The Pittsburgh Penguins

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Thu Mar 03, 2016 4:42 pm

Catchy. I'm in.

bapo! · Post by **bapo!** » Thu Mar 03, 2016 4:53 pm

Nonlinear FC wrote:I tell you what, that kid they had in goal against the Caps the other night was pretty damn good.

Matt Murray. Yeah, people are really high on his future. They have another guy, Tristan Jarry, who is almost as highly regarded. (Jarry won a Memorial Cup a couple of years ago.) I'm afraid that GM Rutherford is going to view them as a redundancy and trade one of them this summer.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Thu Mar 03, 2016 4:58 pm

It feels like there's enough goalie prospects right now to fill 30 more teams. We have three "well regarded" kids plus the dude Hellberg (high 2nd) from Nashville.

bapo! · Post by **bapo!** » Thu Mar 03, 2016 5:06 pm

Goalie prospects are just so unpredictable, so it's impossible to get fair trade value even for a 'sure thing,' which doesn't exist. That's why I would rather the Pens just hang onto both of them, rather than trade one and make the wrong choice.

The situation seems to be working itself out now anyway, with Murray back up with the Pens and Jarry getting more playing time in Wilkes-Barre. That should be the plan for next season, too.

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Thu Mar 03, 2016 6:41 pm

bapo! wrote:Goalie prospects are just so unpredictable, so it's impossible to get fair trade value even for a 'sure thing,' which doesn't exist. That's why I would rather the Pens just hang onto both of them, rather than trade one and make the wrong choice.

The situation seems to be working itself out now anyway, with Murray back up with the Pens and Jarry getting more playing time in Wilkes-Barre. That should be the plan for next season, too.

Jeff Zatkoff wrote:"Not feeling too secure right now..."

bapo! · Post by **bapo!** » Thu Mar 03, 2016 6:52 pm

Jeff Zatkoff wrote:"Not feeling too secure right now..."

Exactly. Every point counts for eighth-place teams. Fleury and Murray should play every game the rest of the season.

(I can always count on sancarlos to post in my threads, even to chime in about the Penguins' back-up goalie situation. Thanks for that, sc. I dedicate this Alesmith IPA to you.)

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Thu Mar 03, 2016 8:29 pm

Does anyone slewfoot or "almost slewfoot" as much as Sid?

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Thu Mar 03, 2016 8:40 pm

Speaks to how dirty Pittsburgh is that they rally around a slewfoot. SMDH.

bapo! · Post by **bapo!** » Thu Mar 03, 2016 8:44 pm

I'll let Orion respond to that one.

Happy birthday, Mike Lange!

rass · Post by **rass** » Fri Mar 04, 2016 6:50 am

MAF: Never go full Lundqvist.

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Fri Mar 04, 2016 12:21 pm

Could be an entertaining first round matchup!

Nonlinear FC · Post by **Nonlinear FC** » Fri Mar 04, 2016 1:09 pm

bapo! wrote:
Nonlinear FC wrote:I tell you what, that kid they had in goal against the Caps the other night was pretty damn good.
Matt Murray. Yeah, people are really high on his future. They have another guy, Tristan Jarry, who is almost as highly regarded. (Jarry won a Memorial Cup a couple of years ago.) I'm afraid that GM Rutherford is going to view them as a redundancy and trade one of them this summer.

Yeah, that would be really short-sighted. The Caps have been kind of lucky to have pretty damn good netminding over the years (a few notable exceptions spring to mind.) But one of the fascinating chapters was the Varlamov, Neuvirth, Holtby rotation.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/puck-dadd ... --nhl.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Pretty funny how things worked out. I think folks might not remember that the Caps carried all three of those guys in 2011. It was weird, but what was really crazy was trying to look at the long-term... who was going to stick? I happened to have seen Holtby up in Hershey the year before and was really impressed, but most folks thought he be traded because Varlamov and Neuvirth had similar styles and were seen as much more stable.

And it DID take Holtby about 3 seasons to get his shit together. He has always been capable of making Holy Shit! saves, but up until last year, he also tended to let Oh... Shit... goals way too often.

I haven't watched every minute of every game this year, but where as in the past the Caps would start off slowly and Holtby would let in a soft goal... This year the Caps routinely start off slow and he's the guy keeping it tied through the rough patch.

Sorry... Just saying if you've got really good young goalies in the system, keep them as long as you can and see which one shapes into the prime guy. So many young goalies start off really hot and then fizzle.

BSF21 · Post by **BSF21** » Sat Mar 05, 2016 10:45 am

Nonlinear FC wrote:And it DID take Holtby about 3 seasons to get his shit together. He has always been capable of making Holy Shit! saves, but up until last year, he also tended to let Oh... Shit... goals way too often.

This is exactly how I felt about Corey Crawford for several years.

bapo! · Post by **bapo!** » Thu Mar 17, 2016 11:55 am

So, we were just talking about the Penguins' goalie situation. If the expansion rumors/plans are true and teams can only protect one goalie, the Pens might get screwed. Do you leave Fleury unprotected and hope that an expansion team won't draft him because he's already 31 and on a big contract? Or do you leave Murray unprotected and almost certainly lose him?

Fleury is crazy-athletic and will probably age well. He has a few good years left. And man, the thought of him playing for another team is tough to swallow. Also, it should be noted, he shares a birthday with Chamillionaire.

Their other choices are tough, too. It's rumored to be either 3D/7F or 8 skaters, right? I would think that they have four defensemen that they would really like to keep: Letang, Dumoulin, Maatta, and Pouliot. TheTang could be left unprotected because of his salary/injury history, maybe?

I'm pretty sure Kessel would be left unprotected at this point.

Carolina tonight, Philly Saturday, and Washington on Sunday. These games matter.

rass · Post by **rass** » Thu Mar 17, 2016 12:07 pm

I thought I read yesterday that Murray would be safe (for this year, at least) because players in their first two professional years are exempt.

rass · Post by **rass** » Thu Mar 17, 2016 12:12 pm

To be clear, I know I read that yesterday. I was equivocating because I never verified Murray falls into that category, but it looks like he does.

bapo! · Post by **bapo!** » Thu Mar 17, 2016 12:15 pm

rass wrote:I thought I read yesterday that Murray would be safe (for this year, at least) because players in their first two professional years are exempt.

Yeah, but is an expansion draft more likely this summer or next summer? Summer 2017, he'll have played three years. Meh. We'll see how it plays out. Nobody really knows anything yet. And a lot can change in 15 months.

Hey, we haven't even mentioned Malkin's injury. Nice to see them get big wins over the Rangers and Islanders without him. They'll need to keep doing that, obviously.

rass · Post by **rass** » Sat Mar 19, 2016 10:47 am

Huge game this afternoon (I can't believe there are still 3(?) games left against Philly). It doesn't appear to be on national television. Crap.

bapo! · Post by **bapo!** » Sat Mar 19, 2016 10:55 am

rass wrote:Huge game this afternoon (I can't believe there are still 3(?) games left against Philly). It doesn't appear to be on national television. Crap.

I can live-blog it for you. Or I'll just send texts every 15 minutes along the lines of 'Ooooh!' or 'WTF?!' or 'I still like Giroux, damn it.'

I've been waiting all season for Philly to wake up. They've won 8 of 10, so I guess it's happening. Really looking forward to this.

rass · Post by **rass** » Sat Mar 19, 2016 1:29 pm

Penguins Twitter is undeniably biased, so I'll ask Mr "I still like Giroux' damn it"...has he been as whiny and divey as has been described?

bapo! · Post by **bapo!** » Sat Mar 19, 2016 1:45 pm

rass wrote:Penguins Twitter is undeniably biased, so I'll ask Mr "I still like Giroux' damn it"...has he been as whiny and divey as has been described?

I haven't noticed anything untoward, but I'm not paying the closest of attention. Been distracted by lunch, Toyota commercials, and a shower. Maybe cerrano can give you an unbiased report.

Two late goals in the period. You're going to want to see the Hagelin goal. Pens up, 3-1. They're outshooting the Flyers, 27-9. (They gave up a bunch of odd-man breaks early in the game, tho, but the Flyers somehow muffed them all.)

bapo! · Post by **bapo!** » Sun Mar 20, 2016 11:03 am

An easy 4-1 win yesterday. (And a refreshingly clean game, which is rare for Pens/Flyers.) They've won five in a row against good/desperate teams and are playing really well. I'm actually beginning to think that they're a good team now. I was ready to write them off when Malkin got hurt, but they've been impressive.

They play the Capitals tonight. I didn't see the last Caps game a couple of weeks ago, but I read that the Pens were completely manhandled that game. Tonight will be an interesting test.

(I'm still a Caps sleeper fan, and I'm loving what they're doing this year. Kuznetsov has taken the leap and is turning into the star we thought he was going to be. I wish more people were talking about him. He's outscoring Ovechkin and Backstrom, people!)

bapo! · Post by **bapo!** » Sun Mar 20, 2016 5:28 pm

When I made my earlier post, I cut off the note I made about how much Hagelin and Daley have added to the team. Daley just cheated in and scored his second goal of the weekend. 2-0, Pens, halfway thru the first period.

Is it just NBCSN's production, or this crowd alive tonight? Haven't heard a home crowd sound like this all season.

rass · Post by **rass** » Sun Mar 20, 2016 6:08 pm

Poor MAF.

bapo! · Post by **bapo!** » Sun Mar 20, 2016 6:22 pm

rass wrote:Poor MAF.

Don't cry for MAF, rassentina. Fluky goal, but the Pens are still winning.

Kuhnhackl and Rust look like they belong in the NHL, don't they?

I love Doc Emrick more than I love most of the members of my family.

rass · Post by **rass** » Sun Mar 20, 2016 6:34 pm

Poor (alternate meaning?) whistle.

bapo! · Post by **bapo!** » Sun Mar 20, 2016 6:45 pm

Kuhnhackl scores a sweet goal to answer a Burakovsky breakaway. This is a bapo/OHL fantasy come true.

When I saw Kuhnhackl with Windsor many years ago, he was a slick, offensive player. Then he turned pro and changed his game. He's a perfect third-liner. Physical, but still skilled enough to do damage offensively.

bapo! · Post by **bapo!** » Sun Mar 20, 2016 7:02 pm

Don't cry for MAF, rassentina.

I flipped over to CBS at the end of the period. '60 Minutes' was doing a segment on Argentina. I turned the channel just in time to see an actress sing 'Don't Cry For Me, Argentina.' I hadn't heard or thought of that song in a decade. Not sure why I paraphrased it tonight. Life is strange sometimes.

rass · Post by **rass** » Sun Mar 20, 2016 7:43 pm

Turned it off for dinner. Turned it back on just in time for the Weber hit on Rust. I guess things are going well?

bapo! · Post by **bapo!** » Sun Mar 20, 2016 7:54 pm

rass wrote:Turned it off for dinner. Turned it back on just in time for the Weber hit on Rust. I guess things are going well?

The Weber hit on Rust was really bad, but Rust seems to be okay.

More worrisome was Ovechkin's hit on Dumoulin a few minutes earlier. It was a late, borderline hit. (Not as dirty as Weber's.) Dumoulin had to be helped off the ice. That could be very bad.

Other than that, and some scattered ugliness, things are okay. Really worried about Dumoulin, tho.

I hope your lasagna turned out okay.

Nonlinear FC · Post by **Nonlinear FC** » Mon Mar 21, 2016 9:47 am

bapo! wrote:
rass wrote:Poor MAF.
Don't cry for MAF, rassentina. Fluky goal, but the Pens are still winning.

Kuhnhackl and Rust look like they belong in the NHL, don't they?

I love Doc Emrick more than I love most of the members of my family.

I like Doc a lot, but I have a tough time with the overall crew. Maybe there's some weird Caps fan inferiority complex going on, and maybe I've piled on a heap of ill will because of that, but I just feel like they're pretty routinely pro-whoever is playing against the Caps on any given night.

bapo! · Post by **bapo!** » Mon Mar 21, 2016 10:30 am

Nonlinear FC wrote:I like Doc a lot, but I have a tough time with the overall crew. Maybe there's some weird Caps fan inferiority complex going on, and maybe I've piled on a heap of ill will because of that, but I just feel like they're pretty routinely pro-whoever is playing against the Caps on any given night.

Penguins fans feel the same way about Eddie Olczyk. And everybody hates Milbury. Everybody seems to hate Pierre McGuire, too, which I don't understand. I really like him.

Doc is a treasure, tho.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Mon Mar 21, 2016 10:49 am

You guys are weirdos.

Nonlinear FC · Post by **Nonlinear FC** » Mon Mar 21, 2016 10:56 am

I think it's probably mostly Millbury that tilts things. He really doesn't like Ovechkin and he HATED the brand of hockey they played when they were the Young Guns with Semin and Green still around. I mean, he happened to be (mostly) correct, but he was such a Millbury about it.

bapo! · Post by **bapo!** » Mon Mar 21, 2016 11:05 am

Nonlinear FC wrote:but he was such a Millbury about it.

I really like this. That's a perfect epithet. 'Stop being such a Milbury.'

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Mon Mar 21, 2016 11:08 am

The main thing I don't like about Milbury is that he is such a neo-Don Cherry cave man about the need to "be tough" and "send messages" and all that kind of shit, with its attendant anti-Euro bias, as well.

And, as long as we are on the subject, the worst broadcaster of all imho is Jeremy Roenick. Always good for yapping away and spouting cliches and biases without thinking things through.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Mon Mar 21, 2016 11:11 am

Nonlinear FC wrote:I think it's probably mostly Millbury that tilts things. He really doesn't like Ovechkin and he HATED the brand of hockey they played when they were the Young Guns with Semin and Green still around. I mean, he happened to be (mostly) correct, but he was such a Millbury about it.

I meant liking Doc and McGuire.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Mon Mar 21, 2016 11:12 am

Also, apparently Milbury has ties to my hometown (maybe in-laws or something, I forget) and people have seen him out, so there's a decent chance I will eventually. I bet he's a dick in person, too.

bapo! · Post by **bapo!** » Mon Mar 21, 2016 11:26 am

I don't pay much attention to the intermission segments, but I thought that Milbury was starting to evolve. Remember the ugly/hilarious fight he had with Roenick a few years ago over a dirty hit?

Found it! This is so great to relive.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Mon Mar 21, 2016 12:45 pm

He has. If you eliminate his approach and overall persona, his opinions really aren't that bad right now. Atleast in relative terms.