at Wells Fargo didn’t go so well, but then they came out and turned into a whole new team)
(Plus it IS gratifying to see the Flyers and the Caps brought so low.)
Just a quick note of follow up, since I realize that March is over…
Another shut-out for the Pens. I also saw a note in the paper this morning that they have failed on 2 of the last 25 penalty kills, so that aspect of their defense is definitely moving in the right direction.
Of course, losing Crosby is a blow, and it seems like something like that happens routinely when everything seems to be clicking for this team. I’m even happier now to have picked up Iginla and Morrow at this point.
Yeah…what bad luck on Crosby. Hopefully it’s the kind of jaw break that allows him to play with a face shield earlier rather than later. Really wouldn’t be fair for him to lose the Art Ross because of such a freak play. I’m hoping against hope he’ll be back in the lineup in 1-2 weeks.