The Pittsburgh Penguins

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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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Being surrounded by Pens jerseys reminds I still have some instinctive hate from the late 00s though.
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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brian wrote:Being surrounded by Pens jerseys reminds I still have some instinctive hate from the late 00s though.

I understand that old habits die hard. (I never disliked the Red Wings, tho. And I really miss Pavel Datsyuk. He would probably solve the Pens' third-line-center woes.)
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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Same. I never hated the Pens. It was just an intense rivalry for a bit.
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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Neat that they both made it back for this game. Go Pens.
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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Pens fans with Terrible Towels though. Those are the douchebags.
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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Pens fans bought a LOT of Fleury merchandise yesterday. One story I saw said that the arena stores got a fresh batch of stuff in yesterday morning and it was all gone by the time the puck dropped.
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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brian wrote:Pens fans bought a LOT of Fleury merchandise yesterday. One story I saw said that the arena stores got a fresh batch of stuff in yesterday morning and it was all gone by the time the puck dropped.

Nice. There sure were a lot of Pens fans at the game.

That was fun. Both goalies were great. Fleury didn't do much for long stretches, tho; the Pens only had 8 shots on goal midway thru the second period.

So, now it's back to the grind, and back to worrying about where the scoring is going to come from. GM Rutherford is making some rumblings that a big trade might be necessary.

They play the Coyotes tomorrow night. I would like to think that a victory is forthcoming.
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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Nice of the Pens to let him win against his old team.
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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The Athletic has an article on "the art" of playing with Malkin when he's in beast (or if you prefer, bully) mode:
So, what are the keys to maximizing Malkin's efforts while on the ice with him?

1. Get out of the way
Hagelin said it, and he's not the only one who agrees.

“That's the first thing you have to do,” Bryan Rust said. “It's kind of a weird way to look at it and some guys probably aren't comfortable with it at first. But you've just got to trust him.”

2. Take a man with you
Hagelin intelligently pointed out that Malkin doesn't need help with the first wave of defenders, his skating and awareness so exceptional that the first man or two won't strip him of the puck very often.

“So what you do is take another guy with you,” Hagelin said. “He's going to get past the first couple of guys on his own. You know that. So, what I want to do when he's got the puck in one of those moods is just take a guy with me. That's going to open up space for him, and space is what he needs.”

Rust played on Malkin's left wing for a good portion of the 2017 postseason. He and Hagelin have both been effective on his left side, perhaps because they share an understanding of how to play with him.

“Give him support but still stay out of the way, and draw someone to you,” Rust said. “Do that, and he'll either find someone who's open or he'll just do everything himself.”

3. Don't get insulted
It's perfectly fine if Malkin becomes a puck hog. He's a future hall of famer, after all. Thus, he's a little different.

“All of our top players want the puck, but he especially does,” Conor Sheary said. “You saw what he did with Haggy there on that goal. He obviously wanted the puck. For Geno, it's just totally instincts. He obviously had something in his bag that he wanted to try, and a few seconds later, he turns it into a highlight-reel goal. ”

When Malkin emerged from the penalty box, there was a sense at PPG Paints Arena that something special was about to happen.

His teammates sitting on the bench sensed it, too.

“Oh yeah,” Sheary said. “We could feel it happening. We've seen him do a lot of incredible things, but even our jaws dropped on the bench on that goal. It's pretty special.”

Some players don't function well when they're angry. Crosby and Kris Letang are probably good examples of players who are at their best when conditions are serene.

Malkin, however, seems to thrive when filled with aggravation.

“Oh yeah,” Hagelin said. “No doubt about it. When he's mad, a little pissed off, that's when you see him playing his best hockey. I think that's one of the reasons the playoffs suit him so well. He's always great in the playoffs and emotions are always high in the playoffs. It all kind of makes sense. There's no one like him, I know that.”
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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Pens/Aves tonight. A team as talented as Pittsburgh shouldn't be playing important games in November and December, but every game feels huge. There's so much wrong with the team now.

The Penguins made a trade yesterday: Daniel Sprong to Anaheim for Marcus Petterson. Usually, it's not a big story when a healthy-scratched forward is traded for a bottom-pairing defenseman, but this one got a lot of attention. Sprong has been mismanaged ever since he was drafted. (He was kept on the roster too long during his rookie year, so he's out of AHL options this year.) He was just kind of there this year, either sitting in the press box or playing about 8 minutes on the 4th line. This caused so much consternation on Penguins Internet. I never saw so much written or said about a second-round pick.

Anyway, that's behind us now, at least until he scores 20 goals for the Ducks. They need some wins.
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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Just watching via phone notifications, but dammit?
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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rass wrote: Tue Dec 04, 2018 8:40 pmJust watching via phone notifications, but dammit?
Yup. They looked great in the first period, then gave up three straight in the second period, including another short-handed goal.

Dominic Simon might be hurt. Haven't seen him in a while.

Maatta and Brassard combined for a sweet tip-in earlier. Your old friend Dejan Kovacevic reported a few days ago that the Pens are 'beyond exasperated' with Brassard, and that there's a 'real urgency' to move him. He has four assists all year, none while playing center. I'm not sure what's missing here.
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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While I'm here and it's still intermission, I wanted to mention Carl Hagelin. He was traded a couple of weeks ago for Tanner Pearson.

It's one of those trades that I hate, even tho it makes perfect sense and will probably improve the team. Hagelin is the kind of player I love -- exceptional skater, great penalty killer, forechecker, and defensive player. He just couldn't score. He's been one of my favorite players since his Ranger days, and part of being a sports fan is forming these irrational bonds, right?

Anyway, Pearson creates a lot of offense. He's been very noticeable in the games that I've watched. (He set up another goal tonight.) This is probably going to be a great trade for the Pens, but I miss Hagelin.
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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(Simon's status notwithstanding) I guess that turned out OK. First win this season where Crosby didn't have a point (h/t The Athletic if that's wrong).
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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Every game is an adventure with this team. They were lucky that DeSmith had a very good game (42 saves on 45 shots) and that Varlamov let in some janky goals. Even Sid and Guentzel's possession numbers were pretty bad last night.

Patric Hornqvist scored a hat trick in 2:47, breaking the great Nils Ekman's team record of 4:10. One of my friends was reminiscing about Ekman a couple of months ago and brought up his record. (My friends are geeks, too.) He mentioned it again last week, after Sid scored a hat trick in 5:35. And now Ekman has been swept into the dustbin of history.
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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bapo! wrote: Wed Dec 05, 2018 10:24 am Every game is an adventure with this team. They were lucky that DeSmith had a very good game (42 saves on 45 shots) and that Varlamov let in some janky goals. Even Sid and Guentzel's possession numbers were pretty bad last night.

Patric Hornqvist scored a hat trick in 2:47, breaking the great Nils Ekman's team record of 4:10. One of my friends was reminiscing about Ekman a couple of months ago and brought up his record. (My friends are geeks, too.) He mentioned it again last week, after Sid scored a hat trick in 5:35. And now Ekman has been swept into the dustbin of history.
Ah, Nils Ekman. He also had one darn good season with the Sharks, back in the day!
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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sancarlos wrote: Wed Dec 05, 2018 12:01 pmAh, Nils Ekman. He also had one darn good season with the Sharks, back in the day!
ß There are so many guys from those teams who are just names to me. I'm a lot more than a casual fan, and I barely remember a third of the roster.

Just pulled up the 2011-2012 roster at random. The following players played at least 12 games: Eric Tangradi, Alexandre Picard, Dustin Jeffrey, Zbynek Michalek, Joe Vitale, Richard Park, Aron Asham. Steve Sullivan played 79 games. Looking at his hockey-ref page now, and I see that he played 16 years in the league. I couldn't tell you anything about him.

Pull up a Sharks page from 10 years ago, sancarlos. You'll be shocked at how poor your memory is.

ß I'm hearing Phil Kessel trade rumors, so the first day of winter can't be far behind.
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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I've spent a lot of time on the Yinzernet the past few days, feeling the pulse of the fanbase. From what I gather, Sid is still great, Dumoulin is okay, and the rest of the team FUCKING SUCKS. Rust = sucks. Kessel = really sucks. Malkin = fuck Malkin. Maatta = slow as fuck, and sucks. Oleksiak = sucks, but not as bad as Johnson, who sucks.

Also, the fans have really turned on GM Rutherford and Coach Sullivan.

I know that expectations are high for the Pens, but this seems a bit extreme. Are other fanbases this prone to over-reaction? Are sports fans just bags everywhere?

I visited the Pens section of HF Boards today, because those folks always have a rational take on things. There is now a 23-page thread devoted the goal that Daniel Sprong scored for Anaheim last night. It's called 'Dumb coach trades young cheap and skilled forward thread -- Now with MOAR Sprong.' And the guy who started the thread has this avatar:

Image

I love the Internet.

Pens/Isles in a few minutes. If they win, they're back in playoff position.
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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Letang?

He’s been pretty excellent with just enough mistakes in bad spots to be maddening.

I haven’t frequented (lurked) the LGP boards in years.
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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Oh, yeah, forget to mention Letang. He's been really good, but that only masks the true Letang. And people haven't found a reason to hate Pearson yet. (Letang really has been excellent, tho.)

I think that fans forget that there are very good players on the other teams. NHL defensemen are going to look bad sometimes. It's probably not easy to cover David Pastrnak while skating backwards.

LGP is still there, but it's not very active. There was some sort of split a few years ago, and about half the user-base started another place called Fifth Avenue Forum. Ah, message-board drama. There's also a Penguins subReddit, which is less than worthless.
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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Logged back on to say the ol 29er was just shaming Letang for a lazy line change, and by the time I got here....
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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Yeah, that was a nice give-and-go with Brassard. Brassard scored a nice goal on Tuesday, too. Maybe this is the turn-around for him.
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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Came here to complain about them getting outworked on yet another SH goal and....
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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rass wrote: Thu Dec 06, 2018 7:42 pm Came here to complain about them getting outworked on yet another SH goal and....
Letang again!

Maatta and Oleksiak were on the ice for the shorty. This won't make the Yinzernet happy.

Meant to mention that a local brewery (North Country, based in Slippery Rock) brews an Ol' 29er DIPA. I'll report back to you if I ever find it.
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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MSG just showed an adorbs video of Kuhnhackl mouthing along with the announcement of the Pens roster on the bench in the pregame.
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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I'll get my sister and bil looking for the beer, too.
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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(taking a Charlie Brown Christmas break from the game)
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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rass wrote: Thu Dec 06, 2018 7:57 pm MSG just showed an adorbs video of Kuhnhackl mouthing along with the announcement of the Pens roster on the bench in the pregame.
Aww! I miss him.

It's Superhero Night at the arena. On the local broadcast, Dan Potash is dressed as Batman. It's...something.
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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bapo! wrote: Thu Dec 06, 2018 8:03 pm
rass wrote: Thu Dec 06, 2018 7:57 pm MSG just showed an adorbs video of Kuhnhackl mouthing along with the announcement of the Pens roster on the bench in the pregame.
Aww! I miss him.

It's Superhero Night at the arena. On the local broadcast, Dan Potash is dressed as Batman. It's...something.
Yeah, I saw him in costume interviewing The Tang between periods. That guy is a bit irritating. (Potash, not Letang.)
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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sancarlos wrote: Thu Dec 06, 2018 8:54 pmThat guy is a bit irritating.
That's kind of his thing. He's a divisive figure.

Just realized that Josh Ho-Sang is still in the AHL and not playing for the Islanders tonight. I've been waiting for him to arrive for a long time now. I first read about him when he was 14 or 15, when he was nearly as hyped as McDavid. (They were linemates for the Toronto Marlboros.) He currently has 2-20-22 in 25 games for Bridgeport.
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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Remember how pissed Pens fans were about him a year or two ago?
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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rass wrote: Thu Dec 06, 2018 9:09 pmRemember how pissed Pens fans were about him a year or two ago?
Because he wore #66? Yeah, that was dumb. Like, how could that even be a thing?

Frankly, I'm outraged that Pettersen, the new Pen, is wearing Ian Cole's #28. No respect!
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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bapo! wrote: Thu Dec 06, 2018 6:55 pmAre sports fans just bags everywhere?
Yes.
“All I'm sayin' is, he comes near me, I'll put him in the wall.”
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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Dork.
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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mister d wrote: Thu Jan 03, 2019 1:36 pmDork.
Sid or rass?
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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I would have written "way to talk shit" or something, so definitely Sid.

ETA: those are some benign "chirps"
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Re: The Pittsburgh Penguins

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Sid is pretty much every positive an NHL player can be except "cool".
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