The Swamp

BSF21 wrote:MAF honestly wasn't all that bad last night. Hawks dominated puck time, the first one was a bad defensive lapse, second one I missed, 3rd one was a BAD goal (but what a brilliant touch pass by Kane to Kruger thru the NZ), and the 4th was a 3 on 1 (also a bit soft, but hey, 3 on 1).

I found myself saying these same things in my head last night, then realized that I spent years doing that to defend Fleury. It's been a roller coaster with him. Anyway, thanks for noticing.

The East is completely unpredictable because of the playoff format. I complained about it last year, and I'll complain about it even more this year. At least some of the injured Pens might be healthy eventually.

I was just looking at the standings and saw that Minnesota is 1-7-2 in their last 10. That's not a good look this time of the year.

bapo! wrote:

BSF21 wrote:MAF honestly wasn't all that bad last night. Hawks dominated puck time, the first one was a bad defensive lapse, second one I missed, 3rd one was a BAD goal (but what a brilliant touch pass by Kane to Kruger thru the NZ), and the 4th was a 3 on 1 (also a bit soft, but hey, 3 on 1).

I found myself saying these same things in my head last night, then realized that I spent years doing that to defend Fleury. It's been a roller coaster with him. Anyway, thanks for noticing.

The East is completely unpredictable because of the playoff format. I complained about it last year, and I'll complain about it even more this year. At least some of the injured Pens might be healthy eventually.

I was just looking at the standings and saw that Minnesota is 1-7-2 in their last 10. That's not a good look this time of the year.

If I'm not mistaken it's something like 2-11-2 in their last 15. It's real bad.

My fantasy team can attest. Dubnyk, once so great, has fallen off big time.

The Sharks have a lot of talent, if they stay healthy and keep a positive frame of mind. They seem to be fragile mentally.

The Penguin/Blue Jacket series will be great for hockey in that part of the country. Tough playoff series' are the germinations of long-term rivalries, especially when they are close geographically. And as an added bonus, there is always the possibility that Tortorella does something insane.

They played a very good series in 2014, just when Columbus was starting to become a good team. Since then, they've played a handful of very heated regular-season games. Any time Dubinsky and Crosby play each other, something could happen.

It's taken 17 years, but Columbus finally has a team to get excited about. Like you said, this is great for hockey. Bad for the Penguins, but great for hockey.

Kunitz is out long term, probably hurt blocking a shot. Doesn't hurt the team as much as some of the other injuries, but notable because he may have played his last game as a Pen.

Media reports this weekend are that Letang has had a "setback" which doesn't sound good, but since there is no solid word on what is wrong with him in the first place, who knows what it means for the playoffs. They need him at least as much as Malkin, and with the playoff configuration they don't even have an easier, gut it out and get your guys back healthy series to kick things off.

Canes right about now, I think.

rass wrote:Kunitz is out long term, probably hurt blocking a shot. Doesn't hurt the team as much as some of the other injuries, but notable because he may have played his last game as a Pen.

Oh, man. That would be unfair.

The Pens have been blocking a lot more shots this year, and suffering more injuries as a result. I'm not going to knock effort. And I know that you can't magically change your style in April. But there's something to be said for saving your body for the playoffs.

fuuuuuck

Imagine the stampede to the Vegas sports book windows there?

mister d wrote:Imagine the stampede to the Vegas sports book windows there?

More money spent on bj's or the BJ's today?

I still wouldn't trust Columbus but Washington should be like even odds in the east now.

I'm also now rethinking being so against going for Shattenkirk now.

Yeah, but I couldn't make an easy joke about them. Caps v craps? Blech.

Anyway, fuck. I know they've played OK without him lately, but Letang played like 40 minutes a game last June. Add in the uncertainty with Malkin, and the injuries with their second tier of d-men, and having to start off with Columbus and Washington, and whatever else, and fuck.

So, no more Letang this season. Neck surgery is a scary thing. I hope he'll be okay.

If there's a positive, it's that he's missed half the season, so the Pens have played a lot without him already. And hey, the Patriots won the Super Bowl without Rob Gronkowski, and Gronk's importance to the Patriots might be roughly equivalent to Letang's importance to the Pens. On top of that, the Pens won the Stanley Cup last season without Gronk, so they've proved that it can be done.

Trevor Daley played last night. That should help.

The series vs. Columbus is going to be insane.

bapo! wrote: Trevor Daley played last night. That should help.

That's a sentence I thought I'd never read 3 years ago.

BSF21 wrote:

bapo! wrote: Trevor Daley played last night. That should help.

That's a sentence I thought I'd never read 3 years ago.

Yep. He was such a big part of this team last spring. Just shows how important it is for an athlete to be in the right situation. It's not like Daley didn't have any talent around him in his brief time in Chicago.

Related: Justin Schultz has 50 points this season.

bapo! wrote:

BSF21 wrote:

bapo! wrote: Trevor Daley played last night. That should help.

That's a sentence I thought I'd never read 3 years ago.

Yep. He was such a big part of this team last spring. Just shows how important it is for an athlete to be in the right situation. It's not like Daley didn't have any talent around him in his brief time in Chicago.

Related: Justin Schultz has 50 points this season.

I'm happy for him. It must suck to have talent and not be in a situation where you can use it most effectively.

However, there was talent to begin with. I don't think we could send you a Micael Roszival or a TVR and get the same results. Though to be fair TVR has improved this season, but goddamn was there no where to go but up.

On top of that, the Pens won the Stanley Cup last season without Gronk, so they've proved that it can be done.

Cavs and Cubs also won championships without him last year. So overrated.

Christ, are you going all Johnnie + Pats on us?

Haven't you heard? The Pens are the Pats of the NHL!

Less memes from me, though. And I'll keep it contained to this thread. But it's awesome!

If one of my team ever wins, every post I make until they're not the defending champion will somehow reference that team.

Giff wrote:If one of my team ever wins, every post I make until they're not the defending champion will somehow reference that team.

Like the 11-time world series champs St. Louis Cardinals?

FIFY!

Go fuck yourself, buddy.

https://twitter.com/penguins/status/915035293560053765

(last one, I promise (probably))

for real this time

https://twitter.com/WickPhoto/status/915759773429137409

Well, that was anti-climactic.

I haven't been this excited about the first period of a Penguins-Hawks game since May1992.

Steve of phpBB wrote:I haven't been this excited about the first period of a Penguins-Hawks game since May1992.

Go Nats

Jesus guys I finally get it re: MAF. He’s awesome.

brian wrote:Jesus guys I finally get it re: MAF. He’s awesome.

Admittedly I'm an extremely casual hockey fan, but MAF has always struck me as a good, but not great goalie with a very high variance range. At his best he can be incredible -- Games 6-7 of the 2009 Final will always be a legendary performance -- but he also has significant meltdown potential.

Fun times!

https://twitter.com/EdTubb/status/917844891916537856

Oh, hell yeah, Rass. They went like they were told and "kept politics out of it" but they didn't smile real big there. The boys are back to being likable!